Board Report – November 2008

Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
To the Lane Community College Board of Education
November 5, 2008

This is a momentous time for our college, our state and the country. I have never felt so hopeful about our future. Last night Barack Obama pointed out that by working together we can make change, and that was well demonstrated by the collective effort to pass bond measure 20-142. It truly was a team effort. John Lively, Anne Marie Levis and Trevor Steele provided great leadership to our advocacy efforts. Each one of them stepped up and helped the college. John kept us on track and focused on our strategy. Anne Marie went above and beyond her role in helping us develop the information campaign and helped raise money, place lawn signs, use her office space, and wore her button to every conceivable community event. Trevor played to his strength and dissected the voter lists time and again to make sure we were canvassing and phoning the right precincts. That was an amazing amount of work.

The Lane League took the lead in presenting to numerous organizations about the college and the bond. Internally, the support of Jim Salt and Bob Baldwin really helped; and their designees –Doug Smyth and Rodger Gamblin organized volunteers for our advocacy efforts. Ken Murdoff was superb and creative in getting staff to show up to call and canvass. Sonya Christian initiated the staff organizing. Tracy Simms and Joan Aschim led the information efforts and strengthened our profile in the community. Josh Canaday and Jonathan Morton, the Oregon Student Association and OSPIRG did a great job registering voters and getting out the vote. Matt Keating and Lane Students for Obama were amazing in working for our bond measure. Beyond that, there were hundreds of staff volunteers. We will thank them individually soon.

Other community volunteers included Al King and Rosie Pryor, who organized endorsements. Many community members gave generously to fund PAC activities. Our own board members, ably led by Susie Johnston, all gave of their time or treasure to assure passage of this bond. Many, many organizations from unions to chambers of commerce to elected officials supported us and helped us get out our message.

This was no small victory in these economic times. Personally, what I found most encouraging was talking to people directly either in person or by phone about what Lane Community College means to them. There are many more who helped, but the bottom line is that it was a collective effort, and it is that kind of effort that convinced the voters to pass 20-142. I am deeply grateful to everyone who worked so hard. Congratulations to you. Congratulations to us. This means so much to the college, and it will literally transform our learning environment and help us focus on programs and services that help students prepare for jobs and their future. We will be having a celebration party in the near future, and we hope to recognize our volunteers then. Finally on this topic, through all of this work we made great strides in our connection with the community – our profile is strong, we are well supported. As we have a board discussion on Marketing within the next couple of months, you will be hearing a recommendation from me to do everything we can to assure that we do not lose this momentum.

Clatsop Community College also passed their bond. Portland Community College is still counting votes in Multnomah County. Both Klamath and Central Oregon Community Colleges’ bonds failed.

Previously this month, Lane was featured in Inside Higher Education regarding the bond measure.

Lane and the Center for Meeting and Learning (CML) recently received an award from Cascade Pacific Resource Conservation and Development for "providing an outstanding facility, service and commitment to sustainability for the Local Food Connection." Paula Westgate accepted the award for Lane at the Connection's annual meeting and awards dinner at Pfeiffer Vineyards. The Local Food Connection brings together farmers, fishers and food buyers for networking, business and educational interaction. This event will be held once again in the CML on February 2, 2009, for the third time. The event is highlighted by a catered lunch prepared by the CML chefs with ingredients donated by local producers. For more information see http://cascadepacific.org/category/food.

Lane Community College hosted the Oregon Student Athlete Association State High School Cross Country Meet on Saturday for the 37th year in a row! Student-athletes representing 150 different high schools were greeted by 4,000 spectators.

I would like to request that you remove the agenda item on Construction Management/General Contractor. We are still in process, and interviews are being finalized this week. However, I would like to ask you to have a special meeting early next week to approve my recommendation. Donna will work with you to find a time for this one agenda item.

There is beginning to be talks in Salem about possible reductions in state funding in this year. The governor’s office is talking about a steep decline in the revenue forecast. I don’t know if there will be an impact this year; we will know more around mid-November. The governor’s budget will be out December 1. I have heard that our budget allocation will remain flat if anything. We will prepare budget projections based on $550 million, an even budget, and reduced budgets. There is kind of a bleak outlook on the state level, but we will be working hard at the Capitol. On the upside—there is discussion at the state level about increasing the funding for capital construction.