President’s Report – May 2016

We had a great Spring Conference on Friday. Guest speaker Dr. Julianne Malveaux was very good. Our workshops focused on diversity and equity and did a lot to move our collective meter on cultural competency. My thanks to Greg Evans, Media Services and everyone who pitched in.

I want to distribute the latest edition of Lane’s publication, the Community College Moment.  I want to thank Russell Shitabata, Aryn Bartley, and Ben Hill, co-editors.  This is my airplane reading for when I go to Scotland in the summer, and I always enjoy it.

I’m also distributing information about a grant that we are proposing to the Kellogg Foundation.  For about two years, I’ve been involved in an organization called Community Catalyst around providing dental health to marginalized populations.  There’s a model program in Alaska with one of the tribes there.  We were invited to submit a proposal for a planning grant to develop a dental therapy program which will build on the dental assisting and dental hygiene programs that we already have but basically provide a program for a new mid-level professional with expanded functions.  I’ve asked Sharon Hagan, Dental Hygiene coordinator, to join this work, and she has had the opportunity to go to Alaska to see how that program is set up.  Kellogg and Community Catalyst really believe that this program belongs in community colleges, as opposed to a master’s degree level program.  The purpose of the grant is to determine the interest in a dental therapist program offered by community colleges.  The project emphasis is on diverse student recruitment and service to underserved patients emphasizing Latino and Native American tribal college students and care for underserved patient populations, many of whom do not have access to dental care.  We are very excited about being invited to submit this application.  Part of the requirement is that we communicate with the board and let you know that this work is underway.

Kudos to ASLCC’s student Mariana Sofía Paredones for organizing a peaceful rally about the presidential race, expressing her point of view and speaking up for marginalized members of our society.

I’d like to welcome Carl Yeh as director of Student Standards. He joins us from OSU, and he has also worked at the UO and Southwestern Oregon Community College.

I appreciate Laura Greene for stepping up to be our Interim Health Clinic Director. She has served the clinic for the past two years and has ten years’ experience as a nurse practitioner.

Thanks to Greg Holmes and Brian Kelly for presenting to Moody’s Investors Service last week. We want to issue $14,115,000 in general obligation refunding bonds and get a bond rating from Moody’s. Refinancing the 2009 bond would reduce our annual debt service requirements, saving $932,844, or 5.73%. Clearly, this would be good for the college and for taxpayers. As you know from last month’s discussion, balancing the 2016/17 budget without a tuition increase would lower our ending fund balance to 6.9%. A healthy fund balance is important to maintaining our overall financial position and getting a good bond rating, as well as allowing us to capitalize on the bond market savings. We are expected to replenish our fund balance back to 10% as per board policy, and we will hear back from Moody’s about our bond rating on May 19. If the bond market stays favorable, we would sell bonds on June 1 and they would mature in June 2024. Please note that at your places is the college's tax-exempt bond post-issuance compliance policy that was referenced in last month’s resolution. This is the process that the college will use to safeguard the tax -exempt status of the college's bonds.

This is the seventh week of spring term. Total registrations for all classes are down 9.8% compared to the same point last year. Included in that is a 14.6% decline in total credits, except for College Now, where credits are up 34.8%.

I am delighted and not at all surprised that our CLASS remodel is winning design awards. The project won a national Illumination Award of Merit for lighting design and also an Excellence in Concrete Award. Finally, it was a finalist for the Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon Top Projects awards. Congratulations to our team of bond project leaders, facilities staff, our design partners and our contractors.

Compliments to Lane’s Science Division Dean Paul Ruscher, who also self-identifies as our resident weather geek. Paul led a team from Science, IT, Facilities, Florence and Cottage Grove, to establish three operating weather stations that are part of a national project called the Citizen Weather Observer Program. This enables Lane to participate in a national weather network that feeds data directly into servers that work in conjunction with National Weather Service partners. Eventually we will be on national weather maps and we will be able to create custom web pages for each of our locations. We will have better information to help us plan and prepare for adverse weather.

I interviewed with the Wall Street Journal last week for another story on student debt and the particular way that has affected community colleges and how we have responded to help students.

I believe you all know that former longtime board member Dennis Shine’s wife, Kate Wallace, passed away last month. Kate was a community force and will be missed by many. I appreciate everyone who has shared your condolences with Dennis.

• Late last month I attended the Achieving the Dream (ATD) symposium, and as I shared with staff on Friday, we will be relaunching our ATD effort.  We hosted ATD coaches here last week.
• In early June I’ll be attending the College Promise Initiatives meeting at Princeton.
• I was able to attend this year’s All Oregon Academic Team student recognition hosted annually by the Oregon Community College Association and the Phi Theta Kappa honor society. Congratulations to Lane scholar Madison Shell, our member of the team. She’s an outstanding track athlete, having made All American rank in steeple chase and cross country. She plans to continue her education at Concordia University for a degree in sports management.
• We held an open campus conversation on strategic planning in late April to get more feedback as we work toward setting our direction for the next five years.
• I attended the US Bank economic forecast breakfast yesterday.  It’s no wonder our enrollment is down; one of the statistics is that there are 5.5 million more jobs above January 2008 and 14.2 million above the trough of February 2010.  Sadly, a lot of these are not family wage jobs.

There are several events on campus this month. You can read about them in the Lane Weekly staff newsletter, but I will mention a few you might want to note for your calendars:

* Diesel Days, promoting our diesel tech program, will bring heavy equipment to campus from several local businesses. That will be this Friday and Saturday.

* Food Scene Eugene highlighting our culinary programs and including the Iron Chef Eugene competition, will also be this weekend, from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, and 12-5 p.m. on Saturday.

* On May 18 we have our annual Employee Recognition Gala. This gets more poignant every year. This time we will honor 33 10-year employees, 28 20-year employees, 9 30-year employees, and 3 40-year employees. We will also applaud 72 retiring employees. This is an amazing record of service.

* Our Veterans Services office has organized some Memorial Week displays and events for next week, including a POW/MIA Remembrance Table Dedication Ceremony on May 23.

The Eugene City Council and LTD continue to explore possible future routes for EmX and/or enhanced bus service.  At a joint meeting on April 25 the two boards advanced three corridors for further study: Coburg Road, Highway 99, and a combined River Road/30th Avenue route that would serve our main campus.  Further analysis will be done of each corridor and presented to both boards later this year.

I would like to congratulate ASLCC and the Oregon Student Association on another successful voter registration drive. They registered 1973 Lane students, part of 21,000 students registered statewide through the Student Vote Coalition. Great work! And in case anyone needs a reminder, Election Day is next Tuesday. Get your ballots turned in today!