LCC budget plan trims $4.2 million, ‘suspends’ two academic programs

Lane Community College administrators are proposing $4.2 million in cutbacks during the next school year, including a reduction of 20.5 full-time equivalent positions and “suspensions” of LCC programs in health information management and criminal justice.

The college’s Board of Education got a closer look at the proposed cuts at a work session Wednesday, March 18, at the college’s Florence Center, where a familiar debate broke out among board members: Does a proposal to trim academic programs qualify as a “substantive change” that would require a board vote — or does such a vote drag the board outside its governance role and into operational matters best left to administrators?

“If closing a program isn’t a substantive change, then I don’t know what a substantive change is, right? What is a bigger change than closing a program?” asked board member Zachary Mulholland.

Not all the board members agreed.

Said Steve Mital: “I’m with those members of the board who want to maintain that division of labor” between governance and administration. “We set high-level agenda (and) policy values and then leave it to the administration to act on those.”

The board is scheduled to vote on the overall plan at its March 31 meeting. Kara Flath, LCC’s vice president for finance and operations, said it will be important for the board to take action then to pave the way for April discussions with the college’s budget committee.

Three-year mitigation plan

The proposed $4.2 million in cuts for the next school year is part of a three-year mitigation plan to trim about $9 million in costs from LCC’s general fund of about $108 million. The board approved the plan in January.

The plan seeks to return LCC’s ending fund balance (essentially, its reserves) to an amount equaling about 10% of its general fund, as required by board policy. The college’s projections for the next school year show the school running about a $4 million deficit; without the cuts, Flath said, the ending fund balance at the end of fiscal year 2027 would be 3.11%.

She emphasized the importance of creating a balanced budget for FY2027. LCC has been pulling money from its ending fund balance to cover costs during recent years.

The cutbacks in the plan come in three general areas:

• In academics, the plan calls for $982,850 in cuts and targets LCC’s degree programs in health information management and criminal justice. LCC administrators said both programs had relatively low enrollment and completion rates: The health information management program, for example, had three graduates last year, with the criminal justice program attracting about 24 student full-time equivalents. Administrators said enrolled students would receive “teach-out” support to ensure they can complete the programs. One vacant faculty position will not be filled and about 5.5 faculty FTE positions will be “repurposed” to teach in other courses with higher demand.

• In support services, the plan lays out about $1 million in cuts, including $320,000 saved by closing the fee-based Willamette Restorative Dental Clinic, with patients there being transferred to other providers. A separate student dental clinic on LCC’s main campus, which offers some free or reduced-fee services, will remain open. The plan also calls for eliminating $270,000 in general fund support to LCC’s health clinic. Administrators said student fees alone should be sufficient to allow the clinic to break even. In addition, the plan proposes to realign library and tutoring services to save $323,000, but Flath said the change would not affect “direct student tutoring.” This portion of the plan involves a net reduction of 3.5 FTE.

• In operations, the plan calls for $2.2 million in cuts, with a loss of 17 FTE. The plan would “consolidate” selected staff and managers, for an estimated savings of about $1.98 million. The plan also calls for a “realignment” of LCC’s printing and graphics services.

“I want you to know that this is incredibly, incredibly difficult, because these are our neighbors, these are our colleagues that, in many cases, we’re talking about,” said LCC President Stephanie Bulger. 

Board members raised questions about some of the specific proposals, but much of the discussion hinged on the issue of whether the board should be, as Mulholland said, “voting on these program closures individually as a stand-alone item.” He pointed to a board policy that says, in part, that the board should “approve major substantive changes in the college’s mission, policies and programs.”

Jerry Rust, the board’s vice chairman, agreed with Mulholland. 

Mital pushed back: “We’re going to have an opportunity to vote on the package as a whole. I do not see the need to vote on them one by one.”

And board member Julie Weismann added: “It is amazing that we continue to keep coming back to this power struggle between some board members wanting full and absolute authority and decision-making on all things related to the college and not to board governance.”

Faculty contract ratified 

At a special meeting Wednesday held just before the work session, the board approved a contract agreement with the Lane Community College Education Association, LCC’s faculty union. 

Highlights of the four-year agreement, reached after months of contentious bargaining, include:

• A 3% cost of living adjustment in each of the first two years, and 3.1% in years three and four.
• A 1.5% longevity step to full-time and part-time faculty members who are at the top step of the wage range.
• A 1% annual parity increase for all part-time faculty.
• Strengthened faculty privacy rights and updated anti-discrimination language.

At an earlier meeting, the board ratified a contract agreement with LCC’s other major union, the Lane Community College Employee Federation, which represents classified employees.

Honoring the board’s student member

At Wednesday’s meeting, board members and administrators honored Amelia Hampton, the president of LCC’s student government and a nonvoting member of the board.

“Your time in this role has been marked by a strong commitment to representing the student voice, and you’ve done that with thoughtfulness, professionalism and integrity,” Bulger said. “Serving in this capacity requires both dedication and courage, and you have demonstrated both throughout your tenure.”

Speaking later, at the end of her last meeting with the board, Hampton didn’t mince words in offering final thoughts to the board:

“So let’s be honest,” she said. “Sitting in this chair sucks, sitting on this board sucks. The world is collapsing around us and no one knows what will happen next. In times like these, we don’t need just strong leadership, we need radical change.”

She added that politics “has no place on this board. From what I have seen, this type of behavior serves the self, not students, and it makes LCC look performative. Performance is not progress. Our job isn’t to have an opinion on everything. It’s to make thoughtful decisions, and then trust the professionals to implement them. Right now, from what I’ve seen, this board confuses noise with action. So this is my call to action: Be better.”