|
Q: What is the importance of Lane Community College in
our community?
A: Lane provides educational opportunities and training that help individuals enhance the quality of their lives. Lane has a positive impact on the business environment of Lane County. It is the only educational institution in the community that offers professional technical programs in areas such as nursing, diesel technology, welding, dental hygiene or graphic design, as well as providing college transfer classes for students seeking a four-year degree.
Lane is dynamic and forward-looking, focusing on the needs of individuals as they grow, learn, and adapt throughout their lifetimes to the changing demands of occupational competence, responsible citizenship, and personal development. Lane transforms lives through learning.
Q: What is Lane’s educational role?
A: Lane Community College is a comprehensive community college whose mission is to provide accessible, high quality, affordable, lifelong education. Created in 1964, Lane offers more than 40 vocational programs and more than 50 majors for students wishing to transfer to a four-year school. Lane Community College is a primary source for a broad range of high quality educational and training services:
- Professional technical and lower division college transfer programs
- Employee skill upgrading, business development and career enhancement
- Foundational academic, language and life skills development
- Lifelong personal development and enrichment, and
- Cultural and community services
Lane is a bridge on a life-long educational journey - a bridge between education and the community, between people's aspirations and their success, between Lane County and the world.
Q: What is unique about Lane Community College?
- Lane is Oregon’s third largest community college (15,542 students enrolled in credit classes in 2004-05).
- Lane plays a leading role in both job training and university transfer.
- More than half of all Lane County households have had at least one member enrolled at Lane during the past five years.
- About 10 percent of the county's total population age 15 or older is enrolled at LCC each year. Over 30,000 students will enroll for classes at Lane this year.
- 45 percent of all graduates of Oregon's State System of Higher Education have community college experience prior to their degree.
- 65% of all nurses in Oregon graduated from community colleges. Lane accepts approximately 72 new nursing students every year from a pool of over 200 applicants.
- While the District's average student age is 37.4, educational offerings are designed for all ages. The average age for credit students is 26 years old.
- Lane's success has been nationally recognized for excellence. The College is ranked in the top nineteen community colleges in the nation. Lane is one of 19 board members in the League for Innovation in the Community College, the most prestigious consortium among two-year colleges. There are about 1500 community colleges in the nation.
- Fifteen percent of entering credit students are people of color, which is 10% higher than the general Lane County population.
- 147 international students enrolled in Lane classes in the fall of 2005.
- More than 700 volunteers help the college respond to the employment and educational needs of apprenticeship, business, industry, and labor in our community by serving on a Professional Technical Advisory Committee.
Q: You are a state-funded institution. Why do you need
more support?
A: The disinvestment in public education continues to be a major concern for the college and the community. As the need for a skilled and educated workforce grows, funding for higher education continues to decline.
Lane has moved from a tax-supported to a tax-assisted organization. State funding for higher education has been in decline since 1980. Oregon community colleges receive $28 million less in state appropriations than they did in 2001. The legislature also eliminated funding for many lifelong learning courses, unaware that these courses provided revenue for more expensive training programs like nursing and dental hygiene.
PERS, healthcare, and the state community college funding formula have been continual unknowns, contributing to rising expenses with falling revenues. The challenge for Lane is to find a proper balance between affordability, accessibility to instructional programs, while maintaining a high quality of offerings.
Q: Voters passed a $42.8 million bond issue in 1995. Why
do you need money?
A: Yes, voters approved a $42.8 million general obligation bond for Lane Community College in 1995 to build and remodel facilities. Bond funds can only be used for these purposes. From this funding LCC got six new buildings on campus, remodels, and capital upgrades. The final project, the wastewater treatment plant, will be completed in 2007.
Q: Why don't you just raise tuition and fees?
A: We have. Since 2002, Lane has increased tuition from $35 to $69.50 per credit hour! Lane’s tuition was the second lowest in Oregon, now it is one of the highest. Q: Why is private support important?
A: Excellence has become our hallmark. But excellence requires investment over and above the minimum necessary to sustain the College.
Philanthropic support for Lane has become increasingly important. State support provides only 34.7 percent of the total 2006-2007 budget for the College with the remainder made up from property taxes, student tuition and fees, and other sources. This situation puts even more pressure on students, over 50 percent of whom require some form of financial assistance.
Thus, the College's future depends more than ever on philanthropic gifts by individuals, businesses, and foundations. Private gifts are essential for many special programs available to students. Q: What support is needed right now?
A: We need funds to support students, to enhance academic programs, and to create an environment that is conducive to learning.
Where the need is greatest - The most desirable gift is one which can be directed where the need is greatest. These gifts provide the most flexible, effective, and efficient means to support those areas considered by the President and the Trustees to be most important.
Some of the variety of needs met by the College Fund includes: scholarships, student recruitment and retention, faculty/staff development, and special project grants for departments and programs. Many donors wish to direct their support to a particular project or program. Following are some suggestions:
Student Scholarship - Over 55 percent of Lane's students receive some form of financial assistance. A scholarship is often the stepping stone to higher education for many well-qualified students whose lack of financial resources would otherwise deny them this opportunity. Gifts for scholarships are truly an investment in the future of our community.
Department or Program Support - Many gifts are designated for specific departments or programs, without any restrictions on how the gift is to be used. Local businesses often contribute to that part of the College most directly allied with their particular enterprise. By leaving the determination of the gift's use to the department or program head, a donor can be assured the gift will be used in an effective, timely and important manner.
Q: What do students and community members think of Lane?
A: Students give Lane high marks in annual surveys.
- 96% of graduates and near-graduates report they achieved their goals at Lane.
- 88% of employed former professional technical students said Lane courses were relevant or very relevant to their jobs, and
- 83% of graduates were employed in jobs related to their training.
- 80% of transfer students said Lane prepared them very well or well.
- Research shows that Lane students do better at four-year institutions than non-transfer students.
Q: Who Benefits From Our Programs & Services?
A: We all do! A high quality public education system is linked to increased lifetime earnings and to reduced rates of dropout, teen pregnancy, unemployment, crime, and delinquency. Sound investments in Lane Community College will make a tangible difference in student’s lives - in their skills, their future professionalism in the world, and their responsible commitment to their community.
|
