The financial stability long sought at Imperial Valley College may soon be at hand.
A report centered on recommendations aimed at improving the fiscal solvency of IVC was released Tuesday. The report was put together after months of study by the state Fiscal Crisis and Management Assessment Team.
The report will be a foundation as the college decides what programs and services will be newly offered, expanded, cut, eliminated, altered or kept as is. A campus committee will use the report as a base to make recommendations to the college’s governing board, although some of the report’s recommendations already have been adopted, including not filling vacant positions without evaluating whether those positions are needed.
The FCMAT team was tasked with identifying areas of weakness impacting the college’s long-term financial stability. Such an evaluation long had been needed at IVC. The financial insecurity of the college has affected everyone from students to teachers to maintenance workers, so steps to secure the college’s fiscal future should do worlds of good.
The FCMAT report compared IVC to four other community colleges of similar sizes and with similar demographics. The main difference, though, was those colleges had been through recent times of financial stability, as opposed to the rocky times experienced by IVC.
The report recommends, among other things, that the district cut the number of department chairs, or eliminate department chairs altogether, and allow deans to do that work instead. The report also recommends that an open vice president position remain so until increased enrollment calls for that position to be filled.
Long perceived to be top-heavy with administrators, such changes might deal with both the perception and reality of the situation.
Sometimes it is hard to get a good perspective on a problem when you are right in the middle of it. It was wise for IVC to seek input from elsewhere to try to remedy its financial issues.
Now let’s hope the report actually is put into action so the college’s students and staff can finally know what it is like to be at a college on sound financial footing.
THE ISSUE:
IVC financial review
WE SAY:
Implement it.
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
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