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Board of Education Message by Robin Geyer, LCCEF President

Food Services and Titan Bookstore SERVICES

For this conversation please refer to page 69 in the Board of Ed packet

The 2019 estimated deficit for both Titan Store and Food Services on page 69.  If we add those two numbers together it amounts to $420,010 + $258,000 = $678,010

Titan Court deficit is roughly $635,000 annually.  Not that far off the amount of the cost to the college for the Titan Bookstore and Food Services this year.  And please remember the Titan Store depleted it’s ending fund balance for the first time this year. The cost to the college for these two services last year was $496,797 and for 2017 it was $408,566, 2016 it was $391,782.

So with the cost of Titan Court at $635,000 every year or perhaps more, why are we not discussing this service?  Is it part of Lane’s Mission to offer housing? Can we afford to do this? Of the three services which ones might be more crucial to our Mission?   

The Ending Fund Balance for Food Services and Titan Bookstore: Why do we keep this running tally? What would be the total accumulated cost year over year of Titan Court? And what about the expense of holding on to DTC for several years? Or any other money loss endeavor the college has engaged in? Those dollars are gone. They will not be recouped. In the case of the Titan Book Store it has been a revenue generator in the past. Only this year is it expected to deplete it’s ending fund balance. Will it be a revenue generator in the future with higher enrollment? Perhaps. What if we allowed the Titan Store to remove the student saving endeavor of offering OER’s. Might it be profitable again?  But does that align with our Mission? And let’s not forget those student jobs. I understand research shows students with jobs on campus are more successful than those with jobs off campus.

The college has been, and wants to continue to bring in Community Partners by offering our spaces for lease.  Will we look as attractive to these partners if we don’t have Food Services, or we only offer grab and go food, or perhaps one vendor with limited hours?  With our current enrollment it doesn’t seem likely any food vendor could be profitable unless they were only operating over the 2 hour lunch window. If we continue with our food services will they be profitable again in the future?  Perhaps.

I am really happy to see the Downtown Center (DTC) listed in the agenda as this is another area of loss for the college.  Selling it seems like a great idea. I question why we did not do so several years ago. Instead we kept it and allowed it to be a drain on the college budget.  I ask again whether we should consider the loss we sustain year over year from the Titan Court?

We all recognize we have a new Administration and I am guessing this is the reason we are finally selling the DTC but I hope that you, as our Board members, will create information requests that will dive into the full 230m of Lane’s budget to determine if there are other decisions you could make that eliminates costs to the college where we may have overreached our Mission due to choices in the past.  I’ve heard it said by our Administrators “We can’t be all things to everyone”, I think that is true, but I hope we will be very careful and thoughtful about what things we decide we can’t be, or do, anymore.

Robin Geyer report to the Board regarding LCCEF activities

Because of the crisis in the past months regarding Food Services and Titan Store I have not taken the time to share with the Board the numerous activities the Classified Officers and Classified Members are currently or most recently involved in.  

I want to state how proud I am of the LCCEF Union Officers and Members who have volunteered their time, energy, intelligence, and wit for work that is often strenuous and stressful. I also want to state that we happily, and collaboratively work with Adrienne and EA as well as HR Managers and both College VP’s, Brian and Paul, to find solutions to issues at Lane

A list of the current and most recent work is as follows:

Kenny Ascheri, LCCEF VP, working to address Cultural Competency needs

Rosa Maria Banuelos-Uribe, Membership Chair and Matt Danskine, Communications Officer developing a plan and a welcome packet for reaching out to new employees, as a team we’ve held several Membership Drives and have recruited about 160 new members in 14 months.  

Matt Danskine working on Contract Education of our Members with posts in our Weekly Communications letter.  If you have not seen our website please do visit lccef.org

LCCEF Constitution and Bylaws Committee with Kyle Schmidt, Chair along with 5 Officers (Kenny, Rosa Maria, Matt, Robin and Marsha) and 5 regular members are tackling a rewrite of our 47 year old CBL’s

Our Elections Committee have a vote underway to be completed Feb. 20.  The vote is to decide if we can amend our Constitution and ByLaws to allow a rewrite of the CBL’s in its entirety or stick to changing it by one amendment at a time.  Once the CBL rewrite has been completed we will go back to Membership to vote for approval.

Coffee Talks organized by Marsha Sills to discuss with Members current issues

Governance Review from the College Council Governance Subcommittee with Kyle Schmidt and Robin Geyer as Classified Representatives.  Now creating recommendations for President Hamilton in collaboration with Jessica Alvarado, Paul Jarrell and Adrienne Mitchell.

Classification and Compensation Study nearing the stage where we release the point factor placement of each of the 236 employees who participated in the study by filling out a Position Analysis Questionnaire.  After that release the employee can appeal their placement on the point factor system. Once that is completed the Consultant hired by the College will go out to Market to determine compensation for like jobs in Oregon.  There are 10 classified (2 Officers, Kenny & Robin) and 3 Managers on this committee.

Insurance Committee which includes 10 classified and 6 managers.  LCCEF Officer’s on the Committee are Kenny Ascheri, Matt Danskine, Robin Geyer, and Dawn Rupp.  We have created 4 subcommittees of this group to look at HSA’s, OEBB, FSA’s and Impact Options

Bargaining for a Economic Reopener will begin Friday Feb. 22 between LCCEF and the College

Labor Management Committee where we work with HR Managers to resolve labor issues.  Since the current Officers have been in Office we have resolved 88 issues and currently have 18 active issues. Officers include Kenny Ascheri, Matt Danskine, Robin Geyer, Casandra Rhay and Dawn Rupp

Budget Development Subcommittee, Classified Reps are Kenny Ascheri and Robin Geyer

And on Jan. 26, Officers Kenny Ascheri, Matt Danskine, and Rosa Maria Banuelos- Uribe attended AFT Winter School.  

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