Chemeketa Community College plans $5 million in cuts for 2027-28 as enrollment slips (Oct. 22)
Quick Read
Chemeketa Community College expects to cut $5 million from its budget for the 2027-28 school year, and President Jessica Howard says more cuts are likely in 2028-29.
Howard blames falling enrollment, which drives most of the college's funding, and staffing costs that keep rising each year.
The college says no budget decisions have been made, and it has not said whether jobs will be cut.
A proposed budget goes to the college's budget committee in April 2027, with adoption scheduled for June 2027.
Chemeketa Community College, the Salem-based college that serves much of the mid-Willamette Valley, is preparing for another round of budget cuts.
The college expects to need $5 million in reductions for the 2027-28 school year, and likely more the year after, President Jessica Howard said in a video message to the college released Oct. 12, Salem Reporter reported Thursday. "We have reached another moment in recent history where Chemeketa will have to make a major change to balance its budget," Howard said, according to the outlet.
Howard did not say what would be cut. She said the college plans to look across the whole organization for savings while it builds next year's budget, Salem Reporter reported.
Why the money is short
Howard pointed to two causes: fewer students and higher staffing costs, according to Salem Reporter. Enrollment, which she said determines most of Chemeketa's funding, has fallen considerably over the past decade, and the college expects that decline to continue, she said.
She said the main reason is that fewer young people are growing up in the region and moving through local K-12 schools, and she called Salem-Keizer Public Schools the college's largest high school feeder by far, the outlet reported.
Staffing makes up about 85% of the college's operating costs, and those costs rise every year with cost-of-living raises, higher insurance costs and bigger payments to the Public Employees Retirement System, Howard said, according to Salem Reporter.
What the college's own numbers show
Chemeketa's adopted budget for 2026-27 shows the squeeze. The college's general fund, its main operating budget, is about $122.2 million this year. The document says enrollment fell 31% from 2015-16 through 2024-25, measured in full-time-equivalent students.
The same budget, written last spring, struck a more hopeful note on enrollment. It said year-over-year enrollment rose 2.0% in 2023-24, 4.3% in 2024-25 and 2.4% in 2025-26 through winter term, and that the decline "has reversed or plateaued." It also warned that a shrinking number of high school students "could significantly impact future enrollment." The college budgeted for flat enrollment this year.
The budget says personnel spending for 2026-27 is about $7.1 million, or 7.9%, higher than the year before. It also says Chemeketa's share of the state's Community College Support Fund dropped from about 10.4% to 10.1%, which the college attributed to its enrollment not keeping pace with other community colleges and to changes in the state's funding formula. Tuition this year is $111 per credit, plus a $39 per-credit universal fee, after a $3 tuition increase.
State money for the year that ended June 30 came in about $2 million short, Chief Financial Officer Aaron Hunter told the college's Board of Education in September, according to draft minutes included in the board's Oct. 21 meeting packet. He cited the funding formula, Chemeketa's enrollment lagging the statewide average and slightly less state funding than budgeted, and said tuition and fees came in a little higher, which let the college average it out, according to the minutes.
Cuts have happened before
This would not be the college's first round of cuts in recent years. Chemeketa eliminated 53 positions in 2023, including 30 that were vacant and 23 layoffs, Salem Reporter reported, and those cuts drew strong pushback from faculty.
When those cuts were being planned in late 2022, faculty urged college leaders to look at administrative and overhead costs first, saying jobs that work directly with students had already been cut, Salem Reporter reported at the time.
What happens next
Asked by Salem Reporter about possible layoffs, Associate Vice President Marie Hulett said, "No budget decisions have been made for the next fiscal year." She said the college's yearly budget process includes looking for cost savings, efficiencies and staffing levels.
The college plans to present a proposed budget to its budget committee in April 2027 and adopt a final budget in June 2027, Hulett told the outlet.
Willamette News did not find a public statement from the Chemeketa Faculty Association or other employee groups about the projected cuts. The faculty association's written report to the Board of Education for its Oct. 21 meeting did not mention them. It said the college had approached the union about switching from composite to tiered insurance, a change that must be bargained, with talks set to begin in November.
A familiar story in Salem schools
Chemeketa's enrollment worries echo those of its biggest feeder district. Salem-Keizer Public Schools has proposed closing six elementary schools starting in fall 2027 after enrollment fell from a peak of 42,000 students to about 36,000, according to a district announcement. The school board is expected to make a final decision Dec. 8. Willamette News covered the closure plan earlier this week.
Sources
Salem Reporter: Chemeketa Community College expects to make $5 million in budget cuts next year, by Kent Friel (Oct. 22, 2026)
Salem Reporter: Chemeketa faculty push back on proposed budget cuts, by Rachel Alexander (Nov. 18, 2022)
Chemeketa Community College: President's Budget Message, October 2026 (YouTube)
Chemeketa Community College: Adopted Budget 2026-2027 (PDF)
Chemeketa Community College Board of Education: Oct. 21, 2026, meeting packet, including draft Sept. 16 minutes and the Chemeketa Faculty Association report (PDF)
Salem-Keizer Public Schools: Salem-Keizer Public Schools Recommends Closing Six Elementary Schools to Protect Student Learning (Oct. 9, 2026)
Cover photo: Chemeketa building 3, by Clover Thomas, via Wikimedia Commons, released under CC0 (public domain)
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