LCC Faculty Colleagues,
Please find below new salary schedules for the 23-24 year for contracted faculty, part-time faculty, and part-time Flight Tech. faculty. These take effect 8/16/23 and are updated from the previous versions to include an increase of 0.6% to offset the employee portion of the payroll deduction for Oregon Paid Family Leave.
This increase is now added to the salary schedules as a result of our 2022-2024 economic reopener negotiations.
Your Association
LCC Faculty Colleagues,
Please find below updates on: Moodle 4 and funding for Summer; Fall Inservice Schedule; Insurance Open Enrollment; Support for Rep. Paul Holvey; and the Oregon Opportunity Grant.
Moodle 4 — CD Funding for Instructors this Summer
A reminder for all faculty teaching this summer — you are eligible to record up to 10 hours at the curriculum development rate for updating Moodle shells for each unique course taught this term now that Moodle 4 has been implemented For instance, instructors teaching one section of WR121 and one section of WR 122 are eligible to record up to 20 hours because WR121 and WR 122 are two unique courses. (See full MOA below.)
Fall Inservice Schedule and Part-time Faculty Compensation
The schedule for Fall inservice will remain the same as last Fall. 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. You will find details of the inservice schedule below.
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.
Please save the date for the afternoon of Thursday, September 21 for LCCEA’s All Faculty Meeting, which will include a special guest speaker, Professor Gary Rhoades. Gary Rhoades is Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. He has served as President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), General Secretary of the American Association of University Professors, and on the Board of the American Council on Education. Rhoades’ scholarship focuses on the restructuring of academic institutions and of professions in the academy, among other topics. In addition to his books, Managed Professionals (1998, SUNY Press) and Academic Capitalism and the New Economy (with Sheila Slaughter, 2004, Johns Hopkins University Press), Rhoades’ current research concentrates on the working conditions of faculty generally and of adjunct or part-time faculty in particular as he works on a new volume, tentatively entitled, Organizing ‘Professionals’: Academic Employees Negotiating a New Academy.
| 1/2 day of paid class prep, plus 2 paid non-instructional 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. LCCEA’s All Faculty Meeting with guest speaker, Gary Rhoades |
| Friday, 9/22 | all day class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled |
| Monday, 9/25 | all day class prep, no required activities for faculty may be scheduled |
OEBB Insurance Open Enrollment
Open enrollment is mandatory again this year, so all faculty who are eligible for insurance should log in to OEBB between August 15 – September 15 to complete plan selections. More information, including rate charts, will be forthcoming from HR.
As reported in June, our 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. 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.
Please read the following messages while on break.
Support for Representative Holvey
Representative Paul Holvey, who has been a long-time supporter of public education, community colleges, and labor generally is facing a recall in August. Paul Holvey, who represents part of Lane County in the Oregon legislature, is an important voice to ensure that community colleges receive sufficient funding and that students’ needs are met, among many other issues. He is also a true champion for workers, consumers, small business, and the environment. In addition, Rep. Holvey was one of the chief sponsors of a recent bill that would have provided earmarked funding for the LCC Health Clinic. Please support Rep. Holvey by voting “No” on the recall effort.
Advocacy for Grant Funding for Community College Students
The Oregon legislature approved a record-breaking $100 Million increase to the Oregon Opportunity Grant, which is needs-based funding for students. However, the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) is planning to make changes to the grant that could result in reserving $85M for university students and leaving only $15M to community college students even though community colleges education the most low-income students of any higher ed sector in the state. You can add your voice to advocating for needs-based funding for community college students by sending an automatic message to key legislators and the Governor here.
Your Association
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
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 |
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!
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.
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.
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
Website: lccea.org
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LCCEAAction/
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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.
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.
Confidentiality Notice: LCCEA messages are intended for faculty. If you have received this message in error, please notify LCCEA.
LCC Faculty Colleagues,
I’m writing regarding the College budget after tonight’s Board and Budget Committee meeting. I’m linking here and attaching to this message a statement I sent to the Board and Budget Committee shortly before their meeting and also provided by public comment. I encourage you to read it in full.
Many of you have been tracking developments throughout this year’s budget process, which has starkly contrasted the regular annual process at LCC.
The Administration has presented wildly different figures each week over the past three weeks, sometimes vastly different figures on the same day at the same public meeting. The changing estimates have primarily been estimates of the amount of funding that will remain in the general fund (i.e., Fund I) at the end of this June, a mere five weeks away – with estimates ranging from $2.5M to $7.8M. The final figure presented today was $3.6M.
These figures, if accurate, demonstrate that the reserves that had been restored at the beginning of this fiscal year (i.e., July 1, 2022) are now substantially depleted. For example, one document provided by the Administration indicates that managers in charge of M & S (Materials & Services) budgets, which include travel, have overspent the allocations for M & S in the general fund by $2.3M this year. Meanwhile, total personnel expenditures, which include faculty salaries, have come in slightly under budget this year.
In addition, the Administration has discovered and announced errors in their budget figures in the amounts of $2.1 Million and $1.7 Million respectively at each meeting in the past two weeks. Please see table below.
Given these basic facts, I find it difficult to have confidence in the budget figures presented or in the administration’s management of expenditures within the confines of the approved budget – authority provided to them by the Board.
| * | May 3, 2023FY 24 proposed budget document on Board Docs | May 3, 2023 FY 24 projections document on Board Docs | 8 a.m. May 10, 2023 FY24 projections document Board Docs | 4:55 p.m. May 10, 2023FY24 projections document on Board Docs | May 17, 2023 | May 24,2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fund I beginning balance for FY24 (i.e., projection for June 30, 2023) | $7,834,450 | $3,688,667 | $5,064,266 | $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 |
| Fund I ending balance for FY24 (i.e. projection for June 30, 2024) | $3,435,560 | -$710,000 | $7,971,576 | $3,033,276 (or $5,431,576 including contingency) | Documents now removed from BoardDocs | |
| Other corrections | “unknown $2.1M” had been built into M&S | “clerical error” of $1.7M |
The Administration published their proposed amendments to the budget around 4 p.m. – one hour before the public hearing began.
The amendments include:
For a total of $2.8M in personnel reductions for next year.
No information has been presented publicly about what the reductions may be, whether there is a plan for reductions, or whether they will be mitigated by current vacancies or swirl** which is projected to amount to $1.3 – $1.4M in savings next year.
Given that the FY24 budget has $4.2 – 5.2 Million is vacancies built in (for 44 positions of all types from all employee groups), there is sufficient funding available to allow the College to have a balanced budget without introducing $2.8 Million in personnel cuts next year.
In the case of faculty positions, it is frequently impossible to realize savings from budget cuts, especially savings of any significant amount through contracted faculty layoffs. What often happens is that faculty will transfer to another discipline for which they are qualified, displacing part-time faculty whose salaries are substantially lower, thereby increasing the cost-per-FTE of the program where they transfer. At the same time the original program that was reduced no longer has enrollment, resulting in lost tuition revenue and state funding. It’s a lose-lose scenario.
Please also note that the deadlines for any faculty retrenchments to take place for Fall term have long passed, so it is not possible for any layoff to occur this coming Fall.
Even though the proposed budget amendments were not published until one hour before the public hearing, the Board and Budget Committee, nevertheless, passed a formal motion to recommend the amendments. The amendments will next be incorporated into a final budget document. The Board will be asked to approve the final budget at their June 7 meeting, which you may wish to consider attending.
Your Association leaders will continue to advocate for transparency, reasonableness, and accountability regarding the budget, centering the instructional and student services mission of our beloved community college.
There are better options and better choices for our campus and our community.
My best,
Adrienne
* Please note that “Instruction” includes all employees in instructional departments (i.e., faculty, classified, managers).
** “Swirl” is savings resulting from salaries for positions that are budgeted but not filled for all 12 months of the year such as when an employee resigns, and the position is not refilled for a number of months.
—
LCC Faculty Colleagues,
Your LCCEA Bargaining Team participated in mediation with Administration all day yesterday and all morning today.
The parties reached an agreement regarding workload and compensation for the impacts of Common Course Numbering. Please see agreement below.
Briefly, the provisions include:
These provisions will extend through 2030 or until they are incorporated into a new contract.
Your representatives thoroughly considered Administration proposals on public health working conditions in light of faculty survey results. We made numerous proposals attempting to meet College interests. However, the Administration made clear that they were unwilling to reach an agreement without provisions that would add new requirements for faculty teaching work that are not consistent with the current contract and which are unrelated to public health. For this reason, we ultimately did not reach an agreement. Faculty retain the rights to negotiate should another public health emergency arise in the future as well as to negotiate over this topic in the main contract bargaining in 2024.
More details will be provided at the LCCEA Spring meeting tomorrow (Wednesday).
Your LCCEA Bargaining Team
Cynthia Campos, OEA
Sarah Erickson
Adrienne Mitchell
April Myler
Peggy Oberstaller
Lane Community College Education Association 