[Note: President Mary Spilde made the following comments and announcements to the Lane Community College Board of Education at its meeting on May 12, 2004.]

Earlier this evening we held our second budget development meeting with the full budget committee. Our budget for 2004-05 is basically a status quo budget with very few proposals that require recurring funds and a small tuition increase. The reason for this, of course, is that our projections indicate a deficit in 2006 and a larger deficit in 2007. We do not want to incur additional recurring expenses as that will only exacerbate our situation next year. We are proposing a number of "investments" using one time carryover. We believe funding of these proposals will help offset the deficit in the future. Tonight we heard public comment and answered questions for the committee. At our next meeting on May 26, we will discuss the student fee proposals and review the "investment" proposals in more depth.

The Oregon Community College Association convention was held in Eugene last week, followed by an OCCA meeting. At that meeting we decided to work with the State Board of Education to develop a proposal to ask the legislature to reinstate the funding that community colleges have lost over the last two years. This would require an allocation of about $512 million as opposed to the current biennium's allocation of approximately $410 million. We think it is important to impress upon the legislature what the needs of community colleges are.

This may be a difficult task to actually accomplish. We heard from Senator Kurt Schrader at the convention that the state budget had many challenges. Although the economy is improving and revenues are up, the legislature used so much one time money for recurring items that there is a huge gap for the 2005-07 biennium - perhaps as much as $1 billion.

The rest of the convention was useful and I want to thank Dennis Shine, Mike Rose and Kathleen Shelley for giving their time. The college hosted a reception in Building 1 on main campus for the attendees Thanks to our culinary students for another outstanding event.

At the convention banquet, I was pleased to receive an award for one of our board members. So if Kathleen could come forward I would like to present her with this plaque.

At the same time as the reception we hosted our Advisory Committee recognition dinner in the Center for Meeting and Learning in Building 19. The Occupational Skills program was recognized and made a very impressive - and humorous - presentation. We are very grateful to the advisory committee members for everything they do for the college.

The Governmental Relations Action Team and the Associated Students of Lane Community College sponsored a candidates' forum on May 4. KLCC recorded it and broadcast a report.

Progress with the State Board of Higher Education had the potential to slow down following the resignation of Neil Goldschmidt, but the fact that Governor Ted Kulongoski has joined the board for a time indicates that a commitment remains to stop the disinvestment in higher education.

We have finalized enrollment figures for winter term. We are down about 8% in credit FTE (full-time equivalent) enrollment, and 42% in noncredit, for an overall reduction of 15.4%. Much of this is a result of the reductions in offerings over the last two years so it should not come as a surprise. Staff in the office of instruction are working with divisions to further analyze enrollment losses, and the Continuing Education area is reinventing itself in light of the state decision to de-fund personal enrichment courses.

We are continuing to work on the employee health clinic. We sought advice about how to successfully implement a clinic and were advised to conduct an employee survey. That has occurred and we have a 30% return. This will help us focus on what the needs are. We are hoping to open on a limited basis in the summer. This should be good for students as we have not had summer hours in the past.

We continue to deal with the mold problem in Building 1. We will remove the carpet in the Counseling area this summer. We are planning to install a new floor covering at the same time. We have made a decision not to reinstall carpet so we are exploring other floor coverings that will meet environmental standards while providing as comfortable a work space as possible. I have received some questions about the air quality on the fourth floor of the Center Building. I have asked Bob Mention for a report on the changes that were made during the remodel and I will follow up after I have received that.

Since the last meeting I attended the American Association of Community Colleges convention in Minneapolis. We were joined by President Bush who talked about community colleges. Clearly, he understands the part of our mission connected to job training. This is good start but we need to work to help this administration understand the comprehensive mission of community colleges.

The 2004 Spring Conference for Lane staff was held in April. Allan Johnson, author of "Privilege, Power and Difference," one of our Reading Together books, was here and was warmly received. I heard many positive comments from staff about the day. You will hear more from Ellen Cantor about this project.

The college was recognized by United Way as a 2003 Community Solution Leader, in part because of the increase in giving by Lane faculty and staff.

Kevin Klose, president of National Public radio, was in Eugene a couple of weeks ago. He spoke at the downtown Rotary and joined us for a reception, graciously hosted by University of Oregon President Dave and Frohnmayer and his wife Lynn for Lane and KLCC. This event was to launch our fundraising campaign for the building for KLCC. Thanks to Mike Rose for participating in that event.

Lane's chapter of Phi Theta Kappa received a special commendation at the PTK regional convention and it has fulfilled all the requirements to be named a 5 Star Chapter. Thanks to the students and their advisor, Chris Culver, for all their work to accomplish this.

You are aware that the fountain at the entry to the college as been empty for a few years. It is leaking and we have concluded that we should not leave it as a fountain due to the cost of repairs, the environmental impact on the air quality of surrounding buildings if it leaks, as well as the costs of running the fountain. Last year we had a preliminary design done to turn the fountain into a park-like setting that will include a labyrinth, pathways, seating areas with a new sculpture, and a small water feature. The existing sculpture will be cleaned up and moved to another location. Janet Anderson, our Foundation director, and Frank Dregancz, our lead groundskeeper, have been sharing the concept with various groups at the college and received favorable feedback so we plan to proceed with the work this summer. We will use a small amount of plant funds to improve the site but most of the funds will be raised through private donations. We already have a sizeable donation for art on campus so will commission a sculpture for the area. This is the front door to the college so we want an attractive area that reflects our vision and values. I have a conceptual drawing in my office if you would like to review it.

As you know, we have been trying to reschedule the July board meeting to accommodate everyone's travel schedules. We have settled on a date that will work for all the board members and it is Tuesday, July 27. Please make a note of this change.

Student elections are being conducted as we speak and will be completed at 8 p.m. this evening.