SPI Insights

Oregon – Voters approved several capital projects in the $121.5 million bond referendum held by Lane Community College (LCC) on May 19, according to unofficial state results.

Passage will authorize the college to direct $77 million to local workforce career investments that include:

• Re-establishing a workforce development center;
• Constructing a new building to house the college’s Dental Clinic and expand health professions programs;
• Expand manufacturing and technology programs;
• Create a mobile manufacturing-welding lab; and,
• Update the nursing program’s simulation lab.

LCC will allocate $32.5 million toward safety and security updates and seismic retrofitting. Some LCC buildings are more than 50 years old and are seismically and structurally not up to code.

Other facility improvements include plans to make buildings and walkways more accessible, add automatic locks, secure learning spaces, and enhance communication tools. To ensure students are able to escape buildings in the event of a natural disaster, the college will reconstruct aging facilities.

The college will use $12 million from bond sales to update all science and biology laboratories with new equipment, ventilation hoods, and chemical storage. It also will install interactive technology and up-to-date classroom equipment and expand the Maxwell Student Veterans Center.