BOARD REPORT - NOVEMBER 2013

I want to express my personal condolences to the family and friends, including many of us at this table, on the passing of Larry Romine. Larry made tremendous contributions to Lane first as its public relations director and then as a member of the board. It's very fitting that the board has a resolution on the agenda tonight in his honor. He will be deeply missed.
 
Thanks to Bob, Rosie, Sharon, Pat, Tony and Matt for attending the annual OCCA conference October 24-26. We enjoyed keynote presentations by WICHE President David Longanecker, Walla Walla Community College President Steven VanAusdle, AACC Senior Vice President for Government Relations David Baime, and President of the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement, Rob Johnstone.

Best of all, we were able to honor our own Bob Ackerman, winner of the 2013 Howard Cherry Award for Outstanding Community College Board Member. This is the association's highest honor, and no one is more deserving than Bob. His record of service to Lane and students is unparalleled here at the college and in the state.
 
Lane was honored with an Outstanding Work Award from the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET). Otherwise known as a WOW award, this recognizes our innovative use of educational technologies in higher education, specifically for our Open Educational Resource (OER) Faculty Fellowship. The OER helps faculty create and use OERs in their courses and saves students money by reducing textbook requirements and increasing the number of textbook-free courses. Lane was the only community college and the only Oregon institution to win a WOW award. The other winners were the University of Central Florida and the University of North Carolina.
 
Enrollment continues to be up and down.
• Seventh week figures for fall term show us down by 9.1 percent. Winter term registrations so far, which are highly subject to change at this early stage, are down 23 percent.
• International enrollment is up, and we made it onto the top five list for Oregon in the Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange issued by the Institute of International Education, and funded by US Department of State, Bureau or Educational and Cultural Affairs. The top five Oregon institutions are, in order: University of Oregon (3370 students), Oregon State University (3025), Portland State University (2164), Portland Community College (768), and Lane (328). Last year we had 265 international students. Kudos to Jennifer Falzerano and her team.
 
With the shutdown in Washington behind us, Congressional budget leaders are slowly moving forward.  As part of the agreement to end the government shutdown, House and Senate Budget Committees have begun negotiating the differences between their divergent plans for fiscal year (FY) 2014. The conferees have a December 13 deadline, although there are no immediate consequences for missing that deadline. Meanwhile, the federal government is funded by a continuing resolution (CR) that expires January 15. The CR largely preserves funding at the post-sequester FY 2013 levels. The shutdown agreement also extended the debt ceiling until on or around February 7. It appears that our annual trip to the National Legislative Summit in February will be a busy time.

I want to thank US Congressman Peter DeFazio for visiting Steve Candee's Political Science 201 students last Wednesday. I understand that other learners in the room were Pat Albright and Matt Keating. Rep. DeFazio has come to talk face to face with our students for many years. Kudos also to Steve Candee for making this possible.

There will be many changes in Salem next legislative session. One of the major changes for the education committees will be the loss of Representative Michael Dembrow, who will be filling the Senate seat vacated by Jackie Dingfelder. Michael, a faculty member at Portland Community College, has been one of the biggest community college advocates in the House and will be tough to replace. It looks like Chris Harker will take over as chair of the Higher Education Committee at least temporarily, but we should know more in a few weeks. 

I continue to work on a couple of things at the state level.  The presidents have continued to discuss performance based funding.  I think it's fair to say that there has been a significant shift away from simply concentrating on the model that was developed and instead thinking about what might actually work.  That work is ongoing, and I'm pleased to see that we're no longer focusing on pure performance based funding and the model that had been developed.

There was a study commissioned by the Governor's policy advisor and the Oregon Workforce Investment Board (OWIB) on workforce and the structure of workforce in Oregon.  One of the recommendations is to move the workforce piece out of the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development.  The seventeen college presidents oppose this shift.  I presented last Friday to the OWIB on behalf of the presidents stating our concern.  We're really interested in working with the OWIB and the Governor's office on the design, but we want to make sure there is a tight connection between workforce and education since that is a lot of what we do as community colleges.  We also want to assure that the Higher Education Coordinating Commission encompasses workforce.  We don't just want it to become a just an OUS board, and we believe workforce needs to be part of their focus. 

Lane hosted the Eugene-Springfield Community Meeting on Oregon Education Redesign on October 24 at our Downtown Center. It was sponsored by the Oregon Learns project of the Oregon Business Council. I presented comments, as did Oregon Business Council President Duncan Wyse, Oregon Chief Education Officer Dr. Nancy Golden, and local education leaders with Connected Lane County.
 
Lane again co-sponsored a flu vaccination clinic with Lane County Health and Human Services. It was held October 30 at our Downtown Center. Nearly 500 people received free vaccinations. Thank you to Mona Arbuckle, Brett Rowlett, Amanda Moore, Tricia Tully, Denise Miller, and Mary Gross for their assistance.
 
Kudos to Christina Howard, Physical Therapist Assistant Program coordinator and lead instructor. Christina presented at the League for Innovation's Spotlight 2013, a virtual event that features Innovation of the Year Award winners, giving them international exposure. Christina's project titled, "Death to the Red Pen: Providing Rich and Timely Student Feedback Using Screencasts," won Lane's 2012 Innovation of the Year Award.
 
The Springfield City Council and Lane Transit District Board have approved a study to determine viability and support for mass transit improvements along Main Street and between Glenwood and Lane main campus, including EmX bus rapid transit service. The study is scheduled for completion in late 2014.
 
Everyone who has attended any of the Peacemakers Project events held so far with our two students, Deema Yusuf from Palestine, and Yaara Tal from Israel, have been very impressed. We're hopeful that they will have a good experience at Lane. They already have helped raise awareness and hope for peace for their home countries. Thanks to Clif Trolin, Jennifer Falzerano and Wendy Jett for collaborating on this program.
 
We had an energizing Achieving the Dream site visit on October 29.  I think generally our coaches felt that we are making good progress but we would need to continue to work diligently this year, particularly in the area of developmental math which is one of the selected interventions that we are working on.  
 
The Harvest Dinner on October 30 was a record-setting success. We raised more than $297,000 this year, including more than $74,000 for scholarships. This is an 11 percent increase over last year. Kudos to Wendy Jett, Heather Lee, Tiana Marrone-Creech, Philip Hudspeth and the Foundation team.  And to the culinary folks, the food was amazing!
 
I want to thank Sharon for her support in allowing me to address the Florence City Club on November 1. It's always a pleasure to visit Florence.
 
It was fun to film a digital video with Wendy Simmons and Sandy Brown Jensen for the Wellness Profile Success Stories project.  The purpose is to encourage and inspire employees to improve their health. We have such wonderful staff and facilities here and an outstanding wellness program so I'm happy to help promote that.

I attended the fall meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges last week.  I met with Undersecretary Martha Kanter and among other things discussed the ratings system that has been suggested by President Obama.  Hearings are going on right now on that ratings system.  I don't know that I impacted anything, but I gave reasons why we shouldn't move forward with that for community colleges. For example, we are reflective of our local communities, and it doesn't make sense to compare us with other colleges that are quite different from us.  Also, many of our students are place bound and can't make the decision to go to a different college based on ratings.  There is an opportunity for anyone to get online and give their feedback on the rating system, and I would encourage people to do that. 

We will observe the one-year anniversary of our Maxwell Student Veterans Center tomorrow, November 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You are invited to join our student veterans and our program staff. You may recall that the Center was named for Robert Dale Maxwell, a WWII Medal of Honor recipient and a 20-year auto mechanic instructor for Lane. Lane now serves roughly 1,000 veteran students each term.

Our Shining Star Scholarship Reception is Monday, November 18, starting at 4 p.m. in the Center for Meeting and Learning. It's always a moving experience and a wonderful, in-person reminder of why we dedicate ourselves to the community college mission.