Board Report – May 2007

Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
To the Lane Community College Board of Education
May 9, 2007

I would like to start by recognizing our outstanding Honors Society, Phi Theta Kappa (PTK). I’d like to introduce Dee Lauzon, Incoming regional vice president and Mike DeLaVergne, Vice President of Fellowship. PTK won several regional awards for our chapter this year (which covers the 2006 calendar year):

• 2007 Most Distinguished Chapter trophy
• 2007 Scholarship Hallmark Award trophy
• 2007 Leadership Hallmark Award trophy
• 2007 Distinguished Service Award certificate
• 2007 Distinguished Chapter President: Justin Cox plaque
• 2007 Distinguished Chapter Officer: Megan Worman plaque
• 2007 Distinguished Member Award certificate: Penny Johnson
• 2007 Distinguished Alumni Award certificate: Stephanie Simon
• 2007 Literary Award certificate: Megan Worman
• 2007 Art Award certificate: Michael De La Verge
• Five Star Level certificate
• 2006 Pinnacle Gold Chapter Award certificate
• 2006 Pinnacle Platinum Chapter Award certificate
• 2007 Chapter Newsletter Award certificate
• 2007 Chapter Website Award certificate
• 2007 Chapter Yearbook Award certificate
• 2007 Participation Award certificate

I would also like to recognize two of our outstanding students. Both students were nominated as Lane’s Oregon Student Scholars. They were recognized at an event in Salem a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately, many of us were dealing with budget announcements here and were not able to attend so we wanted to recognize them again. William "CJ" Johnson is an Elementary Education major who plans to transfer to the University of Oregon. Megan Worman is a Psychology major who will also transfer to the University of Oregon. Megan was also nominated for the All-USA Academic Team.

There has not been much movement with respect to the budget by the Legislature. The revenue forecast will be out next week. I am hearing that there will be little change in the general fund, but that the lottery may increase by about $70 million. Just to put that in perspective, community colleges would need all of that amount to get to $529. A Corporate Minimum Tax proposal has been floated. I’m not clear yet how much it would bring in, but the range is from $80-210 million. I have heard it is proposed the proceeds would go to Higher Education, including community colleges. We are continuing to ask people to write letters on our behalf.

For the second year in a row, our dental hygiene students achieved a 100% pass rate on the written and clinical Western Regional Examining Board anesthesia exam.

The American Dental Assistants Association bestowed two (2) national Scholarship Awards for our Dental Assisting Students in the amount of $500 each. Student recipients were Vickie Perkes and Shiloh Appel.

On April 30, we hosted an evaluator from the Northwest Commission who reviewed our progress on the two recommendations we received in our full scale visit in 2004 – part-time faculty evaluation and assessment. We received his report this week, and he was very complimentary about the work we are doing. He will recommend to the Commission that we must sustain the work we have been doing.

In November we issued a Request for Proposal to local banks and credit unions to provide a branch facility on campus to serve the financial needs of students, staff, and school business operations. We received three excellent proposals from Northwest Community Credit Union, SELCO, and US Bank. The proposals were evaluated by a committee based on amount of return to the college, financial products, and financial education offerings. The committee found all three proposals offered an outstanding array of services and education opportunities. However, US Bank’s financial offer was significantly superior, and the committee has recommended acceptance of that proposal. The bank proposes to pay $18,000 in rent annually and a $25,000 signing bonus. The planned location is in front of the south central stairwell in the first floor of the center building. All physical improvements are being funded by the bank. US Bank has significant experience with campus bank branches nationwide, and we are looking forward to this new service.

Last Friday we held our Spring Conference. We were pleased to host Dan O’Brian, author of one of our Reading Together books. He did a wonderful job of talking about sustainability and living with change. He was the perfect person to join us at this particular moment in our history.

Also last Friday, we held a reception and walking tour of the sculpture exhibit on campus. We had a large group of visitors, and they were very complimentary about the public art as well as the campus generally. I would like to thank Lee Imonen and Andy Salzman for their work in organizing the exhibit. From a donation we received for public art, we do plan to purchase some of the sculptures. Lee and Andy plan on bringing an exhibit every two years.

We are approaching the last stages of the academic year, so everyone is very busy with all the things that support students in completing their requirements.
Graduation is on June 16; please let Donna know if you plan to attend.