LANE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
BOARD OF EDUCATION MINUTES
January 8, 2014
1. Attendance
Board members present: Bob Ackerman, Pat Albright, Matt Keating, Gary LeClair, Rosie Pryor, Sharon Stiles, and Tony McCown. Also present were: President Mary Spilde; Vice President Brian Kelly; Executive Dean Kerry Levett; Legal Counsel Meg Kieran; Lane Community College Education Association President Jim Salt; Lane Community College Employees Federation President Bob Baldwin; and Association Students of Lane Community College President Paul Zito.
A. Chair Pryor called the meeting to order at 7:15 p.m.
B. President's Report
Happy New Year, everyone. It was nice to have a break, especially after all the snow and our crazy finals week. I was able to spend some time with my mother in Scotland.
I want to thank everyone who kept the college going during the snowstorm. Special thanks to Alen Bahret, the Facilities and Grounds crews, Public Safety, my wonderful Executive Team, our communications team, and to all faculty and staff who put students first and showed ingenuity and a positive attitude. I am proud of everyone for working together.
The transformation of the Center Building into the Center for Learning And Student Success has made amazing progress already as I'm sure you've noticed. Hats off to Facilities, Lease Crutcher Lewis, Pivot, Perkins & Will, our Bond Leadership Team, and our voters. You can already see what a big difference this is going to make. The project is on time and under budget.
Our preferred candidate for the vice president of academic and student services position has withdrawn his candidacy. When he came to interview he already had an offer in hand with a start date of February 3, and he decided to take that position. It is disappointing that after all the work of our search committee that we do not have a result. I plan to take a few days to think through what happens next. Conversations with many of my colleagues suggest that many colleges are facing the same issues with a paucity of highly qualified candidates for these positions. I think we saw that in our pool as well.
Winter term first-day enrollment is down 16.9% in total registrations for all classes, compared to a year ago at the same time. Total unduplicated student headcount is down 16.8%. We're tracking very close to winter 2009 with registrations and with unduplicated headcount. For the first day of classes for fall term 2013, we were down 11.7% in total registrations.
The Employee Campaign had a one percent increase in employee participation, raising total employee participation to 45%. LCC employees pledged over $75,000 to support LCC scholarships and programs and pledged almost $25,000 to support community services through the United Way.
Congratulations to Andrea Ciaston and Robert McLauchlin, who were presented with Faculty Recognition Awards fall term. Andrea teaches studio arts and Robert teaches French. Both are very gifted instructors, and obviously well supported by their students.
Congratulations to Lisa Rupp, December's Classified Employee of the Month. Lisa is a corporal in our Public Safety Office. She started at Lane in 1997 and worked in the bookstore, mailroom and facilities before joining Public Safety. She has done a tremendous job of organizing the office and leading many of our sexual assault prevention and education trainings. She also helped lead our tobacco-free campus effort.
Thanks to Christina Howard for her op ed on the value of a earning a degree and getting a college education. It was very well done. Christina is the program coordinator for our Physical Therapist Assistant Program and the current chair of our Assessment Team.
It looks like the flu could again be problematic in our area, so we have a college team who will work to promote prevention strategies to students and staff.
Over the break, Congress passed a bipartisan budget agreement that sets funding levels for FY 2014 and 2015, and partially replaces sequestration.
On Sunday, we hosted a town hall meeting for Senator Jeff Merkley at the Downtown Campus. I would like to thank Rosie and Bob for attending. I met with the Senator prior to the public meeting and was able to discuss our concerns about the president's proposed college rating system, as well as tying the Pell Grant to performance. We will another opportunity to talk with him at the National Leadership Summit in Washington next month.
During the town hall, Senator Merkley took time to recognize the great work of Lane's High School Connections program. He specifically spoke about the important work being done in the College Now, RTEC and Career Pathways programs. Deron Fort was recognized and will be receiving an American flag flown over Congress, which we hope to put on display for all the students in those programs to see. Congratulations to Deron and everyone in High School Connections for all your great work!
Next Monday, January 13, we will be hosting another legislative town hall on campus. State Senator Lee Beyer and Representative Phil Barnhart will be holding a "legislative listening session" from noon-1:30 PM in the Center for Meeting and Learning, Building 19, Room 225. We expect the February legislative session to be the main topic of conversation.
On Friday, the Oregon Workforce Investment Board met to discuss forwarding recommendations for reforming the state's workforce system to the governor. While many of the recommendations moved forward, the piece we had the most concerns with—designating the Oregon Employment Department as the lead agency for workforce programs and transferring WIA Title I-B funding from CCWD—did not. The group called for a greater conversation with stakeholders, so I think our meetings with legislators and the governor's staff helped give an opportunity to discuss this further.
The Oregon Business Council and Lumina will be hosting a one-day conference on Wednesday, January 29 for board members and presidents involved in post-secondary education to discuss education reform and strategic directions in Oregon. More information will be coming soon. Please see Brett if you're interested in attending.
We have a lot of events this month. I'll mention just a few:
- We will host the Oregon Jazz Festival on January 24 and 25. Our local musicians will be joined by the band "Kneebody" whose members are from LA and Brooklyn and whose music defies categorization. Both festival concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Ragozzino Hall.
- The Martin Luther King Jr. Day Community Celebration comes back to campus on January 20, with a special keynote address by the actor Giancarlo Esposito. He is know as Major Tom Neville in the NBC series "Revolution" and was Gus Fring in the AMC series "Breaking Bad." Kudos to Greg Evans and our Black Student Union for making this possible. Before the event, the annual NAACP march begins at 9:30 a.m. at Science Factory parking lot near Autzen Stadium.
1) Personnel
The college's current personnel appointments were presented.
C. Board Agenda Review/Changes
No changes were made to the agenda.
D. Statements from Audience
Mohammed Alkhader, student, graduated at the end of fall term but was not able to move on to the university because Lane did not process his application in time. He will have to wait until spring term, and he missed out on a scholarship. He hoped the process can be improved so that students can move on during the breaks, not just in June.
Dennis Gilbert, physics instructor, appreciated the frustration that the cultural competency issue has taken so long but asked the board to consider all aspects before deciding on a resolution.
Elizabeth Andrade, project coordinator, informed the board that she had been dismissed from the Diversity Council by the LCCEF president as a consequence of her presentation to the board in November. She urged the board to stop the operation of the governance system until a full evaluation can be conducted.
Rose Lopez, Career Pathways coordinator, expressed concern with problems in the governance system and was disturbed by what happened to Andrade in the Diversity Council, stating that Andrade has been a longtime leader in diversity at Lane.
Rodger Gamblin, IT Technician and LCCEF officer, reminded the board that he had complained a few years back that the gravity level is raised in the fitness center after every break. President Spilde had promised to give the situation the exact attention it deserves, and she has done just that. (Humor) Gamblin then distributed a handout regarding the governance system.
Claudia Riumallo, advisory, expressed concern regarding the governance system, the consensus model, and the issues arising from the proposed cultural competency policy. The level of discrimination at Lane is concerning, and Riumallo does not want to see a lawsuit arise for Lane.
2A. Consent Agenda
Matt moved, and seconded by Stiles, to approve the Consent Agenda consisting of:
- The approval of the December 3. 2013 meeting minutes
Motion passed unanimously.
3. Discussion/Action Items
A. Audit Report
Stan Barker, Accounting Manager, and Kenneth Kuhns, auditor from Kenneth Kuhns & Co., answered questions and responded to comments regarding the audit report.
B. Cultural Competency
Spilde addressed a statement made by LCCEA President Jim Salt to the board members that Spilde had accused the association representative of stonewalling in order to prevent the diversity education policy to be passed, and he had noted that such inaccuracies and misrepresentations are not only highly problematic but are causing serious damage to our college. Spilde agreed that misrepresentations do cause damage and need to be corrected. Salt had requested that the public statements by the college president challenging the legitimacy of LCCEA positions be publicly retracted. Spilde reminded the board that she did not accuse anyone of stonewalling. The tape of the November board meeting had been transcribed, and Spilde read what she had said at that meeting. First, she explained the governance system and then moved on to the cultural competency policy.
"I'm moving now to the cultural competence policy, I'm very empathetic with the frustration that people who have been working on this for so many years feel that it is stalled out, stonewalled, stopped, you heard the words."
Spilde had been referring to the words people used during public comment; she did not accuse Salt of stonewalling. She had referred to being empathetic with the feelings of others. She was not owning their language, she was referring to it. She asked Salt to be more precise and disciplined in interpreting and listening to what is actually said.
Spilde then introduced a new board policy for review which was composed by starting with the draft created by the diversity council and separating policy aspects from procedural aspects. The policy was then reviewed by legal counsel.
The policy follows, and noted revisions were suggested by board member Albright. A second reading will be held in February.
Policy Title: Cultural Competency/Diversity Awareness for Lane Employees
Lane's core values of respect for diversity, and for a safe, respectful and inclusive working and learning environment, require cultural competence/diversity awareness among its employees.
An inclusive culture is one that cultivates respect, equity and positive recognition of cultural differences among all members of the community. It requires that the social and institutional responses to cultural differences encourage and promote positive learning and working experiences.
To build individual and collective capacity for diversity awareness/cultural competence, the president is directed to ensure the implementation of implement a program of professional development that requires all employees to participate in appropriate education and training. The president shall assure the development of develop an evaluation and tracking system to assess the effectiveness of the program and submit a monitoring report to the board on an annual basis.
Spilde clarified that, while the president will ensure the implementation of a program, it will be developed by stakeholders and experts and will not be cookie cutter but will offer the opportunity for employees to start at any level. Together we can create a state of the art educational program that will make us better as faculty, students, and staff.
In addition to the second reading of this policy, the board requested a review of the governance system for the February meeting.
C. Budget Update
Vice President Brian Kelly informed the board that updated projections will be provided in February. An all-staff meeting will be held January 16 to update staff and faculty on budget challenges. Student FTE is similar to levels experienced in 2009. The executive deans are working with division deans to reduce part time faculty and hours in order to get closer to 2009 staffing levels.
D. Accreditation
Executive Dean Maurice Hamington shared the draft of Standard 1 for the accreditation report, Institutional Overview. Hamington asked the board to review the document to determine if it represents the institution in the way it should and if there is another manner in which the board would like to engage. Standards 2 through 5 will be shared in subsequent board meetings. The entire accreditation report will be finalized during summer term. The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities will visit Lane in October or November for a comprehensive visit.
E. Budget Committee Appointments
Keating moved, seconded by Ackerman, to approve the appointments of Chris Matson, Zone 2, and Carmen Urbina, Zone 6, to the Lane Community College Budget Committee to complete a three-year term effective immediately and ending June 30, 2016.
Motion passed unanimously.
F. Associate of Science Options
Executive Dean Hamington shared with the board two new options to the Associate of Science degree: a direct transfer option to the University of Oregon and a direct transfer option to Oregon State University. The current degree is to be retained as a third option. The two new plans are based on the lower division general education requirements at the UO and OSU, which cover 85% of Lane's transfer students. Each plan utilizes already existing articulation agreements with these two universities to provide a clear pathway for students who know where they plan to enroll after leaving Lane. Students completing either of the options would earn the Associate of Science degree.
LeClair moved that the board approve the two new options to the Associate of Science degree. Albright seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
4. Policy Review
A. Second Reading
1. Policies and Procedures
McCown moved, seconded by Albright, to approve the second reading of the new board policy, Policies and Procedures.
Motion passed unanimously.
Policy Number: XXX
Policy Type: BOARD POLICY
Category: INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRITY
Policy Title: POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
A system of well-organized, clearly communicated, and up-to date policies and procedures is critical to effective management and operation of the College. This policy directs that all College decision-making bodies shall develop processes for the regular development, communication, review, revision, and elimination, of policies and procedures within their purview.
2. Global Governance Commitment, B.020
The following changes were suggested to this policy. A third reading will be held at the February meeting.
Policy Number: B.020
Policy Type: GOVERNANCE PROCESS
Policy Title: GLOBAL GOVERNANCE COMMITMENT
The Board of Education, on behalf of the district, will work to ensure that Lane Community College achieves the appropriate results, at an appropriate cost, to advance the college vision, mission, core values, and strategic directions.
The board shall comply with Oregon Revised Statutes.
The board shall avoid unacceptable actions and situations through the expression of its policies and be in compliance with Oregon Revised Statutes.
The Board will govern by policy. It will establish appropriate ends policies and executive direction policies and ensure that accountability measures are clearly identified and reported on a frequency and method chosen by the board.
ADOPTED: November 9, 1998
REVISED: September 10, 2003
REVIEWED: October 10, 2007
REVIEWED: July 14, 2010
B. First Reading
1. Credit Hour
A new board policy, Credit Hour, was presented. No changes were recommended. A second reading will be held in February.
Policy Number: XXX
Policy Type: MISCELLANEOUS
Policy Title: CREDIT HOUR
Credit-bearing courses, regardless of delivery method, are scheduled and conducted in compliance with the definition of the credit hour as set forth in Section 600.2 and 600.24 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
A credit hour is an amount of work represented in intended learning outcomes and verified by evidence of student achievement. A credit hour corresponds to one hour of classroom or direct faculty instruction, and a minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work each week for ten to twelve weeks for one quarter.
The College reviews credit hour assignments annually to verify compliance with the credit hour policy. The College assures the consistency and accuracy of credit hour assignments in all courses and programs and, through sampling, a variety of course credit assignments based on degree level, academic discipline, delivery modes, and types of academic activities.
2. Assessment
A new board policy, Assessment, was presented. No changes were recommended. A second reading will be held in February.
Number: XXX
Type: BOARD POLICY
Category: ACADEMICS
Title: ASSESSMENT
Lane Community College believes that to best serve students, and the community, students who complete course work at the College should possess the skills and knowledge as stated in the published descriptions and student learning outcomes of programs and courses. Assessment is a critical activity that guides institutional effectiveness, provides a vehicle for faculty interchange and professional development, demonstrates accountability, enhances public relations, and justifies public confidence.
The College will implement assessment of student learning outcomes in all curricula, courses, and educational activities. Assessment of student learning outcomes will be ongoing, guide all curricular activities, and be used to improve the teaching and learning process.
5. Accountability/Reports
A. Benchmarks
Craig Taylor, Institutional Research, Assessment, and Planning director, responded to questions and comments on the following Benchmarks:
- Change in Employee Headcount: Number of Employees by Group
- Employees of Color as a Percent of All Contracted Employees
B. Facilities Update
An update on the status of bond and facilities projects was presented to the board. The board discussed expenses incurred due to the recent severe weather conditions.
C. Compensation and Benefits, A.080, Monitoring Report
The Compensation and Benefits, A.080, monitoring report was presented to the board.
D. Financial Planning and Budgeting, A.040, Monitoring Report
The Financial Planning and Budgeting, A.040, monitoring report was presented to the board.
6. Reports
ASLCC President Paul Zito thanked everyone who has donated to the food pantry. They have received several donations, including one for $2,500. The students are gearing up for the Martin Luther King, Jr., event, which will be even more comprehensive than last year. ASLCC is in the process of revising the bylaws to match the constitution revisions done last year and are ramping up the campaign to get students registered to vote. Zito recognized the students who have done phenomenal work on the cultural competency policy, including Miriam Weatherhead, Mario Parker-Milligan, Max Jensen, and Anayeli Jimenez. It is a controversial topic, and any system would be strained dealing with an issue such as this. He urged those with power to take a step back and see what ends they are using their power for and what it will do to the people around them.
LCCEF President Bob Baldwin reminded the board that the federation has been in favor of all four cultural competency policies and has never opposed it in any of its forms, even when the president opposed it back in the 1990s. He invited the board to engage in a facilitated dialog with the union. The invitation has been extended repeatedly and has not gotten a response.
LCCEA President Jim Salt complimented Zito and others involved with the food pantry. Faculty have contributed and encouraged others to do the same. Salt commented on the amount of work that went into rescheduling finals and accommodating students. Regarding the diversity education policy, Salt noted that he will review the transcription of the November board meeting, and he clarified that the document he had sent the board was meant in a collaborative fashion even if was not received as such. Every stakeholder has been supportive of a policy, and the only difference is the language in the proposals. The attacks that have occurred have misplaced what is really happening. He expressed faith that the taskforce will succeed in creating a policy in the next month. Salt apologized to LeClair regarding the last minute message he sent that day. He was out of town over the break and was waiting to see if the president was going to ask the board to postpone the item. He informed the board that the reason the governance system uses consensus is because that was the model suggested by administration. In a case like this, it forces everyone to work through issues and come up with something all can work with.
Executive Dean Kerry Levett reported that faculty member Margaret Robertson authored a textbook, Sustainability Principles and Practice, that will be published later this month. Lane hosted a math summit on December 5 which brought sixty high school and college math educators together to talk about successes around mathematics, one of the biggest hurdles of completion. Lane's TRIO and STEM programs both surpassed state benchmarks; Levett congratulated respective directors Mary Parthemer and Lynn Nakamura. Levett recognized student leaders Paul Zito and Anayeli Jimenez for their leadership and courage at Lane.
Vice President Brian Kelly commented that it is an honor to work with such extraordinary people at Lane. It was amazing to see how people came together during the extreme weather in December. The folks in Public Safety, Facilities, Adrienne Mitchell, Joan Aschim, all did a great job informing students, making the campus safe, and rescheduling final exams. The CLASS project is underway. It will be a difficult 18 months while construction is completed, but we will get a space that will enhance the learning environment for students. KLCC News Director Tripp Sommer received the Public Radio News Directors 2014 Leo C. Lee Award. Public Safety Officer Lisa Rupp received Lane's Employee of the Month award for December.
Board Reports
Keating attended Mayor Piercy's State of the City address and the State of the County address. He will be attending the first Lane County Commissioner debate tomorrow at Cottage Grove High School. Over the winter break, Keating attended a continuing education course and can now serve at the KLCC Brewfest February 7 and 8. He was elated to hear the success of the food pantry. A decade ago, when Keating was President of the Student Production Association, admission to plays was free for those who brought in cans of food. He never dreamed there would be a food pantry on campus. He challenged those attending the board meeting next month to bring in three cans of food at the next meeting.
LeClair expressed frustration with receiving messages and information on the day of the board meeting. He stood by the statement that consensus does not work.
Albright gave accolades to Zito for his ability to lead the students articulately at the board table. Albright will be meeting with the Oregon State Board Association and the Oregon Community College Association to discuss how to transfer students from the K-12 system to higher education.
Ackerman attended the town hall meeting with Senator Merkley at the Downtown Campus. It is a great venue, and the officials that speak there know that the campus was a partnership of public entities coming together. He was intrigued with the idea of the food pantry and wants to see it on a sustaining basis with annual funding in the budget.
Stiles thanked Zito for his exemplary leadership of the student body. The Florence Center is experiencing robust enrollment this year after Director Mary Jeanne Kuhar conducted conversations with the city last year to determine what the community needed.
McCown appreciated the positive energy from the meeting due to moving forward on certain topics.
Pryor informed Baldwin that the board would not be engaging in a facilitated dialog with the union. She reminded Baldwin that it was LCCEF that pulled out of the facilitated conversations with the administration.
7. Date, Place, and Proposed Agenda Items for the Next Regular Meeting
Wednesday, February 5, 6:30 pm, Boardroom, Building 3, Lane Community College.
8. The board meeting unanimously adjourned at 9:35 p.m.
______________________________ _____________________________
Mary Spilde, President/District Clerk Rosemary Pryor, Board Chair
Prepared by:
Donna Zmolek, Assistant to the Board