Board Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
Board of Education Meeting
February 9, 2005

Budget

There are no new developments regarding the budget. All unknowns remain. On Friday, the State Board of Education will hold a work session on the distribution formula. Presidents and business officers from Portland, Chemeketa, Linn-Benton and Lane have developed a new proposal. Gretchen Schuette, president of Chemeketa, and I presented the proposal to the community college commissioner and received favorable response; she will forward the proposal to the State Board.

Legislative Relations

About 18 legislators from both sides of the aisle have formed a community college caucus. I made a presentation about community college needs. These legislators will be our champions and hopefully will have an impact on our funding level. James Sager, the governor's education policy person also attended. He lumped community colleges in with all the other agencies wanting additional money. While he acknowledged the glitch in the governor's budget which overlooked some community college expenses, he did not make the distinction that we need to be brought up to an equitable level with other sectors of education. Rep. Ackerman took him to task on this. There is a move to place all of the construction packages on the list instead of the top six.

Thursday is Lane Day at the State Capitol. We will have 16 faculty, staff, students, and board members, and two business representatives, who will meet with our legislative delegation. The college presidents have adopted the figure of $440 million as the absolute minimum that community colleges need to maintain current service level. Your new mantra is 440 or fight!

Accreditation

We received notification from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities that our accreditation was reaffirmed. As you know we received two recommendations and three commendations. The commission requires that we write a focused interim report on the two recommendations and they will make a campus visit in spring 2007. The visit could not have gone better. The visiting team affirmed that Lane is a very strong college and I am very proud of all the good work that goes on here.

Phi Theta Kappa

Phi Theta Kappa informed us that our Sigma Zeta Chapter has achieved the Pinnacle Gold level in the 2004 Scholarship Award program for increasing its membership acceptance rate by 10 percent for three consecutive years. This represents excellent work by chapter members, officers and the advisors.

Transfer Credits

The State Board of Higher Education approved a transfer module. The module was developed by representatives of community colleges and universities with the intent of smoothing the transfer of students.

League for Innovation

Paul Holman and I attended the League CEO/board chair retreat in Scottsdale last week. It was very informative. The League board also had a meeting to define the future of the League and to determine what will be needed in the next CEO of the League.

Strategic Conversations

We are working on a strategic conversation for next month with the county commissioners and some of the county staff. We are also planning a strategic conversation for spring term with economic development partners.

Dennis Shine

Lane Community College Board of Education member Dennis Shine received the 2004 Outstanding Citizen Award presented by the Lane Council of Governments. Shine has represented the board on LCOG since 2001.

United Way and Foundation Fundraising

I would like to thank the We Care Committee and the broader college community for their involvement in the annual staff campaign. The results are in--408 donors gave $44,366 to the Foundation and $36,463 to United Way. The grand total contributed was $80,829. Donations will be used to fund student scholarships, or to help the nonprofit groups selected.

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