Browning

PENDLETON — The Blue Mountain Community College Budget Committee has its first public meeting to discuss the plan to cut faculty and programs to meet the college’s bottom line.

BMCC Faculty Association President Pete Hernberg said some instructors plan to be at the public meeting Monday, April 25, at the Pendleton campus, but he stayed mum about any addresses or statements they might make to the committee.

BMCC President Mark Browning contends the college started the 2022-23 budget process with a $2 million hole. After cutting 39 classified and administrative positions from 2020 through 2022, the college no longer can make cuts to those areas. Now, he told the East Oregonian in a meeting April 19, it’s time to “right-size” Blue Mountain, and that means eliminating faculty.

His proposal calls for cutting 10 full-time faculty and several part-time positions in multiple disciplines and eliminating criminal justice, college prep and industrial systems technology programs. Browning said BMCC is top heavy with faculty compared to other Oregon community colleges. BMCC has 47 full-time faculty teaching just more than the equivalent of 1,000 full-time students, he said, while Clatsop Community College has 29 full-time faculty and 800 full-time students and Treasure Valley CC in Ontario has 566 full-time students and 26 faculty.

Hernberg contends Browning is conflating the 35 full-time faculty who teach on campus with those who teach in the two state prisons in Umatilla County. The teachers at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution, Pendleton and Two Rivers Correctional Institution, Umatilla, receive separate funding, he said, and those students don’t count as part of the college’s 1,000 full-time students.

Hernberg teaches math and said he keeps a close watch on funding for the college, so Browning’s claim the college is $2 million short is shocking.

“The revenue is projected to be up $300,000 from where we were a year ago,” Hernberg said.

And some of the cuts in the proposal, he said, are for classes that are full.

“We have no idea the college would be canceling classes that are full,” he said.

Browning said the faculty’s alternative to his proposal was to just not make any cuts.

Hernberg said the association has not presented a proposal but on April 19 left a message to set a time to meet with the administration and discuss alternatives to layoffs. Two days later, he said, there was not word back from the administration.

“We are eagerly awaiting their reply,” he said.

Browning stressed cutting jobs is a hard choice to make, but this is more than about the budget.

“I think what’s lost is about where we’re heading,” he said. “We’re losing sight of where we’re going.”

Blue Mountain, he said, needs to make some changes in how and what it provides students, he said, and the days of the two-year transfer degree being the heart of the teaching at the college are passed.

He said the college’s declining enrollment reflects the changing work environment.

According to Browning, BMCC in 2011-12 had the equivalent of 2,482 full-time students, and in 2021-22, that total was down to 1,124, and transfer education is forecast to continue a downward trend for the next three to five years.

Instead of two-year degrees and lengthy certification courses in technical and mechanical fields, he said students and employers need courses that deliver job-specific basic skills and education in just a few weeks. After that, employers want to be able to send employees for more training and education as needed.

“We’re giving them the full Sunday dinner, but what they need is a real good roast beef sandwich now,” he said.

All of Blue Mountain’s approach to structure, course offerings and compensation must change, Browning said, and the hurdle to that pivot is the collective bargaining agreement between the college and the faculty.

The deal is too restrictive to allow the college to provide the kind of education students and employers want today. Without an overhaul of the agreement, he said, BMCC cannot meet its mission statement to provide quality, innovative eduction that strengths the local communities.

Browning’s take on the collective bargaining agreement struck Hernberg.

“I’m surprised to hear that because Mark Browning signed the collective bargaining agreement in January,” he said.

He also said as of the afternoon of April 21, 656 members of the community, BMCC alumni and students have signed an online petition at savebmcc.com urging the committee to not follow through with the administration’s budget plan.

The Blue Mountain Community College Budget Committee meets Monday, April 25, at 5 p.m. via Zoom at bluecc.zoom.us/j/97330220871 or by phone at 253-215-8782. The meeting ID is 973 3022 0871 and passcode is 911962.

The budget document will be available online at www.bluecc.edu/about/administration/finance no later than April 25.

This is a public meeting where deliberation of the budget committee will take place. Any person may participate in the meeting and discuss the proposed programs with the committee.

If you would like to provide public comment during the meeting, notify Shannon Franklin at Shannon.franklin@bluecc.edu no later than noon the day of the meeting or by mail to Shannon Franklin, board secretary, 2411 N.W. Carden Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801.

If a person with disability needs assistance to participate in the meeting, or if you wish to offer your comments regarding the proposed budget, notify Franklin at 541-278-5951.

The committee, if necessary, may hold a second meeting May 10 and a third May 12, both at 5 p.m. via the same Zoom link and phone number. Public comment will be handled in the same manner as above.