Program and Discipline Fiscal Sustainability Review Process
See a description of the Program & Discipline Fiscal Sustainability Review Process for Cost Savings in Biennium 2027-2029
- Broad Review of All Programs & Disciplines
- Review all programs and disciplines using institutional data.
- Comprehensive Self-Study of Select Programs & Disciplines
- Programs/disciplines provide self-studies and identify cost saving measures.
- Recommendations & Decisions
- Recommendations and decisions are made to continue, reduce specific costs, merge areas, or discontinue programs/disciplines.
- Appeal
- Programs/disciplines resulting in actions based on decisions in the previous phase have an opportunity to appeal with the President’s Cabinet.
- Final Decisions
- Appeals are granted, where approved, and decisions are finalized. Plans are made for implementing cost-cutting measures.
Overview
The information here is to provide an overview of the Program/Discipline Fiscal Sustainability Review Process and to outline the process, the timeline, and provide a FAQs and a Question/Inquiry form for support and transparency.
Understanding that significant cost reductions to academic programs and disciplines (e.g., redesigns, mergers, closures, etc.) take time to implement, a Program/Discipline Financial Sustainability Review process will be enacted in winter and spring terms (2025) to result in savings in the second year of the upcoming biennium (FY26) and for the 2027-2029 biennium. In addition to this process, the college is already in a budget development process for the next biennium.
The process we will use to review program and discipline fiscal sustainability to identify cost savings is outlined below:
Broad Review of All Programs and Disciplines – COMPLETED
- Academic Affairs administration, in conjunction with SPIP, will complete a broad review of all programs and disciplines utilizing institutional data and metrics that will be made available in early January.
- Academic Affairs leadership (VPAA with Academic & Career Pathways Senior Leaders) in cooperation with SPIP will identify programs/disciplines for further review.
Comprehensive Self-Study Review of Select Programs/Disciplines – COMPLETED
- For programs and disciplines identified for further review, faculty with support from Program Deans will complete self-studies, focusing on plans for reducing costs and increasing enrollment.
- Academic Affairs 沙巴体育官网 in collaboration in collaboration with the AVP of Enrollment & Strategy, SPIP, and Finance will review program self-studies. The VPAA and AVP of Academic & Career Pathways will provide recommendations to the President.
Decision Making/Recommendations – COMPLETED
- Recommendations may include:
- Continuing at the current level of activity;
- Continuing with specific actions for cost savings;
- 沙巴体育官网ing cooperative programs (merging programs to reduce costs);
- Discontinuing programs/disciplines.
- The President, in consultation with Cabinet, will make decisions based on recommendations provided by Academic Affairs 沙巴体育官网.
Appeal Process – COMPLETED
- An appeal process will be provided for programs and disciplines recommended for significant changes and/or discontinuance.
- Programs/Disciplines can submit appeals to the Cabinet within 10 business days of notification of the decision.
Final Decisions – COMPLETED
- The President’s Cabinet will finalize decisions based on comprehensive reviews and appeal outcomes.
Accountability Measures for Academic Affairs 沙巴体育官网
In an effort to be more clear and transparent, the Academic Affairs 沙巴体育官网 is committed to the following accountability measures throughout this process:
fa regular fa file lines 1. Clear Documentation
- We will maintain detailed records throughout the process. This includes feedback collected, responses to feedback, scoring rubrics, and rationale for decisions made.
- We will update this webpage with additional information and documentation at each phase of the process.
fa solid fa pen to square 2. Regular Progress Updates
- We will schedule regular updates (e.g., at least one update per phase of the project) to share progress with faculty, staff, and others.
- We will use these updates to highlight milestones reached, challenges encountered, and next steps.
- Progress throughout the process will be tracked and recorded on this webpage and linked to the Fiscal Sustainability website.
fa regular fa comments 3. Feedback/Inquiry Mechanisms
- We will implement channels for faculty, staff, and managers to gather information and provide feedback on the process, both during and after the program self-studies.
- A Questions/Inquiry form will be provided with each communication. We will provide a response directly to each submitter if an email is provided with the question.
- Time with leaders will be offered to impacted programs/disciplines at the end of the comprehensive deep review and post-appeal, and by request at any phase/time of the process.
Updates
Final Decisions – June 13, 2025
Final decisions and recommendations from the review process are now available.? As you may recall, over 90 academic programs were reviewed during the broad review phase using standardized data on enrollment, completions, and instructional cost from the past three years. This initial analysis identified areas for further review and resulted in 14 programs being asked to complete a self-study. These self-studies provided the opportunity for programs to explore areas for improvement and to propose cost-saving strategies and alignment with student and workforce needs.
A summary of all self-study decisions is now available.? 3 programs were identified for full or partial closure.
We recognize that these decisions are not easy and we deliver this news with heavy hearts. All of our programs and disciplines at PCC are valuable and provide life-changing opportunities to our students. Change of this magnitude, while necessary to support the long-term sustainability of PCC, is a loss for PCC.
As we move forward, our focus remains on supporting thoughtful implementation of these decisions, continued collaboration with practitioners and industry partners, and ensuring that program transitions center students, quality, and sustainability.
Appeal Updates – June 13, 2025
The appeal phase of the review process is now concluded.? Two programs appealed their self-study decisions to the Cabinet.? Using these guidelines, they were able to appeal under two criteria:
- Whether the appeal introduced new or missing information not available during the self-study, and/or
- Whether the original decision was inconsistent with the College’s Fiscal Sustainability Guiding Principles.
After careful review, the Cabinet determined that the appeal for each program did not meet the threshold for a full re-evaluation of the program and therefore, the original decision from the self-study would stand.
Self Study Review and Decisions – April 29, 2025
The second phase of the review process, the Self-Study of programs/disciplines, is now complete.
Self-Studies were submitted by 14 programs and evaluated using the following criteria:
- Actionable strategies
- Specific strategies
- Data-Informed strategies
- Results in a cost-savings
- Results in revenue generation
- Overall level of confidence that plan would be successful
Additionally, we evaluated each plan on their Impact to cost savings, students, and racial equity.
The results of the Self-Studies fell into one of three categories:
- 沙巴体育官网 accepted the plan offered by the program/discipline.
- 沙巴体育官网 accepted the plan with some modifications.
- 沙巴体育官网 did not accept the plan and provided an alternate plan for the program/discipline.
A breakdown of the assigned categories is as follows:
- Accepted the plan for 6 programs/disciplines.
- Accepted the plan with some modifications for 4 of the programs/disciplines.
- Provision of an alternate plan for 4 of the programs/disciplines.
Programs will be allowed to appeal their decisions to the President’s Cabinet.? Appeals will be due May 12, 2025.
Broad Review Updates – March 18, 2025
The first phase of the review process, the Broad Review of programs/disciplines, is now complete.
The results of the Broad review indicate that our programs/disciplines fall into these three categories:
- Category #1 – Programs/disciplines working toward standard cost-saving efforts: These programs/disciplines showed no major concerns, but we’ll continue working on cost savings across all programs.
- Category #2 – Programs with specific recommendations to implement: These programs have minor questions or recommendations for improvement, and we’ll ask them to develop a plan to address these by the end of fall term 2025.
- Category #3 – Programs moving to a self-study: These programs have more significant concerns or multiple questions and will be asked to conduct a comprehensive self-study to help us understand the data better and explore potential solutions. The self-study templates will be provided and are due by March 21, 2025.
A breakdown of the assigned categories is as follows:
- 67% of programs showed no major concerns (Category #1).
- 17% of programs had specific recommendations or questions to be answered (Category #2).
- 16% of programs need to complete a self-study (Category #3).
Programs in Category #3 will be working on their comprehensive self-study which is due April 8, 2025.
Summary of Program/Discipline Cost Reduction Phases and Timeline
Summary of Program/Discipline Cost Reduction Phases & Timeline
A left to right timeline diagram with 6 phases or milestones along the timeline, each labeled with a date or date range and description. The first label is President’s Fiscal Framework Announced on 11.19.24. The second label is PHASE 1: Broad Review from Jan-Feb 2025. The third label is PHASE 2: Comprehensive Self-Study Review from late February – early April 2025. The fourth label is PHASE 3: Recommendations/Decisions early May 2025. The fifth label is PHASE 4: Appeal Process in May 2025. The sixth label is PHASE 5: Final Decisions June 2025.
Phase 1
Broad Review (January – February 2025)
Key Actions:
- Compile data for the initial broad review and communicate the process to Academic Affairs program/discipline employees.
- Prepare evaluation materials, including instructions and training resources for Pathway and Program Deans.
- Conduct a norming session with Pathway and Program Dean evaluators to align understanding of evaluation criteria.
- Evaluate data, compiling scored rubrics and qualitative feedback.
- Hold Pathway-specific meetings with evaluators to identify programs for comprehensive in-depth review.
- Document final decisions and rationales regarding programs to be reviewed further.
- Notify all programs of the outcomes of the broad review: (1) identified for self-study, and (2) not identified, but encouraged to identify cost savings.
Phase 2
Comprehensive Self-Study Review (late February – early April 2025)
Key Actions:
- 沙巴体育官网 training and support materials for programs undergoing self-studies.
- Provide guidance on self-study expectations, including scheduled help sessions.
- Review self-studies, scoring them according to established evaluation framework.
- Hold Pathway-specific meetings with evaluators to discuss evaluations and identify program/discipline-specific recommendations.
- Document decisions and rationale following the review meetings, compiling recommendations for the President.
Phase 3
Decision Making/Recommendations (early May 2025)
Key Actions:
- Finalize recommendations based on comprehensive self-study reviews and present them to the President.
- Prepare communications and notifications regarding decisions, ensuring stakeholders are informed of the outcomes.
- Notify programs of decisions made.
Phase 4
Appeal Process (May 2025)
Key Actions:
- Offer help sessions and meetings for programs/disciplines to discuss decisions and potential appeals.
- Facilitate the appeals process, collecting submissions and sharing them with the Cabinet for review.
- Cabinet reviews appeals.
Phase 5
Final Decisions (June 2025)
Key Actions:
- Cabinet finalizes decisions regarding appeals.
- Prepare communication materials to share outcomes with the individual programs/disciplines, PCC community, and the Board.
- Notify programs of final decisions.
- Conduct follow-up meetings with affected faculty/staff to discuss outcomes and next steps (including teach out plans, as necessary).
- Compile results of the entire process, including documentation of timelines and rationales for decisions.
FAQs
- FAQs for the Program/Discipline Fiscal Sustainability Process
- Question/Inquiry Form for the Program/Discipline Fiscal Sustainability Process
- If you have a question or inquiry about the process, please fill out the form and we will do our best to provide a response within 48-72 business hours.