A Christmas message

Friends and Colleagues,

Here in Virginia, with the Blue Ridge as a backdrop and history alive around us, the snow falls, the skies suddenly clear, and the semester ends.

At year end, we take time to reflect, to celebrate, to remember, and to plan for the future.

Whatever holiday we celebrate, let us remember the origin of the word comes from 'holy day.' Let us remember that every day is sacred, an opportunity that comes to us once to live this particular day in the best way we can.

In this season of renewed hope, in a time of great challenges and opportunities for our nation and our commonwealth, let us remember that we work in a place of hope.

Let us remember the sacred trust we hold here at Germanna Community College. Every day we have been given the opportunity to make a difference in people's lives. Each student we meet presents us with this opportunity.

Each student we meet is the opportunity to fulfill hope: The hope of the individual student. The hope of the family who entrusts us with that student. The hope of our community that this student will be an effective and contributing citizen. Each student we meet gives us the opportunity to help someone find a dream and earn the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to achieve that dream.

Each student presents us with the sacred opportunity to pass on the ethic of service to a cause larger than the self, the ethic of shared leadership, shared responsibility, shared power.

We face great challenges with a strength that comes from this common commitment.
We are blessed to be in this business of hope, and I am proud and grateful to work with all of you at Germanna.

As we spend time with our friends and families, let us remember the lyrics of that wonderful Christmas song,

“Christmas Eve will find me
Where the love light gleams
I'll be home for Christmas
If only in my dreams”

and recall the many men and women serving our country who will not be home for Christmas except in their dreams, and pray for their safety and that they come home before the next year ends.

I wish you all a blessed time with your families and friends, a safe and happy holiday season, and the bounty of a new year with more opportunities to serve at a place of hope.

David

Veterans deserve far more than a single day of thanks

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are 17 million surviving war veterans in the United States.

All of them have put their lives on the line for their country. All were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for us. And many must live with the memory of seeing their comrades do just that.

Nov. 11 has been designated as Veterans' Day, but for too many of us, it has become just a day off, just an opportunity to take advantage of sales at the mall.

Wherever we are, we should seriously contemplate the sacrifices veterans, living and dead, have made for us.

I ask everyone at Germanna to pause today at 4:30 p.m. to remember the brave men and women who have served and are serving our nation, those who gave a part of their lives or indeed their very lives to protect us and freedom.

As we sit in our classrooms we should express deep gratitude to those who protect us so we can teach and learn and live.

Today we thank all of America’s veterans, from those who fell during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars to those serving our nation in Iraq and Afghanistan today.

But our gratitude is not limited to this single day. We should thank the veterans we meet each and every day.

They have earned our eternal gratitude and undying respect.

GERMANNA AVOIDS LAYOFFS WITH BELT-TIGHTENING PLAN RESPONDING TO GOVERNOR'S CALL FOR BUDGET CUTS

Click the link directly below to review the Governor's plan.
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/tempcontent/FinalPlan_10-8.pdf

It is with mixed feelings that we announce that Germanna has responded to Gov. Kaine's call for a 5 percent budget reduction by implementing a plan that will avoid layoffs while trimming $577,291 in state spending for fiscal 2009.

The cost-cutting will force the deferment of the addition or expansion of several new programs and therefore will limit our ability to meet our communities needs, but averted the prospect of what could have been large-scale layoffs.

We are pleased not to have been forced to lay off good people who help us do the critical work in making our communities competitive, prosperous and educationally strong.

There had been concerns that the budget for the Virginia Community College System could have been slashed as much as 10 or 15 percent because of a state revenue shortfall resulting from a weak economy. Cuts that deep would have required terminating programs and laying off substantial numbers of employees.

Thankfully, the state cuts were not that severe, and we were able to protect all the members of our Germanna family.

The College’s budget is $22 million, about half of it appropriated by the state. The other half consists primarily of tuition and fees from the college’s total enrollment of 13,000. Germanna employs 520 people.

I’m gratified that the fiscal 2009 cut was no larger than 5 percent, which was the best-case projection, because there is very little fat to trim from the College’s budget.

We greatly appreciate the governor understanding how important the investment in community colleges is in turning the economy around and the fact that he did all he could to keep the cuts from hindering the performance of our mission here. And we are thankful to VCCS Chancellor Glenn DuBois for his untiring efforts in keeping cuts to a minimum.

We are grateful that we will not be forced to lay any of our people off this year. We understand the severity of the budget situation and the necessity for all parties to participate and make sacrifices. But, in addition to the terrible human impact layoffs would have had on employees and their families, and the emotional blow it would have been for all of us at Germanna, losing good people would have made our job of helping prepare the region for economic resurgence very difficult.

Still, this new round of cuts underlines the urgent need we have for private donations now more critical than ever in helping us to serve our communities.


Even as we celebrate maintaining job security within our Germanna family, there remain sacrifices that must be made and belts that must be tightened.

The Germanna reduction plan includes:

• Seeking to replace state general fund spending on the costs of employing one nursing faculty member by finding a local sponsor to pay for that position. This will result in a savings of $80,000.


• Deferring improvements planned for its Automotive Lab to comply with NATEF certification requirements. This will mean a savings of $7,000.


• Eliminating discretionary travel and membership spending, thereby reducing those budgets by one third compared to fiscal year 2008. The savings will be $100,000.


• Cutting non-personnel spending by reducing spending on supplies, furniture and the cyclical replacement of equipment, for the largest chunk of savings, $330,291.


• Eliminating an incentive budget spent on training employees on its “learning college” concept and incentives achieving objectives related to that concept for a savings of $60,000.

We continue to go forward with plans to open a center in North Stafford in 2009 and to begin construction of a third building at the college’s crowded Fredericksburg Campus. Stafford County’s Economic Development Authority has approved a $300,000 grant to help with the opening of the center. The state has approved $23.3 million for the new building at the Fredericksburg Campus. But $2.6 million in local funds must be raised before ground can be broken for construction of the new Fredericksburg building.

We would be mortgaging our future if we were to put these plans off now because of the hard times of the moment and then had to turn students away later as a result. So we continue to seek local donors to invest in our area’s future by helping us build these facilities.

Even during these tough times, we see a bright future for Germanna on the horizon and we continue to move ahead.

The potential for more cuts lies ahead, so we must maximize our efficiency and look for savings wherever we can.

But for now, let us take a moment to breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate this, the most positive outcome possible under difficult circumstances.

--David A. Sam
President, Germanna Community College

Dr. Sam will hold open forums for all Germanna employees to discuss the Governor’s budget reduction and the impact on the college. The forums will be held on: Tuesday, October 14 from 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. in Sealy Auditorium at FAC Tuesday, October 14 from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. in room 503 at LGC.