LANE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
BOARD OF EDUCATION MINUTES
July 8, 2015
1. Attendance
Board members present: Philip Carrasco, Susie Johnston, Matt Keating, Gary LeClair, and Tony McCown, Rosie Pryor, and Sharon Stiles. Also present were: President Mary Spilde; Vice President Brian Kelly, Interim Vice President Dawn DeWolf; Lane Community College Education Association Officer Deanna Murphy, Lane Community College Employees Federation President Bob Baldwin, and Associated Students of Lane Community College President Ashley Jackson.
A. Vice Chair Keating called the meeting to order at 6:34 p.m.
B. Oath of Office Administered to Newly Elected Board Members
President Spilde administered the Oath of Office to Susie Johnston, Zone 2; Philip Carrasco, Zone 5; Rosie Pryor, At Large Position 6; and Tony McCown, At Large Position 7.
C. Election of Chair and Vice Chair
Vice Chair Keating opened nominations for chair of the board of education.
Pryor nominated Tony McCown for chair of the board. LeClair seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
Nominations were opened for vice chair of the board of education.
LeClair nominated Sharon Stiles for vice chair. Keating seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
1) Statements from Newly-elected Chair and Vice Chair
McCown thanked fellow board members for the vote of confidence and stated that he was looking forward to sharing the critical first year of the next fifty years with board members to continue to build a strong vision.
Stiles thanked the board members for the confidence in her and stated that she was looking forward to leading the board with McCown during the challenging year ahead.
C. President's Report
Congratulations to Sharon and Tony on your re-election to the board. Lane is fortunate to have your leadership. I would like to welcome to our newest board member, Phil Carrasco. It has been twenty years since Lane has had a board member from the Latino community, and I look forward to greater connections with the Latino community and students. I'd like to give a warm welcome back to returning board member, Susie Johnston. I know that you are each deeply committed to our community and students. I think we're going to have a great year of successes as well as challenges, and I'm looking forward to working with you.
I would like to welcome Sandy Cutler who's filling in at the SBDC for a while. Many of you know Sandy from his past work at SBDC and in the business community. During his previous work at the OSBDCN, Sandy was Instrumental in developing the funding for small business development centers across Oregon.
Best wishes to Executive Dean Maurice Hamington. Sadly for us, he will be leaving Lane to become director of university studies and professor of philosophy at Portland State University. This is an excellent opportunity for Maurice and a boon for PSU. Thank you, Maurice for your hard work, insight and wonderful humor that has made Lane a better place.
Tonight it is my pleasure to announce our Cooperative Education Employer of the Year Award for 2014-2015. As most of you know, our co-op internship program is one of the oldest and largest in the country with 800 employers and 2,000 students participating annually. This year's award goes to the University of Oregon Information Services Department. UO Information Services, or IS, has taken on at least two Lane interns per term between their Windows, Linux, Storage and Virtualization, and Technology Help Desk units since partnering with us in 2013. They provide a superior internship experience in a large, complex IT environment. These are paid internships and our students have access to professional development workshops as well as job search training. Three of our former interns now work there. We attribute the success of this internship program to the vision of UO Chief Information Officer Melissa Woo and her dedicated team, including HR Manager Jenna Rakes and Operations Manager Micah Sardell.
Thanks to exceptional attention to safety over the past three years, our workers comp premiums for 2015-2016 will be nearly $80,000 less than they otherwise would have been. Credit is due to all of our employees and students, especially those in Facilities, Management & Planning; Public Safety; the Safety Committee; the Wellness Program; the Bond Leadership Team; and Sharon Daniel and the Benefits Team in HR.
Lane has won a Walmart State Giving Program grant of $182,930 to support the Ready to Work program. The program will help 100 area residents build work readiness skills including entry-level computing, customer service, effective communication, problem-solving, teamwork, resume' creation, interviewing skills, and more. Congratulations to our grants and workforce teams.
I met with the new publisher and editor of The Register-Guard, N. Christian Anderson. We had a frank discussion about the paper and the college. He plans to give the Guard a strong digital presence, in keeping with the trend that is transforming the newspaper industry.
Enrollment for the first day of summer term was down 17.4% compared to the same time last year, and early registrations for fall term are down 31.2%. These are early numbers, of course, and will be changing. You will remember that we budgeted a 7% decrease in enrollment, so anything greater than that will have an impact on this year's budget.
I had a great time judging the Iron Chef Eugene competition held in three heats over the last month at Lane, hosted by our Center for Meeting and Learning. This Monday was the last heat and the winner was Belly Restaurant of Eugene. Our CAHM faculty and Center Chefs Tim Hill and Adam Hammel participated, and students enjoyed the opportunity to prepare and serve a three-course banquet to spectators and judges. It was inspiring to hear the feedback from the restaurant employers who are so enthusiastic about our programs and students. Proceeds from the event will go towards CAHM student fees and technology upgrades for the Center.
The Oregon Legislative Session adjourned late Monday. It was definitely an eventful six months, especially with the change in the Governor's Office just a few weeks into the session. OCCA has prepared an end-of-session report, available on their website, for those interested. Highlights of the session include:
* $550 million funding for the Community College Support Fund along with a budget note requiring the Higher Education Coordinating Commission to report back to the Legislature before implementing a new funding formula.
* A great turnout of Lane supporters at the Springfield Ways and Means hearing, something that was replicated by community colleges around the state and helped lead to legislators prioritizing additional funding for the community college budget.
* Passage of the Oregon Promise, which seeks to replicate Tennessee's "free community college" program. The program is funded at $10 million for the 2016-17 school year, and the legislature will consider full funding (estimated to be approx. $35 million) during the next full session. You may also have heard that the America's College Promise Act of 2015 was introduced in Congress today, which as a White House newsletter puts it, "All it requires is for everyone to do their part: Community colleges must strengthen the quality of their programs, states must commit to invest in higher education and training, and students must take responsibility for their education by staying on track to graduate." We want to promote first dollar in, as that will support lower income students.
The Oregon Education Investment Board was eliminated and OEIB will now become the Chief Education Office.
* The integration of CCWD into the HECC was completed. CCWD now becomes the Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development and will be headed by Dan Finley from PCC.
* Funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant was increased nearly 24% to $141 million.
* Legislative approval was given so certificates may be awarded to students in non-credit programs. Thanks to Mary Jeanne Kuhar, Jeanette Kane and Continuing Education for playing a big role in this accomplishment.
I would like to thank Brett Rowlett and the entire OCCA staff for a job well done.
In Washington, Senate Republicans unveiled their budget summary for FY16 last week, which includes more than $1 billion in cuts to the Department of Education. The proposal calls for a $300 million cut to this year's Pell Grant funding, $29 million cut to Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, $40 million cut to the Federal Work Study program and completed elimination of First in the World competitive grants and the Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools Program. There are also numerous more programs with reductions or level funding, and many of these will impact Lane students. The House has also released its plan, which includes similar proposals. We are watching both closely and will keep you updated.
The end of spring term is always busy with conferences and this certainly was true for me. I attended the NILD in Salt Lake City, the AACC Future Leaders Institute in Las Vegas, and the OILD in Silver Falls, and the Executive Team met for its annual retreat this week and got a good start on mapping out the work for the year.
Coming up, please consider attending a lecture on July 15 by Marta Effinger-Crichlow, associate professor and chair of literature and theater in African American Studies at the City College of Technology in New York. Her talk is titled, "Mapping Black New York: an Interdisciplinary Search for Home." The lecture is at 6 p.m. at our Downtown Center. She is speaking as part our National Endowment for the Humanities Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, funded in part by a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities grant won by English instructor, Dr. Anne McGrail.
I also hope you can attend Lane's second annual Al Fresco outdoor dining experience in the Learning Garden on July 29. I'd like to thank WildCraft Cider Works for stepping up as our title sponsor.
Our 50th Anniversary Campaign won a 2015 APEX Award for Publication Excellence. APEX is a national competition for communications professionals. Kudos to Tracy Simms, our agency of record, Funk/Levis, and the entire marketing and public relations team. More award-winning work is on the way and our fall recruitment campaign begins next week. We will have new success story billboards, bus signs, digital, mobile and social posts and promotions, and student success stories online. I believe Tracy has a new recruitment video to show us, and I would like to end my report with that.
1) Personnel
The college's current personnel appointments were presented.
E. Board Agenda Review/Changes
No changes were made to the board agenda.
F. Statements from Audience
Justin Blakely, former student, expressed dissatisfaction with services he received from the Center of Accessibility Resources.
Dale Green, Mathematics instructor, stated that the programs that were eliminated were done so under the assumption that community college funding would be $530 million, but the new level is $550 million. He urged the board to consider reinstating those two programs.
Dennis Gilbert, Physics instructor, stated that jobs in the Electronics Technology field are on the rise, which is why it did not make sense to eliminate that program. He urged the board to bring back the programs that have been eliminated and allow them to undergo the program review process.
2A. Consent Agenda
Pryor moved, and seconded by LeClair, to approve the Consent Agenda consisting of:
• Approval of the June 10, 2015, Minutes
• Resolution No. 603, President's Annual Authorizations for FY 2015-2016
• Policy Review
o Student Activities Fees for Student-Initiated Programs
o Tuition Waiver for Dependents of Veterans
• Central Plant GMP
• Building 3 Roofing
Motion passed unanimously.
4. Discussion/Action Items
A. Spotlight on Student Success: Strategic Enrollment Management
Executive Dean Kerry Levett and Project Manager Jen Steele presented information on the Strategic Enrollment Management plan. When this was first being discussed over a year ago, the intention was to have a proactive impact on enrollment and to use data to influence enrollment and analyze enrollment patterns.
The development of the plan was a 12-month process and involved a steering committee made up of members from the campus community that met bi-weekly through the year. The committee set goals, developed a vision, and identified strategies. Goals include:
• Increase new student FTE by 5% each year
• Increase retention rate of the Lane ATD cohort by 5% over three years
• Increase credential attainment by 22% over three years
Levett shared the key strategies and the timeline of the 3-year plan. The divisions and departments involved in implementing the plan were also identified.
B. Board Appointments to Community Organizations
Gary LeClair was appointed to serve as the Lane Community College representative to the Foundation for 2015-16.
Matt Keating was appointed to serve as the Lane Community College representative to the Lane Council of Governments for 2015-16. Philip Carrasco will be the alternate.
Susie Johnston was appointed to serve as the Lane Community College representative to the Lane Economic Committee of the Lane Council of Governments for 2015-16.
Keating was appointed to serve as the Lane Community College representative to the Oregon Community College Association for 2015-16. Susie Johnston will be the alternate.
Keating moved to approve the above appointments. Pryor seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
C. Core Themes
Vice President Dawn DeWolf shared the process in developing new core themes for the college to help determine the effectiveness of our mission. The prior themes did not serve us well to give the scope of all that we do at Lane. A broad based committee made up of faculty, classified, management, and student requested input through a variety of different ways, and the following core themes were developed:
1. Responsive Community Engagement
2. Quality Educational Environment
3. Student Achievement
4. Accessible and Equitable Learning Opportunities
Objectives and indicators are still being defined, and there will be much more discussion on how to measure effectiveness. The core themes will be the foundation of strategic planning to identify what we need to do to ensure each one is being met.
Stiles moved to accept the Core Themes as presented. Keating seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
D. President's Evaluation Process
The president's evaluation is conducted annually and will include a self-evaluation as well as an evaluation by the board. The evaluation will be conducted under board policy BP 540, Monitoring President's Performance, and will be completed before December 31, 2015.
Keating moved that the board approve the process for the president's evaluation. Stiles seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
E. Board Retreat
The board expressed an interest in holding a two-day board retreat at the Downtown Center sometime in the fall. Potential dates will be sent out to the board to schedule the retreat.
4. Accountability/Reports
B. Facilities Update
An update on the status of bond and facility projects was presented.
C. Student Services-Global Directions Monitoring Report
The Student Services Global Directions Monitoring Report was presented to the board.
D. Treatment of Staff Monitoring Report
The Treatment of Staff Monitoring Report was presented to the board.
6. Reports
ASLCC President Ashley Jackson reported that ASLCC will be having an audit for the Rainy Day Food Pantry in August. They extended thanks to the student allies and supporters and the Oregon Student Association. Student engagement in Salem has been successful, and there has been a lot of support at Lane. They are honored to be at the board table this year.
LCCEF President Bob Baldwin reported board members were invited to join union officers in the mediation process a couple of years ago to engage in dialog regarding labor relations, but the board did not accept the invitation. Since then, he has treated the board members with disdain and contempt. Bargaining has been held up due to the board's demand that classified staff sacrifice leave time. What was portrayed by Albright as an effort of bridge building to play in the golf "friendraiser" was really a request for $50 to play golf with board members. He asked that the board try to engage the classified staff in a way that shows respect for the people that keep the college functioning.
LCCEA Officer Deanna Murphy read a statement from LCCEA President Jim Salt in his absence regarding issues raised by faculty on the evaluation of the president and the board; the passing of $550 million for the community college budget and the impact that has on Lane's eliminated programs; statements made by board members at the end of the June meeting. Salt's statement noted that the Association will bring recommendations to the board at the September meeting that will attempt to strengthen our college.
Interim Vice President Dawn DeWolf reported that the Science Division received an award for undergraduate research. She recognized the work of Strategic Enrollment Management and the Institutional Effectiveness committees, who worked collaboratively over the last year with wonderful results. The Executive Team just finished a three-day retreat. It was productive and helpful in getting the team focused on the work ahead.
Vice President Brian Kelly thanked the Institutional Effectiveness committee for their work and recognized the Strategic Enrollment Management committee. These are good examples of coming together and doing good work for the college. He recognized the work of Facilities Management and Planning. Some days there are 100 people working on projects. Kelly is proud that there are local workers, women and minorities represented at historic levels. He welcomed Carrasco and Johnston to the board and congratulated McCown and Stiles on their election. He introduced his new assistant Deborah Butler. He noted that although enrollment is low this summer, Lane does not have fewer buildings, parking lots, classrooms, and hallways. He thanked our Public Safety, Custodial, and Facilities staff for working just as hard as ever.
Board Reports
Pryor welcomed new ASLCC President Ashley Jackson. She welcomed Johnston back to the board and welcomed Carrasco. She congratulated the University of Oregon Employer of the Year. She complimented the work done on the Strategic Enrollment plan, which is not just to even out enrollment, but it is a plan for student success. She asked Levett and Steel not to underfund or underestimate the costs of the plan. There is a tendency in the public sector and academia to be reticent to allocate funds to do a job like this well. She commented on Salt's statement: "I think it's pretty clear." What Pryor understands is that a lot of things aren't pretty clear. Union leaders have a view of the world, and board members have another view. There are rising labor costs and results of PERS decisions, and Pryor fully expects to be at this table during budget time this coming year and be in the same shape as last year. It would be helpful if the union leaders on campus would focus on working productively with the board rather than assail, criticize and undermine.
LeClair welcomed Jackson. One of the things about being on the board is that you never finish making decisions. The vote to eliminate two programs will not change. LeClair pointed out the benefits of a Cadillac medical plan. In the near future, we will face a good possibility of 40% tax to the tune of millions of dollars. He would welcome a proposal from the faculty, but not on the day of the board meeting. He encouraged processing information and decisions in an orderly fashion. He stated that it is the administration's role, not the board's, to meet with LCCEF on labor relations.
Johnston stated that she is glad to be back. Over the last two years, she returned to Lane as a student and took a photography class. Maybe she will look at things through a new window now that she is back on the board. She congratulated McCown and Stiles and welcomed Jackson. She looked forward to hearing more on the core themes.
Carrasco noted that it is indeed the first of the next fifty years, so let's set the tone. Some of the things he wants to review while on the board are cultural competency, institutional equity, a green collar workforce, and attracting working class families back to Lane. He looked forward to working with everyone at the table.
Keating stated that this will be his third year on the board. He hasn't always agreed with the direction the board takes, but disagreements are always done with respect for the board's service and the institution. He looks forward to working with McCown and Stiles. He congratulated Jackson. He recognized the great work that the Strategic Enrollment Management folks have done. Keating noted that he appreciates invitations to connect with anyone on campus any time and that he appreciates the e-mails he receives. He noted that the board retreat is open meeting; when the board meets, he invited anyone to come and participate in open discussion. He invited everyone to come to Shakespeare in the Park at Amazon Park in August where he will be performing a role in "As You Like It."
Stiles welcomed Jackson, Johnston, and Carrasco. The Florence Center held its GED Graduation on June 10. On June 11, it was the Florence Scholarship event at which students were awarded $42,000 in scholarships. Stiles attended Lane's graduation ceremony at the Fairgrounds. She thanked Russ Pierson for the great work he is doing as Florence Center Director. The board had talked about student success at last year's retreat, and it is wonderful to see the ideas come to fruition. She thanked Murphy for reading Salt's statement, and asked Baldwin how his approach on working with the board is working out for him.
McCown echoed all of the welcomes. People at the college tend to focus on what we disagree on. This seems to be a national issue practice; it's not just at Lane. But Spilde had mentioned the dissolution of OEIB, and Salt and Spilde came together on that issue, and things happened because of their collaborative efforts. There has been a lot of discussion regarding program review. This internal work is being done by numerous people from numerous departments. They are doing amazing collaborative work. McCown continues to be hopeful that despite our differences, we can still agree. There have been zero complaints on program additions and zero complaints on fundamental changes to the college in the way we review and assess programs and how we reach out to the community. He believes that kind of collaboration is what's going to take the college to the next level.
7. Date, Place, and Proposed Agenda Items for the Next Regular Meeting
Monday, September 21, 2015, Boardroom, Building 3, Lane Community College
8. The board meeting unanimously adjourned at 8:37 p.m.
______________________________ _____________________________
Mary Spilde, President/District Clerk Tony McCown, Board Chair
Prepared by:
Donna Zmolek, Executive Assistant to the President/Board