Monthly Highlights
May 2008
THE BUDGET COMMITTEE approved a stable budget for 2008/09 that preserves programs and services and avoids layoffs. See The Register-Guard story at http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=104421&sid=4&fid=1
BUDGET TRANSPARENCY efforts received kudos at the national level. The Government Finance Officers Association awarded Lane the Certificate of Excellence in Financial Reporting Award for 2007. GFOA earlier awarded Lane the Distinguished Budget Award for 2007. This is the second consecutive year Lane has won both awards. Only two other community colleges in the state have ever won both awards in the same year. Lane upgraded its budget programming by improving a five-year budget model that forecasts revenues and expenses with the latest information to project "what if" analyses. The college also improved transparency for the college community by creating a "dashboard" that provides a quick summary of financial metrics from a database that is updated with each payroll.
BACK ON COURSE was named Lane's Innovation of the Year for 2008. This is a one-credit class designed as an intervention for students who are not meeting college academic progress standards. BOC was collaboratively developed by faculty and staff in Financial Aid, Counseling/Human Development, and Enrollment Services. Outcomes indicate Back On Course is effective in assisting students to meet academic progress standards with 73 percent of the students who completed BOC achieving good standing.
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI awards for 2008 were announced by the Lane Foundation: Molly Bedortha of Eugene, Sherry Duerst-Higgins of Cottage Grove, Lorraine Kerwood of Eugene, and Juan Carlos Valle of Eugene. The awards go to alumni who completed at least 30 credit hours or earned an associate's degree at Lane, and have demonstrated achievement in their chosen profession, provided service to the community, and made an outstanding contribution to the college. Bedortha worked her way through two nursing degrees at Lane, once staffed the Ask-A-Nurse program, and now heads up the Triage Team at the University of Oregon Student Health Center. Duerst-Higgins has dental assisting and real estate training from Lane, has worked 16 years as a leading broker in Cottage Grove, and is a former South Lane School Board member. Kerwood, the founder of NextStep Recycling, is a Business Development Center client and serves on Lane's Computer Information Technology Advisory Board. She's also Lane's 2008 co-op employer of the year. Valle was a homeless immigrant when he arrived in Eugene, barely spoke English and lacked a high school diploma. Eugene's Centro LatinoAmericano gave him shelter and access to education. He earned a degree in hospitality from Lane, a bachelor’s and master's from the UO, and now works for the Social Security Administration.
GIFT OF LITERACY, an annual community event for area first graders, was held at Lane in the Center for Meeting and Learning, building 19. More than 900 first graders visited campus, and 100 community and celebrity volunteers including President Mary Spilde read from Gift of Literacy books to groups of the students.
ANDREA NEWTON received the James E. Lawson Outstanding Service Award for leadership in cooperative education from the Northwest Career Educators and Employers Association. Andrea has been a member of NCEEA for 10 years and also is a member of the Cooperative Education and Internship Association on whose board she has served for the last four years as vice president for region 7.
GARRY OLDHAM received the Lane Faculty Award for Service Learning from Oregon Campus Compact. In addition, Lane student Angela Douglas received the Oregon Community Caring Leadership Through Service Award.
KEVIN WILLIAMS of Facilities Management and Planning was named Classified Employee of the Month for May. Kevin joined Lane in June 1999 as the HVAC technician. He has demonstrated exceptional ability and willingness in addressing hundreds of HVAC-related issues associated with environmental temperatures and equipment failures throughout campus, the Downtown Center, and the Florence center.
LANE'S SUSTAINABILITY EFFORTS in instruction and operations were featured in the May Project Highlights in the League for Innovation's iStream online information source. For information, see the League's website at http://www.league.org.
SOLAR ELECTRIC work began on building 24 to prepare for the installation of photovoltaic panels by Renewable Energy Technician students. Once students install the panels, an electrical contractor will connect the panels to produce solar electricity for the building. Construction is planned to be complete in at the end of June. See details at http://www.lanecc.edu/sustainability/projects.html.
THE LONGHOUSE got a boost in visibility from a benefit concert in downtown Eugene with renowned Native American singer-songwriter Pura Fé Crescioni; and McBeth Builders began preparing to install the first logs on June 3.
LANE ATHLETICS had a good month: At the NWACC championships, Lane student Cyrus Hostetler won the javelin event and qualified to compete in the Olympic Trials; facilities staff began improving the discus and hammer cage which will be used as a practice area for the Olympic trials; a Register-Guard profile on Olympian Tom Pappas, who also will compete in the trials, noted his start at Lane; former athletic director and faculty member Harland Yriarte was inducted into the NWACC Hall of Fame; and coach Greg Sheley moved forward with forming an leadership committee of community members and staff to support Lane athletic programs.
NURSING TRAINING at Lane Community College and other two-year colleges was covered in a two-day, front-page special series in The Register-Guard. See http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=103169&sid=4&fid=1
Excerpted from Lane Weekly and news sources by Joan Aschim, Marketing and Public Relations, May 2008.