Board Report - February 2009

This month has simply been a whirlwind of activities. Clearly, the legislature is taking a great deal of time. The State stimulus package required our Facilities team to pull together deferred maintenance projects in very short order. The planning we did for the bond served us really well in being able to turn around requests from the state in a matter of hours. We were fortunate to receive $8 million for deferred maintenance. The purpose of these projects is to create jobs, and they must be initiated by the end of April so we are scrambling to meet these deadlines. We will be hiring people to do this work as well as contracting out some of the larger projects. The bill suspended purchasing rules, and we are asking the board to do so later in the meeting. This is the list of projects that were approved. It is particularly significant that community colleges were included as we are the only "non state" entities to receive funds. The fact that we have statewide reach and can create jobs in small communities is an advantage.

Hearings were held last week on budget reductions for this year. Sonya Christian represented the college to discuss the impact of a $25 million reduction to community colleges in the last four months of the year. I expect to hear very soon what decisions have been made for this year. I copied you on the e-mail I sent to all staff concerning this year and our plans to deal with the shortfall depending on the level of cuts. Of course, we are arguing for a smaller cut to community colleges given our increased enrollment.

The new revenue forecast will be released on Friday, and the governor will release a "rebalance" of his budget after that. Things are very uncertain, as you can imagine, which makes it very difficult to plan our budget. Nevertheless, the Budget Development Sub-Committee is moving forward, and Executive Deans are attending Division meetings to share budget information.

Several of us attended the OCCA Legislative Summit which was quite useful.

At the federal level, Susie, Pat, Brett and I attended the National Legislative Seminar. It was exactly the right time to be in Washington as we were able to influence the Joint Federal Relations Commission of AACC and ACCT to focus on lobbying for the state stabilization funds instead of the construction projects. That makes a difference in our operating budget. We met with Representative DeFazio and that resulted in him spending additional time on campus today to hear about our Health and Wellness project, Energy Management and our Downtown project. We also met with Representative Wu, who is co-chair of the Community College Caucus. I think the efforts of some 700 community college trustees and presidents from across the country helped a bit in making the case for the state stabilization funds. I also had the chance to meet briefly with Secretary of Education Duncan before his speech to the group.

We also submitted a list of projects for federal stimulus though it is unclear whether there will be any funds. Everyone is madly reviewing the legislation to sort out exactly what will be available. I have been invited to give testimony to the Community College Caucus in DC regarding green jobs and workforce development.

We have been receiving quite a bit of media attention regarding the economic stimulus and some other features about the college. We held a recognition event for our major donors for the Opening Doors campaign. It was very well received by our donors. We have placed the match with the state and it has been returned and the bonds will be sold this month. The sale was moved up as part of the state stimulus package.

Several college staff and students were involved in the Martin Luther King celebration. Ruth Wren, Women's Center, and Greg Evans, Student Life and Leadership, were recognized for their contributions.

Several hundred faculty, staff and students gathered in the Center for Meeting and Learning and other locations across the college to watch the presidential inauguration on January 20. ASLCC sponsored the events.

Business instructor and honor society advisor Velda Arnaud has been selected as a Faculty Scholar for the 2009 Phi Theta Kappa Faculty Scholar Conference and 2009 Phi Theta Kappa International Honors Institute. She is one of only 24 people nationwide selected for the honor. Phi Theta Kappa is the international honor society for two-year colleges. Arnaud advises Lane's Sigma Zeta chapter. The chapter won numerous awards under Arnaud's guidance, including the Distinguished Chapter Award in 2008, placing it in the top 25. Arnaud has won a national chapter advisor award three times.

I attended the Clinton Global Initiative last weekend for the second year. This is President Clinton's effort to mobilize college and university students to make commitments to do projects around global health, poverty, peacemaking, and climate change. One of our students, Toby Kubler, whose commitment relates to the Learning Garden on campus, was one of about 12 students recognized at the event. It was very encouraging to see so many young people who are absolutely committed to making this world a better place.