Sinclair loses focus- and costs go up.
Funded by Montgomery County taxpayers- Sinclair Community College is one of our greatest competitive advantage resources. Unfortunately, since President Steven Johnson took over, it’s as if the college caught the sprawl bug.
Remote classrooms in YMCA’s, expansion into Greene and Warren Counties- it seems as if there are no limits to what the school thinks it can do.
Then reality hits. This all costs money. In today’s Dayton Daily News, the groundwork is being laid to ask tax payers for more money- when what might be really needed is restraint and a refocusing.
Management consulting guru, Tom Peters, said it best in In Search of Excellence, stick to the knitting- providing an amazing education at low cost for Montgomery County residents. Sinclair is a great resource for Montgomery County- and we pay for it. Before anymore talk of building a new campus in Warren County for Sinclair comes forward- let Warren pass a tax levy to pay for it.
Below is an excerpt from the Dayton Daily News:
Sinclair looks for cuts to align income, costs
“We’re spending about $5 million a year more than we can afford,” President Steven Johnson said Wednesday. “It cannot be business as usual around here.”
Sinclair’s expenses in 2006 oustripped revenue by $6.3 million, according to a draft report of a state audit completed in October.In 2005, Sinclair began tapping about $2.5 million from its Tuition Stabilization Fund — a practice it can sustain for about five years if things were left unchanged, Johnson said.
• Raise enrollment by thousands of students next year, to increase revenue from tuition.• Ask Montgomery County taxpayers for a higher levy in 2008.
Doesnt Sinclair serve Greene County, too?
Sinclair serves every county in Ohio and all other states. The benefit to living in Montgomery county at the time that you begin classes there is the tuition is lower because as a Montgromery county resident you help pay for the school’s existence – which is one of the reasons that tuition is so low. Outerlying counties in the state of Ohio pay about (when I went there) $20 more per credit hour than in-county residents, and out-of-staters pay more than out-of-countyers (making up words again).
The underlying philosophy which always made Sinclair Ohio’s (and possibly the entire US) best kept secret was that they hired faculty who worked in their chosen profession able to bring a fresh and up-to-date perspective on the course material at hand. Further, those teachers typically loved what they did. Finally, the students (in general terms of course) wanted to be there because they wanted to progress in their lives – not because they were told to be there.
However, as with any natural system, if you consume more than you produce – eventually you will consume yourself to survive just a little while longer. Or, if you produce more than you consume you will stagnate under your own obesity.
A balance must, therefore, be reached and maintained. i.e. Expand when possible, retract when necessary.