Board Report – September 2007

Report from Lane Community College President Mary Spilde
To the Lane Community College Board of Education
September 12, 2007

Welcome back to everyone as we start the 2007-08 academic year. I am looking forward to a challenging, but productive year.

We are gearing up for the start of the year and have had several orientation sessions for students.

• During spring term, three high schools (Springfield, Sheldon, S. Eugene) participated in on-site recruitment and orientation sessions. This was a pilot program and there were some difficulties, but approximately 60 students participated.
• In order to improve service to Students testing into Guided Studies received personalized orientation sessions held throughout the summer. There were approximately 5 sessions held, with a total of 200 new students enrolling through this process.
• The traditional 2-week SOAR event took place in August. Approximately 1,042 new students registered for classes throughout the period.
• When combining the the Guided Studies sessions and the traditional sessions, there were approximately 1,242 students registered this year through SOAR
• In comparison to 2006, there was no high school outreach effort, and Guided Studies students attended the traditional 2-week SOAR. A total of 1,114 students registered.
• An important note to recognize, new students registered for more credits at SOAR this year, than last year.

You will recall that we instituted a summer scholarship program for students who had participated in College Now classes in their local high schools. A total of $4300 was awarded to 34 students. 26 students received $100; 7 students $200 and 1 student $300. This was a modest start but we will track to see if these students continue to access Lane for their education.

I let you know that the Governor had asked me to co-chair the new Commission on Post Secondary Education. We had our first meeting today to scope out the work. I am passing around a copy of the Executive Order which outlines the Governor’s intentions. As important is the formation of a Forecasting Committee. This committee will identify the elements that need to be included in our Essential Budget Level. K-12 has had this committee and as a result they are given additional dollars to deal with PERS increases and things of that nature so I think this will be an improvement.

In August I attended the AACC Board Meeting. I serve on the Executive Committee as chair of Program Initiatives. There were a number of important issues discussed. There are two main benefits of this work for the college: Establishing relationships with the grant funders from Department of Labor, Department of Education and National Science Foundation and being on the front end of knowing about issues that will affect the college.

During the last year, Lane did foundational work to increase ties with the community and begin to create programming ‘for’ and ‘about’ seniors. We held a Community Conversation to clarify the areas where training was needed to provide services to seniors and where there were unmet needs to provide training to seniors.

The following programs have been developed to respond to the training needs Lane has identified:

• Creation of a CNA2 program with Acute Care offered starting Fall Term 2007 and Dementia Care offered starting Winter Term 2008.
• Social and Human Services Assistant program will be offered starting Fall 2007/Winter 2008. This will be a one-year certificate.

In the coming year, Lane will continue to develop programs that will help respond to the need for a trained workforce to serve the growing senior population and to provide lifelong learning opportunities to senior in Lane county.

In October we will be hosting teams from the League Board Colleges at a Symposium on Sustainability. The idea is to share best practice and think about how League colleges might work together to develop Sustainability initiatives.

* The sludge project is going well; there are some delays due to weather and equipment, which is quite normal. Drying is expected to be completed by mid-October. Preliminary tests suggest that the sludge may be Class A (suitable for human contact). Final tests cannot be completed until the sludge is dry. Removal is expected by the end of October, but disposal depends on the final test results. Possibilities include: spreading on college property (lowest cost), spreading on farm lands nearby or transport to Short Mountain Landfill.

Fall Inservice begins on Monday, September 17 at 8 am in the Center for Meeting and Learning. I’ll be giving the state of the college address, and events and activities are scheduled for the rest of the morning and afternoon.