Understanding Budget Cuts within Student Services in Community Colleges: A Critical Review of Practical Responses for Human Resource Leaders

Abstract

Using a critical lens, this article discusses some of the most common recommendations for human resource and community college leaders on how to respond to budget cuts to student affairs and support services at community colleges. Student affairs and support services are often the first to experience budget cuts in higher education, yet little is known about the impact of—as well as responses to—declining budgets to such services in community colleges. As part of this critical analysis, we frame recommendations using resource-based perspectives to better understand institutional actions in the face of budget cuts, such as identifying sustainable alternative financial resources and increasing efficiency of existing financial and human resources through increased coordination with other community college units. We also discuss how these best practices can also lead to other challenges in times of financial crisis that institutional leaders should consider.

The role of presidents in budget and finance: A rural community college perspective

“…In response to changing state and tuition financial structures, following the global recession of 2009 many institutions sought increased efficiency and worked to enhance the financial health of their institutions through a mixture of budget cuts and the development of revenue‐generating initiatives (Borgia & Coyner, 1995; Pratolo et al., 2020). These efforts included decreasing staffing and increasing international enrollment (Cantwell, 2019; Tuliao et al., 2021). Despite those efforts, the global COVID‐19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the operational procedures and the financial health of institutions as they scrambled to support lower revenues and increased costs (LeClair, 2021).…”