Deep crisis affecting the Board at our beloved LCC

Posted on October 27, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

I’m writing to share some public information impacting our beloved LCC.

The crisis of democracy at LCC’s Board of Education is more serious than previously known. 

Public record emails show Board members, who are elected by voters to represent the people of Lane County and provide public oversight to our community’s college, have been unable to add action items to their own September 3 agenda after LCC President Bulger blocked their efforts to do so. President Bulger also did not follow the will of the Board to bring forward an item on October 15 based on a vote they did pass at their September 30 meeting when they voted to remove reference to $3M in cuts each year for the next three years with a request for a full review of budget assumptions at their next meeting.

In addition, Vice Chair Jerry Rust — the most experienced in public office of all Board members as a former Lane County Commissioner with two decades of experience and who is most highly regarded across our region — reported feeling “disrespected,” citing a “hostile workplace situation” created by President Bulger. 

These public records reveal a deeply concerning dynamic at the level of the Board of Education whose authority has been effectively sidelined by the LCC Administration. While this information may be alarming, it is important for faculty and our broader community to take heart and take action to join the call to restore democracy at our community’s LCC Board of Education.

Here’s what you can do:

  1. Click here to sign our petition to restore democracy to the Board of Education: https://bit.ly/LCCDemocracy 
  2. Join together at our rally on Wednesday November 5 at 4:30pm! RSVP here: https://bit.ly/Nov5RallyMeeting

More background information:

New public record emails show publicly elected Lane Community College Board of Education members advocating with the LCC President to allow them to return to performing the most basic functions of their roles – including voting on budget cuts and putting together their own agendas for meetings. 

LCC Board of Education Vice Chair Jerry Rust is an elder public official and experienced LCC Board of Education member, with a lifetime of public service, including 20 years as Lane County Commissioner. 

On October 9, Vice Chair Rust wrote to LCC’s President: “As you know, the last time we attempted to meet, I felt totally disrespected and surprised at your insistence that another board member accompany you… I don’t know how to explain it to you except to say it was a very hostile workplace situation and I’m still feeling hurt by your not treating me as an elected board member worthy of respect.”

Boards of Education in Oregon are responsible for creating their own agenda: setting that agenda is a core function of the independent governing body which cannot be handed away to the same college Administration that the Board is elected to oversee. Voting on budget cuts is consistent with existing Board policy at LCC, as well as past practice at LCC. 

Despite this, emails show LCC Board of Education Chair Austin Folnagy repeatedly asked the LCC President to add an agenda item requested by three Board members — Jesse Maldonado, Zach Mulholland, and Vice Chair Rust — that would reaffirm the right of the Board to vote on program cuts. Voting on cuts is a core tenet of their oversight role, done by every previous LCC Board, and critical for allowing a forum for community input during public comment at open meetings. Discussion around the need for this agenda item included the suspension of the highly successful LPN program, done with neither notice to students and community, nor public comment, nor Board vote.

The LCC Board of Education has always had a policy and authority to vote on program and service cuts, reductions, and suspensions and has done so for decades . However, after the LPN program was suspended suddenly without a Board vote or notice to the public, a number of Board members have been calling for their right to vote on cuts be recognized per normal operating procedure of the board – and their own elected responsibilities and duty to the people and voters of Lane County. 

The emails reveal that LCC’s current President has defied the majority of the Board. This effectively silences their voices, and the public’s. 

In one instance, Pres. Bulger refused  to add the motion item to the September 3 agenda to reaffirm the Board’s voting rights on cuts consistent with their own policy. Instead of adding the item at the Chair’s request, per operating agreements, Pres. Bulger instead added all 7 board members to the email chain and engaged in extensive back and forths attempting to get them to drop the agenda item. After pushback from Pres. Bulger and Board member Kevin Alltucker, Board members arrived at the meeting with their motion to restore voting rights still not added. Instead, President Bulger posted only a memo written by Kevin Alltucker in support of her own position to usurp authority from the publicly elected Board. Kevin Alltucker has stated publicly in Board meetings that he does not believe it is his job to represent the people who elected him. The voices of the majority of the Board were effectively silenced when their action item motion was not added to their own agenda.

On October 20, Vice Chair Rust wrote to LCC’s President: “… The board passed a Motion (‘President‘s goals 2025–2026 Request for Approval’) mandating you to come back to the board with a discussion on the assumptions used in the budget preparation which has led your preliminary findings to conclude that we have a $3.1 million deficit. You were to come back with that discussion item on October 15. I was very disappointed to find that you had neither put it on the agenda for discussion, nor did you raise the issue or speak to that issue on October 15. Was there a reason that you did not follow up with this item as requested by the LCC board? I believe the board in its oversight capacity and doing its fiduciary due diligence should review the assumptions made about the budget at the beginning phase, which is now. Could you tell me when and if you plan to discuss this with the board?”

Last week, news broke about multiple LCC Board of Education open meeting violations at the behest of President Bulger, when she called two meetings in late August to privately discuss budget cuts with Board members despite the concerns raised by multiple Board members – including the Chair and Vice Chair – that the meetings would violate open meeting law. 

It is time for our community to call to restore democracy at the LCC Board of Education.

In solidarity,

Adrienne

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Important Update for All Faculty — LCCEA President’s Update October 20, 2025

Posted on October 20, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues,

I hope this email finds you well as we begin week 4 of the term.

I’m writing with updates regarding the ongoing dilemma of democracy on the LCC Board of Education.

Based upon new information in emails provided in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it is clear that the dilemma has risen to the level of a real crisis of democracy where the publicly-elected Board of Education members who represent the people of Lane County and the public at-large have been sidelined.

This summer, LCC President Bulger called two meetings of the Board of Education at the end of August without notice to the public. Oregon open meetings law requires public notice among numerous requirements that local governing bodies like our Board of Education must follow in order to ensure transparency and public oversight – critical for our democracy.

Several Board members, including Chair Folnagy and Vice Chair Rust expressed their concerns that the meetings would violate open meetings law, yet the LCC President chose to hold the meetings anyway. President Bulger later referred to Chair Folnagy’s messages encouraging her to follow the law as an “unnecessary distraction.”

According to the emails provided, the meetings pertained to budget cuts and did lead to changes in what Administration members took action on, further underscoring the open meeting law violation – all when there was a public meeting scheduled just a few days later on September 3.

These emails lay bare the underlying crisis of democracy at the level of our Board of Education. 

As faculty we absolutely love the work that we do with students at LCC — LCC is a most precious gem in our community. While we are deeply concerned about the crisis of democracy in our Board room and look forward to a future where decisions again are made in public in accordance with Oregon’s sunshine law, and importantly, with opportunities for students and community members to be informed and to have a chance to share their views through public comment at open meetings, it is more critical than ever for faculty to remain engaged in our faculty communications and participation in organizing activities, including attending Board meetings in support of democracy on our campus for the common good.

The future of our beloved LCC is at stake. Together, we can help preserve it.

In solidarity and with appreciation,

Adrienne

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Faculty Pay More for Insurance – Bargaining Update

Posted on October 17, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

Our faculty bargaining team further analyzed the College Administration’s current proposal, and it would still cut millions of dollars from investments in faculty through benefit reductions, workload and class size increases, and cuts to part-time faculty jobs.

For example, the College proposal would dramatically increase faculty contributions for insurance next year even though faculty already pay the most among employee groups for insurance at LCC.

Contracted faculty would pay this much more out of our paychecks each year for Moda Plan 1.

Employee only: $1,089.80

Employee, plus spouse/partner: $1,190.65

Employee, plus child/ children: $1,022.31

Full family: $1,163.38

Part-time faculty would pay this much more out of our paychecks each year for Moda Plan 1.

Employee only: $1,213.16

Employee, plus spouse/partner: $240.15

Employee, plus child/ children: $238.71

Full family: $351.50

In addition, our Bargaining Team will be sending out a new survey for all faculty soon to gather more feedback on faculty goals.

Please find below two separate charts that are updated to show current side-by-side comparisons of faculty and Administration proposals.

The Action Team and department reps will also provide updates soon.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

Comparison Chart Mid-Level Detail Oct 14 2025

Comparison Chart Oct 14 2025

Complete Folder of Proposals

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Memo to LCC Board of Education

Posted on October 15, 2025 by LCCEA

Esteemed Board of Education members,

I am writing with a few critical updates for your consideration. I ask that you uphold your roles and duties as publicly elected Board of Education members in voting per your own policies and in ensuring that the LCC Administration follows your direction and takes action consistent with your votes. The people of Lane County are counting on you to fulfill your democratic function as elected Board members governing our beloved LCC.

  1. The LCC Administration continues to present the idea in multiple meetings across campus that the LCC Board has approved or accepted cuts of $3M each year for the next three years. As you may be aware, the budget development process for next year has not yet begun, and this action appearsinconsistent with Oregon Public Budget law according to a legal memo and your own votes as the Board of Education. In addition, the Board voted on September 30, 2025 to explicitly exclude the $3M reference from the President’s goals.

See examples of direct quotes from management to faculty this week. In addition, I personally attended the College Council meeting last week where the Administration again presented to the full Council and numerous deans in attendance that the Board had accepted a plan to make $3M in cuts each year for the next three years.

Direct quotes from deans by email to faculty in their areas over the past few days:

“the planned $3 million in cuts starting in FY27 through FY29, which have been discussed at multiple board meetings and our Fall In-Service.”

“As part of the ____ Division’s 7% reduction to the part-time faculty budget…”

“As you may already know from various forums and sources, the college is projecting deficits for the current year and the subsequent two years. In order to begin to close these deficits and to begin to raise the ending fund balance to 10% per the Board of Education’s policy we are having to reduce the current year’s part time assignments for winter and spring terms. These adjustments are occurring across Academic Affairs. “

  1. The LCC Administration is directing deans to cut 7% from part-time faculty budgets across the college this year. Deans are cutting classes that students have already begun registering for from the Winter and Spring term schedules.  This year’s budget does not have 7% cuts in the part-time budget – this has not been presented nor approved by the Board of Education.  According to the Budget and Finance office, the amount built into this year’s budget for part-time faculty is $8,614,774, not including OPE. OPE adds an additional $2.M, bringing the total part-time budget to $11,543,797. Cutting this budget by 7% amounts to $808,066. This figure far exceeds the $675,000 in budget reductions that the Board approved and far exceeds the $262,500 figure presented by the Administration as a proposed plan at the September 3 Board of Education meeting, which the Board has also not voted to approve.

  2. Cutting lecture classes, which generate substantial net revenue on tuition alone without any state reimbursement, will not only remove opportunities for students, it hurts the bottom line. LCC will lose money and close the door to students. See below for details. A lecture class with only 15 students taught by a top-paid part-time faculty member generates net revenue. A single lecture class with 30 students generates nearly $10,000 in net revenue (after subtracting full salary and full OPE overhead costs). 100 sections generate nearly $1,000,000. A similar course taught by a full-time instructor at the top of the salary schedule generates $2700 in net revenue and $269,360 for 100 sections. Please note: these revenues are generated based on tuition alone, so state funding is excluded from these calculations, and the growth cap in the CCSF does not apply.
  1. LCCEA has demanded to bargain over the sudden cuts to part-time faculty, for which LCCEA has received no notice from the Administration. LCC is legally obligated to refrain from cutting these classes and negotiate with LCC. The LCC Administration has not responded to LCCEA’s demand to bargain. If the Administration continues cutting these classes from the Winter and Spring schedules prior to negotiating with the faculty, that action constitutes another unfair labor practice under Oregon state law.
  1. Finally, regarding the important goal of maintaining a 10% ending fund balance. Please note that BP 6230 requires, “When the Ending Fund Balance falls to 9% or less, the college shall adopt a plan to replenish the Ending Fund Balance to 10% within three years.” The FY24 Ending Fund balance according to the most recent official audit statement is $8,332,887, and LCC Administration estimates that the FY25 ending fund balance is $8,570,000. This ending fund balance has grown by $1M over two years. This means that the restoration which should occur over the next three years should amount to about $800,000 per year, not $3M per year. The policy requires restoration of the actual ending fund balance, not future projections that build in unrealistic assumptions such as 7.5% salary increases and 19% OPE increases.

Thank you for your service on the LCC Board of Education.

Your role is vitally important for our democracy, including responsibility and accountability to the people of Lane County.

Most sincerely,

Adrienne

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Bargaining Update — Progress: Our Actions Can Make the Difference

Posted on October 15, 2025 by LCCEA

LCC Faculty Colleagues –

Today we made some progress in bargaining. It is clear that the organizing activities like last week’s march, Board emails, Board speakers, and our robust voting campaign are having an impact. Let’s keep up our momentum! 

Today we proposed:

* updated language on privacy rights that brings us close to agreement on that issue (Art. 16);

* elimination of one additional MOA to meet College interests in simplifying the final contract (CBA Updates);

* updates on safety and working conditions in the event of a public health emergency that clarifies faculty interests and includes basic safety provisions such as remote meeting options and water and indoor safety standards that apply at all times (Art. 46); 

* updated language regarding a move to a new LMS (i.e., Canvas) that would provide reasonable time and compensation for the transition while lowering the total cost of our initial proposal (Art. 43); 

* a minor update to our proposal about new hire orientations to address College concerns (Art. 11); and

* a scaled back version of Art.9 that includes one non-instructional work day for Election Day in November for educational activities with no additional cost to the College.

The College proposed:

* to continue current language in Art. 1, withdrawing their proposal that contracted faculty who work 0.75 FTE would be considered part-time faculty; 

* one meaningful update to Art. 10 by withdrawing their proposal that would have allowed layoffs for the sole purpose of converting full-time faculty to part-time positions but NO update that restores part-time faculty protections against removal for exercising inherent rights (e.g. nondiscrimination, free speech, academic freedom, etc.);

* a proposal that would cut insurance benefits less than their previous proposal did, moving to Moda Plan 2 as the base plan, but also suspending important language that protects against large employee contributions for next year (Art. 33);

* a couple of updates that retain existing language on part-time faculty pay for specific committees and governance meetings and one incorporating a single provision from an existing ESL MOA (Art. 26, 34, governance article);

* a proposal to deduct contracted faculty dues over ten months instead of nine, resulting in lower deductions each month, but no response to our proposal to make similar changes for part-time faculty dues nor to pay part-time faculty for Fall term earlier than October 25 (Art. 31); and

* a slightly updated proposal allowing a faculty member to ask their dean to find a sub when ill (Art. 32).  

See links below for Oct 14 proposals and here all proposals.

Still, the Administration rejected all of our proposals on lockdown and public health safety, student needs (such as mental health clinicians and basic needs support), faculty essentials (such as office space, hardware/software to do our jobs, rights and protections around AI, ethical search processes) and many more.

Clearly, we still have a long way to go with significant outstanding issues including workload, compensation, class size, lab rates, and numerous others.

We will host informal Q & A session on Zoom, which is open to all faculty:

Friday, October 17, 1:30 – 2:00 Register here

The stakes remain high. Please be on the lookout for updates from your Department Reps and Action Team for more ways to participate and help shape bargaining in the coming days and weeks.

At this time, due to the Administration’s lack of availability, we won’t meet for bargaining again for nearly a month, and we only have the following four remaining dates scheduled. Please join us in building 2, room 214 for part or all of any session. 

  • Mon., Nov 10, 2-5 p.m.
  • Tues., Nov 18, 1-4 p.m.
  • Tues., Dec 2, 1-4 p.m.
  • Tues., Dec 16, 1-4 p.m.

Your LCCEA Bargaining Team Leads,

Gerry Meenaghan

Adrienne Mitchell

April Myler

Peggy Oberstaller

Ryan Olds

Russell Shitabata

PROPOSALS

Oct 14 LCCEA Proposals

Oct 14 Administration Proposals

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