Board Report
June 2005

Board Report - June, 2005

Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
To the Lane Community College Board of Education
June 8, 2005

I'd like to welcome Jeremy Riel, the new president of the Associated Students of Lane Community College.

This evening, the board will be asked to adopt the college budget for 2005-06. It is basically a status quo budget. I really wish we could do better so that we could fund some of the important projects that we ought to be doing, however, developing a budget that does not require us to reduce offerings and services is in itself quite an accomplishment. The fourth "unknown" in our budget process was the funding distribution formula. The formula was approved by the State Board of Education at the end of the month. We are just waiting for the legislature to settle on a number. The house has passed the community college budget at almost $440 million with $433 million going through the formula distribution. The senate number remains at $422 million through the formula. We have heard that the governor is actively opposing our number from the house, the higher number. Frankly, this is the last straw. We are trying to schedule a meeting with him to address this. Of course, we have built our budget on $416 million. As the legislature finishes its work and as we see what our ending fund balance looks like, it is very probable that we will come back to you with some strategic investments, particularly for enrollment growth. I would like to thank members of the budget committee for their assistance in developing the budget.

I want to formally announce my intention to move forward with the hiring of an associate vice president of finance and budget. I have talked with you about this possibility of this over the course of the year and believe it is in the best interests of the college to move forward with this position. I am anticipating some retirements in the not so distant future and it would be prudent to do some succession planning to assure that we have the right people in place and continuity. I think it is especially important that you and I have complete confidence in our finance and budget area. Our funding has been so volatile that we need to be sure it is in good hands. This does not diminish the good work that has been done by the current staff. Vice President for College Operations Marie Matsen has certainly provided leadership but she has her hands full with all of the other parts of operations and it will help her to have someone to focus efforts on this important part of the college. I plan to open the position shortly with interviews to take place in the fall with hopes that we can have someone on board by January to start through the budget cycle.

I had the pleasure of attending former board member Jim Pitney's wedding to Betty Lou Pipes a couple of weeks ago. It was a joyful event.

On May 19, I was at Oregon State University for the first annual Charles Carpenter Memorial Lecture. Charles was my major professor at OSU but was a community college president and board member. George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, gave the lecture. He was introduced by Dale Parnell, Lane's founding president, and a nationally known in community college advocate.

A number of Lane staff met at Good Samaritan Center to volunteer for a "Day of Caring." So many of us showed up that we accomplished our yard work in half the scheduled time.

This is the time of year when we are trying to finalize a number of projects so everyone is very busy. We are looking forward to graduation on Saturday. It is one of the best days of the year.

Tamara Pinkas, our League for Innovation representative, will give a presentation on League activities.

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