April 18, 2024 — We have released a report detailing the financial mismanagement, inefficiencies, deception, and potentially self-inflicted budget deficit at the hands of administrators at Nassau Community College. Our report also outlines seven concrete proposals for course correction.
Our report follows an independently-led analysis of NCC’s budget practices, and comes on the heels of another proposed consolidation of NCC faculty departments. These proposed mergers, consolidating about 28 academic departments into 6 mega-departments, will result in added costs totaling in the millions to the college in the long run.
Slashing faculty positions, disbanding departments and eliminating programming is threatening to put NCC into a death spiral. Meanwhile, the administration has become bloated with redundant, unnecessary and costly positions. NCC is crucial to the economic wellbeing of Long Island, and our cost effective proposals can help stabilize NCC financially and create opportunities for growth going forward.
Our report highlights inconsistencies made by the administration in separate presentations of the Fiscal Year 2025 budget to various NCC stakeholders.
On April 2nd at a general faculty meeting, the administration, led by Chief Administrative Officer Maria Conzatti, stated that operating expenses would exceed operating revenues every year through at least 2028, painting a dire picture of impending financial ruin. However, at the NCC Board of Trustees meeting held on April 9th, administrators presented a budget without any deficit and a $10 million surplus reserve fund.
Despite the inconsistencies in the financial documents provided by the administration, all budgets agree that administrators have failed in their duty to request budget increases toward operational expenses. In fact, adjusted for inflation, operational funding directed to NCC by the county government has decreased by more than 30% over the past 15 years. With inflation-adjusted budget increases, the college would now have millions more in funding.
Escalating costs and stagnant revenue over the past 15 years have led NCC to significantly reduce full-time faculty positions from 752 in 2010 to just 453 in 2020. Although enrollment also decreased during this period, the reduction in faculty positions far exceeded the rate of decline in enrollment. While enrollment has been up modestly over the past several years the college has continued to slash faculty. Over the past two years full-time faculty has dropped 14% while administrators have increased by a whopping 28%.
NCCFT Financial Reform Plan
Our report concludes with seven cost-effective proposals for stability and growth. These proposals are as follows:
Proposal 1: Enrollment Enhancement
NCCFT is advocating for investing approximately $6 million in hiring 60 new full-time faculty in high-demand areas like computer graphics, cyber security, nursing, theater, and education, aiming to boost enrollment by over 27% and cover the costs through program growth. Based on an NCC report from the Vice President for Finance, every 1% increase in enrollment provides an additional $600,000 in revenue. Thus, this proposal would generate an additional $16.2 million in revenue for the college.
Proposal 2: Data-Driven Registration
The administration should refrain from canceling classes until one week before the semester starts, considering factors like students’ graduation needs, scheduling constraints, and alternative class times to accommodate our students’ work/family constraints, not solely enrollment numbers. Early class cancellations for the Spring 2024 semester led to a significant drop of over 1,500 students, representing approximately a 15% decrease in enrollment, or $9 million loss in revenue.
Proposal 3: Flexible Scheduling
Maintain asynchronous distance education classes for students with full-time day jobs or children. Unfortunately, the administration proposes drastically reducing the number of asynchronous distance education courses offered for the fall 2024 semester for both day and evening schedules, which we think will further hurt enrollment. The Columbia Community College Research Center reports that 65% of community college students take at least one distance education class per semester.
Proposal 4: Enhancing Student Pathways
The administration’s plan to finish merging what had been 30 departments into 6 mega-departments for academics, without proper discussion or consideration of financial efficiencies, poses risks such as jeopardizing accreditation, overburdening chairs, and complicating student experiences without saving costs, as evidenced by previous mergers resulting in reduced course offerings. We propose expanding departments and student pathways.
Proposal 5: Reduce Administrative Inefficiencies
Cut redundancies and inefficiencies in administration. A comparison between 2000 and 2020 shows that while the number of administrators has doubled, the number of full-time faculty has radically shrunk. Restoring the ratio of the size of the administration in proportion to the enrollment similar to what existed in 2000 would save millions in unnecessary expenses
Proposal 6: A Real National Search for a President
Conduct, and don’t abort, a nation-wide search for college president. Twice the Board of Trustees have aborted presidential searches, costing NCC hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past decade. NCC deserves a national search for the best possible candidate, someone skilled in raising revenue, building academic success with students from resource-poor backgrounds and building enrollment.
Proposal 7: Reduce Outside Counsel Expenses
Consider other places to trim expenses, including reducing the use of outside counsel. NCC spent well over a million dollars in 2023 on outside counsel; this is on top of its own two in-house attorneys.
The full report: Examination of NCC Financial Plans and NCCFT Proposals to Grow Enrollment
8 Responses
Excellent report.
A travesty of mismanagement. Lack of concern for faculty moral. Lack of integrity between departments, chairpersons, faculty, the NCCFT, and Senate. Governance has become a dictatorship. Squeezing faculty salaries and health care.
Total disregard for the well being of student’s academic career and life.
Not offering classes to complete degrees,no areas for social activities and no food in campus. How can you run a college without supporting student achievement activities and socialization let alone not supporting their academic goals.
Enrollment declines so hire more administrators?? I deplore what’s been happening and support the 6 positions outlined above. Good work!
Dominick Grundy, Ph.D. (English Dept., ret.)
Why isn’t the Admissions Department being held accountable for decreased enrollment? In all my years living in the communities surrounding NCC, I have never seen an admissions officer at any of the high school and/or community events.
I applaud the efforts of the Union to address the fiscal corruption at NCC.
In the NCCFT’s proposed 2025 Budget initiatives, we recommend hiring 3 more Admissions officers, preferably with bilingual skills, to bring the Admissions office back to capacity. We believe this has the potential to increase enrollment by 900 students.
Is this a joke? We go to hundreds of events at high schools, during the morning, day, evening. Sometimes on the weekend. I’d let you know when the next one is, but you didn’t leave your name. -Tom
Perhaps it’s because I originally worked in the for profit world that I feel people should be held accountable for their failure to produce in terms of recruitment and retention. In the for profit world, if what you are doing isn’t working, you are fired. Einstein said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.” Our administrators, not just in admissions, are sorely lacking in vision. Not only do they fail to innovate, they do not adapt, proving the old cliché true: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. BTW, if you think I’m going to name myself so that I can be targeted for harassment and subsequent dismissal (or better yet, it’s the tool the administrators employ to get people to move on of their own volition), I’m a tad bit smarter than that.
Very unhelpful feedback and promoting nothing but division. My colleagues at the Admissions Office would have welcomed your questions and would have given you further information on all efforts to recruit. The whole idea is to help each other not bring us down with uninform criticism.