Lane Students Advocate for Themselves With the Help of LCCEA
By Kat Tabor
On Jan. 26, Lane Community College students demonstrated the power of collective action by delivering 648 letters to the LCC Board of Education. The letters detailed students’ needs for success and were part of a letter-writing campaign organized by the Lane Community College Education Association faculty union (LCCEA).
According to their website LCCEA is affiliated with Oregon Education Association (OEA) and the National Education Association (NEA). LCCEA Membership comprises full-time and part-time teaching faculty, counselors, and librarians at LCC. LCCEA’s Mission Statement is “LCCEA engages in collective action to ensure an equitable learning and working environment and advocates for social justice and systemic change for the public good.”
The event, held on the main campus, encouraged students to directly address the board, sharing requests for more advisors, mental health counselors, tutors, a health clinic, a food pantry, updated classroom technology, and smaller class sizes. A total of 72 students participated in the campaign, each writing a letter to all six board members. LCCEA aimed to showcase faculty and student collaboration in addressing what they perceive as critical issues through this event.
“We asked students themselves what they need to succeed at Lane,” says Adrienne Mitchell, LCCEA president. “And they told us — through student forums, student groups and their student leaders over the past two years.”
The LCCEA provided 28 pizzas and hosted a raffle for gift cards to J & J Java, a campus coffee shop. Free pizza was to draw the interest of the student body, with 224 slices served according to Anne McGrail, who is in charge of LCCEA Communications. “The popularity of the event was obvious: a total of 224 slices were served to students,” McGrail said.
For more information about the campaign or the ongoing work of LCCEA, visit lccea.org.
