LCC faculty colleagues,

Please find below and attached a memo that I have sent to our LCC Board of Education with accompanying documentation. It is with a heavy heart that I bear witness to current conditions at LCC and call for the Board to take action to restore their own authority and stabilize our institution.  

I encourage you to read the open letter to the Board in full.

It is more important than ever that we continue to advocate for the restoration of democracy to our publicly elected Board of Education and that we stand together for a better future for our students, our community, and our beloved LCC.

The open letter to the LCC Board of Education pertains to:

1. Program suspension and class cuts not approved by the Board of Education and the negative impacts on students and the budget;

2. Closed meetings about budget reductions held in August despite Board members’ concerns about the need to comply with open meeting law;

3. President Bulger’s blocking of multiple Board members’ requests to add a motion to their own agenda affirming their own rights consistent with Board policy and state statute to vote on program and service reductions;

4. With a lifetime of experience in public office, Board Vice Chair Rust’s expression of not feeling respected as an elected official by President Bulger; 

5. What many may characterize as corruption at the highest levels of our institution, including (a) in a message to President Bulger from Board member Alltucker threatening to file a complaint against Board Chair Folnagy simply for fulfilling his basic function as the elected Chair (e.g., trying to add an item to the agenda); (b) Board member Weisman’s disclosure of a confidential attorney message to President Bulger; (c) President Bulger’s coaching of Board members Weisman and Mital on steps to release more confidential legal information to her and to the public; (d) Board member Weisman’s sharing of a draft to that effect with President Bulger based on President Bulger’s coaching; and (e) Board member Weisman and Mital’s written fulfillment of the steps based on President Bulger’s coaching; and

6. Impacts on campus community members, including faculty and managers, of the conditions on campus.I am confident that with our resolve and the overwhelming support of the community, we will help guide our institution back to stability. 
If you have not done so already, please sign our petition to restore democracy at LCC: https://bit.ly/LCCDemocracy In just eight days time, hundreds of community members and organizations have done so, including former State Senator Pete Sorensen, former State Representative Paul Holvey, Lane County Commissioners Heather Buch and Laurie Trieger, and many more.
Please also attend the rally and Board meeting tomorrow (food outside cafeteria at 4:30, rally at 5, Board meeting at 6 in19/102).

In solidarity,

Adrienne

An Open Letter to the Elected Members of the Lane Community College Board of Education 

To: Lane Community College Board of Education 

From: Adrienne Mitchell, LCCEA President 

Date: November 4, 2025 

Attachments: Documentation 

Esteemed LCC Board of Education Members, 

I am writing to share deep concerns for the state of our beloved Lane Community College. 

Our community’s college and the people of Lane County deserve course and program offerings they can rely upon. 

The sudden suspension of the LPN program for the 25-26 year left student applicants without a place to turn in the region to become LPNs, a critical workforce for long-term care facilities and a living wage job for our students and their families. Students had spent significant time and money on prerequisites only to learn at the last minute that the program would not be offered. 37 applicants for 16 slots in a program with a 100% success rate were turned away. There was no Board vote or public meeting prior to this decision, leaving no avenue for students, community members, or the Board itself to provide any input. This did not save money. Instead, it only increased cost per student for the other Nursing programs. At the same time, the Administration did not advertise the BSN program until mid-June, which resulted in only 11 students rather than the 60 students promised to the Board. This is not “strategic.” It’s the mark of hasty decision making. 

In addition, the Administration cut 100 class sections from the offerings for students this year, which amounts to 3.7% of all course offerings. This could result in a loss of net revenue up to $1M based on tuition alone after excluding all salary and OPE costs. While we are still waiting for the Administration to provide a list of all the cuts as they “research” which classes they just cancelled, we have learned from faculty and deans that the cuts do affect students in math and science taking prerequisites for Health Professions, music, dance, literature, social science, and even “Writing for Scholarships.” Students had registered for many of these classes, and registration for Winter and Spring terms is ongoing with several months of open registration to go when students are expected to register. Cuts of this magnitude are not aligned with the Board’s approved budget, nor the information presented to the Board regarding a minimal reduction of the part-time budget on September 3. 

Our community’s college and the people of Lane County deserve transparency and compliance with open meeting law. 

First, recent emails between the LCC President Bulger and Board of Education members reveal that President Bulger called meetings in August to discuss plans for budget reductions. These meetings were not publicly announced, and despite the express concerns from Board members, including both the Chair and Vice Chair, that the meetings would not conform to open meeting law, President Bulger proceeded to hold the meetings anyway. In addition, President Bulger declined requests from the Board Chair to contact the Oregon Governmental Ethics Commission together and dismissed the concerns of highly experienced public officials including Vice Chair Jerry Rust, claiming that the concerns were an “unnecessary distraction.” After the closed meetings, President Bulger informed the Board members by email that she had changed plans for the budget

presentation (i.e., budget reductions) based on the closed meetings with Board members. Furthermore, statements by Board members and Administrators at the September 3, 2025 Board meeting reveal that the Administration had discussed closing the low-income dental clinic with Board members at the closed meetings but reversed course after the meetings, demonstrating that the meetings resulted in changes that were not purely informational. Compliance with open meeting law should be the bare minimum. And program and service reductions deserve the light of day, community input, and public notice. 

Our community’s college and the people of Lane County deserve an LCC Board of Education that is allowed to function as the governing body of LCC, as they were elected to do. 

Second, another set of public records reveal that the LCC President Bulger has blocked Board of Education members from adding items to their own agenda. Several Board members (Rust, Mulholland, Maldonando, and Folnagy) sought to add an agenda item for action to the September 3 Board meeting to confirm the Board’s existing, long-standing authority to make decisions on program and service cuts, reductions, and suspensions in accordance with the Board’s own policy (BP4350) and decades-long, well-documented precedent. Instead of adding the agenda item motion that was requested by three Board members and summarized by a fourth (the Board Chair) President Bulger added only a memo written by a fifth Board member in support of President Bulger’s opinion that she and the Administration should make decisions about cuts without a vote of the Board. These actions are not consistent with Board policy nor operating agreements and raise serious questions about compliance with Oregon Revised Statutes concerning the powers of community college boards of education. 

Our community’s college and the people of Lane County deserve an LCC Board of Education whose members feel they are treated with respect. 

A third set of public records demonstrate a pattern of disrespect toward Board members who may occasionally disagree with LCC President Bulger. For instance, the most experienced in public service of all Board members, the highly esteemed Vice Chair Jerry Rust, who has two decades of experience as a Lane County Commissioner, reports feeling that President Bulger is “not treating me as an elected board member worthy of respect” and shares concerns about being subjected to a “hostile workplace situation” by the president. 

Our community’s college and the people of Lane County deserve legal compliance, transparency, and a healthy environment where Board members do not operate with fear of retaliation for upholding their duties as elected Board members. 

Finally, it is disturbing that a fourth set of records raise concerns that a minority of Board members are interfering with the ability of the Board Chair to add agenda items and threatening complaints against the Board Chair for fulfilling their basic duties as an elected leader (e.g., adding items to agendas and advocating for following open meeting law). In addition, the records raise questions about one Board member’s release of a legal record marked “confidential” to the President and subsequent coaching of Board members by the LCC President on steps to waive attorney-client privilege, followed by shared drafts and submission of waivers based on that coaching.

Concerns about Retaliation 

I’m concerned I will face retaliation for writing this message even though I know that whistleblowers are protected. I have witnessed retaliation by the current LCC Administration against numerous faculty who have been targeted for speaking up or for expressing criticism of the LCC Administration and who have resigned under pressure, yet this is not an issue that only impacts faculty. I have witnessed retaliation against several high-ranking administrators who dared to speak up and, likewise, experienced retaliation by the current LCC Administration and have been compelled to resign or “retire” and sign non-disclosure agreements. And managers at the dean level and above have reported fear of losing their jobs for advocating against the current class cuts the upper administration is conducting for Winter and Spring terms. I have personally faced retaliation directly by the current LCC Administration, having been targeted for layoff (shortly after LCC President Bulger stated to me directly, “I don’t know how long you will be around here.”) 

I write this because I understand that others may not speak up due to their own fear of retaliation, because I have dedicated a lifetime of service to Lane Community College, because I care so deeply about the services we provide to students and the community, and because I do believe the future of LCC is at stake. 

Call to Action 

Democracy at our national level is increasingly fragile, and it is more critical than ever to buttress higher education, which stands as a bulwark against authoritarianism. Not only in our classrooms, labs, shops, library, and halls – it must begin here in the LCC Boardroom. Without functioning democracy on the Board, LCC cannot effectively serve the people or our region. Board members, please take action to reclaim your authority and to stabilize our community’s college. 

Most sincerely and with appreciation for your service in these challenging times, Adrienne

Adrienne Mitchell, M.A., M.Ed.

Faculty Member, Academic Learning Skills Department

President, Lane Community College Education Association

Vice President, Oregon Education Association Community College Council