Board Report – June 2011

I am saddened to report that long-term part-time Computer Information Technology faculty member, Anthony "Tony" Michaels, passed away June 10. Arrangements are being made by West Lawn Memorial Funeral Home. We will have more information as it becomes available.

Thanks to everyone who attended college graduation on Saturday. Our numbers were up at about 1,790 students applying for degrees and certificates (including our own board member Susie Johnston), compared to 1,145 last year. This is the outcome of the enrollment surge we experienced two years ago and shows that students persisted and retention efforts are working. We also celebrated program graduations over the last couple of weeks including Florence Scholarship Night, TRiO program, Native American Student Association, and Nursing.

The legislative session is closing in on sine die, which could occur as soon as this Saturday. On Friday, the Ways and Means Committee passed out the community college budget, and the House and Senate are expected to vote on it this week. The budget funds the Community College Support Fund at $410 million, however, the amount actually funded in the bill is $395.8 million because of a legislatively-mandated 3.5% holdback on all budgets that will be reinstated during the February 2012 session so long as the economy does not worsen.

Another budget issue the legislature must tackle before final adjournment is the maintenance of effort requirement. We are still anticipating $15 million for community colleges of the required $48 million being returned to higher education. Leadership of the legislature has indicated that these funds will come from the Education Stability Fund, which means it will require a super-majority vote. This will likely be one of the final votes of the session. We will receive the money in June and it must be expensed by June 30.

SB 242, the bill that creates the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC), was passed out of Ways and Means last week and will also be up before the House and Senate this week. The committee delayed implementation of the HECC until July 1, 2012, which will give ample opportunity to study how the commission would mesh with the Oregon Education Investment Board, assuming SB 909 - the Governor's Education Investment Board bill - passes as well.

Capital construction funding remains a possibility. While some legislators are urging for the state to take on no new capital commitments, there are some legislators pushing to fund community college projects that have a match available and are ready to go. Lane's project falls into this category. Brett recently testified before the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Capital Construction about Lane's project, and both he and Oregon Community College Association (OCCA) continue to follow this issue closely.

The governor's investment team has had three meetings, and he has asked us to have three more.

Eugene City Manager Jon Ruiz and I signed the Intergovernmental Agreement to finalize transfer of the $8 million for our Downtown Campus. You will recall that the funding is part of the Downtown Urban Renewal Plan that was approved last year by the City Council acting as the Urban Renewal Agency Board.

English as a Second Language (ESL) daytime classes are relocating to the Downtown Center at 10th & Willamette for the summer. ESL nighttime classes already are held downtown. We are remodeling ESL's main campus home in Building 11. About 400 students will be affected. The daytime program will return to main campus in time for fall term.

For the first time in several years, Florence Campus will be open this summer. This is due in part to the fiscal stability that the college has achieved overall, and it's also part of our retention efforts. Research increasingly shows that not interrupting the educational flow helps students succeed. I'd also like to congratulate the Florence Campus for winning the Mayor's Award in the Rhody Days parade.

The Downtown Campus is on your agenda tonight, but I just wanted to mention that our web cam is up and running, so go to 2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/dc and check it out.

The Health and Wellness Center won first place for public buildings of its size, in the TopProjects 2011 contest for design, engineering and building in the state of Oregon, sponsored by the Daily Journal of Commerce published in Portland. It's one more reason to be proud of this new facility on campus, and another testament to the college's core value of sustainability.

Philos Molina of Lane won second place in the essay category of this year's League for Innovation National Student Literary Competition. His essay is titled, "Of Pupusas and Love." Philos works at Lane in Enrollment Services and Workforce Development and uses his tuition waiver to take classes in writing and literature to enrich his life and improve his English. Judges for the competition reviewed more than 60 works of poetry, short stories, plays and essays. The League will publish a catalog of the entries and send us copies this fall.

College Finance received the Government Finance Officers Association Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for 2010. This is the seventh year in a row College Finance has won this recognition.

KLCC now has an app available at no charge through the iTunes store for Apple IOS devices such as iPhone, iPod, or iPads and through the Android App Store for Android devices. There is also a version for PCs on the KLCC web site. It allows users to not only stream current broadcasts to their device but allows listeners to select and listen to their favorite past programming.

We enjoyed several outstanding events on campus last month, including lectures by Afghan-American author Tamin Ansary, our Reading Together guest this year; and scholar Kambiz GhaneaBassiri of Reed College, as part of our Visiting Scholars on Islam series. We also held Lane Family Day which drew about 500 children and parents to campus to see what Lane has to offer; and we again hosted the Gift of Literacy that brings books and reading into the lives of Springfield first-graders.

We hosted Dr. Garry McDonald of Australia on June 7. He is director of the National Centre for Sustainability in Melbourne, Australia, which provides educational leadership on sustainability initiatives. He is visiting colleges and sustainability programs in the US to learn about innovations and practices here. He met with me, Jennifer Hayward, Roger Ebbage, and Rosie in the Learning Garden.

I just returned from a meeting on Achieving the Dream. Coming up, I will be attending the AACC board meeting and president's academy, and teaching in the Oregon Institute for Leadership Development.

Just a reminder that we are closing on Fridays for the summer beginning June 24 through August 26.

I would like to congratulate Mario Parker-Milligan on recently being appointed to serve as a Student Commissioner on the Oregon Student Assistance Commission. The Senate approved his two-year term last week. We are very excited to have such a great voice for students and community colleges on the Commission.