President's Report – December 2014

Welcome everyone. It's finals week, and I just want to say how proud I am of everyone for all their hard work this term, especially our students who work so hard to achieve their educational goals.

In particular, I'd like to congratulate Wesley Bryant who is studying at Lane to get his paramedic license. As just about the whole world knows, Wesley won a $20,000 scholarship from Dr. Pepper in a competition that included a half-time football toss at last week's Arizona-Oregon Pac 12 championship game. Applicants had to post a video about themselves online at drpeppertuition.com, and you can see Wesley's story there. Another Oregon student, Sarah Roundtree of the UO, won a $100,000 scholarship in the same competition.

Before we get to college business, I want to express my sadness, and my sympathy for the friends and colleagues of a few members of our Lane family who have passed away:

Barbara Hasbrouck passed away at age 85, surrounded by her three daughters. Barbara worked at Lane from 1970 to 1992 as a much loved and admired administrative assistant for the English Department, now known as Language, Literature and Communication.

Richard Archambault, long-time volunteer supporter of Lane's Longhouse and a much-loved colleague, passed away after long term health issues. Richard was especially instrumental in securing and processing the beautiful logs and timber used in the construction of the longhouse. He also was the key photographer for the Native American Student Association Longhouse, and the opening of our Robert Maxwell Student Veteran Center. He was humble, always focused on others, and warmed everyone with his distinctive chuckle and good humor. His contributions are immeasurable. His passion and commitment for getting the job done was always present. Richard also was a veteran. We have set up an account in his memory in the Foundation, called the Richard Archambault Student Assistance Fund. This fund will assist Native American students in need at Lane. We will let you know when memorial plans are finalized.

John Cooney, longtime volunteer at KLCC and producer of the show, "Natural World," passed away from lung cancer. He was at home surrounded by family. A memorial service is being planned. John was been a vital part of KLCC since 1979. The "Natural World" began in 1999 but he also created and was first host of "Straight Street" which remains one of KLCC's top music shows. He also created a long-running weekend program called "This Sunday Morning."

Ron Mitchell, former chair of Social Science, passed away November 21. Ron started teaching social science at Lane in 1966, and then taught psychology starting in 1976. He coordinated the Cooperative Work Experience program, and chaired the Social Science department from 1988 until his retirement in 1995.

Marshall Sauceda, Board of Education member from 1996 to 1997 in the zone 5 position, passed away December 4. Marshall had a lasting and positive influence on the college. He was a mentor of students and a leader for communities of color. He directed the UO multicultural office, and in 1997 he received a Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. He was also known to many as a huge Duck fan.

We will miss each and everyone one of these colleagues and are the richer for having had them in our lives.

I applaud the Board of Education for going the extra mile this past month on behalf of the college and its students, from the board's weekend retreat last month and your focus on student success, to the series of Community Conversations to help inform our strategic planning. I'd like to mention Donna Zmolek, Elizabeth Andrade, and Brett Rowlett for their extra support to the board and administration for helping make this possible.

I'm also grateful to the faculty and staff who have participated in our robust discussions in the Global Conversations series. We've talked about Trends in Community Colleges, the Future of Public Higher Education, and Student Success, Progression and Completion. Turnout has been across all groups and disciplines, which is very encouraging.

As most of you know by now, the Governor's Recommended Budget was released last week and included a recommendation of $500 million for the Community College Support Fund. The amount is $19 million less than the HECC recommendation. Additionally, the budget did not include any funding for deferred maintenance projects. The largest investment in the budget was made in K-12, of which $400 million is earmarked for early learning and an initiative to make sure 90% of all third grade students can read at that level in five years. The governor also proposed a 26% increase in funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant program. The increase in funding will support a redesign of the program to align eligibility with federal Pell Grants, prioritize making awards to students with the highest needs, eliminate first-come first-served awarding, and guarantee second-year awards to first year students who meet specified academic benchmarks. Also in the GRB is $31 million general fund for a workforce fund; a $25 million community leverage fund; and $1.6 million for an innovation center that is to be housed in HECC. There is also $15 million for CTE in the Department of Education budget. I'm going to pass out what I received at the OEIB meeting yesterday when the Governor presented his budget to the board which lays out his investments. I would say that it was generally well received. People were complimentary about making investments in the things they believed mattered. I, however, pointed out that although I cannot fault any of the investments as an OEIB member, as a college president I know that there is no way this will work. $500 million is the allotment community colleges received in 2007, and we know that expenses have gone up. We may as well get real about 404020. It is moving from an aspirational goal to an unattainable dream.

In addition, the Governor and HECC both continue to show interest in outcomes based funding, despite research that shows this type of distribution formula has little or no impact on student learning outcomes. I wrote to the Governor about this, and Chair Albright wrote to the HECC to make our concerns clear.

In a meeting on Monday, the co-chairs indicated they were not that excited about performance based funding, so if we organize we can make a difference. A couple of the community college presidents support it, but I will be lobbying from the perspective that we should not replace a faulty system with another broken system.

One piece of good news is that the co-chairs will be trying to develop their budget by January 12. We've heard that they are going to try to pencil us in as $550 million, not $500. It would be great if they could get their budget out earlier, because then we can use that as the basis for our projections.

I'd like to thank Brett Rowlett and Pat Albright for joining me yesterday to talk with some of our legislative delegation about the budget picture.

As you may have seen recently in the news, both the cities of Eugene and Springfield are in the process of updating their urban growth boundaries. Springfield is exploring the possibility of expanding their UGB to cover the Seavey Loop area between LCC and Mt. Pisgah as well as another proposal that would cross Interstate 5 and bring parts of Goshen into Springfield. And at a work session earlier this week, Eugene city staff reported their recommendations to the Eugene City Council, which includes extending Eugene's UGB over the hill into the LCC basin area. Both cities' actions have the potential to impact the college, so we are following them closely and will provide you with updates as things move forward. The entire process is expected to take about 1.5 years.

Beginning this week, the college is partnering with Cover Oregon to help more local residents sign up for health insurance. Cover Oregon will be using the Downtown Campus for weekly enrollment open houses. The first open house was held earlier today.

Hopefully no one will need to use their insurance due to Ebola. We are monitoring this issue and are aligned with the Lane County Ebola Screening and Transport Plan, in the event of any local occurrence. This is a coordinated plan to ensure the safety and care of any potential patients, responders, residents and visitors and is itself in alignment with the State Health Department, Centers for Disease Control, and World Health Organization protocols. Our Health Clinic is prepared to do any screening and our Public Safety and Emergency Planning teams are keeping informed. Ebola was a big topic at the AACC conference in Washington, D.C. It was clear that Lane is doing everything that was recommended there.

Our downward enrollment trend continues with winter term registrations down 26.4% compared to the same point a year ago.

I am pleased to announce that the Coeta and Donald Barker Foundation funded our grant request for a veteran-specific orientation and veteran-specific student resource handbook. A big thank you to Sharon Hainley for all the work she did in putting together our successful application.

Congratulations to our fall term Faculty Recognition Award winners, Steve Candee in Social Science, and Patti Jackson in ABSE. They are each extremely deserving of the award, and it was a privilege for me to be there for their surprise presentations.

Last week our Titan Toastmasters club held its charter celebration meeting. It's a great team, and I was pleased to attend the meeting. Thanks to Jim Lindly for getting this chapter going, and to Thomas Price for serving as club president.

I would like to thank Jim Garcia, Greg Evans and our students for bringing Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sonia Nazario to Lane to talk about immigration and her book, "Enrique's Journey," and to Lane's Puertas Abiertas Leadership Academy, MEChA de LCC students, and ASLCC for their sponsorship. It was a pleasure to introduce her and to hear her presentation. Sonia's book describes the harrowing journey of a boy who traveled from Honduras to the United States, largely riding atop freight trains through bandit territory, to reunite with his mother after 11 years apart.

Let me give you a sneak preview of MLK Day. Lane will have actress and activist Holly Robinson-Peete as our guest speaker, thanks to the work of Greg Evans. You may know Holly from her roles as Judy Hoffs on "21 Jump Street," Vanessa Russell on "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper," or as Dr. Malena Ellis on "For Your Love." She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and speaks four languages. She wrote the children's book, "My Brother Charlie," which won the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in 2011. Our MLK event will be in the Center for Meeting and Learning. Mark your calendars now for January 19.

It's been a busy month. I just returned from the League Executive Leadership Institute in Phoenix. Before that was the AACC Fall meeting in DC where I attended a meeting regarding the student loan default rate, and while back east, I also attended the TIAA CREF meeting in New York.

And now it's time for the winter holidays. The college will be closed to the public from Dec. 22 to 28 and again on New Year's Day. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and a chance to recharge before we meet back here in 2015.