Board Report - February, 2006

Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
To the Lane Community College Board of Education
February 15, 2006

I want to acknowledge how great it was to have the English as a Second Language (ESL) presentation and the students from that program speak to the board. Their presentation reaffirms what Lane is all about.

Thank you all for the time you spent at the work session last week. I think it was very valuable and will provide direction for us as we move forward. As discussed last week, the current projection is showing a deficit for FY ’07 of $5.9 million. This includes two items that we heard about recently: a decrease in state funding of $700,000 and a requirement to set aside an additional $700,000 for early retirement for faculty and managers. The program for managers was terminated for those joining the college after 1991, but it is an ongoing obligation for faculty. Further, we reviewed some graphs which show that long-term sustainability cannot be achieved if we continue to do things the way we are currently doing them. With revenues increasing at an average of 3.3 percent and expenses increasing at 5.3 percent, mostly due to labor costs, we can look forward to more and more reductions. It is essential, therefore, that we must fundamentally change. This will be difficult, but the long-term viability of the college requires it.

In the meantime, we are doing everything we can to limit expenses this year. Discussions have already started in departments and divisions about proposals for FY ’07. I have asked governance councils to talk about their ideas for systemic ways to reduce the budget. All of this will come together in a set of proposals in mid-April for consideration by the board.

I am sending out weekly communications to all staff to keep them apprised of the work that is going on, and I am making myself available once a week for anyone who wants to discuss the budget. Finally, Pam Farmer, manager of Professional and Organizational Development is arranging some seminars to address the inevitable human issues that come up as we go through a process of layoffs.

I want to hand out a couple of articles. One is a letter written by George Boggs, President of the American Association of Community Colleges, and the other is an article about the Public Employees Retirement System and the discussions going on about reserves.

Our Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) chapter achieved the Pinnacle Gold level in the PTK scholarship award program.

Lane faculty and staff contributed $33,850 to the 2005 United Way campaign, and we are grateful for their generosity.

It should be noted that President Bush is calling for elimination of Carl Perkins funding in his FY ’07 budget. This funding is very important to Lane. We receive about $800,000 each year to enhance our professional technical programs. We will be doing everything we can to assure that Perkins funding is available.

Lane’s Women’s Basketball team is 17-1 and rated first in the states of Washington and Oregon. The Men’s Basketball team is currently tied for first place in league play.

The Community Fundraising Committee had a very successful banquet event at the end of January, and we sincerely appreciate the work they are doing for the college.

Spilde’s report ended with a showing of the 30-second Public Service Announcement (PSA) to be run on television station KEZI. Three of the local stations will be running Lane’s PSAs free of charge.