The College of Santa Fe’s Board of Trustees decided not to declare financial exigency on Friday, concluding that such a drastic step might create more problems than it would solve and that other ways of saving money might be sufficient to close perennial budget deficits, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported today.
The liberal-arts college, which has a dwindling enrollment and multimillion-dollar deficits, announced last fall it would cut programs, lay off faculty members, and refocus its mission. Last week it said it might declare financial exigency, which would allow it to fire tenured professors.
But Stuart Kirk, the college’s president, said the situation was still dire, and if enrollment didn’t pick up, a declaration of financial exigency could be invoked a year or two from now. —Andrew Mytelka
