Classes start next week at Lane Community College. As fall term begins, KLCC's Rachael McDonald sat down with LCC president Dr. Stephanie Bulger. They started by talking about enrollment, which Bulger says is strong.
Dr. Bulger: I'm really, really happy about it. We are at about 5% in headcount, roughly about 5% over last year in headcount. So, that represents about roughly a little bit over 6,700 students for the fall term. That's where we are right now. So, I'm really delighted about that. Enrollment has been one of my goals every single year that I've been here and I'm going into my fourth year. And what enrollment does for us, it certainly means, as I mentioned, that we're serving more people because enrollment has been going up year over year for almost three straight years.
That kind of record after a decade-long decline, which is what happened when I came into the college—we'd had a decade-long decline in enrollment—we turned that around in winter quarter 2023. So, I'm delighted about that. I'm also really, really excited because we're going to be offering the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. It's our second bachelor's degree program. And as you know, in Lane County, we really need more bachelor's prepared nurses. And so we're delighted to do that, this fall as well.
McDonald: We've seen effects from the federal government on education programs, and I'm wondering, have there been impacts to Lane Community College with the changes to the Department of Education and changes at the federal level?
Bulger: We were spared for so long that I thought it was just going to move beyond us, but we have been affected, minimally, I would say, but every effect is important and it's impactful because it impacts people in some way generally. We have been affected by that, but I would say minimally affected overall.
And, that's why you can see that the campus and that the college across the county pretty much looks the same. We haven't announced anything that we have disrupted or had to close that's really core to the mission of the community college which is about education and training.
McDonald: I do want to ask you about the Board of Education. There were complaints about Zach Mulholland, who was the former board chair, and now a board member, for bullying you and other people. He has been censored by the rest of the board, and some have called on him to resign. How has this affected your role and your ability to do work? How has it affected you?
"I take leadership very seriously. I was hired under a position profile that was looking for a transformational leader and that's what I consider myself," Dr. Stephanie Bulger
Bulger: Well, I would say there's much that I cannot say because I am the sole employee of the board and we have seven board members. The board acts as a collective and not as individual members, generally. They can certainly make statements about the college as individual members. I would say that what's happening at the institution, I think your question really is about how is the institution moving forward? And from my perspective, the institution is moving forward. I think it's my orientation, Rachael, I've been doing this kind of work for quite a long time, a couple of decades, a little bit more than a couple of decades, and so I take leadership very seriously. I came here and was hired under a position profile that was looking for a transformational leader and that's what I consider myself and I thought what better place to do that than Lane Community College, which is known for academic excellence, innovation, and sustainability. And so, what better place to do that? And so that's what I do. That's what I wake up in the morning to do every single day.
McDonald: I think that's all. I just wanted to give you the opportunity to share anything else you'd like to say in terms of looking ahead to the school year and what the challenges and opportunities are.
Bulger: You mentioned the impacts of the federal landscape and we monitor those impacts on a daily basis and so we are concerned about the federal impacts on the state budget, really concerned about that. We are just beginning the first year of the biennium, and so we are incredibly concerned about any impacts that are happening at the state level to the community colleges in the state.
This interview has been edited for time and clarity.
Lane Community College holds the license for KLCC.
