Board Report - December 2009

I’d like to begin my report by recognizing some of our stars from Athletics:

• Rodger Bates, Health, Physical Education and Athletics Division Dean
• John Scholl, track coach
• Cesar Perez, student and track athlete

Cesar recently won the men’s 8,000-meter race at the NWAACC championships with a time of 25 minutes, 25 seconds. His win helped the Titans finish third overall. Travis was Southern Region champion in the previous meet. John was named Southern Region Women's Coach of the Year for guiding the women’s team to the Southern Region title. He also coached the men’s team.
We’re really proud of all of you. Thank you for coming tonight.

I’d like to remind the board to attend our first basketball home game on Wednesday, December 9, beginning at 6 p.m. The women’s team intends to advance its 71-home game winning streak, a national record.

The College Council Budget Development Sub Committee has begun its work – we have had three meetings to date. Now that we have the audit, staff will begin to develop projections for the FY11 budget. As you saw during the work session with the budget committee, at least for the short term we are in a much better financial position. The challenge will be to develop future budgets that are sustainable over time as we attempt to preserve jobs and keep up with increased enrollments.

As you know, we had two visitors from our accrediting body. My thanks to Pat Albright, Tony McCown and Roger Hall for meeting with them. We have reviewed a confidential draft of the report. We have the opportunity to review it for factual errors. I am happy to say that in my conversation with the chair of the evaluation team at the exit meeting, he applauded Lane for being vibrant and dedicated to our mission and our students through these extraordinarily tight fiscal times. The evaluation team will submit their report and confidential recommendation regarding our accreditation status to the commission for their consideration at the January commission meeting after which we will get official notification from the commission. I believe I can say that the draft report contained no recommendations and one commendation on finances. This will not be official until the commission acts, but it is very gratifying to read all the positive efforts that the evaluators noted.

I am really proud of the work done by the Accreditation Coordinating Team. They have tried to keep the Accreditation standards visible in our daily work and not just something to consider during the time of developing our reports. I am also very proud of all the faculty and staff for their daily contributions in helping the college meet the standards. Remember this is an institutional accreditation. It’s not an evaluation of me, or the board or the Executive Team or the staff. It’s about each and every one of us as a whole and how the work that each one of us does meets the standards. Join me in recognizing their work.

For the second year in a row, the Oregon Opportunity Grant (OOG) has run out of funds. The grant is the state's only need-based aid program. Record enrollment and demand forced the Oregon Student Assistance Commission to suspend new awards as of December 15, and reduce awards for all students in the spring. I would like to commend government relations director Brett Rowlett for helping persuade the OOG Steering Committee to revise its recommendations on those reductions, from $400 to $120 for full-time students, and from $200 to $60 for part-time students. He also challenged a governor’s office proposal to suspend all awards immediately, which would have cost Lane students alone $1 million in financial aid. Lane has the 14th highest percentage increase in federal financial aid applications nationwide among colleges processing more than 10,000 applications. Oregon ranks 5th out of the 50 states. Thanks to Helen Garrett, Bert Logan and their staff for managing our staggering financial aid workload so well.

Fourth-week enrollment figures verify our upward trend. Lane is just ahead of other Oregon community colleges with an increase of 17.9 percent in credit FTE, and an overall FTE increase of 16.7 percent. Noncredit FTE is up this time, by 7.9 percent. Our headcount also is just ahead of other colleges, at an increase of 7.7 percent.

The Center for Meeting and Learning won the Lane County Trashbuster Award for food service establishments. The Center was acknowledged for green event practices, waste reduction, reuse and recycling.

Margaret Robertson, who teaches engineering graphics, landscape technology, and mechanical drafting at Lane, signed a contract with Prentice Hall for a textbook titled, "Sustainability: Theory and Practice," due out in April 2011. Prentice Hall approached Margaret after learning about Lane’s sustainability leadership from our website.

Once again, the Shining Star event brought together donors and scholarship recipients. We had better than a board quorum, so I want to thank you for attending. I know that, like me, you found it inspiring and touching.

We hosted several community outreach efforts last month:

Our Dental Clinic partnered with local dentists and hygienists to provide free services for veterans in observance of Veterans Day.

Our culinary students, faculty and staff once again helped prepare the Whiteaker Community Thanksgiving Dinner for about 2,000 men, women, and children. Chefs Clive Wanstall and Brian Kelly organized about 30 LCC students and graduates to oversee two days of food preparation. They were helped by another 60 students, staff and community members who cooked and served 1,900 pounds of turkey, and 500 pounds of yams and squash, among other treats. Staff members Bev Farfan and Sue Thompson coordinated drives to collect food, clothing and sleeping bags. They collected 616 sleeping bags, blankets, throws or comforters, 384 stuffed animals, and hundreds of hats, gloves, scarves, coats, umbrellas, day packs, flashlights and other items. Thanks to all our volunteers and especially to our students.

$100,023 was raised from 293 donors in our employee giving campaign. I’d like to thank campaign chair Cathy Lindsley, committee members Carol McKiel and Patty Parks, Foundation staff Bonnie Phipps and Kathy Thomas, and cooperative education student Jennifer Holst. We’re a little above our $100,000 goal.

Donna Koechig and Jim Garcia helped host a White House Initiative forum on Latino education. The guest speaker was Juan Sepulveda, executive director of the Initiative. We had a good turnout. These conversations are occurring nationwide to help create an executive order to improve Latino education in America. We were the only college in Oregon to be asked to host a conversation.

We hosted a legislative town hall with State Senators Bill Morrisette and Floyd Prozanski, and State Representatives Phil Barnhart, Terry Beyer, Val Hoyle, and Nancy Nathanson. About 50 faculty, staff and students attended. Legislators spent much of their time advocating a yes vote on January's ballot measures. I also reminded them that community colleges have no representation on the Oregon Opportunity Grant commission, and they pledged to change that.

Our Facilities department has submitted a $634,000 grant request for seismic improvements to buildings 9 and 10. The Oregon Emergency Management department plans to award funds in February on a competitive and geographic basis.

We no longer have any excuse to be late for anything around here. Campus electricians installed 550 new campus clocks last month. The clocks are synchronized with servers and computers and receive a signal from a new master clock on the Center building roof. The master clock automatically adjusts for time changes. Until now, our electricians were troubleshooting and replacing clocks at a rate of at least one a week.

You may have seen our great front-page stories in the Register-Guard on international education and College Now. Lane also was mentioned in a New York Times story on clean energy programs at community colleges. Lane was also featured in Fortune magazine following an interview I did. You also may want to read a recent story in The Washington Post from November 30 titled, “The Best and the Brightest Take a Detour—Recession-Wary Honor Students are Using Community College as Door to Elite Schools.”

Brett and I attended the AACC Washington Institute in D.C. While there, I met with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. We also met with White House staff working on the Economic Council. I also attended the AACC board meeting.

I gave the keynote address at the National Green Workforce Education Conference in Albany, New York, and was quoted in an article posted online by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. The conference was attended by about 500 people from the U.S. and Europe.

You probably know that the American Graduation Initiative is on hold because of the health care reform debate. Nonetheless, we will continue working to support the initiative and to compete for funding for Lane.

You’re invited to attend tomorrow’s reception for printmaking alumni whose works have been selected for our permanent art collection. Thanks to Art and Applied Design instructor Susan Lowdermilk for helping make this happen. These 18 exceptional prints are now installed in the south entrance corridor of building 19 by the Workforce Center. The reception is from 5 - 7 p.m.

The annual Native American Student Association Powwow will be held Saturday, December 5, in the gym, with grand entries at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. That same day you can drop by the Holiday Market in the cafeteria and do a little gift shopping.

Please remember that the college is closed to the public for winter break from December 21 to 28.

I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday.