Nassau Community College is a college in crisis. The Middle States Report verifies what the faculty has known for a long time: the one bright spot cited in the Middle States Report is the NCC faculty. Yet, once again, the college has chosen to believe that cutting its full-time faculty is the path to institutional health. It is not. A robust, full-time faculty supports student retention, quality education and promotes the institution’s reputation. The disastrous cuts begun in the Spring of 2010 when the college aggressively reduced its full-time faculty have continued unabated. At the beginning of 2010 there were 752 full-time faculty, but by the end of 2015 there were only 581 full-time faculty at NCC. However, once again, at a time when the college, more than ever, needs a full-time faculty to repair the damage inflicted on NCC over the past six years, the college has chosen to sacrifice our newly hired full-time faculty and, with it, the future of NCC’s students and the college itself.

Full time professors are the lifeblood of this institution; they help retain NCC students and provide the institutional integrity to sustain NCC’s reputation as an institution that offers quality higher education. Reducing full-time faculty will deprive our students of their best chances for success now and in the future. This shortsighted action will only add to NCC’s downward spiral. We urge the NCC Board of Trustees to reconsider terminating these talented, dedicated faculty members.