Grade Inflation?

It has been over a year since I have written about LCC's budget woes. I don't have more to say about that topic directly. The administration's most nonsensical ideas about trimming costs have been abandoned. (For example, no longer must each division initiate its annual budget proposals with a draft that features across-the-board cuts of a certain percentage of classes, ignoring which classes are profitable.)

Although LCC's president, Mary Spilde, has not led the college out of its budget problems, her diplomacy and leadership have been capable, skilled, and moderately effective. She recently became chair of the board of the American Association of Community Colleges.

Yet I am surprised that last year Mary Spilde received her eighth straight outstanding annual performance evaluation from the college’s Board of Education. It might well be that no one else in Lane County could do a better job. But still, "outstanding" seems an exaggeration after eight years of financial crisis.

Perhaps I'm just too picky about adjectives.