[Vision2020] Community College in Pullman

[Tom Hansen]

As reported in Thursday's (May 12, 2016) Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

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Our View: Community college students deserve a better fate than this
By Anthony Kuipers, for the editorial board
Community colleges are a valuable asset. They provide the option for a less-expensive post-secondary education, are particularly useful to part-time students and can pave the way for a career through a certificate or associate’s degree.
Students in Pullman certainly see the value of a community college experience, enough to take to the streets last week to raise awareness about Spokane Falls Community College possibly closing down its Pullman branch at Gladish Community and Cultural Center.
The news that they could be the victims of a cost-cutting move to save $2 million was quite a shock, especially after finding out the decision will be made by the end of the month.
“There was faculty crying. No one knew this was happening — it was a blindsided stab that no one saw coming,” student Dax Taylor told the Daily News in a Friday story.
What is upsetting isn’t just the idea these 160 students will lose out on this type of education. It’s the factors that led up to it.
SFCC president Janet Gullickson blamed the Legislature for the college’s woes, saying the state ordered raises for community college employees without extra funding to pay for them.
Sure, the lawmakers likely deserve some blame, but they’re always an easy target. What’s more concerning is the other reason she offered.
In addition to reduced enrollment, they are also having to deal with a recently purchased $100 million software system that doesn’t work right.
That’s a dollar figure that immediately demands a double take. Boy, that money would have gone a long way in ensuring SFCC-Pullman’s doors stay open.
Whether it’s at the state level or with the college’s administration, mismanagement certainly seems to be the culprit.
Furthermore, if it is indeed the fate of the Pullman branch to close at the end of summer, the students and faculty deserved better than to be given only a few months’ notice.
It would be a shame to see the school shut down
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The staff, faculty and students of SFCC's Pullman campus deserve better!

Note to Roger Hayes:  If there is ANYTHING Moscow Cares can do, just ask . . . and consider it done, ok?

Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares"
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

> On May 14, 2016, at 6:21 AM, "rhayes at frontier.com" <rhayes at frontier.com> wrote:
> 
> President Janet Gulickson dropped a bomb on the students, staff, and faculty of the Pullman campus last week. At a social on the Pullman campus Gulickson blurted out that she intended to close the branch by fall. She brought the faculty to tears telling them that they would be not offered jobs at main campus. She panicked students who planned on attending Pullman SFCC in the fall because financial aid deadlines have passed and attending another college would now be impossible. At this social Gulickson did not and could not provide any numbers demonstrating how citing how closing the Pullman Campus would help with the SFCC financial deficit. She blamed software glitches, declining enrollment (not so in Pullman), and shrinking state funding as reasons behind her decision to close Pullman. Of course, she took no responsibility for SFCC's financial problems, nor did she offer any sort of solution to the students', staff or faculty's plight. Her decision to close Pullman is a result of poor fiscal planning bordering on malfeasance. The CCS Board of Directors should look carefully at the actions and performance of Gulickson, and indeed chancellor Christine Johnson to whom she reports.
> 
> Roger Hayes
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