Linn-Benton Community College

Approximately 70 area high school students signed letters of intent to attend LBCC next fall as part of the Career Technical Education Signing Day held February 16. LBCC was one of 40 colleges across the nation to participate in the National CTE Letter of Intent Signing Day , held to showcase young people who are committed to technical and industrial careers. Around 200 people attended the event, including industry representatives from both local and national businesses. High school seniors signed letters for their program of choice, which guarantees them a seat in the program for next fall. The Academic Foundations and Extended Learning division has been busy producing "I am LBCC" videos to highlight the unique strengths and experience of their team. This most recent video highlights ELA faculty member Françoise Howard, as she describes what it was like moving to a new country, and why the work she does is important to her. The video was edited by AFEL staff m...

The math department is in the midst of big changes to the developmental math sequence. Beginning fall term 2017, the college will no longer offer math 20, 60 or 65. Instead, the math department has created two new developmental courses, while keeping an altered version of math 95: Math 50 and Math 75.  Programs that require Math 20, 60 and 65 as prerequisites or co-requisites will change to either the MTH 050-MTH 111 pathway or the MTH 098-MTH 105 pathway. With a goal of completion in mind, the new math pathways are designed to decrease the number of classes required to start transfer level courses, as well as to provide better CTE math courses and alternative pathways for non-stem students. 2017 is already starting to be an exciting year for LB iLearn Online, with this month marking iLearn's two-year anniversary. To date, iLearn has served 175 students, with three students completing their programs and a few more close to completion. A new certificate program, Entr...

The college’s year-seven accreditation evaluation is complete, and the accreditation team shared their commendations and recommendations from their site visit (the full report should be out by end of January): Commendations 1. The faculty and staff's commitment to student success! 2. MAC's work on course level outcomes 3. The progress with OERs 4. LBCC Board of Education's active engagement in using data to make decisions 5. The creation and use of our Strategic Initiate Funds 6. Our strong engagement with external partners   Recommendations (what we need to work on) 1. Learning outcome at the program level that tie to our core themes and mission 2. Review and update the report cards that track our progress on our core themes 3. Create an integrated, systematic planning effort that is clear for our campus to understand The Family Resource and Education Center was one of two Oregon programs chosen to present at Left to right: Jerri Wolfe, Kris Wessel an...

This year’s Welcome Day was a huge success, with an estimated 500-700 students passing through campus. Student Services reports that 120 students turned in their completed scavenger hunt forms - a 100 percent increase over last year! Students were able to connect with services, clubs, faculty, staff and each other as they made their way around campus, attended Destination Graduation classes, bought their books and found their class rooms for fall term. The Career and Counseling Center has changed its name to the Advising Center. The center will Photo, left to right: Rob Camp, Lisa Hoogesteger, Carrie Randall, Liz Pessaran, and Leela Magdaleno. continue its great work with students, with a focus on three main services: advising assigned first year AAOT, AGS and undecided majors; career development and exploration including Cooperative Work Experience; and student well-being for all students. In addition, five new advising faculty and staff were hired over the summer....

LBCC Librarian Richenda Hawkins. This year, the college dedicated $50,000 in Strategic Initiative funds to help pay for faculty work needed to adopt more affordable textbook options, with another $50k for next year. Librarian Richenda Hawkins shared that campus-wide more than 40 faculty representing every division have adopted Open Educational Resources (OERs) and 20 faculty have replaced textbooks with library resources. More than 60 classes have been converted from traditional textbooks to OERs or library resources, such as ebooks from the college's subscription to the Ebrary and EBSCO ebook databases. An added benefit for students receiving financial aid is the students have access to textbooks on day one, rather than having to wait for a financial aid award. Library staff applied for an Open Educational Resources Degree Initiative grant for $300,000. If awarded, the funds will be used to help with the short-term goal of saving students $500,000 by the fall of 2017 and the...