Finance Division Winter 2025 Update

Dear Finance Division,

As the season changes and our campus begins to bloom, I’d like to invite you to spring into giving on March 5 as part of the tenth annual Day of Giving. This day is not complete without the campus spirit, and we encourage everyone to wear orange on March 5 to show our L&C pride. If you don’t already have something orange, the bookstore is offering a 20 percent discount, making it a great time to pick up some gear while supporting our community.

Please visit the Day of Giving to learn more about our collective impact and donate by visiting the online giving portal.

Every donation, big or small, helps make a difference. Thank you for your support, and I look forward to seeing everyone in orange on March 5.

Best,

Andrea Dooley, CPA (she/her)

Chief Financial Officer and VP Operations

Facilities

Employee Comings and Goings

We have some significant retirements of veteran staff underway. Max Williams, a long-time Grounds Lead, has retired, and Richard Austin, Lead Painter, has submitted his retirement notice. Both of these amazing individuals have provided many years of service, and their departure will be noticed and difficult to backfill. The Director of Facilities Operations Role has been reorganized into three new positions. The first is a Maintenance Manager and we are thrilled to have hired Adam Hertel into this position. Adam served as our master electrician for years and has returned to the College for this new role. Second, Occupational Health and Safety Manager Jason Holmgren was promoted to the role of Regulatory Compliance Manager. The third role is an Asset and Resource Manager, and will be filled by Gary Smith, who stood out as the most qualified candidate after an extended search. The position will help us take our maintenance management software, preventive maintenance planning, and asset inventory work to the next level. This position will also lead cross collaboration with other college divisions and services, being a primary point of contact.

Capital Projects

Projects across campuses continue to move forward, along with a host of new project work:

• The Manor House project(s): We continue to tackle water intrusion issues. When the tarps are gone you’ll know it’s been solved!
• Elevator Modernizations at Miller and Fields: We are finishing their cab interior refresh, and the Olin elevator will be modernized this coming May.
• Roof Projects at Olin Phase 1, Holmes, and the Lower Estate Garden Poolhouse: Projects are all now complete. We move on to Olin Phase 2, and have repairs at Akin and Copeland underway.
• Bike Parking Improvements throughout the Res Halls and at the Grad Campus: These are complete, with plans to finish the final bike parking improvements this summer with enhancements at JR Howard and Watzek.
• Lower Estate Garden Phase 2: Following a design process with community input, this project is in for permit and final design approval. The project will start construction in early July, and be complete by November.
• Grad School Electrical: Upgrades are now completed, with a significant increase in the amount and quality of incoming power. We believe the Grad Campus is effectively future-proofed for electrification.
• Corbett Second Floor: Renovation is permitted and bid out, setting the stage for a big renovation this coming summer. The building will fully close from May through August to support the work. It will provide many new administrative offices, setting up Rogers Hall to add instructional space that the administration had occupied.
• Olin: Lab 116 is in the permit for a complete overhaul, increasing safety and occupancy for instructional programming. The extensive renovation includes new fume hoods, prep area, cabinetry, and AV.

Sustainability

Education

The planning of the Bates Center Summer Sustainability Internship course is underway. We look forward to welcoming new employers, including local private, public and nonprofit organizations here in Portland and beyond. Please let us know if you have any employer contacts in this field!

Our successful energy efficiency internship role will be expanded this summer as we work with the Energy Trust of Oregon to develop a training program to provide energy interns for employers throughout the City. We’ll begin recruiting students for this program in the coming months.

Operations

Our focus on energy and climate continues with lighting upgrades, energy efficiency work, and longer-term planning to decarbonize our Facilities. We plan to form a small committee to assist with our energy efficiency work—if you are interested, please reach out! We are also exploring grant opportunities and utility incentives to complete this work.

Business Office and Student Accounts

Business Office

The Audit Committee accepted the audited FY24 financial statements in November. The Business Office team is completing numerous compliance and accreditation surveys and preparing the College’s Form 990, 1099s, and other calendar-year-based filings. Additionally, with the initial rollout of Chrome River moving into the rearview mirror, Business Office staff are now working to refine workflows within the system and to update documentation and training materials to better support users going forward. You may have also noticed that as of January 17, Emburse Chrome River is now Emburse Enterprise. As part of this change, our system will feature new logos, a refreshed login screen, and updated color schemes. Rest assured, there will be no changes to the system URLs at this time. You will continue to use single sign-on (SSO) to access the system as usual.

Financial Planning and Analysis

This fall we provided an update on the current year operating budget of the College. The Law and Graduate School will see year-over-year revenue growth while lower than anticipated incoming student enrollment will produce a year over year decline in CAS revenue. Challenges with the rollout of the FAFSA are believed to be a significant factor in the lower incoming student enrollment. On a positive note, CAS retained 86% of students from the first to second year, exceeding the 83% retention rate that had been budgeted. The College still expects to produce a positive cash margin for the year, achieved through reduced capital spending, good expense controls, and an approved increase in the endowment spending rate. The expense constraints in CAS and Common Services will continue into FY26 as the large cohort from the fall of 2021 graduates this spring. The financial planning team is working with Deans and VPs to build a sustainable budget model that aligns revenues and expenses over the next few years.

Please continue to closely monitor department budgets. Do not hesitate to reach out with questions regarding budget reports in Colleague Self-Service Financial Management or request any other budget-related information.

Information Technology

Employee Comings and Goings

Aurelio Puente is our new Cybersecurity Analyst. If you have not already worked with Aurelio, he joins the Security team from having previously worked with the IT Ed Tech team. We also welcomed a new staff member to our Infrastructure group, Talea Simmons joins the team supporting our enterprise systems both here and in the cloud. We are excited to bring her experience and knowledge into our group as we tackle the complexities of modern technology solutions.

Operations

Oracle, Workday, and Ellucian came to campus for multi-day presentations, which were very informative and well-attended by LC staff. These demonstrations kicked off the initial stages of an evaluation process for the future of our student information system. As these solutions begin to shift to solely cloud-based offerings, a change for LC is inevitable. The goal of this first round of evaluation is to understand what is possible, learn more about the projected costs and benefits for each solution. Selection of our next system will be a multi-year process; your input is very much appreciated and we will have more opportunities to participate.

Our Educational Technology and Enterprise Applications groups partnered with the law school to organize and lead an AI and Legal Education workshop for law faculty in December. Not only was it well received, it was also very interesting to learn more about expectations from law firms who are dealing with GenAI and training lawyers on how and when to use the technology. The workshop also included an AI expert from Gartner, who then gave another talk for the main campus about GenAI and how it intersects with education. Slides and other materials are available to those who may be interested.

Also, in the fall, our EdTech team prioritized expanding student access to technology, supporting the use of technology in teaching and learning, and upgrading instructional infrastructure. Key achievements included the rollout of Canva Pro for Students, the (previously mentioned) collaborative workshop Legal Education in the AI Era: Bridging Classroom and Practice, and the end-of-term Faculty Technology Showcase celebration. Canva Pro for Students was particularly successful, with over 500 students and 50 employees utilizing the platform. This initiative equipped users with valuable design and generative AI skills, reduced licensing expenses for departments (especially student organizations), and lowered out-of-pocket costs for students while significantly broadening access to this tool for students at all three schools.

The team seized an unexpected opportunity to renovate the Watzek Library TV studio classroom after flooding in August. Thanks to the swift response of the facilities team, the studio was operational in time for classes and received improvements that enhanced both its usability and appearance.

Security

We continue to move towards enabling more features to keep our data secure and accounts safe. Multi-factor authentication was successfully rolled out to all students at the beginning of the spring semester. We are also working on altering our wireless network connections to provide a more robust and secure environment for everyone. Eventually, sign in will be required to use our services using LC credentials or guest methods (phone number or email address). As we make these types of changes, we try to communicate as best we can to avoid surprises and ensure it goes smoothly. Whenever in doubt, feel free to send an email to itservice@lclark.edu, and we can help clarify when you have any questions.