Weekly Update, May 30

Black Friday's first trial run for early fall term registration showed good results. By midnight Friday, 2,035 students had registered for fall, exceeding the number of students registering in the whole first week of priority registration. So many students tried to register at 7 a.m. that it crashed the system. The event was open to all continuing students, regardless of credits earned or financial holds. Data should show if this early registration helps with student retention going into fall term and if so, for which students.

The latest Initiative Leader’s Team meeting included information on the new setup for new student registration. Last year, new students had four days in the summer for fall registration, grouped by meta-major, but many students seemed to end up in the wrong session. This year, there will be two days, with one session in the morning and one in the afternoon, and students can attend whichever they choose. Students will be presented with some general information, followed by group advising with faculty, and then one-on-one registration with a student ambassador. Students sign up via EventBrite, which will let them know what they need to have done before their session. In addition, new students will be required to register for Destination Graduation for the first time starting this fall. DG will become a 10-week class, and the curriculum is being revised and will include making advising mandatory. Also discussed was a draft of the new placement testing information website. A statewide committee, through CCWD, has recommended that all students should prepare for their placement exams.

Dave Becker has accepted the position of dean for the Business, Applied Technology and Industry division, replacing outgoing dean Dan Lara. Dave has been in the position as interim dean for the past six months. A faculty member in the Computer Systems department for the past 13 years, Dave has served as the Faculty Association president, Workload Task Force co-chair, and as the advisor for LBCC’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society. Prior to LBCC, Dave was an officer in the United States Marine Corps, where he worked with international governments and military organizations and humanitarian deployments. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after twenty plus years of service. Dave earned a bachelor's degree in business and a master's degree in computer science from Oregon State University,

Ryan Gipson has been hired as the new baseball coach, starting June 2. The college is invited to meet Ryan at the "Baseball is Back" event Tuesday, June 3, from Noon-1 p.m. in the courtyard. There will be a brief presentation on the reinstatement and future of LBCC Baseball, games and free hot dogs. Ryan served two years as assistant baseball coach at Dixie State University in Utah. He also served as evaluator and instructor at Baseball Northwest, an undergraduate assistant coach at OSU, and as the Head Coach of the Eastern Hills Hornets of the Western Australian Provincial League in Perth. He graduated from OSU, and played for OSU on the College World Series Championship team in 2006, and was a professional player for the Eastern Hills Hornets in Perth, the Yuma Scorpions of the Golden Baseball League in Arizona, and the Rockford River Hawks of Frontier Baseball League in Illinois.

Weekly Update, May 22

The LBCC Board of Education heard a presentation on the capital facilities improvement package at its May 21 meeting. The board will decide in June whether to ask for voter support of placing a general obligation bond measure on the November 2014 ballot to make the capital improvements to meet community needs and support the economy by expanding student capacity in program areas where there is workforce demand. Projects include instructional and parking capacity improvements at the Benton Center, completion of the final phases of the Advanced Transportation Technology Center in Lebanon, construction of a new Health Occupations Teaching and Learning Center in Lebanon, and major repurposing of career and technical, general instruction and student support services spaces on the Albany campus. 

College Advancement Marketing office has created a program spotlight promotional web site designed to provide support for recruiting efforts in programs that have enrollment capacity. The accounting program is the first program to be spotlighted (http://www.linnbenton.edu/future-students/get-to-know-us/progam-spotlight), with a new program featured monthly as the need arises. This new support effort will be evaluated through tracking page visits using web analytics and tracking the number of inquiries to the contact person listed on the page.

Three LBCC students will be attending a NASA Rocket conference in Florida this June. Hazel Betz, Ariel Stroh and Ashley Trout will spend a week at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast, June 21-26, at a RockOn workshop where they will build and launch (sub-orbital) a microcontroller-based instrumentation on a NASA rocket. Parker Swanson, computer science instructor, will accompany the team as "mentor." All expenses are paid by NASA's educational outreach program through the Oregon Space Grant Consortium (OSGC), of which LBCC is an affiliated higher-ed institution. Ashley graduates in June with her AAS in Mechatronics. Hazel is working on a physics degree, and Ariel is working on an industrial manufacturing and engineering degree.

Weekly Update, May 9

Congratulations to Suzanne Gaulocher and Dale Stowell, named LBCC’s Distinguished Alumni at the annual Alumni Reception May 7. Suzanne, of Menlo Park, Calif., is the director of Community Engaged Learning at Stanford University. She was nominated by LBCC counselor Mark Weiss. From Arizona, Suzanne attended LBCC from 1992-1994, then transferred to OSU where she earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology. She earned a master’s in public health and interdisciplinary studies, and a doctorate in environment and resources from the University of Wisconsin. Dale is the executive director of LBCC Institutional Advancement and Foundation, hired for the position in 2012. His nomination originated from the LBCC Foundation board. From Philomath and residing in Albany, he attended LBCC from 1977-79, studying journalism, then transferred to Portland State University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in English. Dale came to LBCC after a 17-year stint in the Washington State community college system.  

The Destination Graduation team is currently beta-testing software changes that will help make it a mandatory class. When students register, the system will first check to see if they have the DG attribute (which all new students under 24 credits should have). If they have the attribute, but haven't picked a DG section, the system won't let them register but instead will give them a popup telling them to select a DG section. If students drop DG after registering, another popup will tell them they have 24-hours to re-add a section or they will be dropped from all their classes. Staring this fall, visiting their advisor and completing an education plan will be mandatory for students to pass DG. All DG sections are moving to ten weeks (one hour per week), and an online option is in development, but won't be ready for fall term.

Dave Henderson was hired May 1 as the new vice president of Finance and Operations, replacing outgoing VP Jim Huckestein. Dave has served as interim vice president for the past two months. He will be responsible for the college finance and budget, information technology, institutional research, facilities management, public safety and risk management, food services, bookstore and printing operations. He comes to the position with 13 years of experience working on major programs with the state legislature, and four years with Marion County working on capital and IT projects. His past experience includes directing all operations of three Oregon offices of U.S. Representative Greg Walden, directing the business services department of Marion County, and serving as the administrator for the Oregon State capitol, leading its five support units. He has extensive leadership in facilities management, facility services, financial services, human resources and risk management. Dave has a bachelor’s degree from OSU, a certificate in public management from the Atkinson Graduate School of Management at Willamette University, and a certificate in management and supervision from Portland Community College.

Carol Raymundo has accepted the position of coordinator for Disability Services and Student Assessment, a promotion from her current position as instructional support for disability services. Carol has a master's degree in Instructional Design and Technology, a bachelor's degree in Business and Organizational Leadership, and is working on her reverse LBCC associate degree. Carol has experience with the laws related to equity for our broad range of learners and disability access, knowledge of our student assessment programs, and the ability to strategize about teaching and learning design.