Board Report - November, 2006

Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
To the Lane Community College Board of Education
November 8, 2006

I will just start by saying that we are very disappointed at the failure of the local option levy. From the reaction of most of the people that spoke to me at the fairgrounds last night, everyone was shocked that it failed. This is a wake-up call on a number of fronts. We will study the precinct voting data when they are available to see if there were shifts from areas of support over the last ten years. I will not disrespect the voters by complaining about the result. We just need to move on and do our best to convince the legislature of our needs and make the decisions we need to keep the college financially viable. I would like to thank Jay Bozievich and Pat Riggs-Henson for co-chairing the campaign committee, Roger Hall for participating, Bob Baldwin for his work as treasurer, Jim Salt and Bob for raising money for the campaign, and Happi Matthews and Tracy Simms for their participation. Finally, Scott Carpenter did a great service to the college by participating on the committee.

Enrollment for Fall term was up slightly. Total student FTE for the fourth week of Fall 2006 was 3,025.08. This was 1.2 percent greater than the fourth week of Fall 2005. Total reimbursable student FTE for Fall 2006 was 2,937.93, which was 1.6 percent greater than last Fall. Based on reimbursement categories, credit FTE was up 0.1 percent, and non-credit FTE was up 7.3 percent. Overall, the state was down 1.6 percent, but that included a whopping 16.1 percent increase from Oregon Coast and 17 percent for Tillamook Bay. However, that only represents 34 FTE, so I think we are holding our own. Nevertheless, Sonya Christian has been working with our non-credit areas, particularly employee training, to make more progress on enrollment enhancement this year.

The National Council for Marketing and Public Relations recently presented the Medallion Awards at a conference held in October. Lane won in every category for which we submitted! We work hard to develop the best products possible, and it's gratifying to be recognized by our peers as having met our goals. We received more awards than any other Oregon college: a bronze medal for the promotional video or cd-rom (College Now), the poster (High School recruitment poster), and the class schedule (Aspire); a silver medal for the promotional DVD (Learn to Earn); and a gold medal for the print advertising series award.

The following student athletes were named to the NWAACC All-Academic Team for fall 2006: men's cross country, Jeff Carman; women's soccer, Shawna Boyer, Mesha Clayton, Brittany Hayes, Michaela Shanahan, Jamie Sogge, and Penny Sullivan. The soccer team hosted a first round play-off game at home today. We won 3 - 1 and will now move into the quarter finals in Tacoma on Saturday. Lane Cross Country will be at the NWAACC Championships on Saturday, November 11.

Lane hosted the OSAA State High School Cross Country Meet on Saturday for the 35th year in a row! Student-athletes representing 160 different high schools were greeted by 4,000 spectators.

Recently, art has been placed around campus from Lane's collection. These pieces have been in storage in the Art and Applied Design Department for many years. It has been one of the goals of the Art on Campus Committee to place them so they can be enjoyed by the public. The art is meant to be displayed on a rotational basis so that the most people on campus can enjoy the collection. We are developing an Art on Campus policy that will be a part of the College Online Policies and Procedures manual (COPPS) in the near future. The intent of this policy is to support groups on campus in the acquisition and placement of artworks.

Lane was recognized in the Best Practice book for our Tech Prep Consortium, specifically the Regional Technical Education Consortium program.

The Foundation has been busy fundraising and preparing for the health and wellness capital campaign. We need to know that health care leaders are behind us, so I have been meeting with people from the health care community for direction, and the meetings have been positive.

The Harvest Dinner held on October 27 was the best ever! Final numbers are not in yet, and expenses have yet to be charged, but the gross amount brought in was $200,000. The Foundation and the Culinary program should be commended for their outstanding work.

A meeting was held at Lane recently to discuss the needs of the automotive technology industry. Representatives from Lithia, Kendall, and Sheppard Motors attended. After the meeting, these auto dealers awarded Lane $10,000 to begin curriculum changes.