The Office of Instruction was created when Lane Community College was established in 1965. The name of the department changed over the years: Office of Instruction, 1965-1974; Instructional Operations, 1974-1978; Office of Instruction, 1978-1986; Instructional Branch, 1986-1994; and Instructional Services, 1994-1997. In 1997, it was combined with Student Services to become the Instruction and Student Services Office.

The first dean of instruction was William Hein, who served in that capacity from the establishment of the office until 1968. His successor was Lewis E. Case, who served as dean until 1974. At that time, Gerald Rasmussen was named dean of instructional operations.

Lewis Case received a B.A. from Syracuse University in 1950, a M.A. also from Syracuse in 1963, and an honorary LLD from Harding College in Searcy Arkansas in 1965. From 1950 to 1957 he was a Church of Christ minister serving congregations in Texas. He began work on his master's degree in 1957 at the University of Pittsburgh, and in 1960, he left to become dean of students at Ohio Valley College in Parkersburg, West Virginia. In 1963, he became vice-president of the college, and in 1964, he was named president. He came to Lane Community College in 1966 to serve as a speech instructor, and in 1967, he became assistant dean of instruction. Later that year, he was named dean to replace William Hein.

Gerald Rasmussen received his B.A. from the University of Oregon in 1951 in history, and his M.A. in history, also from the University of Oregon in 1960. He taught elementary school in Redmond, Oregon and high school in Albany, Oregon before teaching at Grand View College in Iowa. After a stint as a Fulbright Scholar in Denmark, Rasmussen returned to the United States, where he taught history at Lower Columbia College in Longview, Washington. In 1965, he came to Lane Community College to assume the posts of history instructor and head of the social science department. He was named associate dean of instruction in 1967, and dean of instruction in February of 1974.