Lane Community College workers and supporters marched through downtown Eugene Saturday afternoon to protest the college’s administration and demand contracts that protect the rights of employees and students alike. Organizers said there were more than 250 participants.
The rally follows months of contract bargaining and the LCC Administration's recent budget and program cuts, including a reduction of more than $3 million per year from the college’s budget over the next three years.
Adrienne Mitchell, a professor at LCC and the college’s faculty union president, said “no cuts should be necessary.”
Mitchell has taught at the college for 25 years and served as president of the union for six. She said the recent actions of the administration are concerning and unprecedented. She said some of the decisions appear to have been made without input from the publicly-elected LCC board.
“We have not ever seen anything like this before,” she said. “The administration making these decisions without bringing the decisions and the items for a board vote is very different, and it's definitely part of this crisis we're experiencing on our campus.”
Mitchell said these cuts would come at the expense of instructional and student services, as the college had already seen its Licensed Practical Nursing program put on hiatus in May.
An LCC spokesperson told KLCC in June that the program was put on hold to allow the college to evaluate its fiscal and operational viability. LCC has since launched an online “RN to BSN” program that it calls “a natural extension of our commitment to the local healthcare workforce.”
Mitchell said there was no board meeting to approve the decision to indefinitely pause the LPN program and the administration has yet to officially communicate the reasons why the program is suspended.
She added that decisions being made without board input are contributing to a “crisis of democracy” at the college.
“If the LCC administration is attempting to remove the authority of the Board of Education and their ability to vote,” she said, “that really also limits the entire community's input on the direction for LCC. Without those public meetings, without those open meetings and the time for public comment, students and the community at large cannot have a voice.”
KLCC reached out to an LCC spokesperson on Friday afternoon in advance of the rally, but has not received a response.
At the final destination of the march, the college’s downtown Eugene campus, Mitchell spoke alongside two students, as well as the president of the Oregon Education Association, Enrique Farrera, and Eugene City Councilor Matt Keating.
Keating served as an LCC board member from 2013 to 2020, when he said the board fought to preserve programs like welding, early childhood education and theater arts.
“We didn’t do it alone,” he told the crowd. “We did it because you were there informing us. You were on the front lines, taking action. You prevented the closure of critically important programs to LCC and to our community. I say thank you.”
A student activist, Devon Lawson, spoke about the importance of a fair contract for students and the state of the college.
“I have seen firsthand how these bargaining issues ripple through our lives,” Lawson said. “Fair pay is not just numbers. It is about faculty having the energy to mentor us, not juggling overloads that burn them out.”
As those gathered marched to end the rally, they chanted a message to LCC’s administration if they continued their course of action: “We’ll be back.”
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