Attend the upcoming board meeting!!

Posted on November 14, 2019 by LCCEA
LCC Faculty Colleagues,
 
We’ve just been notified of this time change.  Join us this Monday, November 18, for the board meeting from 6:00 – 7:00 p.m. and wear red.  For a free meal before the meeting, come to the cafeteria at 5:00 p.m.  We will walk over to the board meeting together at 5:45 p.m.
The top 10 reasons to attend the board meeting are to:
10. Support the hard work of your Bargaining Team – Kelly Collins, Adrienne Mitchell, Russell Shitabata and Nancy Wood.
9. Get a free meal from Cafe’ Yumm before the meeting.
8. Show off your red t-shirts/outfits. There will be a prize for the best “dressed in red.”
7. Stand with a record number of faculty, classified staff and community members in packing the Board room.
6. Socialize with your colleagues and solve all the world’s other problems.
5. Take a break from the NFL because the football game will be a blow out anyway.
4. Celebrate National Vichyssoise Day!
3. Have a really good reason to hit the pause button on your grading.
2. Support pay equity for part-time faculty.
1. Observe the look on the faces of the Board Members when they receive special gifts.
Also, if you haven’t yet, please take a few moments to send a letter to the Board/President Hamilton.  Here’s the link https://actionnetwork.org/letters/send-a-fair-faculty-contract-message-to-the-lcc-board  
You will be asked to enter your email address, name, and address, but you can simply use 4000 E 30th Ave for the address (LCC’s address) if you would like.

You will have the option to send a pre-written message, and it only takes literally seconds to send, OR you can edit the subject line and message by clicking in the fields and typing a message.
In appreciation and solidarity,

Wendy Simmons & Lee Imonen, LCCEA Action Team Co-Chairs
Posted in Action Team, General | Leave a comment

Update for Faculty 3.18.19

Posted on November 14, 2019 by LCCEA

18 October 2019

Dear Colleagues,
 
I’m writing with a quick update from Wednesday’s tremendous action at the Board meeting. About 65 faculty members attended — filling the Boardroom seats, aisle, and spilling into the hallway. Faculty members delivered the life-sized “Fair Contract Now” letter to the Board and College Administration with more than 120 faculty signatures. (We lost count! Photos below.)
 
Fourteen faculty members spoke sharing compelling stories of hardships faced by part-time faculty, the impact of large class sizes on student success and retention, the disparities and inequities of the two-tiered faculty system, the continued decrease in full-time positions at LCC, the College’s (still incomplete) contractual obligation to document workload, the numerous financial sacrifices made by faculty over recent years, the problems of the college’s proposals such as undermining part-time seniority, and the reasonableness of the faculty proposal.
 
The Wednesday evening action was inspiring and moving and an excellent step toward ensuring that the Board and Administration hear this important faculty message. 
 
Over several years, the College has effectively disinvested in the mission by dedicating a decreasing proportion of operating expenditures to instruction from 40.0% in FY16 to 37.2% in FY17, and 35.1% in FY18, well below the national average of 41.6% for public community colleges. 
 
Your LCCEA proposals in bargaining help shift the college to begin to reinvest in faculty, in instruction, and back toward the central mission of Lane Community College, underscoring the critical importance of this bargain for the overall health of the institution and, ultimately, for students we serve.
 
Standing together, we are making an impact. At the end of the meeting, Board members called for an Executive Session to discuss collective bargaining and address questions stemming from the testimony provided by faculty, and there has been renewed attention to our proposals and bargaining by the administration.
 
Thank you to all who came, to all who spoke, to all who shared your stories so that they could be read publicly, and to our amazing Action Team Chairs, Wendy Simmons and Lee Imonen. And thank you to the dozens of faculty who sent messages of support even though you were teaching or away from campus and could not attend.
 
The next bargaining session is scheduled for October 28, and we expect a reasonable proposal from the College at that time. 
 
In the meantime, LCCEA will conduct a survey of all faculty, which will be more focused than our most recent bargaining survey. Please keep an eye out for the survey next week. As always, the faculty goals and interests guide the Bargaining Team, so your input is important. The Action Team, Department reps, and Action reps will continue to organize and share ways for you to get involved.
 
My best,
Adrienne
 
p.s. If you have any photos from the event or photos of yourself in red, please send them to lcceaaction@lanecc.edu

Posted in News and Updates | Leave a comment

President’s Update 11.4.19

Posted on November 14, 2019 by LCCEA

4 November 2019

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

I’m writing with updates on workshops and required professional development, faculty survey results, bargaining, college budget, and more.

Workshops and required professional development
You may have read an email from the new Chief Human Resources Officer, Shane Turner, regarding required trainings and cultural competence professional development. You may have also received an email with links to a required “SafeCollege” video training on FERPA and possibly other topics. The college does wish to develop a list of new professional development requirements for faculty, but that list is not yet complete. The Association has committed to work collaboratively with the College to address professional development needs once that list has been finalized by the College. In the meantime, there are no new required workshops.

Regarding cultural competence professional development, LCCEA fully supports CCPD and has made proposals since April (and in past negotiations) that require the same professional development hours as those indicated by Greg Evans, AVP for Equity and Inclusion, in his recent memo to all employees. The College did not make any proposals about this issue (in this contract negotiation or previous ones) until Oct 28 when they incorporated some of our language into a new proposal but have yet to put in writing compensation for part-time faculty for any additional hours of professional development time, which is, of course, an equity issue in its own right. More information will be provided as it develops.

Results from the All-Faculty Survey
By and large, faculty members are fully engaged and committed in this bargaining process. 333 faculty members – a record number — participated in the survey between Oct 21 through Oct 28, 2019. Participants include all categories of faculty: contracted, temporary contracted, part-time, part-time flight tech, part-time coaches, and part-time faculty who are retired (from LCC or elsewhere) but who are working as part-time faculty at LCC as well as both members and non-members of LCCEA. (The previous survey maximum was 225 faculty participants.)

Results indicate overwhelming support for bargaining goals across all sectors of the faculty as well as exceptionally strong commitment to a fair contract and the steps it will take to achieve one.

One of the most notable trends in the survey is the broad support for goals, regardless of faculty status. For example, the survey indicates that both part-time and full-time faculty strongly support the goals of incrementally increasing part-time faculty salaries on a per credit basis and establishing a minimum number of full-time positions as well as movement of part-time faculty coaches to the part-time salary schedule.

Thus, broadly speaking, faculty demonstrate significant commitment to equity and fairness for all faculty, regardless of whether they stand to individually benefit from a particular goal (e.g. steps, for which a relatively small percentage are eligible due to large percentages already at the top of all the salary schedules).

Furthermore, the survey results underscore significant concerns among faculty about college budgetary expenditures and choices that are drifting further from the instructional and student services mission. For instance, more than 70% of faculty respondents oppose or strongly oppose the creation of new administration positions such as a third Vice President, College Attorney, and Chief of Staff manager with, by far, the largest number of faculty choosing “strongly oppose.”

The results also indicate the critical need to improve part-time faculty working conditions and compensation as evidenced by the following. Part-time faculty (all categories of PT faculty) juggle other jobs while working as a faculty members at LCC.

65.1% report having one or more other jobs.
36.9% report having one other job.
20.1% report having two other jobs.
8.1% report having three or more other jobs.

While working as a faculty member at LCC, part-time faculty report having relied on government assistance such as food stamps, unemployment, housing assistance, or other similar supports as follows.

22.6% of part-time faculty (all categories of PT faculty) report having relied on government assistance while working as a faculty member at LCC.
25.9% of part-time faculty (all categories of PT faculty EXCEPT retirees who are working as part-time faculty at LCC) report having relied on government assistance while working as a faculty member at LCC.

Part-time and full-time faculty alike suffer the burden of student debt.

5% of part-time faculty and 6.4% of contracted faculty report having current student debt of $100,000 or more.
13.2% of part-time faculty report current student debt of $50,000 or more.
18.2% of part-time faculty report current student debt of $30,000 or more.

6.8% of part-time faculty and 7.0% of contracted faculty report having previous student debt highest balances of $100,000 or more.

It is critical that we improve faculty working conditions and compensation in order to fully focus on serving our students.

Bargaining and Actions to Support a Fair Contract
As you are likely aware, the bargaining process took a glacial pace through early October. However, the College and Board of Education members are certainly taking note of the many actions and expressions of support by innumerable faculty at this point, from the Inservice day action to the October Board meeting to the campus signs and letters pouring into their email boxes. Take heart –we are having an impact. Thank you to everyone who has participated and continues to do so!

Action Team Co-Chairs, Wendy Simmons and Lee Imonen, along with the Action Team and LCCEA Executive Council, have a number of upcoming activities planned. You will likely hear from the Action Team Reps, Faculty Organizers, your Department Reps and other union reps over the next few weeks.

Save the dates:
The Action Team has two dates reserved for upcoming events and will share details about these and other actions over the course of the rest of the term.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019 – Stop by the LCCEA tables in the cafeteria between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. for a unique message and treat.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019 – Plan to attend the Board of Education meeting wearing red. The Action Team will provide more details about dinner and child care reimbursement to help remove any barriers to attendance.

Community College Funding and College Budget
You are likely aware the legislature made an increased allocation to community colleges set at $640.9+ million. This means that Lane Community College will receive approximately $2.25 million more per year than projected.

In addition to the $2.25 Million from the state, which is on top of the already balanced budget for this year, the College and Board have noted several other new revenue sources – also coming in on top of the balanced budget — including the $500,000 sale of the old downtown center building, an approx. $400,000 offer for purchase of a parcel of college-owned land in Florence, a $2.2 Million Title III grant, a $1.2 Million deal with Pacific University, and no less than $300,000 this year from Follett, the outsourced bookstore operator.

At a time when funding is strong and enrollment has stabilized, instructional spending at LCC is still below the national average and continues to decrease while faculty salaries have fallen behind inflation by more than 8%, and one in four part-time faculty members has had to rely on government assistance while working at LCC, and the number of full-time faculty decreased again this year, it is clear that the direction of Lane Community College must change.

The College’s current offer to faculty is not sufficient to begin to remedy these concerns and appears out of step with the context of labor negotiations within the state and nation, the optimistic college budget, and the will of the legislature in awarding us more funding.

Standing Together
The faculty of Lane Community College – part-time and full-time faculty alike — are standing together in solidarity and are demonstrating a commitment to a fair contract that will help ensure that Lane carries on its mission into the future.

As a member of the faculty, I am deeply proud to stand together with all of you as colleagues.

Thank you for all that you have done to contribute to this effort and for all that you do as faculty every day!

With appreciation,
Adrienne

Posted in President's Updates | Leave a comment

LCC: A Diminishing Focus on Instruction

Posted on November 13, 2019 by LCCEA

LCCEA Releases “Lane Community College: A Diminishing Focus on Instruction” Report by Independent Researcher

Daniel Morris, Ph.D., has identified key findings about trends at Lane Community College.

  • Compared to other public, two year colleges in the U.S., LCC is below average for instructional spending. In FY2017, 35.4% of LCC’s spending was on instruction, compared to the national average of 42.6%.

  • While Management and Classified FTE have increased in recent years, faculty FTE trended downwards. Compared to FY2011-12, in FY2020 Managers FTE is 9% higher while full-time faculty FTE is 20% lower.

  • Among 367 part-time faculty instructors who worked the 2018-19 school year, median pay was $17,135. A full-time minimum wage worker in Lane County earns $23,400 a year.

  • 65% of LCC’s part-time faculty work other jobs, and over one-in-four work two or more other jobs.

  • Excluding retirees who are working as part-time faculty, 26% of part-time faculty have relied on government assistance while working at LCC.

Morris’ analysis concludes, “Statewide enrollment decline and reduced funding have impacted college resources, but spending allocations that have failed to prioritize instruction and faculty have exacerbated these trends at LCC.”

After the legislature increased investment in community colleges by more than 12% this biennium, LCC has not allocated new funding to instruction to remedy these trends this year. Instead, LCC officials have created new management positions, including a third vice president, and have not shared plans of how they intend to spend the rest of the $2 – 2.25 million annual increase in state funding this year.

Faculty members at Lane Community College have been working without a contract since July 1 and tensions on campus are heating up. “Our salaries are already 8% behind inflation, and under the administration’s 1% offer / “step freeze” for this year, we would fall even farther behind.” says faculty member and LCC Education Association president Adrienne Mitchell. “But this contract is not just about wages. It’s about the future of Lane Community College and what is best for our students.”

The faculty call on LCC officials to adequately fund the instructional mission of the college.

See Full Report Here: LCCTrends_web

Posted in Action Team, General, News and Updates | Leave a comment

Bargaining Update June 10 2019

Posted on June 13, 2019 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues,
Your LCCEA Bargaining Team met again with the College on Monday. The three-hour meeting focused largely on a discussion of the college’s interests regarding evaluations.
The College declined to provide an updated economic offer despite the fact that the College budget has been balanced since early April and despite the overwhelmingly good news from Salem. The legislature is set to make allocations to community colleges at nearly $641 Million dollars, a $50 Million increase from February, which will result in an additional $2 Million in funding to LCC each year for the next two years.

The College’s offer remains at $0 with a 0% cost of living adjustment and a “step freeze.”
We will be back at the table in early October when the College has stated that they will provide an updated offer.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team:
Kelly Collins
Adrienne Mitchell
Russell Shitabata
Nancy Wood

Posted in General | Leave a comment