On January 13, in Muntz Auditorium, RWC Dean Cady Short-Thompson held a meeting to discuss the College budget. Prior to the meeting, the Dean had sent an email to all faculty and staff in which she listed a variety of options to consider, including adding some new services and cutting back others. Most of the faculty and staff at RWC attended the meeting. At the beginning, Assistant Dean Gene Kramer discussed RWC’s financial state. Kramer explained how the state’s funds will likely be cut by at least 25 percent under the administration of new Republican Governor John Kasich and that there will need to be a tuition increase, depending on how much the state cuts. Furthermore, he said that RWC is a debt free college, and its financial state is good.
Dean Short-Thompson then opened the meeting to questions from faculty and staff. A few faculty members raised questions concerning the state of the Child Care Center. According to the Dean, 35 students use the Center, and 38 children regularly attend.
Some questioners wanted to know if the Child Care Center was important to the student body, and whether, over time, the school was losing money to have the Child Care Center open. Some suggested that child care is important to most students.
Another point that was made is the need to support processing applications for students so that the work can be more spread out. There were also discussions involving changing to e-texts and offering more online courses.
The need for more psychological counseling was also brought up at the meeting. Dean Short-Thompson remarked that she has been trying to get advisors from other campuses to come and counsel students who need help to be prepared for transferring. Lastly, there were questions about the Dean’s idea to move all the labs to one central area so that the students would have one stop for all their needs. The Dean emphasized the need to utilize all the labs more, including the Study Skills and Reading Lab.
Dean Short-Thompson made a point many times that she wants to have an environment and campus that is for the students and stressed that all changes would be made to improve their time at RWC. No decisions were made at the meeting and discussions will continue.