FROM PAGE ONE
A6 — THE OBSERVER
SaTuRday, May 21, 2022
ART
TUITION
Rate at which tuition
is climbing
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
studying “The Hobbit”
made a papier-mache of one
of the book’s characters.
At Elgin High School,
Wasley is now teaching stu-
dents about pottery and fiber
arts, such as weaving with
a loom. Other mediums
taught this year included
introduction to drawing and
papier-mache.
So popular are Wasley’s
classes that all are now filled
to capacity.
“We have no room for
more students,” Greif said.
The superintendent
laments that budget con-
straints are preventing the
school district from adding
more art classes and said it is
an issue she wants to find a
solution for.
“It is a great problem to
have,” Greif added.
She noted that students
are flocking to the art class-
room at EHS before and
after school to work on proj-
ects and be with friends who
are also interested in art.
“Kids are always looking
for a place where they
belong,” Greif said.
Greif is delighted to see
this because she has long
been a fan of art education.
“I believe the fine arts
make all kids better stu-
vary for students solely
taking classes online.
Eastern is Oregon’s
smallest public univer-
sity, and like nearly every
other public univer-
sity in the state, it got a
little smaller during the
pandemic.
Only Oregon State
University has avoided
a decrease in enrollment
this past fall compared
with numbers before the
pandemic, according to
Oregon’s Higher Edu-
cation Coordinating
Commission.
Officials at the small
university in La Grande
are reporting an 8%
decrease in enrolled stu-
dents from 2019 to fall
2021 — a trend they say
is critical to address.
“The real key to every-
thing really is enroll-
ment. That’s what we’re
going to live and die on is
enrollment,” EOU Trustee
Brad Stephens said at the
board’s meeting.
All of the public uni-
versities are instituting
tuition increases for the
upcoming academic year
of anywhere from around
3% to 5% for in-state
undergraduate students.
Some universities like
the University of Oregon
and Oregon State Uni-
versity, have cohort-style
tuition rates that differ
depending on whether a
student is new to the uni-
versity or continuing.
Both UO and OSU
are charging new in-state
undergraduate students
4.5% more than current
tuition rates.
University officials who
aren’t facing the direct
threat of lowered student
enrollment have cited
rising inflation costs as a
reason for the increases.
Still, all of the univer-
sities have committed to
staying under 5% increases.
If they go over that
amount, they have to
seek outside approval
from the state’s Higher
Education Coordinating
Commission.
Getting approved for a
higher tuition increase is
not guaranteed, as UO and
Portland State University
learned in 2017.
The Oregon Institute
of Technology was ini-
tially recommending a
7% increase in tuition and
fees, but it lowered that
increase to 5% last week,
after a funding adjustment
in their favor.
dick Mason/The Observer
Elgin students Brianna Collins, left, and Madelynn Kennedy work on two of the five new pottery wheels in
Elgin High School’s art classroom on Monday, May 16, 2022.
dents,” she said. “The arts
open up different parts of
their minds.”
The Elgin School Dis-
trict’s art program received a
boost earlier this year when
it received a $20,000 grant
from the Wildhorse Foun-
dation. Much of the funding
has been used to purchase
five pottery wheels for the
high school. Wasley said the
grant has remarkably broad-
ened the art program overall.
“The Wildhorse grant has
given us wings to do great
stuff,” the EHS art teacher
said.
The Elgin School District
received the Wildhorse grant
OPIOIDS
Continued from Page A1
A major holdup in the treatment
plans envisioned by Measure 110
is a delay in distributing funds for
more treatment centers. According
to Oregon Public Broadcasting,
Oregon is ranked second worst in
the country for substance use dis-
order and last in access to sub-
stance abuse treatment.
Statewide, the rising prevalence
of fentanyl contributed to overdose
deaths rising by over 40% in 2021.
Locally, law enforcement is seeing
a significant rise in the synthetic
opioid — a potent drug that can be
consumed in what appears to be a
very small quantity, so users don’t
always know how much they are
taking — as the next new and prev-
in January.
Wasley said the pottery
wheels the grant paid for are
making it more fun for stu-
dents to create things out of
clay.
“They add a thrill factor,”
the art teacher said of the
wheels.
Elgin seventh grader
grader Carly McLaughlin is
among the students who look
forward to making items
out of clay with the pottery
wheels.
“It’s really relaxing,” she
said. “It takes your mind off
of things.”
EHS sophomore Dakota
Anderson said she got off to
alent drug of choice.
“Drug trends change over time,”
La Grande Police Lt. Jason Hays
said. “Fentanyl is a drug that has
a very specific medicinal purpose.
It’s very strong.”
Upon the approval of Measure
110, funding for treatment was des-
ignated from the Oregon Mari-
juana Fund and the state’s savings
due to saved costs related to arrests,
incarceration and supervision of
inmates.
Over $270 million in grant
funding for treatment centers was
initially planned to reach across
local Oregon communities by Jan-
uary of 2022, but delays in the
application process have pushed
that time frame back to this coming
summer and early fall.
In addition to delayed funding
for treatment, local providers
a slow start but now she thor-
oughly enjoys using the pot-
tery wheels.
“The first day I was super
frustrated, then I found my
rhythm,” she said.
Greif said that the Elgin
School District’s revived art
program is off to a promising
start, but she noted that the
big test will be next school
year, especially at the high
school.
She explained that is
when it will be known
whether students enjoyed
their art classes enough to
come back to the class and
hopefully convinced their
friends to join them.
across the state are grappling
with worker shortages amid the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“We got the cart before the
horse,” Bell said. “The promise that
was made out of Ballot Measure
110 about an increase in availability
of treatment has not come to frui-
tion at all.”
Hays noted that the idea of
substance addicts seeking out
treatment on their own is up for
interpretation along with the effec-
tiveness of Measure 110. He stated
that over the years, the police
department has seen that indi-
viduals often require a “rock
bottom” experience when it comes
to making a choice to change —
in the eyes of local law enforce-
ment, that most effectively includes
court-ordered treatment and legal
consequences.
A new approach
As overdose uptick plagues the
United States, law enforcement
in Oregon communities like La
Grande are now grappling with a
lack of resources to enforce drug-re-
lated crimes and abuse patterns.
“Our legs have been chopped out
from under us,” Bell said. “There
is an absolute and clear correlation
between the crisis that we’re experi-
encing here locally and the decrimi-
nalization of drugs.”
Bell and Hays noted that Union
County’s law enforcement simply
lacks the tools and resources to
deal effectively with addiction and
overdose.
“If that’s what we thought was
genuinely the right thing to do
within our society, those facilities
should have been stood up prior,”
Bell said.
With a new statewide approach
in place, law enforcement is shifting
more toward close professional rela-
tionships with local partners like
Grande Ronde Hospital and the
Center for Human Development.
Bell noted that for the time
being, the police department is
continuing to keep data and track
trends in anticipation of a changed
approach in the coming years.
With treatment funding still being
implemented across Oregon, law
enforcement is still tasked with
dealing with the uptick in sub-
stance-related overdoses.
“I can assure you that we
would be addressing it, if we
could,” Bell said. “We care about
people and care about this com-
munity. We’re very aware of what
is going on in this community
and we want to fix it.”
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