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.
History
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, 1964-1989
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."
Oregon's Governor Mark Hatfield presented the college charter in October 1965, and voters passed a 5-year serial levy to support initial construction. Oregon Senator Wayne L. Morse presided as keynote speaker at the groundbreaking in January 1967. Local resident Wilfred Gonyea had donated 105.81 acres off 30th Avenue in 1965 for the main campus, and added more acreage in 1967. 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 1966 voters had passed a $9.6 million bond to construct the main campus in southeast Eugene, where classes began two years later. In May 1968, voters approved a $1.5 million permanent real estate tax base for operating costs, continuing the county's widespread support for the college. Oregon Governor Tom McCall opened the new campus in 1969 by cutting a log with a chainsaw.
Lane became a founding member of the League for Innovation in the Community College in 1973.
Centers in Florence and Cottage Grove opened in 1976 and 1977. The college purchased land in 1983 to permanently house the Cottage Grove center.
In 1979, Lane College was the host of the USA Cross Country Championships.
Lane, 1990-present
Oregon voters passed Measure 5 capping property taxes in 1990. That same election, Lane County voters approved a new property tax base for Lane Community College. Because the statewide measure would "equalize" funding for Oregon's community colleges, the resulting funding uncertainties presented a dilemma Community College Commissioner Mike Holland called "a cosmic joke." 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 northern spotted owl controversy and the nationwide recession of the early 1990s brought displaced timber workers to the college, after the dire 1992 forecast of a crippling recession in which President George Bush predicted, "we'll be up to our neck in owls, and every millworker will be out of a job." 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."
By 2002, years of state funding shortfalls and enrollment growth required drastic action to reduce the college budget by 7 percent. The college eliminated seven degree and certificate programs, and raised tuition by $10 per credit, a 26 percent increase. In succeeding years, some personnel layoffs were avoided by leaving vacant positions unfilled, but there were also reductions in classified staff.