Weekly Wrap-Up

LBCC was awarded $1.5 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to help fund renovation and construction of the Advanced Transportation Technology Center in Lebanon. LBCC’s project was one of four projects chosen for funding, part of a $7.2 million investment to support business development and job training in Oregon, California, Nevada and Utah. The ATTC will be the only major training facility for alternative fuel vehicles between Seattle and San Francisco, and will serve as a first step toward creating a base for alternative fuel technology in the Willamette Valley. The grant will be used to renovate an existing 35,000-square-foot building on the Lebanon site to house the automotive technician program, and to construct a new 10,000-square-foot innovation center beginning winter 2014. LBCC is continuing to raise funds to support moving the heavy equipment and diesel program to the center, with plans for an additional 20,000-square-foot building to be built on the site. Future plans include the construction of compressed natural gas and propane fueling stations, and electrical charging stations. The college has raised approximately $6.2 million for the project. In addition to the EDA grant, major funding for the center includes: more than $2 million in private donations; $1.4 million from the City of Lebanon Urban Renewal District; $800,000 from Oregon lottery funds; $100,000 from the Lebanon Industrial Development Corporation; $350,000 from the Meyer Memorial Trust; and $50,000 from Drive Oregon. Industry partners include Snap On, Pacific Power, John and Phil’s Toyota, and CoEnergy Propane of Corvallis.

Former art faculty member Gary Westford recently donated several art pieces from his personal collection to the college. Working with the Art and Aesthetics Committee and the college Foundation, the pieces include original works by Gustavo Martinez, silkscreen prints by Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Joseph Albers and Keith Haring, along with ceramics, wooden bowls, a Chinese scroll, and replicas of Egyptian sculpture and paintings. The art will be on view throughout the college in the Learning Center, Library, Madrone Hall, North Santiam Hall and the Periwinkle Child Development Center. Gary also made several monetary donations to college scholarship and grant funds in memory of his parents, including: $2,500 to the Department of Fine Art Foundation in memory of his father; six - $250 artistic merit grants to the Department of Music Foundation in memory of his mother; and $1,000 to the Department of English in support of the Valley Writers Series in memory of his step-mother.

The community phone survey will continue through next week to assess the level of taxpayer support for possible future LBCC construction projects. The survey was developed after a series of focus groups and interviews with community leaders designed to assess what the community believes it needs from LBCC, and it also considers needs the college has identified. It’s likely we’ll hear from people who have been contacted to take the survey. Please let them know this is part of the process to determine the needs of our community and to learn at what level the public will support developing the facilities to meet those needs.

Former art faculty member Gary Westford stands next to
an oil painting titled "Bounty" by artist Gustavo Martinez,
which is hanging in the college Learning Center.

Donated oil painting "Watermelon in the Moonlight" by
Gustavo Martinez, hanging in the Learning Center.

Changes to New Student Registration

Changes to new student registration are taking place this summer, with a clearer focus on advising and registration.

The sessions, called New Student Registration sessions, start Monday, July 15. Students will begin the session at a Resource Fair in Takena Hall, which highlights clubs and college services, followed by a brief welcome in the theater. They then move to small group registration and advising sessions, which are divided by degree/major and are led by faculty members in the college computer labs.

The new format addresses some SENSE survey items that indicate students want and need more engagement with advising and resources early in the process. New Student Registration sessions are one experience of several that can improve student SENSE ratings.

Data tells us that students who are welcomed, whose names we learn on first contact, and who are properly advised are more likely to succeed in college. The college community can help by welcoming these students and doing their best to get to know them.

Three, 3.5-hour sessions will be held over five days; July 15 and 29, August 12 and 28, and September 19; and on one day at the Benton Center; July 24.

Students looking to start at LBCC will begin with the online Admissions Application, then take placements tests, do Roadrunner Entry, and sign up to attend one of the New Student Registration sessions described above. If you happen on a lost student looking for registration sessions, direct them to Takena Hall and welcome them aboard!

Weekly Wrap-up

As part of college redesign efforts, the five newly named divisions became official July 1. Organizational charts will be posted online as soon as key positions are filled. The new division names, and the deans, are as follows:

• Healthcare, ELearning & Media Division, (and Virtual College Division), Ann Malosh, dean
• Science, Engineering & Math Division (SEM), dean TBA
• Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities Division (ASSH), Katie Winder, dean
• Business, Applied Technology, & Industry Division (BATI), Dan Lara, dean
• Academic Foundations Division (AF), Sally Moore, dean

Carol McKiel has been named as the new director for High School Partnerships. Carol comes to us from Lane Community College, where she served as the TRIO STEM director. Carol will continue to sustain, expand and develop a comprehensive range of high school-to-college programs for area high schools. She begins her new position July 22.

For the past 10 months, Tammi Drury, LBCC degree evaluator, has been working on a statewide project called the “Oregon Win-Win Initiative,” which seeks to find students who earned community college credits, but were not awarded a degree or certificate. Sponsored by a grant from the Lumina Foundation, the project is a collaboration between Oregon’s 17 community college’s, Oregon Workforce Development, and the Oregon University System to identify former students who qualify for an AAOT and award it retroactively, or to identify students who are academically short 9-12 credits of earning their AAOT and hopefully have them finish. Starting with a list of 510 former students from the past 10 years who earned 90 or more credits at LBCC, the college was able to award 43 of the students with degrees. Tammi plans to travel to Washington DC July 29-31 with Oregon’s Win-Win team representatives to take part in a conference on the project. Read more about Project Win-Win at http://www.ihep.org/projectwin-win.cfm

The summer High School Career Academies, for high school students in grades nine through 12, wrapped-up last week with workshops held in Drafting/Engineering Graphics, Machine Tool, Mechatronics, Welding and Performing Arts. Students received hands-on, interactive experiences in each academy, and all but one was held for free. The number of students participating in each academy was:

• Drafting/Engineering Graphics – 19 students
• Machine Tool – 7 students
• Mechatronics – 9 students
• Performing Arts – 40 students
• Welding – 11 students

The LBCC Road Runners American Cancer Society Relay for Life team raised a record $5,632.54, surpassing the team’s goal of $5,000 and putting them at the Gold fundraising level. Go Road Runners! (team members list at: http://relay.acsevents.org/site/TR?fr_id=50436&pg=teamlist, click on the team name)

Weekly Wrap-Up

Starting fall term, students who successfully pass Destination Graduation will qualify for priority registration for their second term, which will help students plan their schedules by removing a major obstacle, where first-term students are in the back of the line for their next set of classes and those classes often filling up before the students can register. In addition, Richard Gibbs will serve as faculty lead for DG for 2013-2014, and is working with faculty this summer to develop an online model. The Curriculum Committee also is reviewing the DG "textbook" to streamline, make suggested changes, and improve course materials, and to examine options on physical textbooks versus online Moodle material. The Steering Committee is planning to pilot an eight-week DG option for winter term 2014, alongside the five-week class, and will assess which model works best for students and the DG Advising and Achieving the Dream initiative. The committees welcome your input and constructive feedback.

The LBCC Board of Education met last week and among action taken, the board:

• Approved the college’s 2013-14 budget. The general fund budget, which is the primary operating budget for the college, was 3.8 percent less than the current year’s budget (2013-14 budget year begins July 1).
• Approved the contract with English Language and Cultural Institute to teach English Speakers of Other Languages Classes. The board sought and received assurances from college staff that quality and progression standards would be monitored. ELCI has developed plans to maintain – and hopefully expand – access to the class in Linn and Benton Counties.
• Approved awarding a $1.5 million bid for the construction phase of the Advanced Transportation Technology Center, which is projected to open by the end of the year. The Automotive Technology Program will move to the new facility in Lebanon upon completion of the first construction phase.
• Said goodbye to board members Dan Bedore and Penny York, who did not run for re-election in May. Jim Merryman and Lyn Riverstone will join the board in July.

The 2013-2014 college catalog is out and includes a new arrangement of program information. Rather than the traditional alphabetical listing, programs are grouped by degree type: Associate of Science, Associate of Applied Science Degrees and Certificates, and Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer Degrees. The appendices have been removed, with the general requirements for each degree type included at the beginning of each section. Printed copies are available in Admissions, with online PDF and "flip-book" versions available at www.linnbenton.edu/catalog.

This week on the president’s blog, Notes From the Edge, read about why Greg feels the book “Leadership in the Crucible of Work” is so distinctively different from other leadership books: http://linnbentonpresidentsblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-heart-of-matter.html

Weekly Wrap-Up

The college web site redesign is scheduled to be ready for preview in August, with a goal of going live by start of fall term. Watch your email for notification to browse a preview of the site and an opportunity to provide feedback before we go live!

Work groups are meeting around three Achieving the Dream initiatives that were selected to help increase student success at LBCC. Three initiatives, and their group leaders, are: Advising (Jenny Strooband); Strategic Scheduling (Jonathan Paver); and Development Education (Pam Gordon).

The Virtual College project is applying for a $2.7 million dollar grant from the Department of Labor, with hopes of hearing by October if the grant is approved. At this time, college administration has not decided if they are going to fund any curriculum development or learning management system, so the Virtual College project is on hold. In order for work to be done this summer, the project needs a piece of strategic initiative money. At this point, no decision has been made.

College Council is considering a new administrative rule that would provide partial support for the purchase of tablet computers. Similar to the administrative rule for cell phones, employees wishing to purchase a tablet for use at work would need to explain how it would benefit them in their work. A maximum of $200, or 50 percent of the purchase price (whichever is less), would be available. Read the entire rule – and see what other issues were discussed – in the June 6 College Council agenda available on paperless office at http://po.linnbenton.edu/collegecouncil/6_6_13CCMeetingFiles/. Contact any council member with your feedback.

Mark your calendar - September 25 is Welcome Day, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year’s theme is “Connections.” Join us to help students connect, and reconnect, with the LBCC. Stay tuned for details.

NOTE: This new Insider feature is intended to help staff and faculty keep up-to-date on the discussions and decisions that shape LBCC, and is designed to be a quick read rather than comprehensive report.

Send your story suggestions, information or questions to Insider editor Lori Fluge-Brunker, flugel@linnbenton.edu.
 

Weekly Wrap-Up

The Insider launches a new feature this week intended to help staff and faculty keep up to date on the discussions and decisions that shape LBCC. Designed to be a quick read rather than comprehensive report, it will include snippets on things like Board of Education decisions, College Council discussions, reminders of important events and deadlines – and whatever suggestions you have.

If you find there is information you’re not getting, let us know and we will try to work it in. If you are on a group or council and have information you’d like to share, you can share it here. Send to Insider editor Lori Fluge-Brunker at flugel@linnbenton.edu.

And now - our first try at this:

The college budget committee met last week and approved the proposed budget with no changes to the budgeted amount. Highlights included:

• Overall, the budget decreased by 21 percent from $122,098,774 this year to $96,392,221 due mostly to change in budgeting for Federal Direct Loans in the Financial Aid fund.
• The general fund budget decreased 4.85 percent from $46,004,671 this year to $43,771,330 next year. The bulk of that decrease on the resource side was due to the beginning fund balance declining from $4 million to $1.5 million.
• The budget committee also clarified the Board of Education directive to rebuild the fund balance to $4 million over the next 4 years. The change directs the college to make $600K of progress in restoring the ending fund balance in the next budget year resulting in a target for ending fund balance of $2.1 million at June 30, 2014.

The budget will now be published in area newspapers in summary form as a public notice. The Board of Education will hold a hearing and then vote whether to adopt it at the June Board meeting. The full 176 page budget document is available here: Review & Discussion of Proposed Budget Document.

 Mechatronics faculty member Denis Green explains new
equipment to Greg Hamann; Kip Much, NW Natural Gas
regional director; Secretary of State Kate Brown; Dan Lara,
dean, Business, Applied Technology and Industry; Dale Stowell,
executive director, College Advancement; and Dale
Bookwalter, Oregon Freeze Dry vice president, Finance.

Secretary of State Kate Brown took a brief tour of the Albany campus on Wednesday, learning more about Achieving the Dream, the advance diploma option that allows high school students to earn college credits, degree partnerships with OSU and OIT, and career and technical programs at LBCC including Automotive/Diesel technology, Welding and Mechatronics. Secretary Brown visited with staff, faculty, administration, representatives from local business and students.

The LBCC Foundation Board of Trustees approved $150,000, which, in addition to a $50,000 grant received from the Oregon Drive Foundation, gives the college funds to purchase an advanced dynamometer for the new Advanced Transportation Technology Center. This equipment will be use to both train technicians in the program and generate revenues for operating the ATTC through rental to industry. The dynamometer will be the only one of its kind between Vancouver, B.C., and San Francisco.

The Meyer Memorial Trust announced this week it was supporting the ATTC with a $350,000 grant. The grant is contingent on the college raising an additional $1.5 million from other sources. The college currently has a $1.5 million Economic Development Administration grant in a strong position for funding, pending the EDA resolving budget questions surrounding sequestration.

LBCC President Greg Hamann has joined the Board of the Corvallis Boys and Girls Club. In addition to his support of the organization, he hopes that his involvement can lead to strong pathways to education and training for area youth.

LBCC board members and college administrators participated in a statewide effort that led to passage of bill ending “adverse impact” provisions in Oregon law. In the past, these provisions have created barriers for community colleges to add new programs, giving proprietary colleges the right to claim that the program would create an adverse impact because they either had a similar program or were considering adding it.

Get your nominations in early! Nominations are now open for the Pastega classified staff and faculty member awards, and the college Distinguished Staff award, which are due by June 10. For nomination materials or questions, contact Dale Stowell at stoweld@linnbenton.edu.

LBCC Staff and Students Awarded at Oregon Potter’s Association Ceramics Show

Annclaire Greig, Best New Potter's Association member.

Anthony Gordon, first place "Breaking Free" sculpture.

Several LBCC staff and students won awards at the Oregon Potter’s Association 31st Annual Ceramic Showcase held in Portland April 26-28.  This event is the nation's largest pottery show and sale.

First place purchase award went to Anthony Gordon, LBCC Benton Center ceramics instructional assistant, for his horse sculpture "Breaking Free."

Best new Oregon Potters Association member award went to LBCC ceramics student Annclaire Greig.

Oregon Potters Association members were invited to submit two wall tile pieces into a juried show to be displayed in Japan for the month of October.

The tiles will be displayed along with wall tiles made by potters in the Hokkaido Potters Society, Japan.

Tiles chosen for the Hokkaido exhibit were by Leslie Green and Javier Cervantes. Leslie is a Tile and Raku ceramics instructor at the Benton Center. Javier is director of Diversity and Community Engagement at the Albany campus.