Linn-Benton Community College

Linn-Benton Community College’s 50th Commencement ceremony will be held Monday, June 18 at 7 p.m. at the Linn County Fair and Expo Willamette Event Center in Albany. The college will award 1,000 degrees and certificates to 829 students this year. In addition, approximately 90 students will be awarded LBCC’s General Educational Development GED certificates. Graduates should plan to arrive no later than 5:45 p.m. at the Santiam Building behind the Willamette Event Center. Doors open for seating at 6 p.m. No tickets needed to attend. No strollers or backpacks. Carry bags will be checked. A traditional bagpipe processional will be lead by the Portland Metro Pipe Band, with posting of the colors by the American Legion Travis Moothart Post 184 of Brownsville. Members of the LBCC choir will sing the National Anthem. LBCC President Dr. Greg Hamann will give the welcome and present several awards including Phi Theta Kappa, Distinguished Alumni, and Distinguished Citizen. Outgoing ...

Time-lapse cameras have been installed at both the Advanced Transportation Technology Center and the new Health Occupations Center construction sites, providing a daily view of the construction compressed into a brief video. On the building projects site, click on either the ATTC link or the HOC link. The site also includes the latest updates on all upcoming LBCC bond related projects. The ATTC project includes a new building for the Heavy Equipment Diesel program and the creation of an Innovation Center to provide space for worker and industry training. Expected completion date is end of summer 2016. The new 42,000-square-foot Healthcare Occupations Center, located adjacent to COMP-NW Medical School in Lebanon, will consolidate LBCC’s medical programs in a single location. Expected completion date is spring of 2017. Construction under way at the new Health Occupations Center in Lebanon. Bruce Clemetsen, vice president, Student Affairs , shared the following information o...

If you missed the President’s Winter Forum on Thursday, Jan. 14, President Hamann covered several interesting topics, including the rollout of a new college budget model, which will be presented at the Board meeting Jan. 20. The new model will provide information to the board on college needs, and then guidance on how to go about funding those needs - a slightly different approach from the current budget model. A solution to the Benton Center parking and expansion project will also be presented at the board meeting. The project is projected to provide an additional 268 much-needed parking spaces at the center, along with an additional 20,000-square-feet of instructional space. President Hamann also shared that at the end of this year the college will no longer be part of Achieving the Dream, but will move instead to the new Guided Pathways partnership, which includes 30 community colleges nationwide. The new partnership will provide support for initiatives already developed in part ...

Linn-Benton Community College Board of Education conferred an honorary degree to former Oregon State University administrator Bob Bontrager, Ph.D., to recognize his leadership in developing the LBCC and OSU degree partnership program. Established in 1998, the LBCC-OSU partnership is, by far, the largest partnership program in Oregon. At any given time, more than 2,000 students are jointly enrolled in LBCC and OSU, allowing for a broader range of class choices and services, and the opportunity to make education more affordable. Bontrager, of Corvallis, served as OSU’s director of Admission and Orientation, and as assistant provost for Enrollment Management from 1996 to 2005. After establishing the LBCC-OSU partnership, he went on to develop partnership programs between OSU and the rest of Oregon’s community colleges. “Bob inspired his colleagues at OSU and LBCC to see new ways of working together that removed barriers and built clear pathways to student success and completion,” said LBC...

Bruce Clemetsen, vice president of Student Services at Linn-Benton Community College, received the "Distinguished College Administrator" award from the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at its international convention held in San Jose April 4. Clemetsen was one of only 25 community college leaders to receive the award.  “We felt it was important to recognize Dr. Clemetsen because of his mentorship and support of PTK students on campus,” said Michelle Hoopiiaina, president of the LBCC PTK chapter, which nominated Clemetsen for the award. On the national level, the award recognized Clemetsen’s work around student completion and his efforts to work with honor roll students as peer mentors, part of a national movement by PTK toward student completion. The Distinguished Administrator award is given to community college administrators (vice presidents, deans, etc.) based on outstanding support provided to Phi Theta Kappa over the years. Phi Theta Kappa is a two-year college honor socie...