NRCC History Book

12 without business plans, sustainable products, and successful records. When funding was depleted, countless dot.coms failed. Northern Virginia saw many of its 3,000 startup technology companies fail. Huge revenue losses from these collapses and a slowing economy had a devastating effect on Virginia’s revenue and caused budget shortfalls for several years. Budget cuts and NRCC’s record enrollment growth during this first decade placed tremendous pressure on resources and facilities. With a substantial decrease in state funding, the college realized that challenging times were ahead, and the college took action. First, a hiring freeze was put in place. Instead of traveling for professional development, faculty attended training opportunities offered on campus by their peers. Also, only equipment and supplies absolutely needed for instruction were purchased. If possible, class sizes were increased to avoid the need for additional faculty. Thanks largely to allocations from the college’s strategic planning process called NETSPACE (I N stitutional E ffectiveness T hrough S trategic P lanning, A ccountability, C ommitment and E ngagement) and excellent money-management skills of administration, NRCC was one of the few colleges in the VCCS that did not lay off any employees during this time. Furthermore, to offset deep cuts in state support, the General Assembly lifted the Fall 1999 tuition freeze that had kept tuition at $37.12 per credit hour for three years. The tuition for Fall 2002 was $40.46 per credit hour, a 9 percent increase from 1999. The largest increase in this decade occurred in Spring 2003 when tuition increased by 30 percent to $52.71 per credit hour. Another substantial increase was seen the following

Fall 2003 with an increase of almost 13 percent, making tuition $59.60 per credit hour. For the remainder of the decade, tuition continued to increase at an average rate of 6.5 percent during each academic year. In Spring 2009, the tuition was $81.65 per credit hour, representing a 120 percent increase since 2000. During the period of December 2007 to June 2009 (often called the Great Recession), the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell 4.3 percent, unemployment peaked at 10 percent, and home prices fell approximately 30 percent. A major surge in enrollments was seen from 2007 to 2009 as unemployed individuals returned to school to learn skills to enhance their employability or simply to do something productive with their time. Again, NRCC had to find ways to be more efficient and to serve more students with fewer resources. The same money-saving techniques used at the beginning of the decade were put in place, including limited hiring of new employees, daily examination of class and faculty productivity, restricted travel, in-house professional development, and the purchase of only essential equipment. To offset budget cuts, the federal government increased the maximum amount of Pell grants each academic year beginning at $4,050 in 2006-07 and ending with $5,550 in 2010-11. More students qualified for these grants as adult students and families of dependent students experienced losses in

income due to layoffs. Legislative Contacts

In the early 2000s, members of the college community engaged in frequent legislative contacts, making numerous trips to Richmond to personally visit delegates and senators who represented NRCC’s

Chapter 1