BY PHILLIP D. GETTY
Mary Spilde
LCC Goes Global
that other people don’t do. And it may be
more than that, and I recognize that, but I
don’t know if that’s anything different from
what we do, by the way.
President Mary Spilde plans internationally
M
ary Spilde’s six–year tenure as
president of LCC has been and
continues to be plagued with
budget problems and lay-offs. Legislative
spending priorities for community colleges
have been shuffled like poker chips in the
hands of a nervous gambler already $7 mil-
lion in the hole.
But this is not the story of mismanaged
budget deficits and economically chal-
lenged legislators, backed by a local com-
munity that refused to buck up $9 per year
for every $150,000 worth of property as
requested in last November’s failed LCC
funding levy.
Spilde and other administrators have
been compelled to improvise and adapt in a
rigged game, forced to find supplemental
funds in unconventional locations.
Spilde is a professional with an exten-
sive resume: bachelor’s degrees in business
and social service and a degree in law from
the University of Edinburgh, Scotland; a
master’s degree in adult education and a
Ph.D in post-secondary education from
OSU; president of the American
Association of Community Colleges
(AACC) 2002-2004; and more than two
decades working, developing and improv-
ing higher education in Oregon.
In recent months, Spilde has found
unique opportunities to generate alternative
forms of revenue while extending a helping
hand to those who are truly suffering in
countries rife with poverty and question-
able human rights policies. In doing so,
Spilde is helping to mend the damaged
international reputation of the U.S.
Before 9/11, LCC had between 400 and
500 international students. Today, that num-
ber has dropped to about 130 to 140. “The
drop was a national phenomenon, for two
reasons; one, people couldn’t get visas, par-
ticularly if they were male and from the
Middle East. Secondly, the U.S. wasn’t per-
ceived as safe for them,” Spilde said.
International students pay $239 per
credit hour, compared to an Oregon resi-
dent who pays $69.50, according to the
LCC 2006-2007 catalog. Resident students
who take an average of 12.5 credits per
term, compounded with books and standard
fees, will pay about $4,080 per year. With
an additional international fee of $150, the
average international student will pay
$10,585 per year.
So the absence of about 315 internation-
al students could equate to a loss of more
than $3.3 million per year.
After many colleges lost this kind of
revenue from international students, the
federal government and the Lincoln
Commission — a congressional organiza-
tion that specializes in study-abroad pro-
grams for college students — began to
understand, again, the importance of
exchanges.
“International education is part of our
plan for revenue … but it’s not just a finan-
cial thing,” Spilde says. “There is recogni-
tion that peace … or good relationships
come from knowing one another. Personal
relationships are the underpinnings of inter-
national relationships.”
The LCC board has decided to make
internationalization a priority again, which
is allowing Spilde and other members to
think creatively about international studies
and financial relationships.
In December, Spilde’s efforts took her as
far as Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Egypt, where
the working and lower classes need career
and vocational training. The European
Union recently gave the government of
Egypt 250 million euros to pay for such pro-
grams. LCC has been approved as a possi-
ble provider of training to aid in that effort.
“The whole point of doing work there is
to get people that are at the lower levels of
employment educated and trained so they can
move into the higher-level jobs,” Spilde said.
LCC staff would be teaching the teachers
in those areas and more. Egypt, for example,
while maintaining modern facilities to train
dentists, has no system to train dental assis-
tants; LCC does, and it’s a very good one.
Farther east, there are even more
prospects for LCC to explore.
As a member of a March delegation
sponsored by the AACC, Spilde visited
India, one of the U.S.’s most populous dem-
ocratic partners. The group traveled to
Delhi, Chennai and the bustling, high-tech
port of Bangalore to explore fruitful oppor-
tunities, cultural exchange possibilities and
the mutual need for internationalization.
Spilde identified some potential positives
for Lane and other community colleges.
First, the AACC is working on a memoran-
dum of understanding with a private univer-
sity in India to facilitate faculty exchanges
similar to the programs being planned in the
Middle East. Their hope is that in addition to
new revenue sources, these programs might
lead to short, 30-day cultural swaps for LCC
and other community college students.
In Chennai, there is the beginning of a
system similar to a community college, but
More Beads Than You Can Imagine!
• Check out all our beads on our 50% OFF rack
• Natural Stones & Gemstones
• Freshwater Pearls & Mother of Pearl
• Glass & Crystal from Around the World
• Ask About Wholesale Prices • Classes
• Custom Designing Available
www.azillionbeads.net
centered primarily on job training and getting
the marginalized rural poor working. “There
is a need for organization and assessment of
programs already in place,” Spilde said.
Spilde and staff have the expertise to
facilitate these assessments. Spilde, LCC
staff and the AACC are working in conjunc-
tion with delegates from the Indian organiza-
tion equivalent to the AACC and others like
Xavier Alphonse in order to fund the staff
needed to make these critical assessments.
Alphonse is a Jesuit priest who has been
instrumental in the growth of community
colleges in India. In 1999, Alphonse creat-
ed the Madras Centre for Research and
Development of Community Education.
MCRDCE has already helped to create 111
new colleges.
Spilde met with Alphonse in Tampa,
Fla., at the AACC’s annual convention of
community colleges in April They have
developed components of a grant proposal.
“We are now working on grant-funding
sources … We are not sure what the budget
will be,” Spilde said.
Spilde and the AACC also finalized a
memorandum of understanding with SRM
University in India to facilitate, among
other things, faculty exchanges.
“Things are moving — slowly — but
moving,” Spilde stressed.
Our conversation explored possibilities:
Regarding potential exchange pro-
grams, grant-writing proposals, and
the work in India, Egypt, Abu Dhabi and
Dubai, has there been any opposition?
There hasn’t been a lot of verbal opposi-
tion that I’ve heard. I’m not saying that it’s
not out there. One thing I’ve been trying to
make most clear is that we are not spending
public money on this — I won’t spend pub-
lic money.
Given our budget problems and the fact
that we have to make cuts, it just doesn’t
seem the right thing to do. Once we make a
revenue stream, then we will fund our efforts.
There was a concern raised about the
fact that in the Emirates they bring in
Filipinos to do lots of the important work
O
OW REG
PIO A E NED ON
NE UG BY
ER EN
FA E
MI
LY
CUSTOMER SERVICE!
We will find you the best rates
Auto• Home • Renters • Business • Motorcycle
665 Conger St.
Suite J
(541) 338-8311
(541) 617-8854
Is there anything else?
Again, getting the marginalized educat-
ed and working. It’s the one place we can
help. And I’m willing to defend it, in the
sense that we are living in a global world
that’s at war. This is exactly the time we
should be reaching out to those countries to
show them that Americans actually care.
Just as we have caricatures of them, they
have caricatures of us. And they see us
through our government and through the
policies of our government. Then they talk
to me as an individual and know that I don’t
support the war and I don’t necessarily sup-
port every policy that our government does,
but I’m still proud to live here. They begin
to see another view of what we are as
Americans. So I think that is a healthy
thing, and I think it is important to every-
body to have that global perspective. ew
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND:
EUGENE
BEND
Is there something that you find most
important to communicate? What do
you think people should know?
When I go to these countries and reflect
on my experience, I think of the things I
know, but it is good to have it confirmed.
People are people everywhere, and when
we interact on a human level, we remem-
ber that people are kind and generous; they
love their kids, they are trying to do the
best that they can, and what is even more
amazing, it’s against all odds in some
countries. There are a lot of people still
living in lean-tos with tarps, cooking on
open fires.
Riding the bus, we passed this little
colony of shacks, and there was this woman
squatting down over this fire. She had this
bright turquoise sari, bare feet, cooking. It
was in the region where they take cow dung
and they make it into patties … they sell it
for fuel; that’s the work they do.
You come away thinking that we have so
much and we take it so much for granted,
having a toilet to flush, hot water to wash our
hands, turning on the faucet just to brush our
teeth — those things we don’t think about as
prerequisites for a comfortable living.
But when you see how other people are
living in this world that has so much
wealth, you know we are blessed. And I
think we all need to be reminded about how
much we have, and how much [other] peo-
ple don’t. Then you begin to think, what
can I do? For me, clearly it’s education, so
I can help, but I must make sure that there
is some mutual benefit for this institution.
Ken Reinking
Bunny Reinking
49 Silver Lane
Eugene, OR 97404
Phone (541) 461-2900
Fax (541) 461-0353
MAY 24, 2007
13