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Citing a drastically diminishing budget and unprecedented
financial circumstances, Dalton State College President John
Schwenn announced today that the College will be eliminating the
Center for Continuing Education effective December 31.
With the College currently operating under a 12 percent smaller
budget than at this time last year, plus the possibility that
the budget deficit will rise to 18 percent or more during Fiscal
Year 2010, Schwenn says that the administration had no choice
but to terminate the program, which serves primarily as an
outreach extension of Dalton State.
“Given the state of the economy, we will have to stop providing
this service to the larger community,” says Schwenn.
“Unfortunately, the Center has operated at a loss for many
years, and because of unprecedented budgetary constraints, we
are unable to continue to absorb those costs.”
The College will save approximately $100,000 a year by
eliminating the Center for Continuing Education. Four full-time
employees and one part-time employee will be affected by the
decision, Schwenn says.
The Center for Continuing Education, which is housed in The
James E. Brown Center on campus, has served the northwest
Georgia region since 1968, offering personal growth and
professional development courses, providing business and
industry specific programs at the Center and contract training
on site, and facilitating community outreach by providing
programming and meeting space in the Center’s conference rooms.
Vice President for Academic Affairs John Hutcheson, who oversees
the operations of the Center, says that while this action is
necessary, it represents an “extraordinarily difficult step.”
“We are deeply saddened that we are not going to be able to
continue providing this service to the community,” he says, “but
the economic climate is such that we have to focus almost
entirely on our core academic mission and reduce costs wherever
we can.”
The mission of Dalton State, as an open access institution, is
to educate as many Georgians as possible within the confines of
its budget, says Hutcheson, noting that the steep economic
downturn necessitates that all available financial resources be
directed toward fulfilling the College’s core academic mission.
Financial resources will be scarce this fall, adds Schwenn,
noting that enrollment may be up as much as 10 percent while the
operating budget will be down considerably.
“We are experiencing a severe slicing to the bone of our
funding,” Schwenn says.
Several other University System of Georgia (USG) schools have
recently elected to eliminate continuing education departments,
officials say, including Georgia Perimeter College. |
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