LANE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
BOARD OF EDUCATION MINUTES
September 21, 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 President Jim Salt, Lane Community College Employees Federation President Bob Baldwin, and Associated Students of Lane Community College President Ashley Jackson.
A. Chair Tony McCown called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.
B. President’s Report
Welcome everyone to fall term. I hope you’ve had a good summer with lots of rest, relaxation and sunshine. I’m looking forward to the year. We’ve got a lot of important work to do, and I know that with all of the wonderful faculty, staff, and students that we have at Lane, we’ll get it done.
I’d like to welcome our new Torch editor, Andre Casey. Andre has a degree from Southern Oregon University and has come back to Lane for graphic design. He has some really great plans for the Torch to bring it into the digital age. I’m looking forward to working with Andre and his staff.
The Center remodel is nearly complete. There is a lot of excitement created by the new open spaces and all of the light shining in on the heart of the main campus. It’s incredible the work that has been done. To have this building will help the students to achieve their dreams and goals. You’ll recall that the completion date was supposed to be in January, but we will be moving in within the next couple of weeks. There is a fairly long punch list that will be completed during fall term, but we are really grateful to Lease Crutcher Lewis for getting us into the building early.
Marketing and Public Relations have developed a number of pieces of material to help students orient themselves to the new Learning Commons - signage, a fun passport where students can go around and get stamps from each department, and a brochure on the Learning Commons that shows a map and all of the services that will be available.
I’d like to congratulate Jennifer Frei for stepping up to the interim position of Executive Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, taking Maurice Hamington’s place. She brought great energy to Social Science as dean, and we’re really happy to have her skills on the executive team.
Enrollment reports are showing some improvement in the decline trend. Most recently, total registrations for fall classes are down 13.3 percent compared to a year ago at the same time. That’s still a challenge, but it’s an improvement. We are working hard to turn things around.
This summer we attended the OCCA board retreat at the Oregon Garden, and I attended the Oregon President’s Council retreat at Clackamas Community College. I will be attending the League Board meeting in Toronto next week.
Quite a few things went on over the summer that I want to mention briefly:
A Digital Humanities Institute was organized by faculty member Anne McGrail, whose good work earned us another National Institute for the Humanities grant that helped fund our Digital Humanities symposium on July 15. Participants were from all over the country and the symposium was enlightening.
We also had another great Al Fresco outdoor dining event on July 29. Thanks to faculty Joe McCully for writing it up in a review in The Register-Guard special publication called “Tastings.”
The executive team hosted an ice cream social for staff who were still around on July 30. It was hot and a good day for ice cream but it was so hot we had to quickly move the event indoors to keep everything from melting. Thanks to the Center for Meeting and Learning for accommodating us.
Eugene’s Digital Dojo Coding Team Project was named the Community Broadband Digital Equity Project of the Year by the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors (NATOA) Board of Directors. The Dojo launched last fall as a pilot program partnership between Lane, the City of Eugene, and Eugene School District 4J. Located in Lane’s Downtown Campus, the Dojo is a nationally connected and locally developed open source computer coding program enabling middle and high school students from multiple cities to receive code training in a college environment. The Digital Dojo partnership brings together instructional specialists with expertise in computer science from LCC and 4J and a state of the art classroom in LCC’s Downtown campus with funding from City of Eugene telecommunications project program funds and critical participation from LCC, UO, area schools, and area tech businesses.
Kudos to Florence math instructor Robert Estill. This summer he was honored by the Oregon Youth Authority as Volunteer of the Year for a Camp Florence for at-risk youth.
Congratulations to instructor Stacey Kiser who was named 2015 Two Year College Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Biology Teachers. She will receive her award at a ceremony at NABT conference in Rhode Island in November.
I am sorry to note the passing of Barbara Baker, Continuing Education coordinator for the LCC Florence Center. Barbara had many friends and fans and will be missed. The Lane family also lost former employee, Reba Morrison, of Creswell. She was a longtime sign language interpreter. Bob Ackerman’s mother also passed away a few weeks ago at the ripe old age of 103.
Lane received a $182,000 grant from the Walmart State Giving Program to support the Ready to Work project. The project will help 100 area residents with barriers to employment to build their work readiness skills and participate in effective job search activities.
The quarterly state revenue forecast was released August 26. General Fund revenues dropped $56 million due to slowing tax collections. Collections have since picked back up, growing rapidly to start fiscal year 2016. Overall, the outlook for the General Fund and Lottery resources remained relatively unchanged. General Fund revenues exceeded the 2% kicker threshold by $111 million (0.7%), resulting in a kicker credit of $402 million.
As I’m sure most of you know by now, Dr. Nancy Golden stepped down as the state’s chief education officer at the beginning of the month and is making her second attempt at retirement. Lindsey Capps, the governor’s education policy advisor, has stepped in as interim. Governor Brown has indicated that she intends to choose a permanent successor, but it’s unclear what the scope and timeline will be.
The Higher Education Coordinating Commission has convened a workgroup to advise staff on recommendations for the Oregon Promise program. The HECC will need to adopt administrative rules and directives pertaining to the overall design of the program within the next month.
Earlier this month President Obama announced the creation of the National Advisory Board for the College Promise Campaign. The Board, which will be chaired by Second Lady Jill Biden, will also include AACC President Walter Bumphus and ACCT President Noah Brown among others. The College Promise Campaign will promote America’s College Promise (ACP) programs and advocate for strengthening the federal government investment in post-secondary education. Rather than promoting one type of Promise program, the College Promise Campaign will provide information on a broader vision of a variety of tuition- and debt-free college programs and best practices.
Last week, the White House in conjunction with the Department of Education released its College Scorecard. The College Scorecard, which is the product of President Obama's proposed Postsecondary Institution Ratings System (PIRS), provides prospective students with a consumer information tool to gather information and compare institutions of higher education. Information found on the site includes graduation rates, net price, earnings, and federal loan repayment rates. AACC and ACCT have already raised concerns with the metrics used, and said this reaffirms the need to establish a federal student unit record system to better track outcomes of community college students. (Example: Lane is listed as a rural institution, the UO is listed as urban.) Additionally, the White House said it was dropping its two-year effort to create a college ranking system.
The Department of Education also announced last week the use of Prior-Prior Year tax information for the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) starting in October of next year. This means that students will be able to submit a FAFSA earlier, and more FAFSA filers will be able to use the IRS data retrieval tool. Presently, students and families are often unable to import their tax information into the FAFSA because their prior year tax information is unavailable. This change will make it easier for students and families to file a FAFSA.
In the media: our Biology instructor Pat Boleyn got a wonderful piece on television about her grant funded work to study the declining western bumblebee population; Health & PE Dean Chris Hawken interviewed on KVAL regarding our new contract with Adidas; Interim Science Division Dean Paul Ruscher and retiring Dean Sarah Ulerick talked about our Geology and Watershed Science classes on KEZI to provide more insight on news about Earth Day concerns and the impacts of drought and climate change; and Vice President Dawn DeWolf talked with the RG’s Blue Chip publication about career and technical trends. I did some interviews as well, with Eugene Weekly on free community college proposals, and with the Register-Guard on state funding.
Titan Court is sold out. On a recent list of the many student housing projects in Downtown, there was one other housing complex that was 100% leased up, and we were second. Many other places were considerably far behind us. I want to thank our International Program which really helped us fill all of our units.
On Thursday, September 24, we will hold our all-staff inservice. Dr. Gus Balderas, new 4J Superintendent, will talk with us, we will have some information from our Rites of Passage program, and then I will give our state of the college address.
1) Personnel
The college’s current personnel appointments were presented.
E. Board Agenda Review/Changes
Item 3-C, Siltcoos Station, was removed from the agenda. Keating moved to add item 3-C, Campus Inreach. Pryor seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
F. Statements from Audience
Karen Radke, Lane County resident who lives north of Florence, stated that she utilizes the Florence campus but lives in an area that is not in Lane Community College district. She is not in included in the tax district but would like to be. She would appreciate some help to be included in the district if there is anything the board or administration can do. Including residents in her area would mean a little more money for Lane and would ensure that her children and grandchildren are eligible to attend.
2A. Consent Agenda
Keating asked that the July minutes be amended to change the pronoun of the ASLCC President to they/them/theirs.
Pryor moved, and seconded by LeClair, to approve the Consent Agenda consisting of:
- Approval of the amended July 8, 2015, Minutes
- Policy Review
1. Integrated Pest Management, BP110
2. Budget Officer, BP215
Motion passed unanimously.
3. Discussion/Action Items
A. Spotlight on Student Success: Voluntary Framework for Accountability
Spilde provided background on this item, stating that the current data reported at the national level don’t accurately reflect what community colleges are doing. The data represents only 25% of the population. The graduation rate and success factors are published in score cards and reflect poorly on Lane and all community colleges nationally. The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) started to develop a different way of looking at data and came up with the Voluntary Framework for Accountability. The idea is for Oregon to adopt a consistent way of measuring data and being accountable and to have a universal way of representing ourselves besides the Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System. The Oregon Presidents’ Council has considered and supported VFA, and the presidents are taking the information back to their boards for comments and questions.
Craig Taylor, Director of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Planning, presented a video produced by AACC and a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate some of the various aspects of VFA. VFA looks at information over different timeframes, looks at student learning, and understands that students are pursuing different outcomes. VFA provides value added metrics, national benchmarking, better data to inform policy, and tells a more robust story. About 140 community colleges are participating nationally and a growing number of state systems. If all of the Oregon community college boards are willing, the work will be continued, and presidents will work with the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) and declare to AACC that Oregon would like to participate in this as a state.
B. Strategic Plan/CoreThemes
DeWolf distributed the Year-One accreditation report that was submitted to the Northwest Commission of Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) on September 14. The majority of the report was around Lane’s new core themes and core learning outcomes. This represents a lot of hard work by the institutional effectiveness committee.
Over the next year, we will host campus conversations on each core theme so that more employees can be engaged. The data will be used to align the strategic plan process. In June 2015, the current strategic plan ended. The framework from the plan is needed for the accreditation reports. The goal is to have the strategic plan for the board’s adoption in June.
C. Campus Inreach
McCown noted that there has been much work done about outreaching into the community. The community conversations have been held twice since he came onto the board. Now it is time to listen to the voices of Lane those of the boardroom. Public comment is held at the board meetings, but it is only three minutes and can be intimidating for some speakers. McCown proposed launching a listening tour on campus in a variety of events and settings, both formally and informally. These conversations could begin as early as October.
Keating reminded the board that the college has four locations and that conversations should be held at each location.
Carrasco moved that the conversations begin right away. Pryor seconded.
Motion passed unanimously.
McCown agreed to develop a schedule and an outline on how the conversations would take place and bring information to the October meeting.
D. Bond recommendations
Vice President Kelly informed the board on the status of the $83 million bond passed in 2008. Work has been completed on Buildings 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 15, 19, the Downtown Campus, and is being finished on the Center Building. Buildings 17 and 18 are the last two buildings in this bond. The Bond Leadership Team has provided their recommendation to the Executive Team to move $1,150,000 from the Building 17 project budget to the Building 18 project to accommodate the core activities for the Media Arts program.
Pryor noted a conflict of interest as her son is a degree candidate in Media Arts.
Stiles moved to approve the bond recommendation. LeClair seconded.
Motion passed unanimously. Pryor abstained.
Kelly brought up the possibility of a new bond measure and distributed a list that outlined the proposed projects. The goal is to have campus forums over the next couple of months. In February 2016, a polling and political analysis would be performed to determine if a bond measure would resonate with voters. Board support would be sought in March, and final approval would come to the board in June 2016.
The board discussed the possibility of going out for a new bond and the potential projects it would encompass, such as technology, performing arts, plans for the old Downtown Center, and the location of archives and the dental hygiene clinic.
E. Enrollment Update
Executive Dean Kerry Levett shared with the board the strategies to increase enrollment for Fall term. Over the summer, staff have engaged in early Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) work, paying attention to college-wide enrollment data and meeting each Monday morning to determine a course of action to influence enrollment. Returning students have been notified by e-mail, social media, phone calls, and Orgsync. At the time of the meeting, fall enrollment was down by 13% compared to registrations this time last year. The Executive Team is working closing with Division Deans to monitor enrollment and add classes where there is need.
The SEM Steering Team will make plans for winter term registration in October.
4. Accountability/Reports
A. Facilities Update
An update on the status of bond and facility projects was presented.
B. Community Outreach Monitoring Report
The Community Outreach Monitoring Report was presented to the board.
6. Reports
ASLCC President Ashley Jackson reported that it has been an eventful summer, beginning with an audit for the Rainy Day Food Pantry. The sustainability coordinator, Bobby Kirkpatrick, received an honorable mention for his advocacy around food justice. ASLCC recently held a retreat in the Longhouse. In the middle of the summer a retreat was held to discuss issues affecting students at the state level. Those issues will be included on a survey to students. The students are excited about the Learning Commons. Students advocated for HB2071 which passed and is directing the HECC to look deeper into open educational resources and declare a state of emergency and states that each public university and community college prominently designate courses with material consistent with open, free or low cost textbook options. Jackson formally requested to hear about that at Lane and to see that as they are registering for classes. Students from Lane and across the state met with Kate Brown and discussed racial injustice, current Jim Crow laws, police brutality, queer and trans justice, and the need for better data collection. Another issue that students discussed with Kate Brown is that student-elected representatives at community colleges do not have a vote, but universities do have student representatives that cast votes. Students are looking into why that is inconsistent from community colleges to university levels. They also discussed the Oregon Promise and the fundamental issue for funding education. Jackson would like to further that discussion and talk about the impact that Measures 5, 47, and 50 had on Lane and what can be done moving forward to secure adequate funding. Jackson requested that contact information for board members be available to students.
LCCEF President Bob Baldwin reported that the union is prepping for mediation to be held on Friday regarding the non-contract time which the college asserts costs $130,000. The union was taken aback by that. He had asked for a financial analysis and concluded that management has made substantial error. It is the union’s proposal that closing the college during those days in December actual saves the college a greater amount of money. Arbitrations are coming up in November on other labor relations issues. This continues the trend of demonstrating that the union does not see the college engaging in its commitment to treat staff respectfully and its commitment to financial transparency.
LCCEA President Jim Salt congratulated the newly elected LCCEA officers. In late July, an arbitration ruling found that the college violated the contractual complaint procedures. Members appreciate the findings and look forward to seeing the college fully follow the contract and respect the rights of the faculty in future complaints. As was noted at the July meeting, the association will develop proposals for ways to work with the college to address the many issues faculty raised in the survey conducted in Spring term. The Oregon coalition formally passed a ballot measure that will raise 4 billion dollars to state funding. The language in the title of the bill is in the summary says the money goes through grade 12 and would appear to exclude higher education. The association will fight to prevent that language. Salt asked that board formally endorse the measure at the right time and commit to joining the campaign.
Interim Vice President Dawn DeWolf congratulated the Rites of Passage faculty for another round of wonderful summer programs focusing on cultural history, folklore and traditions. Over the past decade, more than 2300 students of color have participated in Rites of Passage (ROP). Lane is working with the Springfield School District and ROP. A proposal was submitted to present on our ROP programs at the Achieving the Dream conference in February. TRIO and TRIO Stem programs were awarded five more years of funding to serve 180 students in non-STEM programs and 120 students in STEM programs. Lane has recently partnered with South Lane School District, and the South Lane Family Resource Center is now located on the Cottage Grove campus. In August, a GED test site visit was conducted. In 2014 test was changed and made more rigorous. Lane students who tested on our site had the highest percentages of GED test completers who passed with honor level scores in the state of Oregon.
Vice President Brian Kelly reported that the custodial team has worked over 350 days without injury. KLCC is in the beginning stages of forming a 501c3. This comes directly from the work that the staff and community engaged in with their strategic direction. The Nielson Audience Reports show that KLCC was number three of all radio stations in Lane County. KLCC also ranks as the number two station in the morning drive time and in the top fifteen public radio market shares in the nation. As the result of an NPR contest that encouraged stations to increase their morning listenership, KLCC increased by 11%. The prize is lunch with the president of NPR, Jarl Mohn will be visiting KLCC on October 7. We are on the verge of opening up the CLASS project. It is the largest construction project on campus since the 1960s and has received almost every possibility environmental quality credit towards our LEED certification. This project is ahead of time and on budget. Kelly thanked the Board of Education, the staff at the TitanStore, the Facilities team, the IT team, Facilities Council, the Marketing staff, and the Bond Leadership team. He thanked ASLCC, LCCEA, LCCEF for their communication and the Foundation for their contributions.
Board Reports
Johnston thanked DeWolf and Kelly for their reports and good news.
LeClair appreciated the fact that it had been a good meeting and felt that everyone was working together.
Carrasco felt that the year is starting off on a good foot. He heard Baldwin’s comments and would like to explore the funding and mediation he mentioned.
Pryor expressed gratitude to Salt for bringing up the state funding piece. She would be interested in working on that. She requested information on cultural competency trainings.
Keating also expressed interest in building a coalition to work on the state funding measure. He heard English instructor Dr. Jeff Harrison spinning records on KLCC and reminded colleagues and community about the importance of supporting KLCC’s “Stealth Drive.” Keating looks forward to the visit from the NPR president. Keating would like to see the board’s contact information listed on the website. He recently spoke with a state representative who mentioned inadequate post service training for veterans to reenter the workforce and society and told him about Lane’s Veterans Center and the tuition waiver for dependents of veterans. Keating remembered one of Lane’s former students, Ramsey Tainton, who was tragically murdered. He will be missed.
Stiles congratulated everyone on moving into the Center Building ahead of time. She noted the passing of Fred Ditzhazy. He started the Eugene Ballet. At 84, he was still dancing and still giving lessons in Florence. The Florence Dance Studio is dedicated to his wife. A Florence Center Advisory Board retreat was held last month. It was very beneficial.
McCown welcomed Torch Editor, Andre Casey. McCown advocated for getting the board meetings filmed or online. He stated that he would likely support the ballot measure mentioned by Salt and the board should challenge the other community college boards to a signature collection.
7. Date, Place, and Proposed Agenda Items for the Next Regular Meeting
Wednesday, October 7, 2015, Boardroom, Building 3, Lane Community College
8. The board meeting unanimously adjourned at 9:30 p.m.
_____________________________
Mary Spilde, President/District Clerk
_____________________________
Tony McCown, Board Chair
Prepared by:
Donna Zmolek, Executive Assistant to the President/Board