What should Northland Pioneer College look like in the future? That is the question being posed at community Listening Sessions this spring in Snowflake, Show Low, Holbrook and Winslow. “NPC is facing statutory expenditure limitations. We are asking for the public, community leaders, students and college employees to provide ideas and suggestions on how to reduce our operating expenses while continuing to provide quality educational opportunities throughout Navajo County,” said NPC President Dr. Jeanne Swarthout. “NPC is your college, and for 41 years has been committed to providing quality, affordable educational opportunities that are easily accessible to all residents. How can we continue to provide those services at a lower cost? Will we need to close facilities? Offer more technology delivered classes? Offer high cost classes less often? College leaders and our governing board are listening to your answers to these and other pressing questions,” she continued. The Listening Sessions schedule for Holbrook includes 12 noon on Thursday, Feb. 19, and 5 p.m. on Thursdays, March 26 and April 23, all at the Painted Desert Campus. Listening Sessions will be held at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17, and Thursday, April 16, at the Little Colorado Campus in Winslow. “The proposal to ‘reinvent’ the Snowflake (Silver Creek) campus would still provide distance learning and some ‘live’ classes and the Performing Arts Center,” Swarthout explained. Student and library services would be reduced. Consolidating most of the district’s administrative functions at Snowflake is also under consideration. One component of the expenditure limitation formula is enrollment. However, just increasing enrollment cannot significantly adjust the expenditure limit. “Reductions will be needed in operational costs,” stressed Swarthout. Employee-related expenses account for nearly 75 percent of NPC’s operating costs subject to the expenditure limitation. In an initial effort to reduce those costs, NPC is offering a Voluntary Employee Separation Program to an estimated 37 of the college’s 214 benefitted employees. “Please take the time to attend one of the Listening Sessions in your community. We need to hear from the citizens we serve,” concluded Swarthout.