College News Week of May 22

Bond building project updates: The college has completed the programmatic design phase for the Health Occupations Center building project, and almost through the schematic design phase. As reference, the four phases of design include programmatic, schematic, design development, and construction drawing. The Benton Center and the Albany Campus projects will start the programmatic design phase at the end of May. Also for the Benton Center, the college is still in negotiations with Good Samaritan Hospital to purchase a portion of the hospital’s parking garage that they are planning to build. For the Advanced Transportation Technology Center project, the invitation to bid for the new Innovation Center has been canceled in response to the most recent independent estimate, which showed some redesign is required to bring the project back into budget. The college plans to restart the bidding in June. Keep on top of the latest building project updates at: www.linnbenton.edu/faculty-and-staff/administrative-information/building-projects

Achieving the Dream coaches visited the college in April, and showed strong support for LBCC’s application to become a Leader College. The coaches noted that the college has significantly shortened the time it takes students to complete developmental writing classes and complete WR121, the gatekeeper college-level writing class, but noted frustration in our ability to show we are “moving the needle” on measures of student progression through their programs to earning degrees. While we have made significant progress in writing, we are not seeing significant changes in developmental math and education completion, gateway math completion, term-to-term retention and fall-to-fall retention. The goal is to become more focused on these indicators to help move our students forward. In addition, project/initiative evaluation continues to be an issue, with project teams so focused on implementing activities that they lose sight of the college-wide metric the activities are designed to change. The college is considering dedicating a position to project/initiative evaluation, to help steer project teams to be immersed in a continuous improvement cycle. Compiled from Academic Affairs and Workforce Development board report, May 20. http://po.linnbenton.edu/boardmeeting/5_20_15BoardPacket/ 

Kudos to Brian Trice and the Advanced Transportation Technology Center team for bringing together more than 400 transportation industry representatives to attend the first LBCC Green Transportation Summit and Expo, held April 20-22 in Portland. Organized by Brian, manager of Alternative Fuels Transportation at the ATTC in Lebanon, the summit focused on local and regional issues and trends in alternative fuels, including education tracks presented by industry experts on bio-fuels, compressed natural gas, liquid natural gas, renewable natural gas, and electric vehicles. The summit also included a one-of-a-kind “Performance Ride and Drive” at the Portland International Raceway. In addition to making valuable industry connections for the college, the summit provided automotive students who attended a chance to connect with industry representatives in their field of study. Brian is in the process of organizing the next Green Transportation Summit and Expo, to be held in Denver, Colorado in August.
http://www.katu.com/news/local/Transportation-summit-spotlights-alternative-fuels-300856391.html

Dana Emerson, right, and Analee Fuentes.

Living Our Values: Dana Emerson & Analee Fuentes Combine Forces for the Greater Good
Opportunity, Excellence, and Inclusion
What happens when two people have two separate but good intentions of helping students, and find their good intentions have stalled for lack of money? When art faculty member Analee Fuentes and communications faculty member Dana Emerson found themselves in this very dilemma, they knew exactly what they needed to do, and a win-win solution was born. After establishing separate scholarship funds a few years back, with the goal of raising the $15,000 each that was needed to fully endow the funds, each found their accounts seemed to languish at around $6,000 and not really benefiting students. Combining resources made perfect sense, and the fully-endowed “Emerson/Fuentes Scholarship for Oregon Latinos” fund was born - the first of its kind at LBCC that specifically helps Latino students. Both Analee and Dana are dedicated to advancing the education of people of color, and hope the establishment of the endowment will benefit students for years to come. “Education is power,” said Analee. “That is what this scholarship hopes to promote.” The fund has a deeper meaning for both Analee and Dana, who view it as a way to pay it forward: “I was a single mother taking care of an aging parent and could not have worked enough to take care of my family and attend college,” said Analee. “I received the Underrepresented Minority Achievement Award scholarship, which allowed me to continue my education and attend the University of Oregon. Without this assistance, I could not have gone on to receive my master’s in art from the University of Arizona.” Analee and Dana are are continuing their efforts to build up the fund, with the goal to provide as many scholarships to Latino students as possible and help make our college a “Latino College of Choice.” The first applications for this new scholarship will be accepted starting fall term through the Financial Aid scholarship process, with funds to be awarded for winter term 2016. If you would like to help Aanlee and Dana build their fund for Latino students, you can make a contribution to the Emerson/Fuentes scholarship fund through the college Foundation office, ext. 4209.

New hires, separations, promotions/transfers, leaves of absence, and retirements from human resources: http://po.linnbenton.edu/boardmeeting/5_20_15BoardPacket/HR%20Board%20Memo%205-14-15.pdf


College Values
Opportunity
Excellence
Inclusiveness
Learning
Engagement

Core Themes
Economic Vitality
Cultural Richness
Educational Attainment




Insider published by: LBCC College Advancement Marketing Office
Writer/Editor: Lori Fluge-Brunker, Communications Specialist, College Advancement