NORTHWESTERN MICHIGAN COLLEGE
BOARD OF TRUSTEE
Monday, April 21, 2008, Hagerty Center

CALL TO ORDER — Chair Walter J. Hooper called the study session to order at 6:30 p.m.

PUBLIC INPUT – Heard from Accounting Instructor Marv Studinger about the federal Hope income tax credit for qualified education expenses.

DISCUSSION ITEMS

2008-09 Draft Budget Development Status – Cathy Jones, Vice President for Finance and Administration, provided an overview of the draft budget.

Tuition rates per contact hour would be as follows:

The proposed budget also eliminates the graduation fee, and increases the student health fee by $2. Other fees remain unchanged.

The draft budget includes $214,000 in benefit reductions for employees. Without changes to the benefits plan, NMC’s cost in this budget line would have increased more than 15%. With the changes, benefits costs are expected to increase 2.59%.

The average employee currently pays 15% of his or her health expenses. With the changes, based on new deductibles and co-pays, the average employee will pay 17-19% of their health expenses. The additional annual cost to the average employee would be $800 annually. The average salary increase for the lowest employee classification for the coming year would be $814.

Without the $214,000 in savings to benefits, in-district tuition would need to be increased 8.5%.

Final action on tuition is expected at the Board’s April 28 meeting. Action on the full budget is anticipated in June.

Dennos Museum Center Strategic Position Update – Kathleen Guy reminded trustees that two strategic position scenarios were described and discussed at their March 17 study session.  In addition to Scenarios A and B and their resource alternatives, a list of questions has been added that need to be answered in order to develop financial models.  In all cases we know we must increase the endowment for DMC, and we need to increase the annual revenue from earned sources.  The question becomes, how much do we need to raise for endowment and how much for bricks and mortar.

President’s Compensation Committee Update – Ross Childs reported that all trustees received a copy of the Grand Rapids Press article that reported compensation of all 28 community colleges presidents.  President Nelson is right in the middle and within less than $2,000 of the average.  Mr. Childs does not believe there is a complete agreement example within the Press’ context and suggested that if the board is going to be fully informed, copies of all contracts should be requested. 

Presidential Performance and Board Self-Evaluation Committee Update – Elaine Wood stated that the committee looked at the Presidential Performance materials that were developed a number of years ago and noted it covers very general topics. The committee would like to add a third component, a measure of progress on strategic goals. Bill Myers will send trustees a draft evaluation form for future discussion.  Since this measure is coming up so late in the year, it was decided to implement the new component in the next contract year.

Recorded by Karen Sabin