DEARBORN — Henry Ford Community College (HFCC) may have faced a near crisis a few months ago, as it ended its winter semester with a vacant presidential seat and a $10.5 million deficit that left its large body of faculty torn over the direction of the College’s future.

Now, however, newly appointed HFCC president Stan Jensen says the College has started its new fall semester on a progressive note, with several implemented changes now on track to trim down its deficit to just $1.8 million by the end of the school year. 

“I’m very thankful for the continued turnaround for the College, as far as economics and budgets go,” Jensen told the media, during a debriefing held at the President’s Conference Room on Tuesday. “We’ve made a lot of sacrifice and a lot of budget trimming,” Jensen added.

Over the summer, HFCC laid off over a dozen faculty members, introduced a millage for voters to approve on the November ballot and implemented an amnesty program for hundreds of students who owed the College debt. Additionally, at Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting, the College approved a small tuition increase, starting this winter semester, which they estimate will yield in an additional $900,000 for the College by the end of the school year.

Jensen.

The College still has to deal with a few setbacks, however. Student enrollment at HFCC is down 23%, compared to one year ago.  Although, Jensen says the drop was less than they had anticipated. At one point, the College had estimated the student enrollment drop could be as high as 30%, as they began to buckle down on students who owed debt.

Since starting the amnesty program in July, 467 students have complied and made agreements with the College to pay off their debts through installments. 80 of those students have paid the College back in full and are now enrolled in fall classes. The program may be appealing to many local students, as it gives them the opportunity to only pay back half of what is owed. So far, $120,000 in cash has been collected through the program.

HFCC campus.

What may also be contributing to the sharp decline in enrollment is the College’s stricter registration process, which now requires most students to make some form of upfront payments, whether personally, or through their financial aid. Previously, the College had seen a pattern with students registering for class and then not showing up after receiving their financial aid money.

Last fall, around 4,500 students who registered for courses at HFCC, ended up pulling no-shows during the semester. While many of these students may have changed their mind at the last minute for varying reasons, a bulk of them were believed to be schemers, who dropped out after receiving their financial aid checks. 

Jensen says HFCC wasn’t the only college to be targeted by these schemers, as many of them were out-of-state residents who had applied at multiple colleges, in attempts to collect several financial aid checks. These students are now being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education.

For the fall 2013 semester, only about 700 students didn’t show up to their first week of class, which is good news for the College. A more objective comparison would be to compare the gross income from the College’s tuition fees to one year ago, which is only down 16%, despite the larger enrollment drop.

Out of 29 community colleges in Michigan, HFCC is the sixth largest and remains one of the cheapest, at $82.00 per credit hour for local students and $142.00 per credit hour for out-of-district students. A recent study, released by the College, puts its workforce contributions at $808 million annually. 

Board of Trustee Chairwoman Pamela Adams says she’s delighted at the direction the College has taken, compared to where it was just a few months ago.

“We are very thankful for the turnaround and the current financial situation. We did not think we would be here at this point in time, and I’m very grateful for that,” Adams said.