April 3, 2026

Organizing the College for 2026-27

Spring quarter started on Monday with enrollment at 9% above last spring. We are doing a good job retaining our students through the entire year and we certainly hope the momentum rolls into next fall.

Our budget next year is built on an anticipated 7% domestic enrollment increase and a “flat” enrollment in International Programs, meaning that we carry over the same number of international students next year that we had this year. This would be the first time in three years that we would start a fall quarter with a single digit enrollment increase, which is in line with pre-covid trends of 3 to 5%. The 2025-26 CTC system-wide average enrollment gain was 7%, so our estimate falls in line with what is happening outside of our region. There is little science to this estimate; the way to influence this is to continue our great marketing, outreach, and retention activities.

This year’s costs escalated beyond our revenue due to changes in the state’s allocation, higher benefit costs, no salary savings, and lower than anticipated international enrollment. As you know, this resulted in changes to our staffing structure. Today’s Friday Letter outlines how we will be moving forward as of July 1.

In Student Learning

• We will no longer have a four-Dean model. Instead, we will have a two-Dean model with support from a (new) position, either an Associate Dean or an Assistant Director. Erik Tingelstad and Kristina Young, as the Deans moving forward, will work with Chris Byrne and David Shapiro to help shape the portfolios of each Dean and determine the scope and responsibilities of the new position. This work will happen over spring quarter with a design to be approved by me at the end of the quarter.
• We will be moving to one Institutional Effectiveness analyst instead of two. Elizabeth Banning will continue to help us with data and research. Elizabeth will report to the new Vice President of Student Learning as of July 1.
• We will no longer have an Assistant Director of Sustainability and an Assistant Director of Natural Science Labs. This will now be a combined position, the Director of Natural Science Labs and Sustainability. The search is currently underway to fill this position.
• The Workforce department of three people will now be one person moving forward, Joanna Muir.

In Advancement

• We combined the Executive Director of the Cascadia College Foundation and the Executive Director of Marketing & Communications. The new position to emerge was the Associate Vice President of Advancement, filled by Brittany Caldwell.
• As we move forward, there will no longer be the position of Director of Foundation Operations.
• Two new positions will be hired: a Director of Advancement to offer support to the AVP in both marketing and fundraising, and a Program & Events Manager for the Foundation.

In Administrative Services

• The division will no longer be led by a single Vice President of Administrative Services. Over the course of Cascadia’s history (since I have been President, 2010) this position has never thrived in terms of its capacity to handle the multiple disparate departments assigned to it. Therefore, moving forward, it will be led by an Associate Vice President of Administrative Services (Shawna Pitts) and an Associate Vice President of Human Resources (Ifrah Mohamed). This decision was made after consultation with the Board of Trustees and our AAG.
• Two additional positions in this domain will be revamped. The Payroll Controller position will become a Payroll Manager, and the IT Systems and Change Manager will become the Assistant Director of ctcLink Support & Operations.
• Finally, a vacant IT Support Analyst position (Classified), will be held vacant until further notice.

We are currently conducting an on-going review of other vacant positions to determine which will be filled and which ones we will continue holding on.

All of the changes above resulted in a $700,000 savings to our budget for 2026-27. Combined with reductions to Goods & Services ($500,000), canceling low-enrolled sections ($300,000), and an estimated increase in new revenue from tuition and enrollment increases ($1,400,000), we intend to present a balanced budget to the Trustees in May. Please note that the numbers are not yet finalized, so there may still be some small adjustments necessary.

In terms of the “Senior Staff”, or “Executive Team”, it now consists of 6 members along with the President.

• Vice President of Student Success Services, Erin Blakeney
• Vice President of Inclusion, Advocacy, and Community, Chari Davenport
• Vice President of Student Learning, VACANT
• Associate Vice President of Advancement, Brittany Caldwell
• Associate Vice President of Human Resources, Ifrah Mohamed
• Associate Vice President of Administrative Services, Shawna Pitts

An updated organizational chart of the e-team and their duties is attached for reference. Please let me know if you need this chart in an accessible format; when uploaded to the web, it will be accessible. Each of these e-team members will reach out to their respective counterparts at UWB so that we maintain operational continuity.

Thank you to everyone for all of your input over winter quarter. We will be hiring a slate of replacement positions, faculty, and new positions over the next few months to ensure that we are fully staffed for fall. I invite you to attend the public forums for the Vice President of Student Learning on April 30, May 4, and May 7. Stay tuned for more information on times and locations.

Shoutouts

A shout out today to student Alexandra Martinez, featured in a front page Seattle Times article that profiles four students across the community college system.

And from the IN Box:

I’d like to recognize several ITS team members who went above and beyond over the weekend to ensure a seamless start to the spring quarter. Thanks to their dedication, campus operations continued smoothly, and most people never realized there had been an issue.

On Saturday morning, while supporting an event on campus, Jozlyn Pelk discovered that Eduroam wi-fi was down. Acting quickly, she alerted key team members to the problem.

Andrew Pederson was one of those who responded promptly, assessing the situation and reaching out to me with an update. It soon became clear that the outage affected more than just Eduroam and would require a coordinated effort to resolve before Monday.

Nick Eddington joined Andrew, and together they worked tirelessly throughout the day to restore services. Their commitment meant the campus remained unaffected, despite the challenges. This group turned what could have been a disruptive situation into a non-event through their teamwork and resourcefulness. Their efforts truly exemplify the spirit of collaboration and dedication within the ITS team.

AND

I would like to give a shout out to the Finance Leadership team for the tremendous amount of work that went into this year’s budget planning and development process.

Before we even began the budget review meetings, the Jacinth Nurse spent several hours preparing files, organizing data, and defining a clear and thoughtful process for all departments to follow. The team then dedicated 16 hours to budget review sessions, covering nearly 35 departmental budgets with patience, professionalism, and a strong commitment to accuracy and transparency.

During the reviews, Gergina Lazarova assisted with the grants and ensured expenses for FY26 were accurate and positioned correctly while lending guidance on grants for next year.

Ginny Jackson brought her historical knowledge of the budget process and assisted during the budget reviews with expense drill downs and post review expense reclasses.

Steve Kroeger provided administrative and behind the scenes support for the team.

Their efforts were essential to ensuring we have a solid goods and services budget for the year ahead, and I am deeply grateful for their hard work and expertise.

Shoutouts can be sent to FLShoutout@cascadia.edu.