Highlights from the December Board of Trustees meeting

By Emmett Roman
Staff Reporter

The smell of wet snow in the air, cookies baking at home and exchanging gifts is all a part of the holiday season. As the weather becomes colder, LCC is feeling more festive than usual—especially the Board of Trustees. On Dec. 15, 2025, the board began their last meeting of 2025 wearing their festive gear.

To keep up this spirit, President Steve Robinson wished the trustees happy holidays. Robinson began his President’s Report with a couple of highlights. The first highlight was the college’s Veterans Memorial Induction Ceremony and the second was the Corrections Academy Graduation.

Robinson then praised the graphic design and marketing teams for designing a challenge coin for the LCC Police Department. Military and first responder departments across the United States will often create their own unique challenge coins to share between each other. Challenge coins are emblems that each department has that gets passed out.

Robinson then described how 67 families attended the annual Help-Portrait event to take professional family portraits. Next, Robinson talked about how a number of trustees, including himself, went to the MCCA/ACCT Governance Leadership Institute. This conference was in a panel style format, where the board learned many different things related to being a board member. In fact, the trustees were complimented for the friendly atmosphere they had with one another. Further, the Fire Academy and Police Academy graduations were highlighted to honor student’s hard work.

At the October board meeting, the board agreed to look pursuing a Campus Community and Safety Kiosk initiative. The idea, generated by Trustee Chatum Taylor, would help to make campus more accessible to visitors.  Taylor thanked the administrative team for putting together a plan for the initiative. The board moved to implement the following on campus:

1. Add a specific section on LCC’s website for visitors that can easily be found via a web search.
2. Update the College’s parking website with updated maps and instructions for parking on the West Campus, to include how to navigate to the entrances where the Police Department has its Security Guards stationed and how to navigate to the Police Department offices.
3. Add instructional signage to each of the building-mounted Call Boxes and Video Intercoms.
4. Upgrade existing building Call Boxes to Video Intercoms, like the one piloted for the past two years on the HHS Building, to get community members into the Dental Hygiene and Massage Therapy clinics. Reportedly, this system has worked well in providing the community with access to these services.
5. Add Video Intercoms to each of the Gannon Ramp lobbies where the elevators and stairs are located.
6. Update building “Starcard Required for Entry” signs so that the QR code directs the user to that specific building's department and program contact information on LCC’s website. Currently, the QR codes go to the generic campus buildings page.

The Trustees moved to hear a report on building accessibility updates at each meeting under the monthly monitoring report.

After the break for the photo, the board continued with their meeting. This began with the chairs report. In her Chair’s Report, Chair Angela Mathews shared that she attended a presentation in which she learned that a local husband-and-wife team, Steven and Re’Shane Lonzo of the Lonzo Development Group, are redeveloping the former site of Park’s Furniture in the 900 block of West Saginaw Street in downtown Lansing. The site will include affordable housing and retail space, as well as childcare. Because LCC no longer has a childcare facility on campus and because attaining childcare is a barrier for many students wishing to attend college, Mathews asked Robinson to look into partnering with this new childcare site. Mathews reported that Robinson has already entered those discussion with the Lonzos.  

In 2026, the board will be looking further into expanding the student food pantry, the laptop lending program or the textbook lending program.

There were no public comments for this meeting; however, the board wanted to make sure that every student and staff member rests over the break and enjoys the holidays. They also encouraged everyone to reach out to those struggling this holiday season.

The board went into a closed session to discuss Robinson’s performance review and adjourned afterward.