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Oregon community college

Lane Community College is a public community college in Eugene, Oregon, with additional facilities in downtown Eugene, Florence, Cottage Grove, and the Lane Aviation Academy at Eugene Airport. Lane serves more than 26,000 credit and non credit students annually in a 5,000 square mile (~8047 km2) service district, including most of Lane County as well as individual school districts in Benton, Linn, and Douglas counties.

In 1964 Lane County citizens voted overwhelmingly to establish Lane as a comprehensive community college (approving it 5,944 to 1,282). The new college was able to build upon successful traditions of the Eugene Vocational School, which had been established in 1938 to provide manual education and training to high school students and unemployed adults.

Lane's first board of education met in November 1964, with an agenda to hire faculty and staff, create curriculum, and find classroom and office space. The college became a member of the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges in August 1965. According to the college's narrative history, "The first classes were held on September 20, 1965, at facilities at 200 North Monroe in Eugene. During that first year 1,500 students registered at the college." Two other residents, Joe Romania and Lew Williams, donated additional land for the campus in 1972, the same year Mr. and Mrs. James Christensen donated land south of Florence for a facility there. in 1973. Centers in Florence and Cottage Grove opened in 1976 and 1977. The college eventually lobbied successfully for its new tax base, and envisioned a return to better times, but President Jerry Moskus observed, "there were signs neither Lane nor Oregon would ever be the same." The New York Times reported, "At Lane Community College, the nation's largest center for retraining displaced woodworkers, nearly 9 of every 10 people going through the program have found new jobs, at an average wage of $9.02 an hour, about $1 an hour less than the average timber industry wage." In May 2014, a 5 percent tuition increase was approved to meet the deficit, meaning tuition increased 172 percent since 2000 — from $36 per credit to $98 per credit. Compounding the 2015 budget challenges, the federal loan default rate of ex LCC students approached 30 percent in 2013, the threshold that could cause the federal government to "bar LCC students from getting federal grants." Lane is one of seventeen Oregon community colleges authorized by the Oregon legislature and regulated by the Oregon Office of Community Colleges and Workforce Development.

Lane Community College offers two year transfer Associate degrees, career technical applied associate degrees and certificates, and pre college classes that focus on reading, writing, mathematics, and study skills. State approved programs offer students preparation for employment in approximately 50 career areas: health careers such as nursing and paramedicine, flight technology, culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management, auto and diesel mechanics, manufacturing, business and computer careers, graphic design and multimedia careers, exercise science, as well as criminal justice and human relations careers. and sustainability. Other non credit courses include topics for lifelong learning, including some career classes, health and safety courses, as well as business development classes, employee training and professional development. Since 2009, Lane has joined multiple national and international efforts to improve student learning, retention, progression, and completion: Achieving the Dream, Degree Qualifications Profile, Association of American Colleges and Universities Roadmaps, Foundations of Excellence, The Democracy Commitment, Next Generation Learning Challenges, and Project Win Win. For its promising results in improving developmental English completion rates, Lane was named one of 16 community colleges in the 2014 national cohort of "Leader Colleges" by Achieving the Dream. TRiO and TRiO STEM are a programs funded by the US Department of Education Division of Special Services, Title IV, Higher Education Act 1964. Assistance provided to students includes tutoring and resources such as books, computers, as well as a clean and safe space to do homework assignments. TRiO programs offer a strong support network of staff and fellow students who prepare students for challenges of university life, emphasizing organizational skills, time management, balancing home and school life, and maintaining strong relationships with instructors and professors.

Lane is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). Individual career programs are also recognized and accredited by career and vocational associations. Following an October 2014 site visit, accreditors made seven recommendations for improvement which the local newspaper characterized as "meta problems: not problems with what LCC is doing, but problems with how LCC measures what it does." In February, 2018 NWCCU provided the college with a letter, noting status on recommendations and removing warnings from the site visit.

Of the more than 26,000 students attending Lane during academic year 2016–17, 62 percent were in credit programs and 38 percent were in non credit classes. The average age of credit students in Fall 2016 was 25.4 years, and the average age of non credit students was 43.3 years. after Peninsula College, which opened its longhouse in 2007. The college has over 650 American Indian students, and annually hosts one of the largest powwows in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2006, the college has offered two years of Chinuk WaWa language study that satisfy second language graduation requirements of Oregon public universities.

The main campus is located in central Lane County between south Eugene and Springfield, just west of I 5. It consists of 25 main classroom buildings and numerous secondary buildings in the Brutalist style of architecture. Lane's main campus is fully accessible for wheelchairs and the mobility impaired, and a network of concrete bridges connect neighboring buildings. Athletic facilities such as the track, soccer field, and baseball field cover the north side of the campus, while parking lots surround the campus buildings on the other three sides. Adjacent to the west parking lot, a courtyard that once contained a large concrete fountain has been converted into a flat maze garden, with native plants surrounding a small stone fountain in the center. The west and south sides of campus consist of evergreen forest, including walking trails used for physical education and biology classes. Lane also has learning centers in downtown Eugene, Cottage Grove, and Florence, as well as facilities at the Eugene airport for the Lane Aviation Academy. The Mary Spilde Center, formerly the LCC Downtown Center, at the corner of 10th Avenue and Olive Street, across from the Eugene Public Library, includes classroom space designed as a laboratory for Energy Management and Reusable Energy degree programs, as well as student housing in Titan Court. The Cottage Grove Learning Center at 1275 S. River Road offers credit general education transfer and college preparatory classes, non credit adult basic skills and GED classes, as well as continuing education classes. The Florence Center at 3149 Oak Street offers credit general education classes in 80 different disciplines, all necessary courses for several transfer associate degrees, as well as some nursing classes. Community Education classes in Florence include a variety of enrichment classes and professional development courses. at the Eugene airport houses programs in Flight Technology (commercial, corporate and private pilot training) and Aviation Maintenance (service and repair a variety of aircraft).

The public radio station KLCC began broadcasting in February 1967. Lane Community College owns the license for NPR affiliate KLCC. KLCC broadcasts at 89.7 FM in Eugene and on various repeater frequencies, serving 88,000 listeners each week in Western and Central Oregon. KLCC offers NPR News, local news, and an eclectic music blend. KLCC airs NPR's All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition, along with Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and other news and talk shows. On weekends KLCC airs a mix of music shows including jazz, blues, folk, Americana, Celtic and world music.

Getting Straight, starring Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen, was filmed at Lane in 1969. As the campus was still under construction at the time, the "occupation scenes" were easier to shoot. The Grateful Dead performed a concert on campus as a benefit for the college and White Bird Clinic on January 22, 1971, drawing a crowd of approximately 7,000 fans. In January 1996, KLCC reporter Alan Siporin covered the arrival of Keiko, the orca of Free Willy fame, at his new home in the Newport Oregon Coast Aquarium for National Public Radio and the Discovery Channel.