Finance Division Winter 2024 Report

Chief Financial Officer and Vice President for Operations Andrea DooleyHappy New Year!

I hope you had a fantastic winter break and feel recharged for the year ahead! As we kick off 2024, let’s take a moment to celebrate our collective accomplishments from last year. Here’s to building upon this progress and pushing forward to a productive year. Thank you for your contributions and wishing you a very rewarding year ahead.

Best,

Andrea Dooley

Facilities Services

This fall semester Facilities Services transitioned building systems to prepare for the cooler and wetter weather. The winter is now upon us and we’re stocked up and ready for what mother nature provides, with stores of ice melt and snow-clearing equipment cued up. Rooftops and stormwater systems are being cleaned, and emergency systems such as generators and fire systems are being tested and certified. Planning for a summer full of projects is well underway, while we complete many small but important projects best performed during the winter break.

Employee Comings and Goings

While we reported in our last update that we have a full team for the first time in years, things quickly changed. The team lost two managers this fall, with Director of Support Services Max Lamas returning to his golf course roots, and Capital Project Coordinator Ryan Gardner taking a role with the City of Portland. We are excited to have Shane Kaser join in the Director of Support Services role on January 8. Shane brings great experience in groundskeeping, and we are confident he can bring knowledge and experience to his new role as we continue to improve our services. We will begin the hiring process for a new Capital Project Manager as soon as we return from break.

Capital Projects

The Campus Living office in the Odell Annex was completed as planned and is now open. This marks the final phase of the Stewart and Odell residence hall project as a huge success in modernizing, decarbonizing, and refreshing these important residence halls.

The Huston Sports Complex renovation remains on track for a February delivery, and we’re excited the new fields will be ready for the spring sports season. The weather over January will play a critical role in the final delivery.

Law School improvements include new carpet and furniture in Wood Hall Lounge to be complete for the spring semester.

The Hammock Grove Project is making excellent progress and is expected to be complete for the spring semester. The natural black locust posts are considered the strongest, most durable, and sustainable wood available, and will create a designated space for hammocking and slacklining.

Sustainability

The end of the calendar year is such a lovely time to reflect on what has been accomplished while setting our sights on the year to come. In particular, it’s been an exciting year for climate action in our community, region, and nation. As we move into the coming year, you’ll see us continue to focus on this important area of our sustainability work at LC.

Community Engagement

The Sustainability Council held two big events this term including our annual Sustainability in Portland (SIP) networking event. This year, SIP brought together faculty, staff, students, alums, and community partners to celebrate Amy Bushaw as well as participate (informally) in a climate initiative called the global stocktake. This is a fun, low-key networking event and always results in lots of great new connections and inspiring conversations!

Climate Action Plan Progress

We continue to work on our climate action plan which includes advancing our energy efficiency programs and tracking a number of legislative initiatives and public funding opportunities. Through the support of the Business Office and Facilities Services as well as several presentations to our administration and Board, we are excited to announce the launch of our Energy Efficiency Fund! This fund is designed to advance energy efficiency work across our campus and provide a reliable funding stream for these types of projects into the future.

We will be looking to hire an additional student to assist with our energy efficiency fund work. If you know of any hard-working students interested in this field, please have them contact Amy Dvorak.

Bates Center Summer Internship Course

The Bates Center Summer Sustainability Internship Program matches the needs of organizations with the interests and skills of our students. This four-credit summer course includes an in-class component as well as an 8-12 week internship beginning in May and ending in August. We are recruiting employers now, if you know of any organizations that would be a good fit for the program, please contact Amy Dvorak.

Upcoming Events

• January 20: The Sustainability Office is partnering with the Office of Equity and Inclusion to deliver a student activism-focused summit. Any students interested in climate change action should inquire!
• January - March: Employee-focused energy efficiency, electrification, and renewables virtual webinars - more to come!
• April 3-5: Student-focused climate week

Business Office and Student Accounts

Employee Comings and Goings

In October, the Bookstore welcomed Bianca Huerta as our new Barnes & Noble Bookstore Manager. Sophia Austel, Interim Manager, departed in October to take a permanent role at Willamette University.

Business Office

The College’s Audit Committee accepted the audited FY23 financial statements in October. The team is now completing numerous compliance and accreditation surveys, and preparing for calendar year-end reporting with deadlines for filing the College’s Form 990, 1099s, and other calendar-year-based filings approaching quickly following winter break.

The Business Office has also begun the implementation process for Emburse Chrome River. Emburse is an Ellucian Advanced Solution partner and provides an integrated invoice and expense management solution that will help automate the college’s accounts payable, travel expense, and Pcard program workflows. The ultimate goal of the project is to automate invoice and expense processing to more simply and efficiently submit payment requests, and to consistently route approvals to users, supervisors, and budget managers. Combining these processes on a single platform will give users a central point for submitting, approving, and tracking the status of payment requests and Pcard purchases. The system is planned to go live in March 2024, and details regarding user training and system rollout will be available once the implementation process has progressed.

Student and Departmental Account Services

SDAS has completed the setup of the spring 2024 billing tables, and initial spring charges (due December 8, 2023) have been applied to students’ accounts. The department is coordinating calendar year-end deposit activity, and preparing for the issuance of 1098-T tax forms to students in January.

Mail Services

Mail Services has recently completed the installation of QTrack, a smart mailbox and package locker system. Over 60,000 incoming packages and 94,000 incoming mail items are processed by Mail Services annually. The new system enhances service by providing a secure and easy way for students to access their packages 24/7, and improved communications regarding all mail items processed.

Students

• Mail items: When postal mail is received for a student, the item will be scanned and held in a smart mail folder in Mail Services in the basement of McAfee. Students will receive a system-generated notice from Mail Services and can pick up mail items at the service window during regular open hours.
• Packages: QTrack immediately notifies recipients that their item is ready for pick up from Mail Services. Space permitting, small and medium-sized packages will be made available via the new package lockers. Packages can be retrieved from the lockers by utilizing a student ID card or the single-use access code included in the notification email. Items not placed in the package lockers can be picked up at the service window during regular open hours.

Faculty/Staff

• QTrack will notify faculty and staff when incoming packages are processed. Departmental mail and package deliveries to campus mail stops will continue as scheduled.

Additional information regarding the QTrack system and the new package lockers can be found on the Mail Services webpage.

Financial Planning and Analysis

This fall we reported out to the Board of Trustees on last year’s (FY23) operating results which exceeded the budget that had been set for the year. We also updated current year projections which are more challenging due to revenue shortfalls across all three schools. We continue to work with deans and vice presidents to identify targeted budget reductions that will offset the current year’s revenue shortfall and the limited growth expected in FY25.

Brian Franshaw was hired in October to backfill the financial analyst position vacated when Travis Ables was promoted to Assistant Controller. Brian will be focused on internal reporting, budget development, department support, and ad hoc analyses. Don’t hesitate to reach out with questions!

Information Technology

Employee Comings and Goings

Tim Smale left the undergraduate campus to take the open technology tech and help desk supervisor position at the law school. Llew Richards, our business relationships manager, is leaving the college and his last day was December 31. Please contact Meredith Goddard for items that you used to go to Llew with.

Educational Technologies

During the fall semester, the Edtech team ran several practical skills workshops for academic classes on topics such as VR experiences, podcasting, research tools, poster preparation, video editing, and advanced image capture techniques, and also provided direct technical support for student projects. Faculty support activities included developing a technology guide for Lewis & Clark’s Community Counseling Center, building systems used for research data collection, assisting with a new grant-funded video production space at the center, hosting a workshop on podcast assessment, and co-hosting the Annual Faculty Technology Showcase.

Outreach and awareness efforts included collaborating with Information Security on a Cybersecurity Awareness Phishing activity for students, an R Lab promotion event, and presentations and informational websites for Hypothesis, SensusAccess, and the new Podcasting Kits.

Enterprise Applications

The Enterprise Applications team led a cross-functional team of students and staff to assess and make recommendations to improve the student digital experience. One of the items is called Experience which can act as a portal and house links to other applications and display data from Colleague and a few other sources. As we become more familiar with the tool, we plan on showcasing the abilities to various offices that may want to use the technology to gather information in a centralized location.

Infrastructures/Operations

The Infrastructure team worked on resolving complex DNS-related network issues, worked with Mail Services to get package lockers working with ID cards, and helped improve the computer lab experience for students.

The Academic Operations team worked hard this quarter on developing a new potential classroom system to be installed in a future classroom. AOps also worked with Facilities Services to establish a joint effort project of identifying aging rooms across campus and developed a plan for maintenance and repair of any furnishings to help prevent any impact on classroom equipment associated with those aging spaces.

The ITService Desk reports that 2668 tickets were opened and 2695 tickets were closed during this quarter.

Information Security

During Cybersecurity Month, October 2023, Lewis & Clark initiated a new employee-focused cybersecurity training program. In addition to this online training tool, members of IT hosted events around campus providing information about how to protect one’s identity and L&C’s digital assets.

Information Systems

With the FAFSA changes, Information System folks are busier than ever. Also in progress are ChromeRiver, Accommodate, Experience, and regulatory changes that feed into or relate to Colleague.