Difficult Times Will Bring Out the Best in Us

These are unsettling times for all Americans.

In our lifetimes, we have not seen anything like the current economic turmoil. But we at Germanna Community College must be at our best during difficult times. Our Commonwealth and indeed our Nation count on community colleges to retrain workers and help the economy recover. Our citizens and communities count on Germanna to continue to be a place of hope even more so in a time of uncertainty and fear.

Together, we will get through this time. We will help reinvigorate our communities. And we will do our best to take care of each other—our students, our faculty and staff.

The national economy has affected Virginia's long pattern of growth. Even before the economic crisis of the last two weeks, the College faced a cut in state funding of 5, 10 or 15 percent. Revenues from sales and other taxes are down dramatically from even the reduced projections made last spring.

The college’s budget is approximately $22 million, with a little more than half coming from the state general fund, and most of the rest tuition and fees. A 5 percent cut would mean a loss of almost $600,000 in funding; a 10 percent cut, almost $1.2 million; and a 15 percent cut, almost $1.8 million. This would come out of the current budget in the middle of our fiscal year and would continue into the future.

To give some perspective, Germanna faced an 8 percent cut in 2004. This year’s cut will come on top of last year’s cut of 4% or over $400,000.

We’re going to do everything we can to protect our students and protect our people. We won’t be able to protect everything. If the cuts are more than 5-7 percent, we will be forced to make some hard choices and reduce some programs and services.

But rest assured that this airplane is going take off and land safely, even if the ride gets bumpy along the way. The greatest danger would come if we were to pull in, curl up in a ball, and ignore the future.

Germanna has to be as ready as we can for the influx of people seeking retraining now. We also have to plan for a future when growth in the economy, in the population, in the number and kind of businesses, in the needs from the many increase demands on us to provide quality and accessible opportunities for education and training.

Some might say we should forget about the third building at our Fredericksburg Area Campus, that we need money for other things now, or that we should delay opening centers in Stafford and Caroline counties and planning for a new nursing building at our Locust Grove Campus.
That would be a mistake.

First of all, the bond monies approved by the Assembly last year can only be used for building our third building. If we hesitate or cannot raise the over $2.6 million in local funding, we lose $25 million in funding from the state.

Second, the $300,000 generously committed by the Stafford Economic Development Authority for a leased center in North Stafford can only be received for that purpose.

Third, and most important, we cannot forestall investing in our future because times are tough, making the excuse that we need money for other things now. We would mortgage too much of our future. We must prepare for the time when things turn around. We must be ready now for the need that is already present in our communities—the need to better prepare our citizens for the new economy and full participation in community life. We must help train the health care workers for an increased number of hospitals and to fill positions vacated as a generation of nurses retires.

We must do all that we can so that we do not shut doors in our students’ faces and hamper our area’s economic recovery.

We can’t deny how tough it will be. But neither can we lose hope. Our whole business is the business of hope.

It will take all of us, but we can and will find a way through these tough times. We will seek new partnerships and new support from donors and grants. We will look for ways of being more efficient. We will draw closer to each other to work together, to support each other, and to support our students.

And we’ll be stronger for it.