Facing a legislature in Olympia that is planning budget cuts for higher education, EvCC is figuring out how they are going to survive the cuts.

The governor and both houses of the state government have unveiled their budgets.

The governor's budget had a net-cut of six percent to two-year colleges with a five percent tuition increase.

Recently the governor has supported a seven percent tuition increase, according to the Seattle Times.

The state Senate's budget had a net 7.2 percent cut and allowed a five percent tuition increase. The House of Representative's budget had a net 13 percent cut and allowed for a seven percent tuition hike.

A three percent tuition increase only makes up for a one percent cut in the entire budget.

David Beyer, the EvCC president, said the governor's budget isn't likely to be adopted "unless she has a lot more influence than we think" at an April 7 budget meeting.

Beyer said he was disappointed with the House's budget and found it "disgusting."

A compromise will have to be reached in Olympia for the final state budget.

The college is also looking at investing in programs that are growing and could potentially bring in more money. "Its not just what to cut but what can you do to bring in more revenue," Christine Kerlin, the executive director of the enrollment center said, in a meeting on April 1. For example the Monroe campus program has started to pick up speed and it is one place that the college is looking at growing to bring in more money.

Tentative impact

In preparation for the budget cuts EvCC has previewed what a 10 percent cut across the college would look like.

The tentative plan proposed to cut down on funds for supply, travel and printing costs in nearly all departments.

Many of the departments have also proposed cutting down part-time staff. Some departments like the bookstore and facilities department are not hiring for some of their recent empty positions.

Computer open-lab and library hours are also proposed to decrease in the budget plan.

The state government is considering having Running Start students pay fees, although the EvCC administration has prepared their budget without those potential fees in it.

Self-support classes

In trying to keep as many courses open as possible the college is moving towards an aggressive self-support system, Sandra Fowler-Hill, vice president of instruction, said.

Self-support classes don't receive state funding and run entirely off of their own tuition. The tuition for the class goes directly to the teacher's salary and other costs of the class.

Fowler-Hill said that using this model she hopes to keep the same level of classes that the college has had this year.

Because people aren't working and are coming back to school, student demand is high right now, Fowler-Hill said. This means more classes will be able to fund themselves, instead of relying on government's money.

Fowler-Hill said that self-support classes allow the college to be nimble. The system makes it easier for the college to add classes when enough demand exists and cut classes when there is not enough demand.

The downside of self-support is that some classes may not have refunds. The EvCC website says that self-support classes "refund deadlines vary, and are stated in the class description."

Another downside is that when student demand drops the college will be in trouble. "As soon as the economy turns around you'll have trouble reaching your targets. You look at this now and it looks marvelous, however we have to be prepared for when student demand is low down the road," said Beyer.