President’s Report – March 2016

First things first.  My grandbaby was born two weeks ago in Eugene.  Her name is Sloane, which is Gaelic for warrior.  It’s awesome, for those of you that haven’t had this experience yet.  I’m looking forward to spending more time with her.

It was an honor to accept the Outstanding Intergovernmental Team Award on behalf of the college, at the Lane Council of Governments annual dinner on February 26. The award recognized our work to support Umpqua Community College after the shooting there in October. A special thanks to board member Matt Keating for nominating Lane for the award.

I am pleased to report that our accrediting agency, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, has accepted our fall 2015 Year One Mission and Core Themes Report. The report was expanded to address recommendations 1 and 3 of the fall 2014 Year Seven Peer Evaluation Report. The commission determined that the recommendations and our seven year report are now substantially in compliance with criteria for accreditation.  Within the last couple of weeks we submitted the ad hoc report which addressed the rest of the recommendations, only two of which need to get back into substantial compliance.  I am confident that when we get the report back from the commission, probably in early summer, that we will be in full compliance on all of the recommendations.

Kudos to Oregon SBDC Network director Mark Gregory and his team. For the first time, OSBDCN has achieved full accreditation without conditions. This is a huge accomplishment.

Last week we had a site visit from the Office of Civil Rights. This was part of a regular cycle of visits to community colleges who receive Perkins funds primarily related to career and technical programs. Thanks to the many staff who escorted the OCR team and especially to Terrie Minner, who hosted the visitors, and to Todd Smith and Jennifer Hayward of Facilities.  Some of the buildings are over 50 years old.  Todd and his staff fixed things on the spot when possible.  We will be reviewing recommendations to ensure we are within the purview of regulations.

Our workers compensation experience rating for the next premium has gone down .60.  This means we have experienced 40 percent fewer safety and health claims during the past three years and it will make our premiums 40 percent lower, saving the college more than $100,000 dollars in premiums. More importantly, it shows how successful our employees and managers have been in ensuring a safe and healthy working and learning environment for Lane.

We are working on an opportunity to refinance our 2009 bond. Every so often, bond counsel reviews this to see if we can save money, and it looks like we can.  While this would not affect Lane’s operating budget, it would save taxpayers close to $1 million for the life of the bond. As the fiscal agent, this is the right thing to do for taxpayers in our district and would keep tax dollars in the district.

Congratulations to Dr. Paul Ruscher for his appointment as our new Science Division Dean. Paul has been interim dean since summer, and has taught at Lane since 2012. He is an expert on meteorology, atmospheric sciences, geosciences, and water resource science.

Junction City School District has been nationally recognized by the College Board for creating opportunities for traditionally underrepresented students, including participating in Lane’s Puertas Abiertas program. Thanks to program coordinator Jim Garcia for working with the district to provide this important opportunity to Junction City students.

Kudos to the Lane Titans Women’s Basketball Team and Coach Greg Sheley. They clinched the Northwest Athletic Conference Southern Region Title last month and are competing in the NWAC championship. Last Saturday, Lane point guard Shelby Snook, in her final home game as a Titan, scored 17 first-half points and finished with 25 total, leading Lane to an 89-39 win over Everett in the first round of the Northwest Athletic Conference championship. The Titans now have a 29-1 season record and a spot in the elite eight for the fifth straight year. They play Centralia in Everett, Washington, tomorrow.  

Congratulations to The Torch for winning Best of Show for two-year colleges at this year’s Associated Collegiate Press conference in Los Angeles. The Torch was up against numerous community colleges from throughout the western United States. Kudos also to faculty advisors Charlie Dietz and Dorothy Wearne for their quiet and consistent support for Lane students.

Some of you will remember Josh Canaday, former ASLCC president. He called to let me know that he began his master's program in public management at Sonoma State University last fall.  I wrote a letter of recommendation for him to use to get into the program, so he wanted to let us know that he was in the program and doing well.

For winter term as of Monday, the start of week 10 of classes, total registrations are down 8.8%.

The HECC reported 16,502 students completed Oregon Promise applications by the March 1 deadline, and an additional 5,804 submitted incomplete applications. After further review we will hear the final of number of eligible students who will enroll at least half time.

I want to thank KLCC for bringing NPR Education Correspondent Claudio Sanchez to Eugene. He talked about the “3 P's of Education Reform: Politics, Policy & Pedagogy.” Claudio also lectured at the UO and Lane and taught a workshop for our KLCC reporters.

We had a fabulous presentation and a great turnout for using guided pathways as a design process, with Davis Jenkins of the Community College Research Center at Columbia University. He co-wrote “Redesigning America’s Community College.”  Will have a follow up with Lane folks in spring term.

The Oregon Legislature wrapped up its one-month session last Thursday. It was a contentious five weeks with majority Democrats passing out major legislation and frustrated Republicans using parliamentary procedures to slow the process down. The minimum wage increase was the biggest policy bill of the session and something that will impact community colleges as the increase is implemented over the next six years. Unfortunately, the statewide capital construction ask for safety and security needs did not move forward. A combination of not enough time and too many questions led legislative leaders to postpone this issue. They plan to wait until the governor’s workgroup on campus safety releases recommendations later this year, and then they will consider a larger safety package during the next session.   I will be sitting on the governor’s workgroup and we meet the end of March.  A compromise bill to preserve fifth year programs for qualifying students passed in the final days of the session as well as a bill that will provide campuses with small amounts of funding for student success initiatives serving Oregon Promise and other students. OCCA has released an end-of-session report with more information, available on their website or from Brett.

Last month, Dan Findley stepped down as Director of the Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development. He has been replaced by Patrick Crane, who should be a great fit for the position.

We attended the ACCT National Legislative Summit in Washington. I had the opportunity to participate on a panel with Andrea Henderson from OCCA and Vanessa Becker, chair of the Umpqua Community College board. We discussed safe campuses in the wake of last fall’s tragic event. We also met with Oregon’s Congressional delegation and discussed issues ranging from America’s Promise to the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act.

We have begun to have conversations about the future of the former downtown center property. As you may have read in the paper, the Eugene City Council asked city staff to consider including our building in a possible list of projects funded by an extension of the downtown urban renewal district. Two weeks ago we held a meeting with interested community members, city staff and members of the tech and arts communities to discuss their needs for space downtown and whether it makes sense to develop a shared space concept for the building.

On February 24 we hosted a training on holding conversations through deliberative dialog. This is an initiative of the Democracy Commitment funded by a grant through the Kettering Foundation. About 20 students, staff and faculty attended the training presented by Alberto Reyes-Olivas, executive director of the Congressman Ed Pastor Center for Politics and Public Policy at Arizona State University, and John Theis, director of the Center for Civic Engagement at Lone Star College. Susie and Matt also attended. This spring, students will host campus conversations using the skills learned at the workshop. Thanks to Karen Krumrey, Brett Rowlett and Christina Walsh for organizing the training.

Finals are next week, and then it’s spring break starting March 20. I’m sure every person in this room is looking forward to that.