President’s Report – April 2016
I’d like to offer condolences to Jim Salt on the passing of his mother.
I’d like to give my warm congratulations to Brian Kelly who has been awarded a prestigious Aspen Presidential Fellowship. The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization. Brian has proved himself on many levels in both instruction and college services. As a vice president he has led numerous efforts to transform the college. His commitment to our values and mission is strong. The fellowship will give him additional tools that will benefit Lane.
Four of our faculty won grants from Open Oregon for open educational resources projects. Congratulations to:
- Jennifer Von Ammon in English who will adopt the OER textbook “Writing for Success” for her WR115 classes;
- Tom Burton and Meredith Keene-Wilson in Media Arts who will revise and remix elements from multiple sources for Art 216;
- Alise Lamoreaux In ABSE/GED who will author a textbook for non-traditional students on transitioning to college;
- Teryk Morris of Advanced Technology who will partner with Peter Lauf of Lane ESD to develop an educational Digital Readout to help instructors create sharable projects for manufacturing and fabrication students.
JS Bird and Susan Lowdermilk recently presented on their sabbatical artist residencies to talk about “Projects and Perspectives, Painting and Printmaking: A Discussion of Art and Art–Making.” This was part of the Faculty Professional Development Academic Colloquium series.
Dr. Lisa Benson, Chef Vince Giglia, Mat Kline, our dean of Conference and Culinary Services, and our students won Best Savory Bite at Chef's Night Out! Their Smoked Shrimp with Cornmeal Spaetzel and Heirloom Cauliflower won the night. We also won an Honorable Mention for Presentation and Hospitality.
Brandon Beins, a Culinary Arts student, received the West Family Culinary Award presented by Food For Lane County. Brandon is completing his first year at LCC.
I am pleased that Dr. Jennifer Frei has accepted permanent appointment as our Executive Dean for the School of Arts and Sciences. Jennifer has served as Interim Executive Dean since September 2015 and was our Social Science dean before that.
Finally, hats off to our women’s basketball team and Coach Greg Sheley, who went on from earning the Southern Region title to capturing their 5th Northwest Athletic Conference Championship last month.
For spring term 2016, as of Monday, the third week of classes, total registrations for all classes are down 12.0% compared to the same point last year.
EWEB has acknowledged that a human error on their part resulted in the water main break led to our main campus closure on March 24 and 25. They will reimburse us for expenses and correct some misinformation that circulated after the event.
As a result of the heavy rains in March, we have to remediate some of our buildings that got water in them.
You might have seen the blog post by Matt Reed in the April 12 edition of the online newsletter, Inside Higher Ed. He covered a panel presentation at AACC on the Umpqua Community College tragedy that I gave along with former UCC President Rita Cavin, and Anne Marie Levis who managed their crisis communications. We had a very engaged Q&A. Campus safety is, of course, a growing concern for everyone. We have Lane staff participating in trainings and meetings including one sponsored by the HECC and Oregon State Police last month in Salem. There is one coming up on May 12 at the University of Oregon to provide input to the governor’s taskforce on safety which had its first meeting a couple of weeks ago. There will be a national conference on campus safety in June in Portland and will give us information and help us develop further plans.
Our annual Powwow on April 2 was another great event honoring our elders and celebrating our Native American community. Thanks to James Florendo and our Native American Student Association for keeping this event vibrant for our local and regional communities.
Our Learning Commons team hosted dance instructor Bonnie Simoa and student Jessica Ealy who performed the rare Balinese dance called the “Legong Kutir” last week. It was a great way to enrich students’ experience and use our wonderful new space in the Center Building.
Our annual job fair will be April 21. We have 54 employers signed up. Last year about 700 job-seekers attended the event.
Shakespeare’s “Cymbeline” will be offered by our Student Production Association from April 22 through 30. The guest director is Bill Hulings, a seasoned performer with companies such as Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Guthrie, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and others. You can get tickets at lanecc.edu/tickets.
Our semi-annual prescription drug take-back day will be Saturday, April 30, hosted by Public Safety. This year we’ll also accept food donations for local food banks. Hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and drop off stations will be on main campus in front of the CML, and downtown in front of our Academic Building.
We will be closed Friday, May 6, for our spring conference. Our keynote speaker will be Julianne Malveaux, former president of a historically black college, and there will be workshops throughout the day.
On May 10, the Lane Library will host storyteller Rebecca Hom who will talk about Oregon Chinese pioneers Ing Hay and Lung On. They built the Kam Wah Chung Chinese center in the 1870s in John Day. Hom’s talk is part of a series sponsored by the Oregon Historical Society in partnership with Oregon libraries. The talk will be at 2 .m. in the Haugland Commons in the Center Building.
Food Scene Eugene will be held on main campus on May 13 and 14. The event will offer guests a culinary adventure focusing on how food and drink intersect with art, innovation and technology. Our mission is to connect the community to the local food and drink scene, Lane's future Culinary & Hospitality industry professionals, and educate them on innovative, creative, and new technology all related to food. Tickets are online and a link will be on our home page.
There are a few items regarding downtown development I’d like to share:
1.) There is a proposal to redevelop the property at 844 Olive, the former location of the Rogue Ales. Eugene-based developer Granite Properties is proposing to add four stories and 35 housing units above the existing building. We’ve been in discussion with the city about this project because it involves the transfer of ownership of a small piece of publicly-owned property in the alley which backs up to the KLCC building. Additionally, an added four stories would block the transmitter and knock KLCC off the air, so we are taking steps to prepare any actions we may need to take while working with city staff to determine ways to minimize any fiscal impact to the station.
2.) The Eugene City Council is currently considering a list of downtown improvement projects. As you know, there is interest is possibly including our former downtown center site. Other projects include installing high speed fiber, an upgraded Farmers Market, and improved parks and open spaces. Each of the projects will have a work session scheduled before the council holds a public hearing on downtown improvements on May 23. The council is also discussing how to fund any projects that move forward; some support amending the current Downtown Urban Renewal Plan while others support asking voters to raise taxes to purchase general obligation bonds. As I mentioned last month, we have been in discussion with community groups who are interested in working with us to create a multi-tenant hub that would serve as an incubator to support the arts and tech communities. We will have information to present to the board on this next month. The city council currently has a work session scheduled for our project on Wednesday, May 18 at noon.
We were happy to hear last week that we were one of two school districts selected in Lane County to receive funding from Business Oregon for seismic upgrades. We will receive $686,000 toward upgrades in Building 18. Congratulations to Jennifer Hayward and staff for all of their work to get that money.
Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced new legislation on March 15 that would authorize the America’s College Promise initiative. The bill, known as In the Red Act of 2016, includes College Promise language from her earlier bill as well as new provisions that would allow the refinancing of student loans and would amend the tax code to offset the projected costs associated with the legislation.
There’s been a lot of discussion going on about the Oregon Promise, and I have been invited to a national symposium at the beginning of June as one of fifteen community college folks as well as business people, second lady Jill Biden, and Martha Kanter, to talk about ways to finance the Oregon Promise in states. They are looking at a number of ways that would help us in Oregon have a more competitive promise to our students.
I would like to welcome Michael Jones as the new Oregon Student Association campus organizer. Michael understands community colleges well and was a student at Linn Benton. He arrived during the middle of a voter registration drive and student government elections, so needless to say he’s had to hit the ground running. Welcome, Michael!
I will close with a flashback. It was one year ago on April 14 that a tornado touched down in our parking lot west of building 19 and overturned two cars, without any injuries. We were so fortunate and you just never know what’s going to happen next.