LCC Faculty Colleagues,
I hope this email finds you well as we approach the end of Spring term and the academic year!
I’m writing with updates from LCCEA, our faculty union, to address topics including the LCC budget, insurance, bargaining and organizing, the status of changes to the Learning Management System (i.e., Moodle, Canvas), non-teaching work for contracted faculty, the suspension of the LPN program, in-service schedule for Fall, and other news.
Welcoming More Faculty & Insurance Committee Leadership Update
Our union engagement continues to grow with more than 80 faculty members serving on LCCEA committees and membership rates that are higher than ever. Please keep an eye out as the Nominations and Elections committee will be announcing results by the end of this week as we welcome new officers this coming September.
In addition, our LCCEA Insurance committee will be led by Co-Chairs Nursing faculty member Tawnya Gillespie and HIM program coordinator Rick Riordan. Healthcare insurance plan choices will remain the same for faculty for next year, but there will be changes to the existing Moda and Kaiser plans, and enrollment is mandatory again this year. Please stay tuned for more information this summer and in advance of open enrollment in August from Tawnya and Rick.
You can find the majority of LCCEA committees listed on our website here. To get involved in LCCEA committees, please share your interest here.
LPN Program Hiatus
At the end of May, the Administration suddenly suspended the highly successful Licensed Practice Nursing program without notice to the public nor a presentation to the Board of Education for a vote, leaving students who had applied after significant time and financial investment in prerequisites without a path forward. As yet, the program “hiatus” remains formally unexplained to the campus, Board of Education, and community. The program has a 100% pass rate and is in high demand with more than double the number of applicants for available seats, and local long-term care facilities rely on LCC’s program for their LPN workforce needs. Please note that this is not a budget cut. All faculty positions will be retained, but all faculty in the RN and BSN programs are impacted by as yet unannounced schedule changes for Fall and beyond. As noted in bargaining updates, LCCEA is negotiating to address the impacts to faculty and students of this program hiatus.
LCC Budget
For background information on LCC’s plans for the next fiscal year’s budget, please see my statements to the Board’s Budget Committee from May 7, May 14, and May 20, and June 4 An improved proposed budget was presented by the Administration on May 21 to the Budget Committee, and the Committee approved moving it forward to the Board of Education at their meeting that evening. You can find the changes on p. 1 posted on BoardDocs here.
Instead of using $3.1M in general fund reserves, the new budget for next year is balanced and factors in:
· $1.77M in vacancy savings (AKA “swirl,” which is savings resulting from positions that are occupied for part of only a year after a retirement and/or while a search process takes place);
· Holding $689K of the $3.1M in vacant positions open (which is roughly $417K in salary plus OPE);
· $675K in unspecified program and service cuts (See p. 3 posted on BoardDocs here.), and other minor adjustments.
While this is an improved budget, program and service cuts should not be necessary. The budget is stable after more than 26% enrollment growth over the past three years and a growing Ending Fund Balance, which has increased by $1M over the past two years. Please note: there is no structural deficit – an increasing ending fund balance means that revenue exceeds expenses year-over-year, not the other way around.
Unfortunately, the LCC Board (with two dissenting votes) approved the FY26 budget that includes undisclosed cuts while funding a 10% increase in management positions from the current historic high of 72 managers to 79 for next year. (See p, 4 posted on BoardDocs for details.) The budget also has substantial increases of more than $5M to the budgeted amount for OPE (personnel benefits overhead expenses) that were added and built into the budget, and which according to LCC finance administrators, includes extra budgeted amounts that are not anticipated to be utilized next year but that were added in preparation for future years. This creates the impression of a tight budget, yet if implemented as approved, will only further increase the ending fund balance (i.e., reserves).
Also troubling is the LCC President’s statement at the May 21 Board’s Budget committee meeting that program and service cuts are “operational” and determined by the Administration rather than the Board. This contravenes the public interest, contradicts the Board’s own policies and the authority of the community college Boards of Education rooted in state statutes and administrative rules, and ultimately undermines our democracy and the representation of the people of Lane County who elect the Board members.
Given the current pattern of budgeting and expenditures as detailed in the pie chart below from the most recent official fiscal audit statement that was published May 30 as well as the new management salary schedule created by management for management without any Board of Education public meeting discussion or approval, it’s clear the Administration is taking LCC in a direction further away from our core instructional and student services mission, and more public oversight is direly needed.
It will be up to all of us to advocate to ensure adequate investment in the instructional and student services mission – this is central to our collective bargaining and organizing efforts.
Bargaining and Organizing
Your LCCEA Bargaining Team faculty leads are: Gerry Meenaghan, April Myler, Peggy Oberstaller, Russell Shitabata, and myself. Negotiations continue on June 26 and then resume again on September 11, all 1-4 in 2/214. All faculty are most welcome to attend. Bargaining dates for Fall term will be on Tuesdays, 1- 4 p.m.,
The Administration’s proposals in bargaining thus far represent a net reduction in total LCC expenditures for compensation and benefits paid to faculty through substantial decreases in healthcare benefits coupled with workload increases, including mandatory (yet only partially compensated) overloads and removal of contractual class size maximums, both of which would result in significant job loss for part-time faculty. The Administration also made non-economic proposals that would: allow layoffs of contracted faculty at any time of year with only 60 days’ notice, convert full-time positions to part-time positions, and remove contract language that protects part-time faculty from being removed for exercising their rights to non-discrimination or First Amendment rights to express divergent views or express criticism of LCC. Taken together, these Administration proposals seek to carve away at faculty job security and strike at the heart of academic freedom – a bedrock for our democracy.
At the same time, our faculty LCCEA proposals seek to support the mission and allow faculty to do our best work in service of students, in alignment with the following themes that emerged from a two-year process of quantitative and qualitative data gathering and analysis, for the common good.
➔ Fair pay
➔ Reasonable workload
➔ Essentials for Faculty working conditions
➔ Necessities for Student Success
➔ Safe, Healthy Campus
➔ Association Rights & Legal compliance
Read more about the details of these themes and goals here, which are based on well-documented faculty needs. The development of these themes culminated in a vote last Spring when 99% of 215 faculty respondents said “yes” to endorse these goals – a show of extraordinary solidarity among faculty at large.
This Spring more than 480 faculty, campus, and community members signed our Action Team’s petition in support of these goals! A huge thank you to the team for the successful rally and powerful action at the Board of Education meeting on June 4. Together we are stronger. If you have not yet done so, you may sign the petition here.
Together, we will center the common good and create the campus our community deserves. For more information or to get involved, contact Wendy Simmons or Amy Beasley or share your interest here. Please look for more information and updates from the Action Team over the summer.
LCC Board of Education
We are proud to announce that three of the four candidates endorsed by LCCEA were elected to serve on the LCC Board of Education! Austin Fölnagy will continue on the Board, and Jesse Maldonado and Jerry Rust will begin terms on July 2. Kudos to the more than forty faculty members who volunteered to help elect them through canvassing, phone banking, flyering, text banking, and more. Please join me in sharing deep appreciation for Rosa Lopez, our Legislative and Political Action Chair, for her tremendous leadership in this effort. We look forward to a more stable, functional Board with all seven positions filled, and a majority commitment to the critical role of public oversight and democracy.
Non-teaching work
As previously reported, LCC and LCCEA reached an agreement that no reporting of non-teaching work will be required until Fall. Contracted faculty will need to complete a form to provide their plans for committee and service work for the year at the beginning of Fall term, but no reporting or tracking of hours or FTE associated with non-teaching work will be required. In addition, the College recognizes that the form is intended as a plan and does not limit a faculty member’s ability to make changes to their committee service as new opportunities or time demands for existing committees evolve over the academic year.
User Agreements for Recordings
As reported in Winter, our union leaders and the administration reached an agreement on a new CAR User Agreement. Students who have an accommodation to record classes will have to sign this new user agreement. It limits the use of the recordings to student personal study in alignment with the purpose of the accommodation and disallows release and posting of the recordings. While HR had previously agreed to work collaboratively with faculty leaders on a similar agreement for employee accommodations, they have since backed away from their commitment. This issue is now in bargaining where we negotiate to ensure that both student and employee accommodation needs are met, and that faculty data privacy rights are protected.
Learning Management System Advisory Taskforce
After a six-month process, the LMS Advisory Taskforce finalized its work on May 16 with a comprehensive report and recommendation to move to Canvas instead of Moodle. Thank you to Co-Chair Wendy Lightheart, LCCEA appointees, Jason Ambacher, Erika Masaki, Rick Riordan, Michael Woods, and all members of the team. Then, your LCCEA representatives met with ATC and College representatives at the end of May as required by our contract to finalize the determination of the LMS and discuss future plans, but we learned that the Administration was not yet prepared to make any decision nor to collaboratively discuss next steps. The College representative explained that the Administration would need more time for research and consideration before participating in any determination about a future LMS or collaborative planning for next steps. More information will be provided once it is available.
Labor Relations & Dispute Resolutions
ABSE and ESL
We are happy to report that LCCEA and LCC reached a resolution on numerous issues impacting the job security of the 40+ faculty working in ABSE and ESL after a two-day mediation at the end of April. The resolution obviated ongoing litigation. Thank you to Joseph Colton, Zara Pastos, and Jen Sacklin for serving on the mediation team to reach this resolution during the marathon negotiation.
LCC Engaged in Unfair Labor Practices – Final Order Expected Soon
As reported in Winter, an Administrative Law Judge at the Employment Relations Board issued a recommended order finding that LCC engaged in several unfair labor practices by violating the PECBA (i.e. the Public Employees Collective Bargaining Act) – the state law that protects the rights of public employees to bargain collectively and to engage in union activities. Specifically, the recommended order found that LCC violated four subsections of ORS 243.672 – (1)(a)(b)(c) and (e). The final order is anticipated to be issued soon.
Advocacy for Collaborative Labor Relations
Your LCCEA leaders continue to advocate for resolutions to contractual disputes (i.e., grievances) and legal issues (i.e., unfair labor practices) at the lowest level possible. Your LCCEA officers have engaged in ongoing advocacy with the Board of Education about this over the course of this year after seeing a dramatic increase in issues going to litigation since 2022 and now contract negotiations conducted by an outside attorney representing the Administration. The legal costs to LCC have also escalated dramatically – amounting to well over $700,000 from 2022 through the beginning of May this year — and are still growing. These are precious public dollars that could be used to fund the college mission instead of attorney fees.
We will continue to advocate for a reasonable, collaborative approach to labor relations.
OEA News
Together with 700+ Oregon Education Association members from throughout the state, our elected LCCEA delegates: Don Easton, Cybele Higgins, April Myler, Wendy Simmons, Meggie Wright, and I participated in a democratic voting process to guide the work of the OEA and elected Enrique Farrera, a community college member from Clackamas CC, as the next OEA President. It has been more than two decades since we have enjoyed the leadership of a community college member for our 42,000+ member-stong statewide organization. We are so excited about what’s to come as OEA continues to grow with new local unions joining, especially for our Community College Council, on which I serve as Vice President alongside LCCEA members: Wendy Simmons as PAC Board member and April Myler, our newly elected Council Treasurer.
In Closing
Despite all ongoing tumult at the national level and here on campus, I am heartened by our extraordinary member solidarity and so proud to stand shoulder to shoulder, together with you all as we advocate for the common good.
Now and going forward, let us continue to uphold the critical, foundational role of our community colleges in a healthy, vibrant democracy. Together, we will continue to build a stronger member-led, dynamic, vibrant future for our students, our campus, and our communities.
In solidarity and with appreciation for all you do,
Adrienne
Inservice Schedule and Dates for your Calendar
Thursday, 9/18: all day scheduled by College, LCCEA Fall Welcome Gathering @ Bier Stein
Friday, 9/19: all day class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled
Monday, 9/22: Assessment Day, scheduled by College
Tuesday, 9/23: Faculty Professional Development & sabbatical reports
Wednesday, 9/24: Morning division meetings, afternoon class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled
Thursday, 9/25: Morning all campus convening, afternoon annual All Faculty Meeting
Friday 9/26: all day class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled
Monday, 9/29: First day of Fall term classes
Dates for your Calendar
Board of Ed meetings, July 2, September 3
Lane County Labor Day Picnic, September 1
Faculty Connections, September 16-17
Member Social, hosted by Membership committee, September 18
All Faculty Meeting, hosted by LCCEA, September 25
Contact Information
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
Lane Community College Education Association
LCCEA is the faculty union representing the 200 full-time and 375 part-time faculty of Lane Community College.
Lane Community College Education Association 