HFCC President Jensen's First 100 Days: An Impressive Start

A ship's crew is only as good as her captain.

In his first 100 days, Henry Ford Community College President Stan Jensen has taken steps to fulfill a promise to young students and right a ship that was once on course to certain doom.

Jensen, HFCC's fifth president, was appointed by the college's Board of Trustees on May 1 for a three-year contract running until June 30, 2016. Jensen replaces Dr. Gail Mee, who announced her resignation in 2012 to "pursue other opportunities."

At the time of his appointment, the former president of Colorado Mountain College inherited a laundry list of administrative and financial issues — chief among them a $16.6 million deficit for the 2013-2014 academic year.

To address the issue, Jensen, with the support of the HFCC Board of Trustees, recommended sweeping reforms at the college, including closing the Center for Lifelong Learning, initiating a college-wide spending freeze, consolidating departments, laying off 14 employees (cost savings of $2.2 million annually), and agreeing to staff concessions in the president's office (cost savings of $552,958 annually).

Jensen himself even agreed to a $10,000 cut in pay, and a contract that includes a provision that would allow the board to terminate him “without cause” and pay only 12 months salary or until the end of his contract, whichever is shorter.

"The issues facing the college will take all of us," Jensen said in a recent board meeting. "I think everyone can agree that our top priority is educating students, so we want to do things that have the least amount of impact on the classroom."

Still as late as July 1, it wasn't clear if HFCC would have an operating budget by December.

That all changed on July 29 when HFCC's faculty union American Federation of Teachers Local 1650 renegotiated its five-year contract. 

As part of the agreement, faculty will pay a portion of their health care insurance, which will save the college $2.4 million over the next two years; rates for extra-contractual teaching are reduced 30 percent, thereby saving the college more than $7.5 million over the life of the contract; a voluntary employee separation agreement is now available for faculty, which could potentially save the college more than $15 million over the life of the contract through retirements.

In addition, HFCC, which currently pays full-time employees once per month, will begin paying salaries through 26 pay periods in the year, which aids in cash flow for the entire institution.

In total, this new contract will save the college $24.9 million by 2017-2018.

At a Board of Trustees meeting on Aug. 19, John Satkowski, vice president of Financial Services, reported that the college will end 2013 with $1.4 million.

“Our original cash flow analysis showed that the college would be out of money by July 15. Thanks to sacrifices made by leadership, faculty and staff, along with other cost-efficiencies, we are beginning to see our way through our financial challenges and hopefully to better days ahead,” Jensen said.

Still, HFCC Board President Pamela Adams said there is a lot of work to do.

"We need to build up our cash reserves," Adams said. "It's recommended that we have at least 10 to 15 percent of our annual operating budget, so we're not out of the dark yet. At least now we can breath.

Jensen said one of the biggest challenges moving forward will be retaining and growing the HFCC student body. As of Aug. 19, the college is predicting a 25 to 30 percent drop in enrollment for the winter semester.

The college also has some work to do ahead of the general election in November. HFCC is asking the public to renew a 3-mill operating millage for 10 years, and approve a 1-mill increase for five years which will generate an estimated $35 million. Jensen said the millage will help the college rebuild its fund balance and curtail future budget cuts.

"We're still in very difficult times. It's hard for any of us to know what the next five to 10 years will look like. To think that we'll be out of the woods in two years is optimistic, but I would be cautious. We have a long road ahead," Jensen said.