The landscape of higher education is currently navigating a period of profound structural realignment, where administrators must balance fiscal solvency with their mission to provide accessible learning. Camille Faivre, an expert in education management and post-pandemic institutional development, has spent her career helping colleges transition through these exact pressures. As Walla Walla Community College faces the difficult decision to shutter its Clarkston satellite campus, Camille provides an essential perspective on how to manage such a transition with dignity for staff, clarity for students, and strategic foresight for the community.
When an institution faces a $4.3 million budget gap and personnel costs represent 80% of the budget, layoffs are often unavoidable. How do you identify which 43 faculty and staff positions are most expendable, and what specific steps can be taken to maintain morale for those who remain?
Identifying which positions to eliminate is a grueling process that must prioritize the core academic mission while acknowledging that personnel costs are the primary driver of the $4.3 million deficit. We typically look at program enrollment trends and the necessity of administrative roles that do not directly touch the student experience, ensuring that the 43 cuts are distributed in a way that minimizes the impact on essential degree pathways. To maintain morale, transparency is the only currency that matters; leaders must share the “why” behind these cuts, explaining that because staff costs make up 80% of the budget, there is simply no other way to ensure the college’s long-term survival. We recommend implementing “stay interviews” with remaining staff to listen to their concerns and providing clear professional development paths so they feel the institution is still invested in their future. It is a somber environment, but by being honest about the structural deficits, you can build a culture of shared resilience rather than one of fear and rumor.
A two-year teach-out period through June 2028 aims to protect current students during a transition. What specific milestones must be met to ensure degree integrity, and how do you keep students engaged and supported when they know their physical campus is scheduled to cease operations?
The primary milestone for a successful teach-out is the creation of a “pathway guarantee” for every single student currently enrolled at the Clarkston campus before the June 2028 deadline. This involves a three-step process: first, an individual academic audit for each student to map out every credit needed; second, a guaranteed schedule of courses that ensures no student is delayed by a lack of seat availability; and third, a formal memorandum of understanding for those who may need to transfer to the main campus or an online modality. Keeping students engaged in a “closing” environment requires doubling down on local student services, such as onsite advising and career counseling, so they don’t feel like they are on a sinking ship. We often see that by branding the final two years as a “legacy period,” students feel a sense of pride in being the final cohort to cross that specific stage, which helps maintain retention until the very last diploma is handed out.
Collaborating with healthcare executives on cost-share models for nursing programs could preserve a local physical presence. What are the practical mechanics of such a partnership, and how do you determine the financial contributions required from the private sector to offset $2 million in specialized faculty salaries?
A cost-share model functions as a strategic alliance where the private sector invests in its own future talent pipeline by subsidizing the instructional costs that the college can no longer bear alone. With $2 million currently dedicated to nursing and healthcare salaries for 82 students, the mechanics involve local hospitals or clinics providing “endowed” faculty chairs or clinical instructors who remain on the healthcare provider’s payroll while teaching at the college. To make this work, we calculate a per-student subsidy where the private partner covers the gap between what tuition generates and the high cost of specialized healthcare instruction. By shifting a portion of that $2 million salary burden to these executives, the college can maintain the Clarkston physical presence specifically for high-demand clinical training, effectively turning a campus closure into a specialized regional healthcare hub. This creates a win-win: the hospital secures a steady stream of nurses, and the college sheds a significant portion of its structural deficit.
Rising operating costs and reduced state funding are creating structural deficits for many regional institutions. What long-term fiscal strategies can administrators use to bridge these gaps without sacrificing satellite locations, and how do you effectively communicate these difficult financial realities to a shocked local public?
To bridge structural gaps without closing doors, administrators must move away from traditional enrollment-dependent models and toward diversified revenue, such as public-private partnerships and shared-services agreements with other regional colleges. For example, if maintaining the Clarkston campus involves a $23,500 increase in operating costs, we look for ways to co-locate municipal services or non-profit offices within college buildings to share utility and maintenance expenses. Communicating this to a shocked public requires a “town hall” approach where data is presented visually, showing the direct correlation between declining state support and the $3.2 million in potential savings from a closure. You must acknowledge the emotional weight of the loss while emphasizing that the choice is between closing one campus to save the entire institution or risking a total collapse of the college’s mission across the whole region. It is about shifting the narrative from “what we are losing” to “how we are evolving” to remain accessible for the next generation.
What is your forecast for the future of community college satellite campuses?
I forecast that the era of the “comprehensive” satellite campus—which tries to offer every program a main campus does—is rapidly coming to an end. Instead, we will see the rise of “micro-campuses” and specialized “center of excellence” locations that focus on one specific industry, like the nursing and healthcare model being discussed for Clarkston. These sites will likely be smaller, more agile, and heavily funded by local industry partners who have a vested interest in the workforce being trained there. Success will no longer be measured by the number of square feet a college owns, but by the strength of the partnerships that keep those doors open. Ultimately, the future is hybrid; the physical footprint will shrink, but the digital and industry-integrated reach of these institutions will become more vital than ever to regional economies.
