Board Report – March 2012

I would like to acknowledge the passing of Dean Webb on February 9 at age 87. Dean was a charter member of the board, serving from 1964 to 1971 in the Zone 4 position. He was a well-known dentist in Oregon and a long-time practitioner in Cottage Grove.

Lane is the only northwest community college and one of only 53 colleges nationwide participating in the Democracy Commitment sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. This is an initiative to develop and expand community college programs, projects and curricula to engage students in civic learning and democratic practice. The goal is for every community college graduate to have an education in democracy.

Thanks to the Western Lane Community Foundation for its $2,625 grant to our Florence campus to develop a teen technology summer camp. We will partner with the Western Lane Boys and Girls Club on this project. Thanks to Mary Jeanne Kuhar and Janet Anderson for helping make this happen.

The Foundation has some additional good news. The Oregon Urology Foundation gave $50,000 to create the Olof E. Sohlberg Memorial Scholarship Endowment for nursing students, in memory of one of their deceased colleagues. An anonymous donor gave $25,000 to create a scholarship endowment for culinary students. Don Bowers, of the Eugene Downtown Lions Club, created a scholarship in memory of his wife Faye Bowers, and Gloria Tipton contributed a major gift to a scholarship endowment created by her siblings to honor their parents.

The annual League for Innovation and Schaefer Awards have been announced. There were many deserving projects. Congratulations to Christina Howard in the Physical Therapist Assistant program for winning the $1,500 Innovation of the Year Award for her project titled, "Death to the Red Pen: Providing Rich and Timely Student Feedback Using Screencasts."
In addition, $900 awards went to Darlene Baker, Barb Delansky, Helen Garrett, Jennifer Hayward, Brad Hinson, Brian Kelly, Mario Parker-Milligan, and David Reagan for the Zimride social media ridesharing program, and to Barbara Susman and the Successful Aging Institute for the Personal Care Aide Classes. $500 awards went to Anne McGrail and Mary Parthemer for the "Tea and Topics: Talk about your Teaching" series and to the Student Art Print Collection from the Art on Campus Committee including Susan Lowdermilk, Tom Madison, Elizabeth Uhlig, Satoko Motouji, Janet Anderson, Tamara Pinkas, Julie Fether, Rick Williams and myself. Additional awards went to Tom Madison for his Landscape Mural Honors Course; the First-Year Spanish Language textbook by Roma Cusimano, Matt Luke, Sylvie Matalon, Edna Paz, and Bojana Stefanovska; the Fashion Design Class Series developed by Ross Jackson, Tina Reyes and Geno Gutierrez; and a Sustainability in Action Writing 121 class assignment developed by Sarah Lushia. Thanks to Tamara Pinkas and Janet Anderson for organizing this awards process.

The Titans have had a successful term in and out of the classroom. The Women's Basketball Team finished 24-6 overall for the season, and 13-1 in the Southern Region, claiming their Sixth Southern Region title in the last 10 years. They had their 11th consecutive NWAACC Championship tournament appearance. The only sophomore, Reed Levings, was named to the NWAACC Sophomore All-Academic Sports Team. She also was on the Second Team All-Conference Team, as well as the All-Defensive Team. Head Women's Basketball Coach Greg Sheley was named Southern Region Coach of the Year. Men's Basketball player Daniel Ketchum was also on the All-Academic Sports Team. Cross Country runners Gylany Crossman and Rachel Jensen earned the NWAACC Fall Academic Leadership Award. Gylany has a 4.0 cumulative GPA and was an All-American at the NWAACC Cross Country Championships finishing second, and Rachel had a 3.86 cumulative GPA and finished ninth at NWAACC Cross Country Championships. All of these student-athletes maintained high GPAs proving their scholarship as well as their athletic talent and skill.

The League for Innovation and Corporate Voices launched a series of micro-business case studies focused on employer partnerships that advance the completion agenda. Lane's Cooperative Education program was the first case-study featured. Thanks to Al King, who presented at the League conference, and Tamara Pinkas, our League representative, and to everyone in the Cooperative Education program.

Our Successful Aging Institute partnered with AARP to hold a "Caregiving as an Encore Career: conference here on March 7. It drew an overflow crowd of about 300 people. Kudos to Director Barbara Susman.

Our Visiting Scholars on Islam speaker series continued last Thursday with Dr. Irfan Omar of Marquette University who spoke about interfaith connections. The last speaker will be Hussain Amir of Loyola Marymount University on April 12. Thanks to Sonya Christian, Clif Trolin, and the entire team for their thoughtful work on this initiative to encourage religious understanding. I understand there a film festival is in the works next.

We are piloting a free bicycle loan program next term called Bike Lane. It will be similar to the Library's laptop check-out. We will get ten commuter-style bikes and gear for students who can't otherwise afford a bike and help them take advantage of the bus-bike network to get to campus and around town to help lower our collective carbon footprint and encourage good health. If successful, we'll continue fall term. Thanks to Mike Sims and Jennifer Hayward for leading this initiative.

I interviewed with Jennifer Gonzalez from the Chronicle of Higher Education regarding access and completion. I am not sure of the publication date for that article.

Well, the Oregon Legislature's first official even-year session adjourned March 5. It was a short but hectic month. We'll hear more from Oregon Community College Association Executive Director Andrea Henderson later in the meeting.

I attended the AACC-ACCT National Legislative Summit in DC from February 14-16. Thank you to Susie, Tony, and Brett, who also attended. We had numerous Hill visits with Oregon's Congressional delegation. It was a great opportunity to advocate for the President's budget, which was released as we arrived in Washington and contains multiple programs to increase funding and access at community colleges.

While in Washington, I attended the President's release of his FY13 budget proposal. Overall, the Department of Education saw a significant increase in funding, $1.7 billion over his FY 2012 request. There were several new proposals from the State of the Union address, including a small increase in the Pell Grant; an $8 billion three-year Community College to Career Fund to train and place two million skilled workers in high-demand jobs; expansion and restructuring of the Perkins Loan Program; and funding to prevent interest rate increases on Stafford loans.

It was an honor to meet President Obama face to face and shake his hand.

I also attended a Council for Foreign Relations meeting in New York and attended an Achieving the Dream meeting in Dallas. We had a very nice Classical Cuisine dinner; preceded by a wonderful lecture by art faculty, Lee Imonen. I met with representatives of HUD at the invitation of the City of Eugene; Birth to Three fundraiser and several other community events.

I am happy to say that as a result of some effort by Lane, nine other Oregon community colleges will be joining Achieving the Dream in July.

During spring break, Marketing will have new billboards put up at campus entrances announcing that Lane is a training site for the US Olympic Trials. Upgrades to our outdoor facilities enabled us to qualify as an Olympic Trial facility, something that wasn't possible in 2010. We will also have a new sign at Building 1 saying "Student Success Starts Here." It's one of our new taglines that you will begin to see and hear over the upcoming months. Finally, we will replace the black, empty backside of our track and field scoreboard with signs that say "Welcome to Lane Community College, Home of the Titans."

I would like to share an example of lifelong learning. Writing instructor Lance Sparks recently received a call from a former student, Arlene Chellis. She's 97 now and living in Florence. She took a class from Lance in 1984 in Cottage Grove. One night they all went out to dinner and signed the tablecloth. Arlene saved that and stitched it into a fabric. She wanted to pass on the memento to someone younger and asked Lance to take charge. Of course he said yes. He says Arlene is still reading and writing avidly. Lance is retiring at the end of spring term.