harvest from LBCC farm and Hort program, photo courtesy of Amanda Cleland
Friday, March 29, 2019
Saturday, March 23, 2019
Keep LBCC Hort and Crop Production
Deck: Linn-Benton
Community College moves forward to eliminate horticulture and crop
production department despite campus and community opposition
At Wednesday's Board of Education meeting, President Hamann
was not able to fully answer Chair Jim Merryman's question regarding the
relationship between Horticulture and Agriculture at LBCC.
"I'm not the best person to ask," said Hamann,
who made the decision to cut the Horticulture and Crop Production Department, one quarter of Ag Science faculty, and 31 classes in the Ag Science
Department.
The classes that stand to be eliminated are all five Crop
and Soil Science classes, seven out of 11 Agriculture classes, two out of four
Agriculture Business Management classes and all 17 Horticulture classes.
One of these Horticulture classes is Pesticide Safety.
Benton County Fairgrounds employee and self-proclaimed
"forever student" Harrison Williams said courses at LBCC have helped
him at his job, including Horticulture 8.130: "Pesticide Safety" and
Agriculture 250: "Irrigation Systems."
"Pesticide Safety," said Williams, "works
really well as preparation for the Oregon Applicator's License."
"There is immediate added value after a term,"
said Williams, who took AG 250 Irrigation Systems this term and plans to put
his project conclusions in the file at work.
"We needed to use a real site, so I thought... I'll
use work!" said Williams, who said he looked at sprinkler prices and
coverage in his project.
"It's penny-pinching, but we're a penny-pinching
department. It's our skill set. It's what we're known for."
Although Williams' official title is a Business Assistant
at the Fairgrounds, he said he spends just as much time outdoors as he does at
the computer.
For Williams, classes like "Irrigation" and
"Pesticide Safety" give "a baseline of understanding"
of knowledge and vocabulary to translate assessments "so you know what's
necessary, what's not."
If the proposed elimination of two Hort majors and the Crop
major goes through, Agriculture Science at LBCC will be left with two Ag Business programs and two Animal Science
programs. The Ag Business majors have only one required hands-on class,
Crop and Soil Science 205, and it stands to be cut. The Animal Science
programs have no required soil or crops classes.
LBCC Ag Science, Horticulture
Major Kylen McKinney said that he started studying horticulture because, "I
like being outside and doing manual labor so I got a job in a nursery and fell
in love with the plants."
Both McKinney and Williams found out about the proposed
cuts through word of mouth and spoke at the Board of Education Meeting which
was standing room only, with 25 plus Agriculture Science, Horticulture students
in attendance as well as community members, LBCC staff, LBCC alum, and fellow
concerned students.
The LBCC student-body at large have not been notified of any of the
proposed cuts as of this writing, although students who are majoring in Hort and Crop Production were notified of the impending cuts in the Mar. 15 letter from the dean of science, engineering and math, Kristina Holton, copied below.
Good Afternoon,
Good Afternoon,
I am writing to you because you are connected with the LBCC Horticulture program, either as a declared major in the program or you have taken a significant number of credits within the program. You may have already heard that, given the college's current budget situation and the need to make reductions to find cost savings, the college is moving forward with suspending the Horticulture program, which includes the degree paths in both horticulture and crop production. This means that the program will no longer be advertised and will not be accepting new students.
However, we will continue teaching courses within the Horticulture program, for at least the upcoming academic year (2019-20). It is our sincere hope that we can help current students complete their degrees and educational goals. In order to determine a plan for course offerings, we will need to better understand where you currently stand within the program, what you still have remaining and what your educational goals are. Our plan is to schedule a meeting with you where together we can look at your degree audit and determine what still remains in your degree plan.
In the meantime, I encourage you to complete any courses you are currently taking, and continue with your plans and courses for spring term as they currently exist. We will reach out to you in the near future to schedule the planning meeting.
Thank you,
Kristina
--
Kristina Holton
Dean of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics
Linn-Benton Community College
Albany, OR 97321
(541) 917-4416
Thursday, March 14, 2019
LBCC Administration proposes to eliminate its Horticulture Department
Students and staff found out this week that LBCC has plans to eliminate its Horticulture and Crop Production department and major.
LBCC Vice President of Academic and Workforce Anne Buchele discussed the proposed elimination of LBCC’s Horticulture and Crop Production department on Thursday.
“We are going through a variety of budget reductions,” said Buchele, “and we need to cut $800,000 [from the general budget] this year and $800,000 next year. We have a variety of reductions and everyone has not been identified yet but in looking at the data [we recommended] the Horticulture program for reduction.”
“We look at enrollment, graduation rates, and what the graduate would be able to do out in the labor force. It’s a decision to get to the reduction amount that we needed for this year,” she said.
The LBCC Board of Education’s next meeting is on Wednesday March 20 at 6 p.m. in the Calapooia Center, Room 103. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. Citizens who want to comment on the proposed suspension of the Horticulture and Crop Production Program or anything else at LBCC can sign in at the meeting at 5:40 p.m.
Buchele said that there is at least a $100,000 savings accomplished by eliminating the Horticulture and Crop Production Department. “It is a $251,000 program, and it’s one full-time faculty and one classified position and they would be let go the following year,” said Buchele. This would mean that current Horticulture and Crop Production students would be taught out through Spring 2020 but no new students would be taken on.
“If we lost all the students in the Hort Program, [and] we are not sure that would happen, then there would still be $100,000 savings; there could be more savings if students stayed.”
Typical classes taught in the Horticulture and Crop Production program include Landscape Materials I, also known as Tree Identification, Soil: Sustainable Systems, Irrigation, and Organic Farming and Gardening.
Regarding the state cuts that engendered this proposal and other cuts, she said, “We are already lean, our board members, our state legislators, our [LBCC] president are working hard at the state level to urge more in the community college fund.”
“I hate that it has to be all on the backs of students; you know, I’m from Ohio and we have a sales tax there,” said Buchele. Buchele sees in Oregon’s proposed budget cuts for higher education, signs that Oregon has not found a stable way of funding higher education.
Buchele was in her office on Thursday afternoon finishing up the day’s work and was able to meet and discuss the recent announcement by President Greg Hamann that LBCC is moving ahead to suspend the Horticulture and Crop Production Department at LBCC.
President Hamann’s formal announcement of all proposed cuts or reductions to LBCC departments will be emailed out to concerned people by the end of the day on Friday, March 15. This is a hard week said Buchele, noting that Horticulture is not the only department affected by proposed cuts.
Buchele said that cuts in program and staffing are ultimately President Hamann’s decision based on recommendations from the LBCC Budget Team, which is made up of LBCC staff VP of Operations Dave Henderson, Buchele, Jess Jacobs, Director of Accounting and Budget, and Margi Dusek, Manager of Accounting and Budget.
The team looks at the budget ramifications, makes the recommendations to President Hamann, and he decides on the cuts, said Buchele. Buchele said that the Budget Team did talk about what the impact of losing the Horticulture and Crop Production Department would be on the larger community, but she did not have any comment on the details of that conversation.
According to Buchele, the programmatic decisions of President Hamann are guided by the LBCC Budget Team, and those decisions are in turn guided by the big picture laid out by the LBCC Board of Education’s Budget Committee.
If the state budget cuts were found to be less severe, it is the LBCC Board of Education Budget Committee that would guide what the priorities would be, and President Hamann and his staff would make the specific decisions to carry out those priorities.
At this coming Wednesday’s meeting, the Board of Education’s comment period will be followed by board and campus reports, information on PERS, and votes on two resolutions: a proposed 7 percent tuition increase and a construction contract for seismic retrofit projects.
The LBCC Board will officially approve the overall budget in June.
At a Glance:
When: Wednesday, March 20 at 6 p.m. in CC-103
What: LBCC Board of Education open for comments.
Why: Citizens interested in commenting on the proposed elimination of the LBCC Horticulture and Crop Production Department can sign in at 5:40 pm. Comment times are each limited at the discretion of the board chair and are typically 3 minutes long.
Full Disclosure: The author of this article is a member of the LBCC Horticulture Club.
LBCC Vice President of Academic and Workforce Anne Buchele discussed the proposed elimination of LBCC’s Horticulture and Crop Production department on Thursday.
“We are going through a variety of budget reductions,” said Buchele, “and we need to cut $800,000 [from the general budget] this year and $800,000 next year. We have a variety of reductions and everyone has not been identified yet but in looking at the data [we recommended] the Horticulture program for reduction.”
“We look at enrollment, graduation rates, and what the graduate would be able to do out in the labor force. It’s a decision to get to the reduction amount that we needed for this year,” she said.
The LBCC Board of Education’s next meeting is on Wednesday March 20 at 6 p.m. in the Calapooia Center, Room 103. The meeting starts at 6 p.m. Citizens who want to comment on the proposed suspension of the Horticulture and Crop Production Program or anything else at LBCC can sign in at the meeting at 5:40 p.m.
Buchele said that there is at least a $100,000 savings accomplished by eliminating the Horticulture and Crop Production Department. “It is a $251,000 program, and it’s one full-time faculty and one classified position and they would be let go the following year,” said Buchele. This would mean that current Horticulture and Crop Production students would be taught out through Spring 2020 but no new students would be taken on.
“If we lost all the students in the Hort Program, [and] we are not sure that would happen, then there would still be $100,000 savings; there could be more savings if students stayed.”
Typical classes taught in the Horticulture and Crop Production program include Landscape Materials I, also known as Tree Identification, Soil: Sustainable Systems, Irrigation, and Organic Farming and Gardening.
Regarding the state cuts that engendered this proposal and other cuts, she said, “We are already lean, our board members, our state legislators, our [LBCC] president are working hard at the state level to urge more in the community college fund.”
“I hate that it has to be all on the backs of students; you know, I’m from Ohio and we have a sales tax there,” said Buchele. Buchele sees in Oregon’s proposed budget cuts for higher education, signs that Oregon has not found a stable way of funding higher education.
Buchele was in her office on Thursday afternoon finishing up the day’s work and was able to meet and discuss the recent announcement by President Greg Hamann that LBCC is moving ahead to suspend the Horticulture and Crop Production Department at LBCC.
President Hamann’s formal announcement of all proposed cuts or reductions to LBCC departments will be emailed out to concerned people by the end of the day on Friday, March 15. This is a hard week said Buchele, noting that Horticulture is not the only department affected by proposed cuts.
Buchele said that cuts in program and staffing are ultimately President Hamann’s decision based on recommendations from the LBCC Budget Team, which is made up of LBCC staff VP of Operations Dave Henderson, Buchele, Jess Jacobs, Director of Accounting and Budget, and Margi Dusek, Manager of Accounting and Budget.
The team looks at the budget ramifications, makes the recommendations to President Hamann, and he decides on the cuts, said Buchele. Buchele said that the Budget Team did talk about what the impact of losing the Horticulture and Crop Production Department would be on the larger community, but she did not have any comment on the details of that conversation.
According to Buchele, the programmatic decisions of President Hamann are guided by the LBCC Budget Team, and those decisions are in turn guided by the big picture laid out by the LBCC Board of Education’s Budget Committee.
If the state budget cuts were found to be less severe, it is the LBCC Board of Education Budget Committee that would guide what the priorities would be, and President Hamann and his staff would make the specific decisions to carry out those priorities.
At this coming Wednesday’s meeting, the Board of Education’s comment period will be followed by board and campus reports, information on PERS, and votes on two resolutions: a proposed 7 percent tuition increase and a construction contract for seismic retrofit projects.
The LBCC Board will officially approve the overall budget in June.
At a Glance:
When: Wednesday, March 20 at 6 p.m. in CC-103
What: LBCC Board of Education open for comments.
Why: Citizens interested in commenting on the proposed elimination of the LBCC Horticulture and Crop Production Department can sign in at 5:40 pm. Comment times are each limited at the discretion of the board chair and are typically 3 minutes long.
Full Disclosure: The author of this article is a member of the LBCC Horticulture Club.
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
"I Am Not Invisible" women veteran's event at LBCC
 | ||
| Teri Bartlow, Jaya Lapham, and Jasmine Lumpkin pose with Maria Carolina Gonzalez-Prats, who is in one of the photos of the I Am Not Invisible campaign which was displayed in the LBCC library. |
Veteran and Maria Carolina Gonzalez-Prats has a connection to LBCC besides being featured in the "I Am Not Invisible" photo exhibit that displayed at LBCC in February.
Gonzalez-Prats is a long time friend of Javier Cervantes, Director of Institutional Equity & Student Engagement at LBCC. Cervantes came to the Feb. 22 "I Am Not Invisible" meet and greet hosted by the LBCC Library at which Gonzales-Prats and Oregon Women Veterans Coordinator Elizabeth Estabrooks, who is also featured in the exhibit, spoke and answered questions.'
When Gonzalez-Prats first told Cervantes she was joining the military, Cervantes was concerned as a friend, but now, he realizes it was a great decision for her to join and she came back a better person.
Now the two friends both are in higher education. Gonzalez-Prats earned her Masters in 2008 with a her thesis Through a Veteran’s Eyes: The Transition of the Army Leader into the Civilian Workforce and she is now working on a doctoral thesis.
At the Feb. 22 event, Cervantes asked pointed questions from his armchair seat about Gonzalez-Prat's research for her current thesis, in which she seeks to verify the efficacy of the back to work programs in the military. Cervantes' questions were intended to encourage audience participation in the research.
Veteran Jasmine Lumpkin asked Gonzalez-Prat why the research will focus on a particular time-period of disengagement from the military, and Gonzalez-Prat appreciated the question, saying the time frame is to focus on the efficacy of a certain program and when it was introduced.
Monday, March 11, 2019
Wah Chang was asked by U.S. Dpt. of Energy to melt down uranium that later caused its workers cancer
One story that took a little digging to find out about at Ron Wyden's last Town Hall was the story of the retired steel workers from Wah-Chang.
Gary Steffy led his fellow retirees in handing a certificate of appreciation to Wyden, but maybe appreciation is not the only feeling the workers should be having for the U.S. Government and its representatives.
The original cause of the cancer many of the workers are getting was a request by the U.S. Dept. of Energy for Wah Chang and other factories around the country to melt down uranium. In exchange, the Dept. of Energy offered an expensive machine.
But health doesn't come with a price tag, and the retirees are now faced with having to prove that they worked for Wah Chang to make themselves eligible for the health care the U.S. government is paying for.
Gary Steffy led his fellow retirees in handing a certificate of appreciation to Wyden, but maybe appreciation is not the only feeling the workers should be having for the U.S. Government and its representatives.
The original cause of the cancer many of the workers are getting was a request by the U.S. Dept. of Energy for Wah Chang and other factories around the country to melt down uranium. In exchange, the Dept. of Energy offered an expensive machine.
But health doesn't come with a price tag, and the retirees are now faced with having to prove that they worked for Wah Chang to make themselves eligible for the health care the U.S. government is paying for.
Winter Clubs' Expo
 |
| Winter Clubs' Expo, photo courtesy of Council of Clubs |
The LBCC Commons cafeteria was ringed with tables and club members on Wednesday Feb. 20 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Even a dog was making the rounds with its owner.
From highly visible campus clubs like the Civil Discourse Club, which had brought their whiteboard which is usually displayed in Takena with them to the cafeteria, to the low-profile but highly popular Role-Playing Group, it was clear that the Campus Ambassadors aren’t the only ones trying to instill a little community into Linn-Benton Community College.
Active Minds, which promotes healthy active minds on campus, had a booth right next to the Adult Re-Entry Club, which encourages and supports students who are coming to LBCC as a second career.
And the International Club, supported by its International Ambassadors, advertised weekly meetings as well as a few international teas each term, plus its upcoming Talent Show.
So maybe none of this is ironic. Maybe it makes sense that people whose religion seems to think Earth is just one stop on the big road of adventure ARE therefore relaxed enough to enjoy this stop.
And maybe people who’ve moved to the U.S. from a different country, with all the accompanying language difficulties, ARE best suited to host regular opportunities to eat and drink together, including a tea-time rivaled only by the Math Cafe’s always open door, because they know how important friendliness can be.
And maybe the relaxed fun-loving guys and girls of the Role-Playing-Games Club show us that fantasy CAN be the best way to connect with new friends at a school focused on practicality and reality. Because for all the crap we give it, the small size and devoted faculty at LBCC truly do offer a community of opportunities, even if you have to dig a little to find them.
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