LCC Faculty Colleagues,

I’m writing with updates regarding the LCC budget, state funding for community colleges, the Health Clinic, faculty evaluations, health insurance for faculty, shared governance, Fall Inservice, ice cream this Thursday, among other topics.

LCC Budget and Community College Funding

The Board of Education is scheduled to vote tomorrow to approve the budget recommended by the Board’s

Budget Committee last week. As noted in my last update, the budget includes $2.8M in personnel reductions. The budget is also predicated on a 5% increase in enrollment, which is measured when compared with this year, so it will not be until week two of Fall term when enrollment figures, which drive tuition revenue, are known for the largest term of the year.

On a positive note, the budget is based on a state funding level of $744.9M for the Community College

Support Fund (i.e., CCSF). Due to the positive economic forecast released by the state, the Ways and Means Committee of the legislature is making historic investments in higher education! The Oregon legislators have updated the budget allocation for community colleges to $800M for the 2023-2025 biennium. This means that, once the state budget is passed, LCC will receive $2.24M more per year for each of the next two years – funds that are not currently built into the budget. (You will find more background on the legislature’s next steps and actions you can take at the end of this message*.)

In addition, according to this press release, a new Vice President for Finance and Operations, who has significant experience with Oregon public budget law, has been appointed to work at LCC.

Assuming that budget figures presented to the LCC Board’s Budget committee are accurate, this additional state funding should make program or service reductions unnecessary. There are better options and better choices for our campus and our community.

Health Clinic

President Bulger has called a “taskforce” to make recommendations to present to the Board regarding healthcare services for students. The “taskforce” began meeting today and has been asked to finalize its work by next Wednesday. A timeline of 9 days during the end of the Spring term for a decision as consequential as consideration of elimination of a student service that has existed for fifty years precludes real stakeholder engagement.

In addition, our contract requires that students have access to the campus student health clinic. This agreement was reached on November 25, 2019 as a good faith compromise, preserving student access to the clinic while meeting the college’s interest in eliminating employee access. Any elimination of the clinic or reduction in its services to students would be a breach of this contract, a legally binding agreement.

According to the current all faculty survey, faculty strongly support maintaining the health clinic. LCCEA also supports the Student Government leaders’ advocacy regarding preserving the clinic by implementing the Administration’s “Scenario 2.” Scenario 2 would increase the health clinic fee by $7 per term (i.e., $21 per year) and assess all credit students. This scenario would generate more than $400,000 in additional revenue per year, which would far exceed the reported deficit of $260,000 per year. Any elimination of the clinic would not only cut services to students, it would also result in elimination of the health clinic fee, which, as a result, would not have any impact on LCC”s overall budget. 

The clinic does already provide some services via telehealth and can accommodate non-credit ABSE and ESL students who would like to opt-in to access clinic services, if allowed. Expanding services to non-credit students would need to be permitted by the administration in order for the clinic to more equitably serve a larger population of students.

Last, but of significant importance, the clinic provides critical services that students cannot find elsewhere.

According to the clinic manager,

25% of students accessing the clinic this year are uninsured and have no other access to care; and

Top services provided to students from Winter term include: mental health concerns, immunizations, sexual and reproductive health visits, and upper respiratory symptoms, among others required for students’ academic programs.

Of note, the clinic provides reproductive healthcare services, which are critical to LCC’s student population and should be expanded rather than reduced. While our Lane County legislators have sponsored HB 2002, which would provide earmarked funding for LCC’s health clinic, upper administration disallowed expansion of access to reproductive healthcare at the clinic last fall, a position that is at odds with Oregon’s value of supporting access to comprehensive reproductive care, rights articulated through Oregon’s Reproductive Health Equity Act of 2017.

No information is available yet about when the Board of Education may vote on the disposition of the clinic.

Faculty Evaluations

The Faculty Evaluation Handbook Taskforce has completed its work and updated the faculty evaluation handbook and forms consistent with Article 13 of the faculty contract. The Developmental Evaluation Handbook is used for contracted faculty each year for the first three years and every five years thereafter.

Part-time faculty may choose to do a developmental evaluation, in which case manager participation is not required. Otherwise, the part-time faculty evaluation form is used during the first term, the term before earning seniority, and every five years thereafter.

For all evaluations, faculty may choose to include student evaluations or feedback, which are no longer required due to research indicating disparate impact on faculty from historically oppressed groups.

Thank you to part-time faculty member Nancy Wood for her service on this year-long taskforce!

Faculty Salary Increases and LCCEA Dues Adjustment

Due to our 2022-2024 Economic agreement between LCCEA and LCC, contracted and part-time faculty salaries will increase by 2.25% next year. In addition, part-time faculty salaries will be increased by an additional 1% pay parity adjustment. Salary increases will take effect in Summer 2023 for all faculty working in Summer and in Fall for those not working in summer. Likewise, LCCEA dues will be adjusted by 2.25%, increasing by 45 cents per pay period for contracted faculty and 21 cents per pay period for part-time faculty beginning in October.

Shared Governance

As you may be aware, Faculty Council has issued several statements this year and has also hosted a forum about changes to the shared governance system proposed by the College President that would reframe governance decisions as recommendations. LCCEA stands in solidarity with Faculty Council on this issue. Current faculty survey results indicate that 85% of survey respondents support or strongly support maintaining the role of shared governance in decision making, with a supermajority indicating strong support.

Health Insurance for Next Year

Your LCCEA Insurance Committee reviewed health plan options, and one additional medical plan (Kaiser) will be added for faculty beginning in October. Kaiser has limited providers in the Eugene-Springfield area but may be a preferred option for faculty living north of Lane County. All the other existing Moda plans will continue to be offered. Rate charts from HR will be available at a later date, and open enrollment is mandatory again this year, so faculty will need to log on to OEBB between August 15 – Sept 15 to make plan selections. Employee contributions will remain largely the same for employee only, employee plus spouse/partner, and employee plus child(ren) tiers, but for the full family tier, monthly payroll deductions will increase incrementally each year until the contractual 90% employer contribution/ 10% employee contributions threshold is reached. Faculty with full family insurance who prefer higher deductibles over payroll contributions may wish to consider Moda Plan 2 as an option instead of Moda Plan 1.

Thank you to Health Professions faculty member Rick Riordan who has joined the committee!

Fall Inservice Schedule and Part-time Faculty Compensation

The schedule for Fall inservice will remain the same next year. Faculty Connections, led by Ingrid Nordstrom, will welcome new faculty on September 12- 13, and September 14 will be the first work day for contracted faculty.

Part-time faculty who are teaching in Fall are eligible for 32 compensated hours for inservice/ workshop attendance, an additional 12 paid hours if teaching in Winter, and an additional 12 paid hours if teaching in Spring for a total of 56 hours over the year. The hours can be used in the term they are “earned” or at any time later in the academic year. Eight of the hours are reserved for assessment work.

You will find details of the inservice schedule below, and please save the date for the afternoon of Thursday, September 21 for LCCEA’s All Faculty Meeting.

1/2 day of paid class prep plus 2 paid noninstructional days for class prep or meetings, floating	Class prep for contracted faculty to use at their discretion at any time during the year
Thursday, 9/14	all day scheduled by College
Friday, 9/15	all day class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled
Monday, 9/18	all day assessment
Tuesday, 9/19	a.m. prof. dev. / p.m. sabbatical reports
Wednesday, 9/20	a.m. division meetings/ p.m. class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled in the afternoon
Thursday, 9/21	a.m. all campus / p.m. union meetings
Friday, 9/22	all day class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled
Monday, 925	all day class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled

Ice Cream This Thursday, June 8, 2-3

Faculty are most cordially invited to enjoy a cup of ice cream this Thursday from 2-3 at Doug’s Place in the cafeteria, hosted by LCCEA. I hope to see you there!

Appreciation

Thank you to our new and returning Bargaining Team members: Sarah Erickson, April Myler, Peggy

Oberstaller, and Russell Shitabata for their commitment to collective action on behalf of faculty; to Racial

Equity and Social Justice Committee members: Wendy Rose Aaron, Jessica Alvarado, Wynona Burks, Susie Cousar, Rosa Lopez, Edrees Nawabi, and Lawrence Rasheed who have dedicated all year to working on a robust faculty recruitment and retention plan; and to our always amazing and energetic Wendy Simmons for organizing actions and membership appreciation events; as well as to Christina Howard for her unwavering advocacy for faculty rights (even while on sabbatical!).

Whether you will be on campus or off, I wish you a most wonderful summer!

My best,

Adrienne

* Background Information Regarding the State of Oregon Budget Good News!

The May 17 State of Oregon Economic forecast far exceeded expectations, and the state has more funding to allocate for the 2023-2025 biennium! For community colleges, the current budget proposal in the legislature would allocate at least $800 Million for the Community College Support Fund (i.e., CCSF). This represents a 13.8% increase for community colleges over this biennium and is $56M more than the Co-Chairs of the Ways and Means Committee budget that has been driving fiscal estimates for the LCC and other colleges’ budgets. This is amazing! 13.8% is the largest increase that community colleges have seen in many biennia!

This will bring about $2.24 Million in additional funding to LCC each year for the next two years.

Not so good news…

As you may be aware there are a number of senators who are conducting an extended walk out from the Oregon Senate, including Senator Cedric Hayden from Lane County. This has caused the legislature to be stuck at a standstill. The legislature is unable to pass a budget for the state or any policy bills, and the legislative session is legally required to end by June 25.

Before the walk out began, they passed a “continuing resolution” that allows state-funded entities such as all state agencies, schools, universities, etc. to continue receiving funding based on the current biennium funding level through September 15.

If the walkout does not end, the legislature will have to re-convene for another legislative session in order to pass a budget. If this does not take place before September 15, there will be no additional funding for any state agency, for schools, etc.

However, community colleges receive state funding in a unique manner. The state does not provide funding to community colleges for the last quarter of the biennium (e.g., right now). Instead they make an extra payment to community colleges so that colleges normally receive a quarterly payment in July and August at the beginning of the biennium.

For this reason, LCC often must take a loan in order to meet payroll obligations during the summer each odd year.

HOWEVER, the continuing resolution that was passed before the walk out does not seem to include ANY funding for community colleges because of the unique timing of payments to community colleges.

This means that without an end to the walk out and a state budget that has passed, LCC and community colleges in the state will receive $0 until some point in the future. According to LCC’s Brett Rowlett, this would amount to $14 Million for LCC.

Eventually, a budget will be passed, and the funding will be provided, but it’s unclear how long it will be that LCC would have to function without the funding. LCC does not have the resources to function without state funding.

Simple Action YOU Can Take

Please send an automated message to your Oregon legislators. The message will automatically update depending on whether your legislator is on the walk out or not.

In addition, please consider writing to Senator Cedric Hayden, who represents parts of Lane County, and who is participating in the walk out, preventing the legislature from having a quorum and passing a budget.  His email is: Sen.CedricHayden@oregonlegislature.gov

Points to emphasize:

Community colleges need adequate funding and should be fully funded at $855M

It’s important to pass a budget so that state agencies, schools, and community colleges can function

Impacts on me and my students will be ____ if LCC receives no funding due to the walk out and has to pause operations

Community colleges can’t function until September 15 or later without state funding

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Lane Community College Education Association

LCCEA is the faculty union representing the 200 full-time and 375 part-time faculty of Lane Community College.

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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.

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