Lane Community College has announced that its Licensed Practical Nursing program will close this year, impacting nearly 40 hopeful applicants on track to become front line caregivers.
On May 29, just one week before acceptance notifications were due to arrive, prospective nursing students were informed by email that the Practical Nursing cohort for Fall 2025 has been suspended. No reason was given.
After completing the college prerequisites, Sarah Yarck was on track to enter the one-year LPN program. Then she got the email.
“I was completely devastated,” she said. “I saw my life just kind of crumble right in front of my eyes. There’s no other option for me.”
Yarck, who currently works at an area hospital, said her future was all mapped out. “I wanted to be an LPN. That was my trajectory. Being an RN just isn’t really my thing. I know what it entails and it’s not what I wanted to do. But now, I’m having to rethink that. I might just have to settle.”
KLCC obtained a copy of the May 29 email to LPN program applicants, sent by Jennifer Tavernier, Director of Nursing and Associate Dean of Health Professions, Health, PE & Athletics. In it, applicants were told “your application fee will be fully reimbursed. Additionally, as we explore the possibility of offering a future cohort, we would be happy to move your application forward without requiring you to reapply or pay another fee.”
It also suggested reaching out to the Health Profession Advising Team if interested in applying to another Health Profession program at LCC.
At a public hearing Wednesday night, Nursing Program faculty instructor Jill Tauchert told the LCC Board of Education that closure of the LPN program will exacerbate staffing shortages and have a serious impact on the community.
“Let me be very clear: This is not just the closing of a program. It’s the closing of a pathway,” she said. “Over the years, we’ve proudly graduated students who have gone on to serve in our local hospitals, long-term care facilities, outpatient clinics and surgery centers. Our graduates are the faces you’ve seen caring for your parents, your children and maybe even for you.”
Tauchert told board members that, at 40, this year’s applicant pool for the LPN program is a record number.
“This is not the time to cut nursing,” she said.
Tauchert told the board that LPN students at Lane have minimal attrition, meaning most stay in school through program completion. She added that many of the LPN students are from underserved backgrounds.
“With the closure of this program, our health care facilities lose a vital part of their workforce, our most vulnerable patients lose their frontline caregivers, and our students—those whom this college was built to support—lose hope,” she said.
LCC spokesperson Jenna McCulley told KLCC the LPN program is “on pause” to evaluate its fiscal and operational viability.
Lane Community College holds the license for KLCC.
