LCC Faculty Colleagues –

As we prepare to celebrate students at graduation on Saturday, please find some updates for summer and fall below on retro pay, salary increases for next year, insurance information, program and service cuts, inservice schedule, HB 4124, and tomorrow’s Town Hall supporting increased funding for public education at all levels.

Retro Pay, Salary Increases, and New Contract

Look for retro pay on your June 25 paycheck. In addition, increases from 3% COLAs, compounded with 1% part-time pay parity adjustments, and the new 1.5% longevity step at the top of all the salary schedules will take effect for the 26-27 year. For faculty working in summer, these increases will be in effect on summer paychecks. For faculty not working in the summer, increases will go into effect in Fall.

In addition, your Bargaining Team continues to work diligently with the Administration as we finalize the full contract document so that it will be available to all faculty and managers. Thank you to April Myler, Peggy Oberstaller, Gerry Meenaghan, and Russell Shitabata for ongoing dedication and service to all faculty this term!

Insurance Open Enrollment – Mandatory this year

OEBB open enrollment will take place between August 15 through September 15 and will be mandatory again this year. All faculty who are eligible for insurance will be required to make plan selections during the open enrollment period. 

Thanks to our successful contract campaign, employee contributions to insurance will remain effectively flat for next year, with minimal increases beginning in October to out-of-paycheck contributions (e.g., less than $5 per paycheck more for full-family insurance and a lower increase for other insurance tiers). If not for our new contract, faculty with family insurance, for example, would be paying $342 more per month or more than $4100 per year to maintain the same insurance plan. Thank you to everyone for standing in solidarity for a fair contract.

In addition to the same plan offerings that we currently have (i.e., Moda 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Kaiser 1), the LCCEA Insurance committee has added two additional options: Moda 6 and Kaiser 3. These are HSA-eligible plans for faculty comfortable with much higher deductibles who wish to take advantage of the tax savings provided with HSA accounts. Our new contract language requires the College to make a contribution to the HSA account in the amount of the difference between the cost of the HSA-eligible medical plan and the cost of Moda plan 1 (i.e., the base plan). IRS rules prohibit having both an HSA and Section 125 account, so faculty who choose the high deductible HSA-eligible medical plan will receive college contributions to the HSA account but may not have a Section 125 account. Only faculty members comfortable with paying high deductibles should consider Moda 6 or Kaiser 3 with the HSA option.

While HSA plan options will be of benefit to some faculty comfortable with paying high deductibles or with other double insurance coverage, we anticipate that the vast majority of faculty will continue to choose the regular options for insurance (i.e., Moda 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and Kaiser 1). Section 125 accounts will continue to be available for these regular plans with the same College contributions as last year.

Information on insurance can be found on the OEBB website, including a benefits comparison for all OEBB plans. Thank you to Tawnya Gillespie and Rick Riordan for Co-Chairing the LCCEA Insurance committee!

In-service Schedule 

Please see the In-service schedule below. LCCEA will host a welcome back event after work on Thursday, September 17. In addition, we will host a lunch for all faculty on Thursday, September 24, and the LCCEA union meeting will be in the afternoon on Thursday, September 24 as well. You are most cordially invited!

Monday, 9/14	Faculty Connections (Contact Wendy Rose Aaron)
Tuesday, 9/15	Class prep only, no other activities for faculty required
Wednesday, 9/16	Class prep only, no other activities for faculty required
Thursday, 9/17	Sabbatical presentations, FPD, LCCEA Fall Welcome Event after work
Friday, 9/18	Class prep only, no other activities for faculty required
Monday, 9/21	College In-Service Activities
Tuesday, 9/22	College In-Service Activities
Wednesday, 9/23	College In-Service Activities
Thursday, 9/24	College In-Service Activities in A.M.; LCCEA lunch and LCCEA meeting in the afternoon
Friday, 9/25	Class prep only, no other activities for faculty required
Monday, 9/28	First day of Fall term classes
Note: 12 hours of Inservice will be dedicated to paid Canvas workshops or class prep in Fall 2026; part-time faculty may use 12 hours of inservice pay for these workshops and/or for class prep time

Updates on Program & Service Reductions

As reported in April, the Administration’s “budget mitigation plan” called for reductions of the following: 

• One full-time library faculty position
• Eliminating the Criminal Justice program (one full-time faculty position) and the Health Information Management program (two full-time faculty positions)
• Reductions of non-instructional faculty coordination time, including three faculty in the Multicultural Center, one faculty member in the Gender Equity Center, one faculty member in ABSE, one faculty member in Course-Embedded Tutoring, and the Employee Wellness coordination time.

While all of the above have been reduced through Board of Education vote, some of the cuts have been reduced from the Administration’s initial plans, and eleven of the twelve contracted faculty who were impacted will retain 1.0 full-time faculty positions next year, with the twelfth still to be determined based on available class offerings. Thank you to Rosa Lopez, April Myler, and Gerry Meenaghan who have served on this team helping to ensure faculty rights are honored and to advocate for maintaining essential programs and services for our students.

There will be minimal impacts to sections available to part-time faculty in some departments and programs, which will be mitigated by an overall substantial increase in the part-time budget at LCC of $1.6 Million more for next year, which should result in expanded offerings and reduce the likelihood of mass class cuts like all the ones that occurred this year and whose effects are well documented by the Faculty Council Class Cuts Taskforce’s Report.

Lane County Education Workers – Save Our Schools TOMORROW, June 10

Lane County Education Workers, a coalition of local unions representing K12 through university educators of all types, will host a Town Hall to publicize cuts affecting our public education institutions and call on legislators to take action to amply fund education at all levels. Several local legislators will be in attendance. Please join colleagues from LCCEA, LCCEF, EEA, OSEA, GTFF, SEIU, UAUO and more to advocate for investment in public ed for the common good. See flyer here. 

Statewide News

As we wrap up this academic year, work begins tomorrow at the HECC to assess the higher education system in Oregon and produce a report as required by HB 4124. The bill specifically requires the following.  

The Higher Education Coordinating Commission shall conduct a study of the condition of Oregon’s post-secondary education system and develop detailed recommendations for the design, implementation and operation of a viable and superior institutional framework that: 

(a) Supports access to post-secondary education institutions for students across geographic location, including rural communities and other underserved populations; 

(b) Fuels regional and statewide economic development and employment opportunities; and 

(c) Improves the financial viability of each post-secondary education institution in Oregon and the post-secondary education system as a whole, including by addressing projected enrollment, increased personnel costs, changes in federal law or priorities, sectorspecific inflationary costs or other related factors.

A third party consultant conducted initial focus groups, resulting in this process document about the initial steps the HECC will follow in order to conduct this comprehensive study.  Another third party consultant will be hired by the HECC to convene an Advisory Group which will lead this work at the state level. I am honored to have been appointed to serve on this committee representing OEA and all education unions in the state and, together with the Executive Director of OCCA, will be one of two members with any affiliation with community colleges. While this work may ultimately lead to change for higher education in Oregon in the future, the initial bill is solely focused on a report to the legislature rather than determinations. The scope of the study is exceedingly broad while the scope of future change is unknown and could vary widely as ultimately determined in subsequent (post-2027) legislative sessions.

Union Updates & Opportunities

Please join me in thanking Joseph Colton for his service as LCCEA Grievance Chair. As Joseph goes on sabbatical beginning in Fall, we welcome our incoming Chair, Gerry Meenaghan. Under Gerry’s leadership, the team plans “Know Your Contract” information sessions for next year to help ensure faculty are informed about new rights and benefits under the contract. Stay tuned for more in Fall.

In addition, I hope you will extend a warm and robust thank you to Wendy Simmons, who after many years of unwavering service as the Action Team Chair and former union officer and Membership Chair, will be retiring from LCC but continuing to volunteer as an OEA Retired member serving on the OEA Community College Council. Thank you, Wendy, for your incredible dedication and unending team spirit!

LCCEA is a democratic, member-led organization that works through the dedication and volunteer efforts of our amazing members. Please share your interest in LCCEA committees and opportunities here.

LCCEA will be sponsoring a small group of member leaders to attend the UO Labor Education and Research Center “Summer School” conference August 14-16. Please complete this form for LCCEA members if you are interested in attending one of these events. 

Dates for Your Calendar

LCEW Town Hall, June 10, 4:30 p.m. Roosevelt Middle School Auditorium 

LCCEA Welcome Back Event. Thursday, September 17, 2026 after work

LCCEA Lunch for All Faculty,  Thursday, September 24 at 30th Ave. campus

Faculty Union Meeting, Thursday, September 24, afternoon

In solidarity,

Adrienne