Board Report - February, 2007

Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
To the Lane Community College Board of Education
February 14, 2007

I attended the Oregon Community College Association (OCCA) Legislative Summit a couple of weeks ago. We heard from the Governor and several legislators. Senator Vicki Walker did a wonderful job of talking about how Lane serves the community and about funding for personal enrichment courses. She also committed to the $529 million figure and will advocate for that, capital construction and the Opportunity Grant. We also heard from Representatives Hunt, Galizio and Berger, all of whom are in key positions to benefit community colleges. We have also had meetings with Senator Morrisette and Representative Nathanson. We have had one hearing with the Education Sub-Committee of Ways and Means – an overview of the community colleges and a hearing on our capital requests. I testified regarding SB 426 which would create an insurance pool. Currently, community colleges have an exemption, but many will be affected. I took the opportunity to talk about our success story at Lane regarding health insurance costs. On Friday I will be testifying on HB 2206 which will provide $10 million for skilling up the workforce. I have also been appointed to an OCCA committee on state decision making, also known as governance.

It’s been a month of community events. We had the Presidents’ Dinner hosted by Dave and Lynn Frohnmayer and me that was sold at the Harvest Dinner. Our students did a fabulous job. Thanks to staff Chris Crossthwaite, Robin Johnson and Cathy Thomas for the organization of the event and to the students for volunteering their time. Thanks also to Roger and Liz Hall for purchasing the dinner and contributing to the Foundation. I also attended the Springfield, Eugene Chamber and LCOG events; the baseball and soccer banquet, and the Truffle Dinner. The Shining Star Scholarship event, which is always a tear jerker as students tell their stories, also took place in January.

Lane Preview Night was another huge success with about 1300 high school students and their families attending. There was a very large turnout of faculty and staff to speak with students. Special thanks to Karen Edmonds and Dana Halttunen and the rest of the committee for leading the effort.

The percentage of Oregonians who believe the state is doing very well or somewhat well in K-12 education dropped from 64 percent in 2004 to 60 percent in 2006. A slow but steady decline has occurred in perceptions of how Oregon is doing in undergraduate and graduate education at public four-year colleges and universities, falling from 85 percent in 2000 to 80 percent in 2006. Community colleges remain a favorite with Oregonians, holding steady at an 88 percent overall approval rating.

Tomorrow I will be speaking at the launch event for the Oregon Manufacturing Workforce Strategy on behalf of Oregon’s community colleges. We view our role as pivotal in supporting the manufacturing workforce strategy and see it integrally linked to economic development.

The Spirit Mountain Community Fund has issued the Foundation a new $50,000 challenge grant for the Longhouse! We must raise an additional $50,000, and then we will receive the funds. This is a much needed boost for the Longhouse fundraising effort. I am happy to say that the Lane Foundation Board has approved the Capital Campaign. The campaign includes $7.5 million for the Health and Wellness building; $3 million for endowed chairs; $3 million for scholarships and $1.5 million for innovation. We will begin the quiet phase of the campaign soon.

I would like to request an addition to the agenda to review the five-year projections and discuss a paper I have written on fiscal sustainability at Lane.