Board Report – September 2010

It's hard to believe that fall classes are almost here. I hope everyone's had a chance to get some rest and recreation this summer.

I had a really hectic time in Scotland and then finished up with a few days of vacation which was really good.

This week we have more than 2,000 students attending SOAR early registration sessions. Staff worked fast to anticipate their needs, and I want to thank the "SWAT" team led by Helen Garrett. Partly because so many students are attending SOAR, registrations are up 20 percent. That doesn't mean enrollment will actually be up that much, but we are bracing for another increase.

The pace of construction on main campus this summer has been fast and furious. The work and skill of our staff and our contractors has been truly remarkable. Please be sure to review the facilities report in your board packet. If you have any questions about the report, Bob Mention and Todd Smith are here tonight. We had one situation that we were not really happy with, and we are working with the contractor, but everything else has gone well.

Quite a bit has been going on in national and state government that concerns Lane:

After months of debate, Congress passed the education jobs bill, which President Obama signed into law early last month. The bill provides $10 billion in funds to keep educators working in schools around the country. The funding for education jobs is allocated solely for K-12, but states must provide assurances on funding for K-12 and higher education. The bill also includes $16.1 billion for federal Medicaid assistance. Oregon is projected to receive $118 million for education and $144 million for Medicaid.

The state budget continues to worsen. The September revenue forecast had the general fund down an additional $377 million. The governor is again utilizing his authority to order across-the-board agency reductions. The impact to the Community College Support Fund will be approximately $13.5 million, a 3 percent reduction of the Legislatively Approved Budget for the biennium, or 8 percent of the budget for the remaining nine months. The governor, speaker, and senate president said they would maintain funding at the June level of about $5.76 billion for K-12 education, including $118 million in federal assistance recently approved by Congress and $34 million in state reserve funds when the Legislature convenes in January. Although Speaker Hunt has been advocating for including community colleges in the "hold harmless" pledge, there does not appear to be the support necessary in the senate or governor's office to make that happen. The revenue forecast had the deficit growing for the next biennium as well. The gap to maintain current service level for all agencies is now more than $3 billion, that’s with a "b" as in bad. To put this in perspective: If all state budgets took equal reductions in their 2011-13 budgets based off the current forecast, the Community College Support Fund would be funded at $397 million.

Locally, there's better news to report. This Friday, September 10, downtown businesses in the Broadway and Pearl District will host a "Let's Build It Together" block party to celebrate our Downtown Campus. The event will be from 3 to 9 p.m. and will include a raffle, wine auction, art show, live entertainment, and more. This is a fundraiser for the downtown campus and the brainchild of downtown businesses who are excited about our project. Special thanks to Ambrosia restaurant and other participating businesses for helping organize this event, and to our government and community relations director Brett Rowlett. I hope you can all make it to the party.

Last month our energy management program helped bring Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to Eugene for a lecture. Kennedy talked about sustainability and applauded Lane Community College for its outstanding work. I want to thank program coordinator Roger Ebbage for his behind-the-scenes work and for coordinating our energy management programs. You may have noticed that the programs were featured in the New York Times just a couple of weeks ago.

While on the theme of sustainability, I would like to commend Donna Zmolek for sending out this month's board packet to the extended list of recipients as PDF files for the first time, saving thousands of printed pages and resources. We've wanted to do this for a long time.

Last month I attended the AACC meeting and annual board retreat. Later this month I will attend a US Department of Education meeting on sustainability - there it is again. Next month I will attend the League for Innovation fall board meeting, and an American Association of Colleges and Universities meeting.

Finally, I hope you can make it to our two big events coming up on Thursday, September 23. In the morning I will give the annual fall in-service address. In the afternoon we will celebrate the grand opening of the Health and Wellness Center with a public reception beginning at 4 p.m.

I would like to congratulate Susie Johnston, who is the new board chair of the Oregon Community College Association. Susie was elected vice chair for the year, but, due to unforeseen circumstances, the chair had to step aside and Susie took over the role of board chair.