Board Report - April 2008

Since we just had a budget committee meeting, I will not go into details about the budget. I would like to report, however, that I am meeting with the Commissioner tomorrow to work out final details regarding our proposal for Strategic Investment Funds. I expect I will have a positive announcement on that soon.

We are moving forward with the implementation plan for the management group. We have a deadline of April 30 to decide which positions to fill this year. I fully expect to able to use savings from some vacant positions to help with the ending fund balance.

The Committee on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC) reviewed the annual report submitted by our Respiratory Care program and acknowledged that our program met or exceeded expectations. They commended the college for the quality of our program as evidenced by our performance and recognized us for our commitment to continuous quality improvement in education.

Since the last meeting, I attended the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting. It was outstanding. I was one of thirty-two college and university presidents (six community college presidents) who had lunch with President Clinton. At the lunch, I brought up the need to engage community college students in this work and invited the Clinton Global Initiative to work with us on that. The president committed to doing so.

Sonya Christian and I collaborated with Mobility International to host a dinner for 24 disabled people from Central and South America. They are exploring accessibility issues. This is the second delegation we have hosted, and we look forward to closer ties with Mobility International.

Board members and the campus community are invited to attend the third annual International Day activities from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 7 in the cafeteria. Students in ESL and international credit students will perform songs and dances from their native countries. Teams also create displays about the many countries represented at Lane and ESL classes perform. In past years, students and staff have taught games, demonstrated martial arts, taught us how to write our names in Japanese, quizzed us on our language knowledge and modeled native dress.

This past weekend, Sonya and I attended the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) annual convention and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) annual convention. For the first time ever, the closing session of PTK was held jointly with the opening session of AACC. The PTK convention is a cross between a rock concert and a political convention. We had two students attend—Megan Bagley and Dee Lauzon, who ran for and was elected to international office and advisor Velda Arnaud. I want to show you a short video clip just to give you a flavor of the event.

As you saw, Sonya received one of the administrator of the year awards. Dee was elected as an international officer, and Lane’s chapter received three awards. All are to be congratulated but especially Dee, in particular, for giving a great speech, campaigning well, and representing Lane. This is the first time in thirty years that we have had a student serve on the international board of PTK.

Also, I was elected as the chair-elect of the AACC board. I believe that is a first for Lane.

I would like to request that we move the resolution on borrowing to the discussion/action items. I had intended that to happen and was not clear about that.