Published February 4, 2022

To the Shasta College Community:

I trust you are doing well. It has been another challenging start to a semester, but I remain encourages as I see the continued effort to stay flexible and help one another and our students meet the challenges we face.  Thank you for working together. I know it is wearing – I feel it from time-to-time, a simple feeling of being worn-down and tired of it all.  It has been a long two years, but together we have gotten through so much and will persevere.

Success Stories
I am excited to share, if you have not heard, that we were one of 17 community colleges (one of 45 higher education institutions) selected for the CalforniansForAll grant.  See Shasta College awarded $1.8M from #CaliforniansForAll College Corps or Shasta College Awarded $1.8M as Partner Campus With #CaliforniansForAll College Corps for local coverage of this grant.  It will help 100 students per year receive significant funding in exchange for 450 hours of volunteer work with community partners.  Thanks to all involved in a quick turnaround in the grant application late last fall.  The link to the announcement can be viewed at https://www.californiavolunteers.ca.gov/californiansforall-college-corps/#colleges

I am excited to share that we continue to see evidence of reaching our vision of being a nationally recognized model community college becoming a reality.  Three publications recently featured Shasta College as one of their examples of good practices.  First, building upon the case study of Shasta College released in September of 2021 (see https://www.ihep.org/publication/shasta-college-dwd/),  the Institute of Higher Education Policy includes us in a new publication released on January 14, 2022 entitled the Degree Reclamation Playbook: see page 12 of https://www.ihep.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/IHEP_DWD_Playbook.pdf.  Next, through the Lumina Foundation having designated us as a Lumina Talent Hub, our work is mentioned/featured in at least two recent resources: see pages 12-16 of  https://www.equalmeasure.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Jan_LuminaTalentHub-GettingtotheRoot-0122.pdf  and pages 21 & 25 of  https://www.equalmeasure.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Jan_LuminaTalentHub_Advancing_Equity0122-2.pdf.  Recognition and thanks must go to Dr. Kate Mahar & Dr. Kevin O’Rorke, their teams, as well as all the others involved in North State Together and the Degrees When Due projects.  When we do what’s right and best for our students and communities, good things happen!

A little business…
I feel like I am constantly being asked about our enrollment levels, and want to share a quick update for you.  We appear to be leveling off in our enrollment losses due to the pandemic. Current tracking projects that we were down in fall 2021 from fall 2020 by about 162 FTES (or 6.4%) for resident students.  This spring, we currently project we are down only 2.4%, or about 57 FTES.  But of course, we were down around 18-20% in 2020-21 from 2019-20.  Our main challenge remains reengaging our lost students and rebuilding our enrollment levels.  Remember, the SCFF – Student Centered Funding Formula – funds us on FTES levels (around 70% of the formula) as well as through supplemental and success metrics (around 30% of the formula).  So lower numbers of students means lower supplemental and success metric funding over time, not just lower FTES funding. Fortunately we have what is referred to as ECR (emergency conditions allowance) from the Board of Governors for last year and this year protecting us from loss of part of our funding from declines in the credit FTES portion of the funding formula (which is about 46% of the full SCFF calculation). We cannot expect these Emergency Conditions Allowances to be indefinitely renewed into the future (it is looked at one year at a time).  Overall, I remain confident we can rebuild our enrollment over the next 2-3 years and weather the scenario of lower SCFF funding if emergency conditions are not extended.  As always, we will have to monitor the effect of decisions at the state level over time.

OK – that is all for the end of week three of the semester. As we seem to be on the downward curve of the recent surge in cases (note that I think the most important thing to keep watching is the local hospitalizations and especially people in the ICU), I want to encourage everyone to stay the course and we will get through this time.  Thank you again for your service.

Joe Wyse
Superintendent/President
Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint Community College District
11555 Old Oregon Trail
Redding, CA 96049-6006
530-242-7510