Board Report – October 2011

Well, it's been an exciting start to fall term!

The all-staff inservice event was energizing and focused on quality, progression and completion. Thanks to Ackerman, Albright, McCown, and Pryor for joining us, and especially to Johnston for her opening remarks. Special thanks to Vice President Sonya Christian for developing the workshops and trainings and for her kind words about my ten years as president. I was also touched by everyone who spoke in the tribute video.

Second-week enrollment shows registrations are up 2.5 percent and headcount up 2.9 percent. Credit-only registrations are up 3.8 percent, and credit headcount is up 5.3 percent. Our noncredit enrollment seems to be down. We'll have better figures after the fourth week of the term. Meanwhile, final summer term reports show FTE down slightly by 0.2 percent, but credit FTE up by 6.5 percent. This number was pulled down by noncredit courses, which is not unusual in times of financial difficulty.

First-week parking and commuting were tight as expected, but things went well thanks to Student Services, Facilities and Public Safety. Zimride, the new campus rideshare social media tool, was a huge success, with more than 750 users signed up to carpool and more than 500 rides by the end of the week. Hats off to student government for taking the lead on this valuable new service.

We had a couple of surprises, including the rescue of a dog from a locked car in the parking lot on a hot day, and a chiller refrigerant leak at the Downtown Center that same afternoon. The Downtown Center was evacuated and closed for the day while a Eugene Hazmat team flushed the air. Kudos to Kevin Williams of Facilities for immediately reporting the leak, and to Facilities for expediting repairs.

We received some very good news last week as well. Our High School Connections program was named one of the nation's best ten high school to college transition programs and will be profiled in a book about transition programs. The ranking is from the CCSSE (Community College Survey of Student Engagement). We were nominated by Larry Cheyne of the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development (CCWD). Many people worked hard over the years to build up our program including Executive Dean Andrea Newton. The program is now in the capable hands of the program's new director, Deron Fort.

An Oregon community college consortium has received a three-year, $18.7 million federal grant for workforce and career training through the Obama Administration's Trade Adjustment Assistance for Community College and Career Training Grant program. Oregon was one of 32 recipients. Lane will receive about $2 million under the Oregon CASE Consortium grant, an acronym for Credentials, Acceleration, and Support for Employment. We will use the grant to expand and enhance career pathways, use career coaches to reduce barriers to success, and develop a flexible approach to providing Credit for Prior Learning. The grant will expand upon community colleges and workforce systems in Lane County and throughout the state to maximize persistence and completion of certificates and degrees for Trade Act Assistance participants and unemployed and underemployed Oregonians, and increase job placement. Dawn DeWolf will direct the effort for Lane.

Kudos to the Oregon Small Business Development Center Network (OSBDCN), which we host, which was fully accredited by the national network. This shows OSBDCN's value as a high quality economic development service and qualifies it for Small Business Administration funding. The next review won't come again until 2014. Congratulations to director Michael Lainoff and his staff.

Finally, we've won another marketing award thanks to Tracy Simms' leadership. This time it's a Silver Summit Award for our outdoor billboard advertisements. We were selected from among 604 entries. Only 9 percent of submissions won awards.

Virginia Ramsey, a former teacher in the Springfield School District, has left legacy gift of $100,000 to endow scholarships for Lane students.

A local maker of pipe organs, John Brombaugh, has retired and is donating his power equipment to Lane. We are giving some items that we can't use to local high schools. John also offered to donate a metal building and we are analyzing the cost of disassembly and siting to determine if this would benefit the college.

On the state front, you may know that the Senate confirmation hearings for the Oregon Investment Board were set for the same day as in-service but then rescheduled for November. In the meantime, we are having meetings with the Governor as a workgroup, not as a board, to get ready for the legislative session.

There are two state revenue forecasts before February's legislative session, but Governor Kitzhaber is not waiting to prepare for a worst-case scenario. Last week he directed state agencies to develop 5 percent and 10 percent reduction plans. It is not clear at this time if the reduction is to happen during the current year, future year or if he is going to use the 3.5% already reduced. He intends to meet with legislative leadership from both parties to discuss budgetary priorities should the legislature have to trim the budget during its short 2012 session.

The Oregon Court of Appeals struck down a state administrative rule banning firearms on Oregon University System campuses. This does directly impact community colleges because the board policy complies with the current law, but the issue might come up in the 2012 or 2013 legislative sessions.

In media activity, I interviewed with the New York Times for a story about stagnant college graduation rates. At Lane, we are ahead of the curve on this issue with our own completion and retention initiatives. I also interviewed with Insider Higher Ed about trends on college boards, and with Business Officer Magazine about leadership in sustainability.

I attended the American Association of Colleges and Universities meeting in Washington last week, and next week and I will attend the Association of Community College Trustees Annual Leadership Congress in Dallas. I also attended the Junction City town hall meeting on the new state hospital, the Foundation board meeting, and the Eugene Education Fund dinner.

The American Association of Community Colleges has asked Lane to host university and technical college presidents from China at the end of November, and I am working with Vice President Christian and International Programs Director Jennifer Falzerano to see if we can make that happen.

There are some important events coming up soon for your consideration:

* A reading by author Barry Lopez this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Meeting and Learning, as part of our Reading Together program;
* The annual Harvest Dinner on October 26;
* The annual OCCA convention October 27 to 29 at Salishan in Gleneden Beach;
* The annual Shining Star scholarship reception on November 15.