Fri, Mar 19 2010
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Published February 08, 2010 08:28 pm - MIAMI, Okla. — The president of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College must hate to open mail from Oklahoma City most days. Jeffery Hale got word last July of a 5 percent cut in state funding for the junior college with nearly 1,700 students. That first hit came to about $475,000. Growing enrollment helps NEO weather state budget crisis By Greg Grisolano ggrisolano@joplinglobe.com MIAMI, Okla. — The president of Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College must hate to open mail from Oklahoma City most days. Jeffery Hale got word last July of a 5 percent cut in state funding for the junior college with nearly 1,700 students. That first hit came to about $475,000. Then came an announcement in August that monthly state allocations would be reduced by $42,000 until further notice. That further notice came in December, when the state said it would begin withholding twice as much per month — $84,000 — through June of this year. In January, Hale was informed through yet another announcement by the state’s treasurer that “continued spending cuts are a certainty.” The impact, Hale estimates, is a combined $1.2 million cut for the school, relative to the $9.5 million NEO received the year before. “When you take $1.2 million out of our budget, we notice,” he said. Yet, despite bad news from Oklahoma City, Hale said he remains optimistic. “We’re OK this year,” he said. Breaking even Some of that damage was offset by an infusion of $727,000 in federal stimulus funds, and by a 20 percent increase in enrollment for both semesters this school year, which provided additional revenue of $190,000, according to Hale. This spring, NEO climbed to 1,697 students, compared with 1,414 last year. In the fall, enrollment hit a 14-year high for the two-year school. “We’ve had a banner year in enrollment,” Hale said. He attributes the surge to a combination of factors, including a bounce-back after the devastating flood in 2007, aggressive marketing and the national economic downturn, which Hale said has prompted unemployed people and other workers who are hurting to retrain themselves. And not all of the news from Oklahoma City has been bad. There was one good day. The university received word just last week that it would get more than $300,000 as part of a statewide supplemental allocation that came from a $600 million “rainy day” fund. 
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