Our Mission: LCCEA engages in collective action to ensure an equitable learning and working environment and advocates for social justice and systemic change for the public good.
I hope your Spring term is going well so far. I’m writing with updates on a number of topics including: salary schedules, Spring 2024 All Faculty survey, Florence campus accrual families for Part-time faculty, labor relations, faculty recruitment and retention, faculty rights to a union rep, LCC budget info, and more. Dates for your calendar and an appendix can be found at the end of the message as well.
Salary Schedules for 2024-2025
Please see the salary schedules (below) for next year, which include the 3.09% cost of living adjustment based on inflation that will apply to all faculty through our contract rollover. These drafts have been prepared by HR, confirmed by LCCEA, and will be finalized for posting on the LCC and LCCEA websites at a later date. Increases will take effect in Summer term for faculty working in Summer and in Fall for all other faculty.
Spring 2024 All Faculty Survey
In order to ensure the best representation of faculty interests, LCCEA is conducting another All Faculty Survey this term. Please keep an eye out for emails with a link to the survey. The purpose of the survey includes gathering current faculty views related to bargaining and other topics. This will be an opportunity for all faculty to share their up-to-date priorities on economic goals for 2025 and beyond, in light of the contract rollover for 24-25. Your voice is important in the collective action of our Association! A huge thank you to faculty member, Joe Escobar, for his support with all LCCEA surveys. (Please note: this faculty survey is separate from the campus climate survey of all LCC employees conducted by Gallup.)
Faculty representatives and the Administration are engaging in collaborative discussions about the possibility of establishing separate accrual families for part-time faculty wishing to teach in-person at the Florence campus. More details will be provided to all faculty when they become available.
Labor Relations
In support of all faculty members’ rights, numerous faculty colleagues will participate in an unfair labor practice (i.e., ULP) hearing in May that has been scheduled to address LCC’s violations of state law. Due to the large number of alleged violations, the hearing is scheduled for five full days. Prior to this year, no complaint filed by LCCEA alleging unfair labor practices by the Administration had gone to a hearing in more than two decades. Similarly, LCCEF (the classified union) recently had mediation over bargaining issues after nearly ten years without the need for mediation.
Your LCCEA representatives continue to advocate for a proactive, collaborative approach to labor relations. One best practice that has proven effective in the past is joint training about the contract developed and presented to managers by faculty and administrators together. These types of collaborative efforts can have a positive impact, reduce contract violations, and build positive working relationships. Your representatives asked to reinstate this best practice at regular labor-management meetings from March 2023 through March 2024. However, at our March 2024 meeting, administrators finally clarified they are not interested in this collaboration at this time. For this reason, your LCCEA representatives have asked the Board of Education to encourage the administration to collaborate.
Faculty Separations
As previously announced, fifteen full-time faculty have elected the separation incentive for retirement or resignation before the end of 2024. Data indicate that a disproportionate number of faculty who are separating from LCC are from underrepresented racial and/or ethnic groups – they comprise 26.7% of faculty retiring or resigning and 16.3% of the full-time faculty at-large. These data come at a time when the status and future of the campus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office remain unclear. The office has remained without any staffing since last Fall. The Administration has published in the Weekly and in presentations to the Board of Education that plans for DEI will be announced in Fall of 2025. That will be three years since there has been a classified position assigned to work in the office and two years after the administrator in the office separated from employment at the college, leaving no employees.
Hiring Procedure and Faculty Recruitment and Retention Updates
LCCEA’s Racial Equity and Social Justice Committee has been working collaboratively with HR on a joint set of recommendations to improve recruitment and retention of faculty from historically oppressed groups and to increase ethics and integrity in search processes. Your tremendously dedicated Racial Equity and Social Justice Committee members include: Wendy Rose Aaron, Jessica Alvarado, Wynona Burks, Susie Cousar, Edrees Nawabi, and Avery Old Coyote.
This collaborative work supports priorities from faculty at-large. For instance, the most recent All Faculty Survey indicates:
80% of faculty report that addressing bias and discrimination on campus is a high or highest priority; and
91% of faculty indicate strong or strongest support for ensuring ethics and integrity in hiring practices.
Please see attached set of joint recommendations finalized together with HR, which includes changes such as de-identifying applicant paperwork in order to conduct a blind review of applicant materials. These initiatives have been jointly approved with the exception of #7, which has not been approved by HR due to the fact that HR is currently revising the search procedure.
We appreciate the collaborative efforts. At the same time, we have concerns that revisions to the search procedure will reduce the role of search committee members, thereby reducing transparency and accountability in hiring processes. Your representatives have advocated that any revisions to the search procedure maintain search committee member participation in search decisions and have also requested a campus wide notice and comment process for any search procedure revision.
OEA Representative Assembly
LCCEA is the largest community college union within our statewide organization, the OEA – we are sending nine elected delegates to the OEA Representative Assembly for virtual hearings throughout this month and a large in-person meeting next weekend. This is an exciting opportunity to guide the direction of the OEA and promote legislative objectives, such as increased support for faculty to develop OERs (i.e., open educational resources). One of our goals is to center community college needs in order to galvanize the support of 42,000 member-strong organization for our community college system in the next legislative session, especially for robust funding for the CCSF (community college support fund).
Thank you to all members who participated in the democratic election process and to delegates donating their time to serve all faculty: Jessica Alvarado, Counseling; Wynona Burks, Nursing; Don Easton, CIT; Caroline Lundquist, Social Science; Adrienne Mitchell, ALS; April Myler, Nursing; Zara Pastos, ABSE; Trish Unrath, ABSE; and Meggie Wright, OER Librarian.
LCC Budget Update
The official fiscal audit of LCC’s FY 23 (i.e. fiscal year 23) has recently been finalized. The audit, which is conducted by an external accounting firm, confirms the actual Fund I ending fund balance amount from June 30, 2023. As you may recall from last Spring, many conflicting figures were presented publicly by the Administration to the Board of Education and Budget Committee. While the $7.5M that is confirmed as the ending fund balance is less than the 10% required by Board policy, it is more than many of the figures cited last May. (See table below for details.)
Date Info Provided
May 3, 2023
May 10, 2023
May 17, 2023
May 24,2023
December 2023
March 2024 (official audit)
FY23 Ending Fund Balance Fund I (gen’l fund)
$7,834,450 &$3,688,667(both figures presented)
$2,524,266 or $5,064,266 including contingency
$2,524,266 plus 1,398,300 contingency
$3,646,566, plus 1,398,300 contingency
$9,692,331
$7,488,083
Fiscal Audit Excerpt: Figures FY 23
The audit did cite some overspending beyond authorized amounts in Fund VIII, which is the “Special Revenue” fund for grants and also noted the need for stronger internal accounting processes. (See appendix at the end of this message for further details.)
In addition, the audit reveals that, investment in instruction continues to remain below 40% of total expenditures at LCC. It is important to note that the “instruction” category includes all expenses associated with instructional departments including all personnel in those departments (i.e., managers, classified, faculty) and M & S (materials and services). (See graph from p. 9 of the audit below).
On a positive note, enrollment continues to increase, which will contribute to fiscal stability next year. Please extend a warm thank you to faculty member Gary Mort for his dedicated service as one of your faculty representatives on the Budget Development Subcommittee.
Know Your Rights: Union Representatives for Investigatory Interviews
Did you know that you have the right to request a union representative at any meeting where you are asked to provide information or respond to questioning and you have a reasonable belief that discipline may result? Art 25.10 of our Collective Bargaining Agreement (i.e., contract) also requires the college to notify you of your right to a union rep for any investigatory meeting and requires that the meeting be scheduled when both you and your union reps are available. LCCEA’s Grievance Team has become aware of instances where faculty members may not have been clearly informed of their right to a union rep. Please contact our wonderful LCCEA Grievance Chair, Christina Howard, if you have questions about exercising this right or any of your rights under the contract.
Final Note
It is a great honor to work together with you all as colleagues. I hope to see you this Wednesday if you have a chance to stop by the cafeteria on the National Day of Action where we will center the critical role of higher education for the public good.
At a time when higher education nationwide is struggling with rising student debt, insufficient public investment, reduced shared governance, curriculum restrictions, and more challenges, we will stand together with faculty, students, and staff from more than 85 campuses throughout the US for a better future for higher education and for our democracy.
My best,
Adrienne
Dates for Your Calendar:
April 17, National Day of Action for Higher Ed for the Public Good: Stop by the cafeteria for refreshments anytime between 11:30-1:30 and share the future you wish to see for LCC in person (or online if you can’t make it). Find the flyer here.
May 21, Primary Election ballots are due – please remember to vote. Many of the primary races are competitive, including House District 8 where our very own LCC Board Vice Chair, Lisa Fragala is a candidate for the Oregon legislature. Lisa has been endorsed by the OEA-PAC. Find more OEA-PAC endorsements at: https://oregoned.org/legislative-elections and https://oregoned.org/statewide-elections
May 23, LCCEA night at Eugene Ems baseball game: Join your colleagues and families for a fun night at the game, hosted by LCCEA’s Membership committee. RSVP here by May 3.
Date TBD in May, LCCEA General Membership meeting: Stay tuned for more details.
Appendix: Excerpts from the FY23 fiscal audit statement and associated documents:
“During 2022-23, the College overexpended the Community Services appropriation in the Special Revenue Fund by $915,137, the Instructional Support Services appropriation in the Special Revenue Fund by $142,219, the Student Services appropriation in the Special Revenue Fund by $18,949 and the Transfer Out appropriation in the Student Financial Aid Fund by $7,310.“
We have been informed by an administrator that the College has hired an attorney to conduct a workplace investigation. The administrator has stated that the College has retained an outside attorney to conduct an investigation of Administration retaliation against faculty. Beyond this general statement, the College has not provided LCCEA with any information regarding the purpose of the investigation, what specifically is being investigated, who will be interviewed, whether participation is voluntary, whether this investigation is disciplinary, or provided any other details that would allow us to advise faculty.
Attorneys for LCCEA have asked the College for clarification, but have only been told that the investigation is regarding unspecified claims of retaliation. LCCEA’s attorneys are concerned the College is using this investigation to conduct discovery that’s intended to help the College defend itself against unfair labor practice claims pending before the Employment Relations Board. If true, this would not be an appropriate purpose for an investigation.
If you are contacted by an attorney for the College about this investigation, LCCEA advises you to seek assistance from a union representative before engaging in an interview or providing any information. It will be important for you and your union representative to find out why you are being interviewed; if your participation is voluntary; and whether you could be subjected to discipline for refusing an interview or as a result of providing information.
Please feel free to reach out to a union representative if you have questions.
We are writing with good news — inflation and our cost of living adjustment are higher than anticipated. The federal government released inflation data today, and the official figure for January 2023 to January 2024 is 3.09%.
This 3.09% is the Cost of Living Adjustment (i.e. COLA) that will be added to all faculty salary schedules for the 24-25 year.
In addition, faculty who are eligible for steps will advance one full step on the schedule (i.e., 3.75%) This will equate to a year-over-year increase for step-eligible faculty of approx. 6.95%.
More details about the contract rollover can be found in our email below from last week.
Lane Community College Education Association 