LCC board agrees to move ahead with plan to cut $8 million over three years

The Lane Community College Board of Education on Wednesday, Jan. 7, approved a plan to cut spending by $8 million over the next three years to boost LCC’s ending fund balance and to free money for college needs.

The plan, which will serve as a framework for LCC’s 2026-27 budgeting process, was approved on a 6-1 vote. 

Board member Zachary Mulholland, who led an ad hoc board committee that examined the plan, called it a “reasonable approach.” He said the members of the ad hoc committee “were comfortable moving forward with it at this time,” but emphasized that final spending decisions would be made through LCC’s budgeting process.

Vice Chair Jerry Rust, who served on the ad hoc committee, said he was “still uneasy about this document and some of the assumptions, but I think the real action is going to be in the budget-making.”

Board Chair Austin Fölnagy, who also served on the ad hoc committee, provided the dissenting vote, saying he was moved by comments earlier in the meeting from students worried about cutbacks at LCC.

He said he would “try to elevate those voices and concerns as we continue to discuss this budget and continue to discuss where we’re going to go from here.”

In an email to Lookout, Fölnagy said: “While I immensely appreciate the rigorous work of the budgeting and finance staff, the ad hoc committee, and the collaborative discussions of my fellow board members, my vote served as a formal acknowledgment of what the students who came to speak to their board” said.

About the plan

Part of the motivation behind the plan is to return LCC’s ending fund balance (essentially its reserves) to an amount equaling about 10% of its general fund, which is required by board policy. LCC’s projected general fund for the current school year is about $108.1 million, and the projected ending fund balance is 7.45% of that.

Without making cuts of $3 million from its 2026-27 budget and $2.5 million in each of the two following years, LCC financial officials say the ending fund balance percentage would drop to 5.03% by the end of fiscal year 2029.

LCC officials have not yet publicly identified potential areas to cut, but President Stephanie Bulger said the board would have a list of prospective cuts to review this spring. 

The plan also says that making those budget cuts would free money for what officials call “strategic investments,” including eliminating deficits in certain LCC funds, developing new programs and funding deferred maintenance and information technology projects. 

Budget parameters

At Wednesday’s meeting, the board also approved “budget parameters” meant to shape LCC’s work in building a budget for 2026-27.

Kara Flath, LCC’s vice president for finance and operations, talked about some of the assumptions college officials are using as the budget process begins. For example, the three-year plan to restore the college’s ending fund balance projects enrollment growth at about 2% annually, although Flath said that was showing signs of slowing. She said the board would have to decide whether to increase tuition. The three-year plan assumes tuition increases of 3.1% annually. For in-state students, tuition is currently $149 per credit. 

A big question mark is how much funding LCC can expect from the state. Higher education officials have said cutbacks might be in the offing that could reduce LCC funding by nearly $2.5 million a year.

Board member Steve Mital said LCC needed to be ready to “weather the storm” and cited a Jan. 2 letter from Gov. Tina Kotek to the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission saying that Oregon’s higher education institutions “must be prepared to make difficult decisions that preserve affordability and access for students while maintaining long-term institutional stability.”

LCC officials also are estimating that personnel expenses will grow by 6% annually over the next three years, and that costs for materials and services will increase 3% each year.

Contract negotiations

LCC administrators remain in contract negotiations with the Lane Community College Education Association, which represents faculty, and the Lane Community College Employee Federation, which represents classified employees. Both unions have been without contracts since June 30.

The faculty union held a press conference and picketed before the board meeting, and union members during the meeting criticized what one called “the worst proposal ever in the 50-year history of our faculty union.”

Adrienne Mitchell, the president of the faculty union, said recent bargaining sessions have made “some progress” toward a contract, but “the progress, we don’t feel, is sufficient to really form a pathway to an agreement.”

Two additional bargaining sessions are scheduled this month, and a mediation session is set for Feb. 12.

Mitchell said key issues for the union included clauses she said would result in mandatory “overloads” for full-time faculty members — situations in which a faculty member teaches an extra class, but at a lower pay rate. She said the contract proposal also would result in a reduction to the classes available for part-time teachers.

Mitchell said another clause would allow LCC officials to reopen the contract for any of seven different “triggering factors,” including major changes in budget forecasts. “At this point, there’s not very much trust in the administration’s budget forecasts,” she said.

Union members have argued that LCC’s forecasts in areas such as enrollment and personnel costs are off the mark and that the college is in a stronger financial position than its officials say.

Mitchell said the union has not yet taken a strike vote but said it’s starting to prepare members for the possibility of a walkout.

“We do hope to bargain as much as possible with the administration,” she said. “And, you know, whenever they agree to bargain, we will be there.”

A strike would be the first one at an Oregon community college.

Jenna McCulley, LCC’s senior adviser for strategic communications, agreed that progress has been made in negotiations.

“The primary area where the parties remain far apart is economic alignment,” she said in an email, estimating that the association’s proposals would add about $61 million in new spending, which exceeds what the college can support, “given its current and projected financial realities.”

LCC, she said, “remains committed to bargaining in good faith and to continuing discussions with the goal of reaching an agreement that supports employees while also maintaining long-term fiscal sustainability and protecting student access and success.”

Tami Hill, the president of the Employee Federation, said contract talks between the college and the federation are headed to a mediation session on economic issues Jan. 28.

McCulley said negotiations on that contract are “progressing constructively.”

Wednesday’s board meeting, which included 46 minutes of public comments, lasted four hours and 56 minutes, including two breaks that totaled 15 minutes. The meeting could have lasted longer, but LCC officials said the computer systems in the building where the board met had a “hard stop” at 11 p.m.