Lane Community College’s Board of Education is weighing a budget cut of $3.8 million. The prospect of positions and departments being eliminated worries employees.
A five-hour meeting Wednesday night drew over three dozen union members, who filled the board room and part of an overflow space.
Before the meeting, Frankie Cocanour, president of the LCC Employee Federation, and Adrienne Mitchell, president of the LCC Education Association faculty union, talked to KLCC and shared their hopes.
“Maybe we can get a task force together, and see if we can find a way to get that reserve taken care of without hurting people here,” said Cocanour.
“Our first recommendation would be that the board of education wait, give it a couple more weeks to find out what is the tuition revenue, what is the new state funding allocation going to be, rather than assume that we’re going to have a funding shortfall,” added Mitchell.
The board enacted motions to eliminate vacant positions at LCC, and approved other non-personnel actions as part of a budget reduction plan.
The last motion was to have administrators work collaboratively with involved parties, including campus labor unions, on how to address budgetary issues.
After the meeting, which wrapped up around 11 p.m., board chair Austin Folnagy told KLCC that there’s time now to see if revenues pick up, and to adjust the outlook down the road.
“It gives us better forecasts, obviously, with increased enrollments and so forth, that allows for additional state funding," he said. "That gives us more options as a board and more options to make sure that we take care of the reserve balance.”
An LCC spokesperson said Thursday that steadily declining enrollment is one factor behind the budget reduction plan. A failed request from community colleges for $50 million in one-time state funding was another.
In a newsletter to union members, Cocanour said the union is scheduled for bargaining talks with LCC administrators on Friday afternoon.
Note: Lane Community College is the license holder of KLCC but did not participate in the preparation of this story.
