Board Report – January 2013
Thank you to everyone for accommodating our late start time this month, but it was for a very good reason. Earlier this evening, Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy honored Lane in her State Of The City address at the Hult Center. She gave us a Community Award for our Downtown Campus which she called an "exemplary model of sustainability in keeping with goals and values held by the city, the college and throughout the region." Everyone here should take pride in this recognition and I have to say it has been a delight to work with the mayor and the city throughout this comprehensive and rewarding project. Our new campus really has energized downtown Eugene.
Some of us were just there on Friday for a staff commemoration. They gathered at the old Downtown Center and passed a piece of carpeting laid in 1977 hand-to-hand until reaching the new Downtown Campus, where I joined them, and we enclosed the swatch in a time capsule that was sealed and secured under concrete. It was fun and I can't wait for everyone to get to see the new campus.
I'd like to thank Jenette Kane for the event and for organizing the phenomenal task of moving. She pulled together a great team from Facilities, Public Safety, the Bookstore, ESL, Energy Management, IT, Human Resources, ABSE, ESL, SBDC, and others. We'll be working out a few kinks as with any new construction, but we're in business. We're looking forward to our Grand Opening celebration on March 15.
The Eugene City Club will get a tour that day when they hold the first of six meetings this year at our Downtown Campus, thanks to the determination of Brett Rowlett. This will be our chance to help that group see firsthand some of the tremendous economic impact that Lane has in our community.
Congratulations to Greg Evans who was appointed Monday to the Eugene City Council to replace Pat Farr, who was elected to the Board of Commissioners. Greg will represent west Eugene on the council. As you know, Greg teaches at Lane and founded our renowned Rites of Passage summer academies program.
Three cheers for December's Classified Employee of the Month, Michael Levick of the Academic Technology Center. Michael began working at Lane in December 2003. He is a high performance employee totally dedicated to students and faculty and staff. I don't think we could do without him.
Hats off to faculty member Margaret Robertson. She has been named a Sustainability Fellow in the Higher Education Associations Sustainability Consortium, which is a part of AASHE, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
We concluded our annual employee fundraising campaign last month with a participation rate of 44 percent, the best ever, and a total of $118,248. That exceeded our goal of $115,000. Congratulations to the Foundation and the "Feel the Power" campaign team, and sincere thanks to every individual employee who contributed.
I'd like to recognize High School Connections for a couple of accomplishments. First, director Deron Fort wrote a great article for the "League Innovations" newsletter, titled, "Combining a Fifth Year of High School and First Year of College: Creating a Win-Win-Win for Students, School District, and Community College." You can find the article online at www.league.org
Second, Student Recruitment & Outreach Coordinator Gerardo Cifuentes collaborated with Eugene School District 4J to offer FAFSA student aid labs for 4J high school students, taking our counselors and financial aid experts on site to present information and help students complete the form. Research shows that FAFSA completion correlates strongly with college enrollment, particularly among low-income populations.
Following the trend from fall, winter term enrollment also is down from a year ago, but again, it's an expected adjustment after our 40 percent growth over the last three years. At present, registrations are down 10.5% compared to winter 2012
In late November we arranged for an external maintenance review of our aircraft fleet as part of our proactive plan following the off-airport landing of one of our planes earlier that month. We needed to have the work done quickly to minimize disruption to student training so we contracted with all of the available, qualified maintenance facilities between Roseburg and Portland. Because of the timeline and the need to serve students, we did not go through the usual process of getting three bids for each job, but the work performed paid standard labor rates and did not result in any significant cost disadvantage to the college. This was a variance to the board's procurement rules, but we felt it was urgent to meet the needs of the students before the end of the year.
Let me just mention a few special events coming up this month:
This Saturday, January 12, we are hosting a Community Gang Prevention Symposium in partnership with the City of Eugene, local school districts, police agencies, University of Oregon, Lane County Department of Youth Services, social service agencies, and others. It will be all day in the CML beginning about 9 a.m. It will offer information about local gang problems, address stereotypes, show what prevention techniques work, and create a plan to solve our community's criminal gang problem.
On Tuesday, January 15, we are celebrating the retirement of Foundation Director Janet Anderson at a special event in the Health and Wellness Center.
Another retirement I'd like to acknowledge is that of Steve Barton, who has been with KLCC for 35 years. We will say farewell to Steve on Thursday, January 24, 2013 from 5-7 at KLCC, 136 W 8th Ave.
On Thursday, January 17, we will have a performance of "Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men Of The South Tell Their Tales," a one-man play with Dr. E. Patrick Johnson. He is a scholar, artist and activist and a professor of performance studies and African American studies at Northwestern University. The performance will be from 1-3 p.m. in the Ragozzino Performance Hall. This is sponsored by our Diversity Strategic Direction Committee and Diversity Office. In March, they are sponsoring another presentation about the life and times of singer, actor, athlete and civil rights activist Paul Robeson to be performed by our own faculty member, Dr. Stanley Coleman.
This afternoon I did another Comcast Newsmaker's interview. We talked about the opportunities and challenges facing community colleges and our unique role in economic recovery. Newsmaker interviews may appear on CNN Headline news.