Lane Community College

Organization and administration

Lane is governed by a Board of Education consisting of seven publicly elected, unpaid members who have responsibility for establishing policies and overseeing programs and services of the College. Lane is one of seventeen Oregon community colleges authorized by the Oregon legislature and regulated by the Oregon Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development.

Educational programs

Lane Community College offers two-year transfer Associate degrees, career-technical applied associate degrees and certificates, and pre-college classes that focus on reading, writing, mathematics, and study skills.

State-approved programs offer students preparation for employment in approximately 50 career areas: health careers such as nursing and paramedicine, flight technology, culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management, auto and diesel mechanics, manufacturing, business and computer careers, graphic design and multimedia careers, exercise science, as well as criminal justice and human relations careers.

Green career programs at Lane include watershed science, water conservation, energy management, renewable energy and sustainability.

English as a second language non-credit courses are offered in listening, speaking, reading and writing. Adult basic skills classes target students who have not earned high school diplomas with preparation for the test of General Education Development (GED). Other non-credit courses include topics for lifelong learning, including some career classes, health and safety courses, as well as business development classes, employee training and professional development.

Since 2009, Lane has joined multiple national and international efforts to improve student learning, retention, progression, and completion: Achieving the Dream, Degree Qualifications Profile, Association of American Colleges and Universities Roadmaps, Foundations of Excellence, The Democracy Commitment, Next Generation Learning Challenges, and Project Win-Win. For its promising results in improving developmental English completion rates, Lane was named one of 16 community colleges in the 2014 national cohort of "Leader Colleges" by Achieving the Dream.

TRiO STEM is a government funded program offering student to student tutoring for free to eligible students. Eligibility is determined by the following criteria, students must be enrolled in a 2-year program at Lane or transfer program to a 4-year college or university. They must have the intention of finishing there program within 3 years of enrollment at Lane. Have proof of citizenship or permanent residency. As well as those requirements students must meet two of the three following criteria, be a first generation college student, student with disability, and/or a low income student. This program is offered at many colleges around the United States and is funded by the US Department of Education Division of Special Services, Title IV, Higher Education Act 1964, and was awarded $243,641 in 2013-2014. Tutors are trained in at least two disciplines such as math and science. Some of the assistance provided to students includes, resources such as books, computers, a clean and safe space to do homework assignments. One important aspect of the program offered to students is a strong support network of genuinely concerned staff and fellow students. The program helps students be prepared for the challenges of university live and the struggles that they may face when they get there. Emphasizing organizational skills, self time management, balancing home and school live, and encouraging students to maintain strong relationships with instructors and professors. Student progress is tracked to help keep them on the path of success at all times.

Student Body

Of the 33,600+ students attending Lane during academic year 2013-14, 60 percent were in credit programs and 40 percent were in non-credit classes. Approximately 37 percent of credit students attended full-time and 63 percent attended part-time.

The average age of credit students in Fall 2014 was 27 years, and the average age of non-credit students was 45 years. Credit female students outnumbered males by 49.6 percent to 47.5 percent, and in non-credit courses, by 56 percent to 35 percent. Just under 75 percent of Lane credit students self-reported as Caucasian. Hispanic students represented 11 percent of credit students; multiracial students represented over 5 percent; Asian/Pacific Islanders represented over 3 percent; Native American students represented 1.9 percent and African American students represented 2.2 percent.

In December 2010, the school became the second community college in the United States to open a tribal longhouse, after Peninsula College, which opened its longhouse in 2007. The college has over 650 American Indian students, and annually hosts one of the largest powwows in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2006, the College has offered two years of Chinuk WaWa language study that satisfy second-language graduation requirements of Oregon public universities.

History

In 1964 Lane County citizens voted overwhelmingly to establish Lane as a comprehensive community college (approving it 5,944 to 1,282). The new college was able to build upon successful traditions of the Eugene Vocational School, which had been established in 1938 to provide manual education and training to high school students and unemployed adults.

Lane, 1964-1989

Lane's first board of education met in November 1964, with an agenda to hire faculty and staff, create curriculum, and find classroom and office space. The college became a member of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges in August 1965. According to the college's narrative history, "The first classes were held on September 20, 1965, at facilities at 200 North Monroe in Eugene. During that first year 1,500 students registered at the college."

Oregon's Governor Mark Hatfield presented the college charter in October 1965, and voters passed a 5-year serial levy to support initial construction. Oregon Senator Wayne L. Morse presided as keynote speaker at the groundbreaking in January 1967. Local resident Wilfred Gonyea had donated 105.81 acres off 30th Avenue in 1965 for the main campus, and added more acreage in 1967. Two other residents, Joe Romania and Lew Williams, donated additional land for the campus in 1972, the same year Mr. and Mrs. James Christensen donated land south of Florence for a facility there.

In 1966 voters had passed a $9.6 million bond to construct the main campus in southeast Eugene, where classes began two years later. In May 1968, voters approved a $1.5 million permanent real estate tax base for operating costs, continuing the county's widespread support for the college. Oregon Governor Tom McCall opened the new campus in 1969 by cutting a log with a chainsaw.

Lane became a founding member of the League for Innovation in the Community College in 1973.

Centers in Florence and Cottage Grove opened in 1976 and 1977. The college purchased land in 1983 to permanently house the Cottage Grove center.

Lane, 1990-present

Oregon voters passed Measure 5 capping property taxes in 1990. That same election, Lane County voters approved a new property tax base for Lane Community College. Because the statewide measure would "equalize" funding for Oregon's community colleges, the resulting funding uncertainties presented a dilemma Community College Commissioner Mike Holland called "a cosmic joke." The College eventually lobbied successfully for its new tax base, and envisioned a return to better times, but President Jerry Moskus observed, "there were signs neither Lane nor Oregon would ever be the same."

The northern spotted owl controversy and the nationwide recession of the early 1990s brought displaced timber workers to the College, after the dire 1992 forecast of a crippling recession in which President George Bush predicted, "we'll be up to our neck in owls, and every millworker will be out of a job." The New York Times reported, "At Lane Community College, the nation's largest center for retraining displaced woodworkers, nearly 9 of every 10 people going through the program have found new jobs, at an average wage of $9.02 an hour, about $1 an hour less than the average timber industry wage."

By 2002, years of state funding shortfalls and enrollment growth required drastic action to reduce the College budget by 7 percent. The college eliminated seven degree and certificate programs, and raised tuition by $10 per credit, a 26 percent increase. In succeeding years, some personnel layoffs were avoided by leaving vacant positions unfilled, but there were also reductions in classified staff.

Even though the College successfully invested capital funds in new construction and renovations in the first decade of this millennium, the operating budget has continued to be a challenge. The College predicted the shortfall for fiscal year 2015 to be $12.7 million, according to a local newspaper, "after a precipitous enrollment drop. The student body grew by 40 percent during the Great Recession and has retreated sharply since." In May 2014, a 5 percent tuition increase was approved to meet the deficit, meaning tuition increased 172 percent since 2000 — from $36 per credit to $98 per credit.

Compounding the 2015 budget challenges, the federal loan default rate of ex-LCC students approached 30 percent in 2013, the threshold that could cause the federal government to "bar LCC students from getting federal grants." Approximately 73 percent of Lane's students take out student loans.

Geography and layout

The main campus is located in central Lane County between south Eugene and Springfield, just west of I-5. It consists of 25 main classroom buildings and numerous secondary buildings in the Brutalist style of architecture.

Lane's main campus is fully accessible for wheelchairs and the mobility impaired, and a network of concrete bridges connect neighboring buildings. Athletic facilities such as the track, soccer field, and baseball field cover the north side of the campus, while parking lots surround the campus buildings on the other three sides. Adjacent to the west parking lot, a courtyard that once contained a large concrete fountain has been converted into a flat maze garden, with native plants surrounding a small stone fountain in the center. The west and south sides of campus consist of evergreen forest, including walking trails used for physical education and biology classes.

Lane also has learning centers in downtown Eugene, Cottage Grove, and Florence, as well as facilities at the Eugene airport for the Lane Aviation Academy.

The Downtown Center at the corner of 10th Avenue and Olive Street, across from the Eugene Public Library, includes classroom space designed as a laboratory for Energy Management and Reusable Energy degree programs, as well as student housing in Titan Court.

The Cottage Grove Learning Center at 1275 S. River Road offers credit general education transfer and college preparatory classes, non-credit adult basic skills and GED classes, as well as continuing education classes.

The Florence Center at 3149 Oak Street offers credit general education classes in 80 different disciplines, all necessary courses for several transfer associate degrees, as well as some nursing classes. Community Education classes in Florence include a variety of enrichment classes and professional development courses.

The Lane Aviation Academy at the Eugene airport houses programs in Flight Technology (commercial, corporate and private pilot training) and Aviation Maintenance (service and repair a variety of aircraft).

New construction and renovation

The College has undertaken multiple major construction projects since 1995, some supported by Lane County votes for construction bonds:

Not all the construction projects have been successes. The six high school Learning Centers built with the 1995 bond funds were eventually closed for budgetary reasons and the buildings donated to the partner high schools. The electric car charging station built in 2010 had to be scaled back by half, but the $675,000 cost was still criticized because of the small number of electric vehicles currently on the road.

Green construction efforts at Lane have otherwise been viewed positively. The new Health and Wellness building and the Downtown Center are both LEED certified. President Spilde received the 2013 Green Schools President's Award from the US Green Building Schools, for being "a national leader in 'greening' the college environment and developing the entire campus as a 'learning lab' for student instruction."

KLCC

The public radio station KLCC began broadcasting in February 1967. Lane Community College owns the license for NPR affiliate KLCC. It broadcasts on a frequency of 89.7 MHz in Eugene and on various other repeater frequencies at other cities in West Central Oregon. KLCC offers an eclectic music blend, with weekday music program Living Large. From 3 PM to 6 PM, it airs a 3-hour expanded version of NPR's All Things Considered. KLCC airs the flagship NPR news magazines Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, along with Car Talk, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, a Public Radio International program The Takeaway, with former KLCC host John Hockenberry, and other public affairs and discussion programs.

Accreditation

Lane is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, which is recognized by the United States Department of Education. Individual career programs are also recognized and accredited by career and vocational associations.

Following an October 2014 site visit, accreditors made seven recommendations for improvement which the local newspaper characterized as "meta-problems: not problems with what LCC is doing, but problems with how LCC measures what it does."