Other ideas for SFCC

Applying for available federal higher education grants and creating a marketing plan to help enroll students would be a better solution for Santa Fe Community College than cutting five programs and members of the faculty/staff.

As a grant writer, I have to ask: Why aren’t grants being pursued through the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund of the American Rescue Plan Act, 2021 within the Department of Education? There are grants totaling tens of billions of dollars for higher education still available at the federal level. As a matter of fact, I am a grant writer because of the excellent grant-writing program I completed online through Santa Fe Community College last fall, which added to my professional skills and master’s degree. Now I have my own business in freelance grant-writing services.

Students and graduates of all the programs mentioned — solar energy, hospitality, exercise science, architecture and interior design and fashion design — would complement the needs of our local economy. If few students at SFCC are enrolled in those declared majors, then it would make good economic sense for the college to develop a plan to work with the community (such as school career counseling or retraining programs) to promote these and other programs that can lead to excellent careers and jobs. I’d like to see Santa Feans rally around the needs of our community college, and I will to donate 15 hours of my time to assist in that effort.

Pamela Erickson Santa Fe