PORT ANGELES — Like college and university administrators across the county, Peninsula College Suzy Ames is keeping a close eye on the reconciliation process in Congress as the U.S. House and Senate hash out a budget bill that includes a significant overhaul of higher education.
Whatever the outcome, there is little Peninsula College can do adjust its budget to the changes at the federal level it knows are coming.
That’s because President Donald Trump has urged Senators to get the bill on his desk by July 4, so he can sign it on Independence Day.
Peninsula College’s fiscal year starts July 1.
The federal cuts that are inevitably coming will compound the $760,000 in state budget cuts that contributed to the college’s $2.1 million budget shortfall in its 2025-2026 operating budget.
Among the deficit items was Peninsula College’s portion of a $28.6 million state Office of Financial Management accounting error that was discovered last fall after the state’s 34 community and technical colleges had already factored those dollars into their budgets.
The Legislature did not end up forcing schools to pay back the money mid-year; rather, it carried the amount forward for 2026.
The $339,000 Peninsula College had to pay for a mistake it didn’t make was a nice chunk of its $30 million annual budget.
Community colleges pressed the Legislature this spring to fully fund cost-of-living adjustments for faculty and staff, but they only received 79 percent funding. Peninsula College’s price tag for this non-discretionary expense was $86,000.
Ames said that, as painful as the cutbacks have been for community colleges, those at state universities and colleges are much deeper.
“We’re grateful that the Legislature and the governor recognize that community colleges run on a much more slim operating budget than universities, so even the tiniest cut that we did get from the Legislature has direct implications,” she said.
The cutbacks will slow the college’s progress toward reducing a $2 million deficit Ames inherited when she arrived in July 2022.
“Given our phenomenal enrollment growth, we were able to shrink that to $840,000,” Ames said. “I am confident had things remained normal for another year or two, we would have been able to close that gap entirely, but we ran out of time given the financial precariousness of the state and the federal government.”
When it comes to where to find and how to go about reducing expenditures, Ames said she and her staff prioritized student needs.
Budget reductions ranged from $1,800 in software subscription services to closing its Fort Worden campus, which cost almost $400,000 a year to operate.
Most of those taking classes in person at Fort Worden were senior citizens who took advantage of the state’s senior tuition waiver, Ames said. High school students enrolled Running Start, for example, preferred to take classes online and rarely showed up in person.
While classes like French and Spanish language taught at Fort Flagler and vocal ensemble and concert band at the Port Angeles campus are popular with seniors, they attract limited interest from paying, degree-seeking students, Ames said. Those classes will continue be taught if instructors are available and moved under the umbrella of continuing education, which is self-supporting, she said.
Some college employees have lost their jobs. Vacancies due to retirement and open positions won’t be filled, and tenure-track history and math lines won’t be replaced. Sabbaticals, faculty stipends and employee tuition assistance have been paused.
The college has put its hospitality and ecotourism program on hold, and it ended some programs and initiatives the state has stopped funding.
The Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Pathway Summer School, which provides hands-on research experience, mentoring and professional development to students from underserved communities, won’t be offered this year, Ames said, but it will resume next year.
Ames said proposed cuts to federal programs are particularly worrisome because many are specifically designed to help the kinds of students who attend Peninsula College: older, first-generation, low-income students who often balance family and job responsibilities.
A proposal to change the eligibility for Pell Grants by raising the minimum number of credits to qualify from 12 to 15 per quarter, for example, would impact adult students chipping away at earning their degree because they can’t commit to a full slate of classes.
“That affects over 100 Peninsula College students,” Ames said.
Upward Bound, which helps students from disadvantaged backgrounds who have completed the eighth grade and are between the ages of 13 and 19 prepare for college, is among a suite of eight programs called TRIO that could be eliminated.
“The success rate that we’ve experienced with that is phenomenal, partnering with their local high schools, bringing those kids into Peninsula College, or they go to a university,” she said.
Ames said many of the cuts won’t be visible to students because the college has preserved staffing in public-facing services like advising and financial aid.
And it’s making strategic investments in certain areas to meet student demands as well as community needs.
“Two years ago, we started the bachelor’s of behavioral health. Enrollment is super successful and the program is going strong, so we needed to hire a full-time faculty member to lead the program,” Ames said.
“We are also making a strategic investment in starting a K-8 teacher preparation bachelor’s degree and are in the final stages of accreditation approval.”
When the cutting and trimming were done, Ames said she and her staff had identified $2,143,839 in reductions — leaving it with an extra $3,517 in savings.
She remained optimistic about the college’s ability to weather the financial headwinds and carry on in its mission of education and workforce development.
“Despite all of the challenges that are coming to us externally, we’re continuing to grow and we’re continuing to position the college to meet the local needs,” she said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
