Question: How much does it cost to run a class at Palomar? And how many students does it take to “pay” for a class?
Facts:
How much it costs to run a class depends on what you are asking. There is a difference between the cost to run an additional class and the average cost of running a class.
The average cost to run a class includes all the fixed costs, such as utilities, public safety officers, administrators, classified staff, and full-time faculty salaries and benefits.
The additional cost to run a class is the cost to add on one more class which includes the small amount of electricity and the faculty pay.
Fixed costs must be paid no matter how many classes are offered.
The additional cost is much lower.
All full-time faculty receive their contractual load each semester; therefore adding on another class will derive its cost directly from either the full-time faculty overload schedule or the part-time faculty salary schedules (which are very similar).
Taking a mid-level salary grade/step - Grade B and step 5 (out of 10) - from the part-time salary schedule (Appendix G), we would find that for a 3-unit class, it would cost $4,130 in salary. Assuming the part-time faculty member is in CalSTRS, and adding in other costs such as unemployment insurance, the cost to the District would be around $5000 per 3 unit course.
The state reimburses Palomar at approximately $3800 per student with extra money for students in certain categories or for completion of certain milestones (see Student Centered Formula Funding). Thus, using an average of $4000 reimbursement per full-time equivalent student (FTES) would be a conservative estimate.
A FTES is 15 units or credit hours per semester. Therefore the District receives about $133.33 per unit. In a three-unit course, each student would be “paying” $400 for that course.
If a faculty member costs $5000 per course, and the District receives $400 per student, then 12.5 students covers the cost of the course.
If the district cancels a course that has 15 students, they “save” $5000, but lose $7500 in apportionment due to the cancellation. Of course some of those students will go into other unfilled classes or try to “crash” filled courses, and some just go to another community college.
Bottom Line: Short-term thinking has been the practice in the last few years. In order to move the college forward, long-term thinking based on data and students’ needs should be adopted. Growing enrollment, not shrinking it through last minute class cancellations, can be one part of this new vision.