Board Report - July 2009

First, I would like to congratulate new board member Gary LeClair and returning board member, Susie Johnston. I look forward to working with you over the next four years. Congratulations to Pat on your election as chair and Tony as vice chair. I look forward to a productive year.

Though the academic year ended shortly after our last meeting, a number of things have happened. You are aware that the legislature adjourned on June 29, and we ended up with an allocation of $450.5 million for the Community College Support Fund. While still a decrease of 10 percent from the current biennium, it was a great improvement on the initial co-chairs' budget of $423 million. You also know that we received $8 million for the Downtown Campus which makes the project an immediate reality.

This was achieved through a collective lobbying effort, and I would like to thank everyone from the Oregon Community College Association to our unions to board members to management to community members who advocated on our behalf. Special thanks should go to Senator Rod Monroe, Mount Hood Community College board member, who did a lot of heavy lifting on the support fund, Representative Larry Galizio, Portland Community College faculty member, and Speaker Dave Hunt who carried the construction projects. Our local delegation was very helpful and receptive to our needs throughout the session. Lastly, we should recognize the work of Brett Rowlett who stayed on top of all the issues and made sure our interests were represented.

The additional funds amount to about $1.4 million each year. They have been added to the budget in a "hold for allocation." I will recommend that for the time being we place the funds in the Financial Stabilization Fund, created by the board in 2003. The reason for this is that we need to closely follow the revenue forecast in the coming months to see if any further reductions need to be made.

On another finance issue, we sold $45 million of bonds at a good rate - 3.7 percent. We are in receipt of the funds, and you will have noted that we are asking for authorization for the use of the funds on the consent agenda. This addition to the budget is allowable under local budget law.

Lastly, on money issues, I am happy to report that we have received an additional $650,000 for the Health and Wellness Center in the last three weeks.

Our graduation ceremony on June 14 was a joyful event. I'd like to thank all of the board members that attended. My trip to Jordan was very interesting. We had a US delegation of about 15 State and US Department of Education staff, including Assistant Deputy Secretary Glenn Cummings, as well as community college presidents, George Boggs, President of AACC and Noah Brown, President of ACCT. There were about 100 people from across the broader Middle East and North Africa, all interested in the American community college. I presented on accreditation and board governance. The State department announced some planning grants, so there is the potential for partnerships that could result in faculty or student exchanges.

On my return I travelled to Seattle to attend the first gates Foundation Post Secondary Initiative. Most of the attendees were their grantees, not only from community colleges, but non-profits and researchers, think tanks that have been doing work for them, and most of the major foundations. The focus of their funding will be improving the completion rate of community college students. It will be important for us to help them define what they mean by completion, and I will be in a position to work on that in my role as AACC board chair. At Lane we are already focusing on student success through our Title III grant, so this will be an extension of that work.

I got a call from a reporter in Washington, D.C. on Monday to talk about a recent US Department of Education award to five states for technical assistance to develop curriculum for green jobs. The reporter told me that his contact at the Department of Education noted that Oregon was selected because of the work at Lane Community College. The article was in the Statesman Journal yesterday. It turns out that Deputy Assistant Secretary Cummings, who was in Jordan, was the person touting Lane.

Senator Merkley and staff visited the college on June 29 to hear more about the Downtown Campus and the Health and Wellness center. We have submitted two requests for appropriations for these projects.

Finally, I have asked Chair Albright to add an item to my report for a short presentation and discussion regarding the site of the Downtown Campus. We will have a fuller discussion of this at our work session on July 21, but I wanted you to start thinking about the options in preparation for that meeting. The City of Eugene has worked with the developers who currently own or have options on the sites to develop a number of options for how Lane might participate. Susan Muir, Director of Planning for the City, is here, and I would like to invite her to say just a few words about the City's role. Then we will walk you through the packet and take any questions you might have right now, keeping in mind we will have a more complete discussion at the board work session in a couple of weeks.