Texarkana College Working on Strategic Plan
Texarkana College Board of Trustees met with personnel on Monday to map out future strategic goals.
The meeting is in hopes of increasing the number of people in the region who attain a higher education degree or certificate. President James Henry Russell said that Texarkana College has substantially increased the number of students reaching completion goals due to TC’s commitment to student success and adhering to last year’s strategic plan.
“TC is fortunate to have a Board of Trustees who will commit an entire day to helping our team sharpen our focus and establish goals that improve student success,” Russell said. “Together, we analyzed student completion data, looked hard at our current financial statements, addressed our community’s workforce needs, and set stretch goals to better position TC as a contributor to the state’s 60x30TX initiative. Our discussions today shape the way we will manage the institution well into the future.”This was TC’s first step in compiling the 2016-2017 Strategic Plan. From today’s dialogues, administration will present a draft plan to the Board at their April meeting. A final plan will be considered for approval at the May 2016 board meeting.In other business, the Trustees took action to approve administrative and faculty contract recommendations for the 2016-2017 academic year. President Russell noted that TC’s payroll is leaner than it has been since 2014, seeing a net decline of 14 full time positions in the last two years including 6 faculty members and 8 non-instructional employees.
“We are working very hard to keep payroll and operating costs as low as possible while maintaining excellent educational opportunities and a beautiful campus for our community,” Russell said. “We never want to go back to the day, not too long ago, when we were operating in a deficit. We are continuously looking at cost savings measures including the reduction of square footage in under-utilized buildings and streamlining our employee base by restructuring positions for greater efficiency. When a job vacancy occurs, through attrition or other circumstances, we take a very close look at whether it makes sense to replace the position. Currently, every person at TC is pulling a very heavy load and doing more with less. I am so proud of the team we have and what we accomplish here with a very lean staff.”