Glens Falls Chronicle Serving the Glens Falls/Lake George region; Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties since 1980
By Ben Westcott & Mark Frost, Chronicle Staff Writer & Editor
SUNY Adirondack’s financial challenges include enrollment decline, overstaffing and external leases, President Anastasia Urtz, J.D., and Vice President for Administrative Services and Treasurer Keith Kaplan officials told Warren County’s Higher Education Committee on April 2.
They said the college must dig out from an operating loss that went from an expected $333,000 to $1.4-million last year.
Enrollment has fallen from 2,600 full-time equivalents in 2008 to 1,800.
“The college’s enrollment has shifted, with an increased number of part-time students and fewer full-time students,” SUNY Adirondack Director of Marketing and Communications Rhonda Triller told The Chronicle. She said about a third of the students are ages 25 and older.
Fewer students are coming from outside Warren and Washington Counties, Mrs. Triller says, resulting in a million dollar shortfall in “chargebacks” — money counties pay when their residents attend a community college in another county.
The projected $5.3-million in chargebacks revenue came in at $4.3-million.
“That decrease in out-of-region enrollment also means more empty beds in the college’s 408-bed Residence Hall,” Mrs. Triller said. Only 227 beds — 55% — are in use in the dorm built in 2010.
The debt on the building runs until 2044, Mr. Kaplan said, though the debt is in an entity separate from the college.
Mr. Kaplan said the college is losing money on the $1 million a year it pays to lease the SUNY Adirondack Saratoga building in Wilton. The lease dates “from when enrollment from Saratoga County was higher,” Mrs. Triller said.
The lease runs through July 2037, “so it is a priority to make sure the college strives for revenues at that location.”
SUNY Adirondack’s lease at 14 Hudson for its Seasons culinary program downtown runs through 2028.
Mrs. Triller said the ratio of non-teaching staff to students is too high compared with institutions of similar size.
Mr. Kaplan told the supervisors, “Our staffing levels for the long term were a little bit out of whack. As people have been leaving, we have not been filling those vacancies — props to our president here, very creative in moving people around.”
He said they “anticipate $1.1-million savings in salary this year and then on fringe benefits on top of that.”
Mrs. Triller said SUNY Adirondack has reduced expenses by $1.4 million by delaying purchases of equipment wherever possible and transitioning employees into different roles or consolidating roles when staff members leave.
Mr. Kaplan said “We expect to end the year with a small operating loss, and expect next year to have no loss.
“While we had budgeted a $400,000 operating loss [this year], it will be less than $100,000 by the end of the fiscal year.”
President Urtz vowed at the meeting with supervisors, “There will be no deficit budgets at SUNY Adirondack.”
Yet she also indicated firm commitment to the college’s mission. She said she came to SUNY Adirondack because of its 65-year history and the fact that she hears from so many people “how their lives were made better” by it.
“College is an investment of both time and money, and SUNY Adirondack is committed to providing students with learning opportunities that will improve their lives and livelihoods,” President Urtz told The Chronicle.
Hospitality degree cut
Program cuts have also been implemented at SUNY Adirondack.
The Board of Trustees voted March 26 to discontinue its Hospitality Management degree program due to what President Anastasia Urtz described to The Chronicle as “low enrollments, graduation rates and post-graduate outcomes.”
The decision came even after the board of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce wrote a letter urging the board to reconsider. It said tourism is Warren County’s third-largest industry and that ending the program “would send a troubling message to the very industry that plays such a critical role in sustaining the economic health” of the county.
President Urtz told The Chronicle that the college continues to offer its hospitality courses through three other degrees “that are aligned with hospitality industry needs and result in stronger outcomes for our students.”
— Ben Westcott
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