HLSCC puts ‘hiring-freeze’ in place to cope with annual $2M shortfall
About 70 per cent of the college’s expenses are already utilised for wages and salaries, and other benefits.
According to HLSCC’s President, Dr. Janet B. Smith, “they have been financially challenged for the last several years.”
Cautious
The HLCC’s President was at the time examining the draft allocations for the institution for 2018, with members of the House of Assembly’s, Standing Finance Committee.
She disclosed since 2016 the administration has tried to be as efficient and diligent with their expenditure of public resources, since there has been an annual short-fall of about $2 million, dollars for the last four years.
The President reported that “this year and last year, in an effort to be more efficient they unofficially did a hiring freeze.”
According to Dr Smith, they were “very cautious about what positions they filled and combined positions as necessary.”
She said HLSCC attempted to increase the productivity of staff and observed too that faculty members are now expected to teach ‘15 to 17 per credit hours, per semester’ and that this is enforced by the college’s administration.
The reason they enforced this, she said, is because if they could get the faculty members to teach between 15 and 17 hours, then it would cut down on the number of additional faculty members employed.
Enrollment Down
Compounding the state of affairs, Committee members heard that that enrollment at HLSCC has been declining over the last several years and the 2017 hurricanes also had an impact on attendance.
Committee members used the occasion to also enquire about the physical structure at HLSCC and according the college’s President, while the facility did not have nearly as much damage as a lot of other places as a result of the Hurricanes, “some of the damage could be easily attributed to poor maintenance.”
She said the subvention received by HLSCC from the Ministry of Education and Culture, does not provide enough money to efficiently maintain the buildings, and meet other commitments. HLSCC comes under the aegis of Minister for Education, Honourable, Myron V. Walwyn (AL).
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