Lane Community College’s Board of Education is moving ahead with a budget plan that would cut two associate degree programs.
Lane has to address a shortfall of more than $4 million for next year’s budget.
To do so, the board voted to raise tuition by $2 per credit hour. They’re also considering cutting up to 20.5 positions and suspending their Criminal Justice and Health Information Management, or HIM, associate degree programs.
During a special meeting Wednesday afternoon, the board agreed to include the two programs in its fiscal year 2027 Budget Mitigation Plan.
“These are difficult but necessary discussions shaped by broader challenges facing the college,” said Shelley Tinkham, vice president of academic affairs for the college, when presenting to the board.
Tinkham stressed that the recommendation to cut these programs stemmed from the board’s direction to support the college's long-term sustainability. She said the plan prioritizes options that administrators believe will affect the fewest students, but they recognize there will still be an impact.
She said the cuts “are not reflective of the quality or contributions of the faculty members involved or their programs.”
Tinkham presented the board with the administration’s rationale for cutting these two programs: student enrollment is down; personnel costs are up; there are similar or duplicate programs at other colleges in the region; and relevant job placement requirements have changed.
There were three to six graduates per year from 2020–25, according to the HIM program data shared with the board.
The criminal justice program is also seeing low student outcomes, she said. This is seen with low degree completion and course success rates below the college benchmark. And since an associate’s degree isn’t needed for entry-level employment in the criminal justice field, Tinkham said, there’s been low demand.
Tinkham said there are plans to help students transition as these programs end.
Health information management students completing the program this spring will receive their degree from Lane Community College. All other students will partner with Klamath Community College to continue their studies.
Current criminal justice students at LCC will be able to finish their courses through a transition period. The college will continue to provide limited criminal justice courses as part of the Associate of Arts Oregon Transfer Degree, Tinkham explained, allowing students to transfer to a bachelor's degree in criminal justice if they want.
Suspending the two programs is estimated to save the college $534,000.
Wednesday’s special meeting came a day after Kara Flath, vice president of finance and operations for the college, sent a letter to the LCC community announcing an immediate spending freeze on non-essential expenses.
Faculty members fight for programs
Melissa Artstein-McNassar teaches anthropology at Lane. She was one of many — staff and students — who testified Wednesday, urging board members to keep these programs.
Artstein-McNassar argued that terminating the criminal justice program, in particular, won’t save the college — it’ll shrink it.
“This is a transfer degree that attracts students, keeps them enrolled, and fills classrooms across campus,” she said. “When students can study what they care about, they stay; when they can't, they leave.”
Many spoke in favor of the HIM program as well, saying health information management workers remain in high demand.
Lane HIM faculty member Christina Grijalva shared data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, noting that these jobs are projected to grow 15% nationally, with strong demand in Oregon.
“I urge you to explore alternatives,” Artstein-McNassar said. “Take your time doing so, but do not close programs that are clearly working for our college, our students and our community.”
Board members approve plan after disagreeing on alternatives
Board members debated into the evening whether there were other options to consider.
Board Chair Austin Fölnagy made a motion to keep the programs, excluding them from the mitigation plan, but it failed.
Member Zachary Mulholland said the process for selecting these programs for cuts was flawed because the programs were not given a chance to address their departments’ fiscal issues.
He motioned for President Stephanie Bulger to work through a review process with the programs to return to fiscal sustainability or transition to a comparable degree program, and to consider further tuition adjustments to cover the increased costs instead. His motion also failed.
Student Trustee Braydon Michael Olson expressed concerns for the process as well, saying student input was not included.
Olson, who also serves as the president of the Lane Student Government Association, said peers have told him that programs moving to further campuses would mean the end of their academic careers.
“Ignoring any kind of student input on this, I believe, is just wrong,” he said. “We need to understand what students are saying, and we need to communicate to them about what’s happening with their programs.
“We’ve already lost students because of the way that this was followed,” he added. “We will most likely lose more because of it.”
Bulger responded, saying she will follow up with the student government.
In the end, the board passed the motion to include the two programs in the mitigation plan on a 4-3 vote. Chair Fölnagy, Vice-Chair Jerry Rust and member Mulholland voted against.
LCC’s budget committee has weekly meetings set over the next month with the goal of approving a final budget in May.
Lane Community College holds the license for KLCC but has no part in KLCC's editorial process and does not review news content before publication. This story was edited by an outside editor from the Northwest News Network.
