THE PRINT
Clackamas Community College .
Oregon City, OR 97045
November 19, 1986
Student success strategies: a group effort
>y Alberta J. Roper
itaff Writer
The SSS is here! Students Suc­
cess Strategies is a monumental
Tojip effort currently underway
in campus working to insure the
[Uccess of our students.
I Jim Roberts, Assistant Dean
>f students stated, “Student suc-
gg has been indentified as an in-
ititutional priority.” People
allied when Roberts challenged,
Participation and involvement
rom all areas of the college is
'itical to the success of this
isk.”
t The combined talents of the
tuuent Personnel Services (who
tearheaded the project), faculty
ivisors, and Student Success
onference participants, joined
trees to gather data, evaluate it,
id Implement an “action plan”
tr revision and improvement of
ie current approach for insuring
udent success.
i About 30 community colleges
‘om throughout Oregon and
Washington sent 160 staff mem-
;rs to attend Student Success
Disability
Strategies, the first Northwest
Regional Conference of the Na­
tional Council of Student De­
velopment.
An “idea paper” drafted by
John Keyser, Clackamas College
president, which had been dis­
tributed to conference attendees
prior to the meeting, Addressed
the key issues of access, assess­
ment, and intervention.
“Student success
has been identified
as an institutional
priority”
The conference was planned
and hosted by the Council of Stu­
dent Services Administrators,
and was co-sponsored by the
American College Testing Pro­
gram, the American Association
of Community and Junior Col­
leges and the Oregon Department
of Education.
As a follow-up to the spring
conference, Clackamas Comm­
unity College staff were invited
on October 21 to “brainstorm”
specific activities relating to ac­
cess, assessment, and interven­
tion. Nearly 80 people from Stud­
ent Personnel Services and in­
structional staff participated.
The first task was to determine
the meaning of success in regard
to students. Bernie Nolan of
Counseling gave this definition:
“An opportunity for students to
have the information and support
to meet their particular goals.”
In order to galvanize their ef­
forts, “Access,” “Assessment,”
and “Intervention” were defin­
ed, and a working survey was
created which grouped key con­
cerns for rating purposes. Those
who rated it had two basic ques­
tions to consider, “How are we
doing?” and “Does it contribute
to student success?”
The group’s working definition
of “Access” throughout the pro­
ject has been the following:
“Specific actions taken which are
designed to inform people about
the college’s programs and ser­
vices and increase the likelihood
that eligible people will use the
college’s programs and services.”
Translated by Bernie Nolan, it
merely addresses “how people get
into the door.”
(Story continued on
page 7.)
Bad weather openings
reinstated
Separate announcements will
The College, this year, has
decided to reinstate their past
policy of late openings due to
bad weather. In the event of bad
weather, students can tune into
various radio stations to deter­
mine whether the campus will be
closed for the entire day, or mere­
ly opened late.
College closure/late opening
announcements can be heard on
AM KGW (620), KEX (1190),
KUPL (1330), KXL (750), KW-
JJ (1080), and KMJK (1290).
On FM the announcements will
be made on KWJJ (101.9),
KKRZ (100.3), KUPL (98.5),
KCNR (97.1), KXL (95.5), KM-
JK(106.7) and KKLW (103.3).
still be made for day and night
classes.
The College, in addition to
the radio announcements will
post “College Closed” signs at
each of the entrances and at the
bus stop. Also, for the most up
to date imformation, students
can dial Code-A-Phone at
657-8400.
The decision to reinstate late
openings was made, according
to College President John
Keyser, to insure that the stud- -
ents and taxpayers and students
get what they pay for and to,
“Make sure our schedule is as
aligned as possible with other col­
leges that have late openings.”
it does not stop life, it only increases the challenge
K Alberta Roper
jff writer
Jandicapped-the very word
irs [thoughts of a restricted
Fe. It smacks of being less than
tried in this age of “body-
tautiful.” But once past these
rst [impressions, we find in
ose with supposed disablities,
laljties to be envied. Two such
dividuals here on campus are
Knight and Clinton Lind-
wTl knight works hard,
robably harder than most,
imsidering that he has only one
g and half of one lung to work
it hi Knight is active in student
')v®nment, as the Entertain-
*en| Coordinator and hopes to
main at the college long
tough to help get everything
orl^ng smoothly before he
insfers to University of Ore-
»n.
Knight is a people person. As
he puts it, “Trying to help every­
one...it’s a great challenge.” His
warmth and empathy suit him
well as a psychology major. His
main area of interest is alcohol
and chemical dependency in
adolescents. He also hopes to
work with people who have Alz­
heimer’s disease.
Knight is no stranger to disease
in his own body. In 1978 cancer
cost him his leg. Then in 1980 he
lost his left lung and half of the
right lung. After his last lung
surgery the doctors wanted
Knight to take two years of
chemotherapy. He’d already had
one and a half years before that.
Knight opted not to undergo the
treatment which makes a patient
very sick. He was confident that
he was healed. In fact, the cancer
has been clear since May 18,
1980- the day Mt. St. Helens
erupted.
“If I was going to die, I
wanted to have fun first,” Knight
said. However, the fun brought
him close to another brush with
death when he fell off his motor­
cycle on the freeway. He landed
on his head. While an ambulance
carried him off to emergency,
police officers were frantically
combing the brush for his leg.
Finally, friends told them that
Knight’s leg had been gone for
years. Knight and his friend had a
good laugh over that.
Another life-threatening epi­
sode occurred when a 2000 lb.
car, wheels removed, fell on him
after the jack broke. Once again
he was spared.
Throughout his cancer ordeal,
Knight had the encouragement of
family and friends. They didn’t
pity him, but acted as if nothing
had happened. They let him do as
much as he could, often telling
him, “You can do it.”
And do it he did-and does! In
high school, he majored in avia­
tion. Knight took flying lessons in
Sandy, and now has his student’s
pilot license. He’s been active
with the Mountaineering Club on
campus. He water-skis summer
and winter, and has tried snow
skiing, but stays away from it for
fear of breaking his one good leg.
Each of these endeavors he
started after the loss of his leg
and lung. As Knight puts it,
“They;_, seemed mope, of a
challenge.”
When asked about difficulties
he encounters because of his han­
dicap,Knight spoke seriously;‘l
have the most problem trying to
make others aware that the body
is only worth $3 worth of
chemicals, but the soul and per­
sonality are priceless. It’s just a
“Disability...
doesn’t lie in
the
wheel­
chair; it lies in
the person
who can’t see
beyond the
wheelchair”
Bill Knight
leg; I’m still me; it’s what’s on the
inside and not the outside that
counts.”
Knight called it a “miracle”
that he survived the motorcycle
accident. Looking back at the
three lung surgeries, he recalled
that his chances for survival were
only about 20%. Yet two weeks
later he walked across the stage to
receive his High School diploma.
“I had to make it-to live and
receive my diploma,” Knight '
commented with emotion. “God
has helped me out a lot,” he says.
While Knight was a counselor
with Camp Easter Seals, he
adopted one of their slogans as
part
of
his
own
philosophy-“Disability doesn’t
lie in the wheelchair; it lies in the
person who can’t see beyond the
wheelchair.”
Clinton Lindgren, a blind stu­
dent here on campus is described
by Pete Senser, who has been
Lindgren’s tutor and test proctor,
as a person “who has a good
sense of humor, and doesn’t seem
to be hampered by his
handicap.”
Except for the first two months
of his life, Lindgren has always
been blind. Now a second year
student at Clackamas, he faces
challenges most students don’t
think about. One such challenge
is the Community Center. It has
become an obstacle course main­
ly because the furniture is con­
stantly rearranged. Some stud­
ents leave soft drinks on the
floor, which is a “mild annoy-
ance” to Lindgren, especially
when it winds up all over his
shoes.
One of his hobbies is music; he
plays the guitar, piano, ukelele,
and portable synthesizer. Rock
and roll, classical, and jazz are
among his favorites. As for coun­
try music, Lindgren remarks,
“You can listen to a person cry­
ing in their beer just so long.”
A man of adventure, Lindgren
has taken swimming lessons, tried
roller skating and ice skating, and
even paddled a canoe. He was
quick to mention that he wasn’t
the one steering the canoe.
(Continued on page 7)