Board Report - October 2009

Let me begin by wishing everyone a happy anniversary. Forty-five years ago today, local voters formed Lane Community College in a special election, by a margin of 5 to 1.

We held in-service on September 23. Thank you to Chair Pat Albright for his welcoming remarks, and to past Chair Susie Johnston for attending.

Fall term is off to an exhilarating start. We had a smooth opening, which is a tribute to planning and a genuine concern for students. Currently, credit enrollment is up 20 percent in registrations, and 17 percent in headcount.

Parking exceeded capacity the first week, even though we had 4,000 spots thanks to added gravel lots and restriping for compact cars and motorcycles. Last fall we had 3,700 spots. Students seemed prepared, and Facilities and Public Safety staff assisted in the lots and roadways. Perhaps you heard about the 80-year-old student who became exhausted after searching for his car. He could only remember that he parked in a spot for people with disabilities. Public Safety located his car, picked him up, and delivered him to his vehicle. Public Safety Manager Katherine Vos led a crew that provided parking guidance from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily during the first week of classes, and by the week of October 5 we no longer needed to provide assistance. Facilities Director Dave Willis said FMP got through the first day without a single emergency, which was a first. I want to extend thanks to our community partners for helping get the word out about parking and transportation, including LTD, ODOT, and School District 4J. Finally, special kudos to Vice President Christian, who persuaded the Lane County Sheriff’s Office to avoid ticketing students for parking creatively on road shoulders the first several days of the term.

I also want to thank management, staff and faculty for quickly organizing the Lane Community Cares campaign to assist students this fall. Participants wore pink stickers that said “How Can I Help You” and made themselves available to help students find classrooms, or food, or get online—whatever was needed. We also posted alerts on our home page and e-mailed alerts to students and employees. Special thanks to Sonya Christian, Kate Barry, Ken Murdoff, Helen Garrett, Jim Salt, Bob Baldwin, Doug Smyth, and Marcia Bell for their leadership and enthusiasm for this campaign. Here are a few numbers from the first two weeks:

• TitanStore customer counts were up 30 percent;
• IT responded to 280 service requests, an increase of 50 percent;
• We disbursed $16.9 million in financial aid to 5,484 students by October 8; this is a 47 percent increase in funds, and a 32 percent increase in the number of recipients.
• Food Services added 4 food outlets to alleviate long cafeteria lines;
• The Welcome Booth served 60 gallons of hot beverages and 4,000 customers on the first day, another record. Thanks to Pat Albright for volunteering at the booth;
• The Downtown Center scheduled 18 additional credit classes and offered discounted parking coupons;
• Finally, besides serving lots of students, our Florence Center also had a tsunami warning. However, Director Bob Purscelley said by the time it reached Florence, the wave measured three-sixteenths of an inch.

Last year’s enrollment figures are in. Our total FTE increased 15.7 percent, compared to a statewide increase of 11.2 percent. Our unduplicated headcount was 36,909, an increase of 7.4 percent, compared to a statewide average headcount increase of 0.3 percent.

You may have seen NBC’s new sit-com called “Community” set at a fictional community college. So far the most amusing thing is how little it recognizes the real benefits of community colleges. If you want to express an opinion, go to AACC’s website and join their blog. The show airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m.

We are excited about the possible future of the Hynix plant as a solar cell manufacturing facility. We can help train the potential workforce through our energy programs and our employee training services.

On another note, last year’s Hynix closure will affect the local tax base since the plant’s assessed value has fallen. But Hynix owes a tax penalty since it did not qualify for an enterprise zone tax break, and we will receive a small amount from that. We won’t know how much until sometime next month.

We also know that the collection rate for assessed taxes is dropping, but we accurately estimated the change, and actual collections came very close to expected amounts.

The State Board of Education implemented a funding formula rule change to pull more funding from the larger colleges, including Lane, to buoy the smaller colleges. Under the rule change, the amount siphoned from the total $450.5 million Community College Support Fund to a strategic fund will rise from 1 percent to 1.33 percent. This could cost Lane up to $314,000, but some of that might be covered by the strategic fund. The rule change has the support of the Oregon Presidents Council.

Our deferred maintenance projects reached a bittersweet milestone. We have substantially completed many projects, but that meant we had to lay off 26 of our 64 temporary project employees. Even in their short time with us, they became part of our campus community.

The American Graduation Initiative continues to make its way through Congress. In September, the House passed the plan as part of the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act, HR 3221. The bill, which includes $12 billion for community colleges, reforms the Direct Loans program and boosts funding for the federal Pell Grant program, now moves to the Senate. It is expected to be taken up later this month or early next month, once the HELP (Health, Education, Labor and Pensions) Committee finishes its work on the Senate's healthcare bill.

The US Senate passed the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2010 last Thursday. The legislation, now on its way to President Obama for his approval, includes a $550,000 federal appropriation for Lane's Energy Program. The earmark will be used to purchase equipment for the new Downtown Campus. Special thanks go to Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Congressman Peter DeFazio for all their hard work on this.

Opponents of the $733 million tax package passed by the Oregon Legislature earlier this year have collected enough signatures to put the two measures before voters on a January 26 special election, the Oregon secretary of state's office announced earlier this month. The first independent study of the tax increases, prepared by the nonpartisan Legislative Revenue Office and released on September 30, concluded that Oregon's economy would be better off with the tax measures left in place, which contradicts claims made by the anti-tax forces.

State legislators from the Eugene-Springfield area will be holding a town hall meeting with Lane students on November 16 from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm in the Boardroom. Following their visit with students, they will tour many of the completed state stimulus-funded projects on campus.

State Representative Nancy Nathanson visited campus on October 12 to tour the Health Professions department, the new Health and Wellness site, and view some of the completed state stimulus-funded projects.

Oregon Speaker of the House Dave Hunt will be on campus October 30 to speak to the OCCA Conference as well as take a brief tour of campus to see how Lane is assisting to rebuild the state's economy.

I want to thank board chair Pat Albright, board members Tony McCown and Susie Johnston, and government relations director Brett Rowlett for joining me at the 40th Annual ACCT congress in San Francisco this month. The conference included a joint session with AACC on federal relations.

We launched our second academy of Aspiring Leaders this month, our internal leadership development program. This year we have 21 participants.

On September 29 and 30, I attended a meeting of the Bill Gates Foundation in Seattle.

University of Oregon President Lariviere visited Lane on October 14. Lane and the U of O share over a thousand transfer and dual enrolled students every year; President Lariviere and I agreed that our colleges need to work together to support these students.

Lane will be holding two perimeter planning charettes in October. You may recall that Professor Mark Gillem from the University of Oregon Architect Program visited that board last year. A design studio from the UO Architectural program, under the guidance of Professor Gillem, is working to define a long-range vision for Lane’s future at the 30th Avenue main campus. The charettes are community planning sessions to determine the best use of our land. One charette was held today; the other will be held October 24.

H1N1 is officially here. The Health Clinic has seen confirmed cases of H1N1. Students and staff have been advised to stay away if they have flu-like illnesses.

Finally, here are some events to look forward to if you don’t already have these on your calendars—

• The Harvest Dinner is Wednesday, October 28th, in the Center for Meeting and Learning.
• The OCCA annual conference is October 29th and 30th in the Center for Meeting and Learning. Special guests will be U.S. Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter; ACCT CEO J. Noah Brown; President of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education Pat Callan; and Google Executive Ken Patchett.
• Our interim accreditation visit is November 4 and 5.
• The annual Oregon Diversity Institute will be held at Lane on November 5.
• And the college’s 50th anniversary bash will be October 19, 2014.