President’s Report – November 2015
October 13 was our last day helping our colleagues at Umpqua on site, but others from Lane continued going down to help. I updated our local community about Lane’s outreach in an e-mail, and at least 30 people responded to say how much they appreciated Lane’s response. We are the community’s college, and our team served as ambassadors for all of Lane County, as well as for the college.
I want to thank Tony for his very moving op ed in The Register-Guard on the topic of violence.
I can only hope that society someday finds an effective way to reduce violence, and at Lane, we will continue to focus on safety and preparedness and look for more ways to strengthen our prevention and readiness.
As of the sixth week of classes, total registrations for all classes are down 10.6 percent compared to the same point in the cycle last year at the same time.
The Oregon Promise tuition grant program began accepting applications this week. The application period continues through March 1, but we will be encouraging students to apply as soon as possible so they are earlier in the queue if the program has higher demand than available funding. Remember that the Oregon Promise is designed as a last-dollar in program, meaning that the greatest benefits will flow to those with the least financial need. The program pays for tuition after state and federal grants are applied. Pell Grant students already have their tuition paid. In 2014-15, 50 percent of Lane credit students, or 7,294, qualified for financial aid. Of those, 83 percent qualified for Pell grants. Of the Pell recipients, 74 percent qualified for the maximum award. What our students need is help with the other costs of going to college such as paying for textbooks, housing, transportation, and childcare. Nonetheless, the Oregon Promise is expected to attract 10,000-12,000 new students statewide. We are following the progress of the America’s College Promise proposal, too. The ACP is a first-dollar in program. It would allow low-income students to apply Pell grants to non-tuition expenses, and it would be open to all first-time community college students, not just recent high school graduates.
This week we are hosting a team from across the country for two accreditations. One is for the Oregon Small Business Development Network. I met with that team yesterday, and they will be visiting some of the other colleges where we have SBDC sites. And this morning Dawn DeWolf and I and faculty and staff met with accreditors for Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene programs, and they were particularly interested in our partnership with Lewis and Clark College in Idaho where we provide our program for students there.
Last month we won a bronze award for our 50th Anniversary Campaign, in the special event category of Medallion Awards, a regional competition sponsored by the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations. NCMPR is an affiliate of AACC. We also received a silver Medallion Award in the wild card category for our creative partnership with Ninkasi and the branding of the special run of Titan Power Pale Ale. Congratulations to Tracy, Brett, Funk/Levis and associates and everyone who worked on our 50th Anniversary last year.
The Lane women’s soccer team clinched its second straight NWAC Southern Region title on Saturday with a 1-1 draw against Clark College.
We have posted positions for Men's Soccer and Women’s Volleyball coaches. The announcement of the new programs has been very well received in the community.
Last week I interviewed with Rachael McDonald of KLCC about our experience at Umpqua Community College and about safety at Lane. I also interviewed with Tom Adams of KVAL TV about Stacey Kiser. Stacey was named Two Year College Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Biology Teachers. She receives her award at the NABT conference next week. You can see the KVAL story from our online newsroom at lanecc.edu/newsroom. I also interviewed with a writer for the American Association of Community College’s 21st Century Center about the workshop that I taught at Harvard on improving and achieving agility at community colleges as they adapt to rapid changes.
It was good to attend the ACCT congress last month with several of you, and I’m looking forward to this week’s OCCA conference. Later this month I will attend the national AACC fall meetings where I will be attending a meeting regarding America’s Promise, which is the tuition-free program. I’ll also be attending a briefing from the Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education, and they will be reporting on a national survey that was recently completed on increasing opportunity for new Americans at community colleges, which I think is very relevant to our growing population here in Lane County.
At the ACCT meeting, some of you attended sessions on Guided Pathways. At your place is the new book, Redesigning America’s Community Colleges, which makes a case for guided pathways. Colleges across the country are at various stages of consideration of this as one method to help students complete their programs. During this past summer, a faculty interest group reviewed the book and made recommendations, including bringing one of the authors to Lane. I’m happy to say that Davis Jenkins will be here on Friday, February 19. We will host teams from other colleges as well as partners from the university to start the conversation. We haven’t decided this is the direction we are going to take, but it is one that we’re going to engage faculty in discussing. Discussions are already going on as a result of the recommendations of the interest group. Having one of the authors here will kick start that.
As you may recall, at our last meeting it appeared almost inevitable that Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a former community college trustee, was going to become the next Speaker of the House. Well, a lot happened during the past month, and last week the House officially chose Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) as their next Speaker. Ryan has been a member of the Community College Caucus organized by AACC.
Congressional leaders and the White House have reached a bipartisan budget over budgetary caps and the debt limit. So it looks like that piece of work is done until at least after the presidential election.
Last week the US Department of Education released two significant sets of regulations. One addresses student loan issues and the other addresses cash management issues related to issuing student refunds of financial aid. I particularly want to thank our own Helen Faith who was very instrumental in getting to consensus on the rule making process.
Senator Wyden has introduced a bill called the "Promoting Access and Retention Through New Efforts to Require Shared Higher Investments in Postsecondary Success Act." The bill encompasses a large federal investment for states to support public institutions of higher education. States who opt-in would be required to develop strategies to support completion for low-income students, hold down tuition costs, and invest in public colleges and universities.
As you may have heard, we’ve had a report that one of the children in our Child Care Center has Norovirus. Brian Kelly messaged staff to remind people what the protocols are, and we have been in touch with Lane County Public Health.
I want to thank the Foundation for yet another fabulous Harvest Dinner. This year we raised just over $370,000. That includes about $103,000 specifically for Shining Star Scholarships. Congratulations to Wendy Jett and her team.
Tomorrow night is a reception for the artists of the fall exhibit at the David Joyce Gallery in the CML. The reception is from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. The exhibit is themed, “Taking Flight: A Visual Voyage,” and it includes the work of our own JS Bird, Demetra Kalams, Anne Tiegan, and Kat Gottfried, as well as the visiting exhibit of David Joyce’s “Flight Patterns” from the Eugene Airport. Our exhibit is up through January 8, and we will host the flying people until the airport determines what to do with the work which was displaced by airport construction.
Just a reminder that Lane will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 26 and 27, for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Finally, if you haven’t followed me on Twitter yet, my handle is @maryspilde.