Spring training
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People watching
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Vol. XX, Ho. 15
Clackamas Community College
rRIN 1
Oregon City, OR 97045
Visit to Russia
Anyone for cloak and dagger ?
by Scott Wyland
Copy Editor
When’s the last time you took
a sojourn through Russia? Nor
man Carrigg, an adventurous
Clackamas Community College
student, took his sojourn last
Christmas. He was one of the
three from the college who
journeyed there via a special
budget winter tour.
Norman said the first thing
that struck the realization in him
that he was in Russia was a Lenin
monument “as we entered the ci
ty of Wyborg....It was the first
sickle/hammer monument ever
erected.”
Norman observed that,
although Russia is a highly in
dustrialized and technologically
advanced nation, certain aspects
are amazingly backward, such as
their travelways. “The road bet
ween Leningrad (three million)
and Moscow (10 million) - two
major cities- was like the road
from here (Oregon City) to
Molalla, a little two laner”.
While Norman was in com
munist Russia, he couldn’t resist
his inbred western inclination for
“wheeling and dealing.” Accor
ding to Norman, the younger
Russians can speak English and
usually approach American
tourists in particular, initiating
the bartering with the question
familiar to most capitalist ears:
“Wanna trade?”
Much of the merchandise in
Russia according to-Norman is
“ludicrously expensive. A pair of
jeans is a month’s wages, where
Clackamas Community College student Norman Carrigg noted
that the people of Russia are somber and low key.
here you can get a used car. It’s
to their advantage then to trade
off with Americans, like a rabbit-
furred hat that’s government sub
sidized (for a pair of jeans).”
Norman noticed an almost
dramatic difference in the Rus
sian people’s demeanor, especial
ly out in public: “People in
Russia are very somber, they
don’t smile, they dress in low-key
clothing, no colorful clothes; the
crowds were quiet, almost a
spooky silence. Like in a subway,
the sound you’d hear primarily is
the shuffling of feet and the
sound of machinery.
“On return to Finland it was a
stark difference because people
were loud and boisterous and
dressed colorful, they’d laugh
and joke. The Russians seemed to
have a general apathy toward life.
It goes against human nature to
have such limitations.”
Norman befriended a young
Staff Writer
Clackamas Community Col
lege is now among the other col
leges in Oregon which have their
own satellite dish.
“It’s already installed and
we’re already using it. We got it
installed around the first of this
year, and we’re using it daily.”
said Ira Heard, Chairperson of
Audio-Visual.
He stated the dish, which is on
ly capable of receiving, and not
uplengthing, because “it’s ex
tremely expensive,” has four
main purposes for the college.
The main purpose is to con
duct programs from satelite call
ed Video Conferences. The Video loose,’ Heard said. He said that
conferences originate from sometimes the college needs to
Portland Community College. buy rights to copy programs
Heard said “165 colleges and and sometimes they are free.
businesses in the nation are par
The dish is on top of the
ticipating in that program.”
McLoughlin building, where it’s
Another purpose is “to pull hard to see on campus.
programming from the satellite
“We are extremely lucky
and broadcast it on vidio connec because not everybody can see it.
tions around campus for the stu It doesn’t look ugly.” Heard
dent government people.”
stated.
The other two purposes are
McLoughlin building is a
“to receive programs that have windbreaker and it protects
telecourses, and to be able to cop- against the rain. Heard said that
py from satellite for individual | if it’s raining it sometimes af
teachers and classes.”
fects electronic signals and the
There are with copying pro pictures become less clear.
grams “limitations because ot
The dish is controlled by a
copyrights, but it’s pretty microcomputer, “accuracy has to
Change to
semester
system
ahead?
Soviet student named Mikhail,
whose father was politically in
volved with the communist par
ty. “It was an interesting ex
perience relating to someone by Heleen Veenstra
with those kind of ideas. Most Staff Writer
Community Colleges might be
young people there really don’t
give a hoot about communism;' affected by a plan which is being
in fact, they were rebellious considered by the four year col
even. Mikhail was different, he leges to change to a semester
was more of a conformist. He system.
“The State Board has in
seemed to go-along with the
communist party, probably just dicated it will start in 1990. There
is some discussion in| legislature
to make the best of it.
“He (Mikhail) didn’t want to and a couple of bills dealing with
be conspicuous about our that,” said Jim Roberts, Dean of
meeting. So every time we met Student Services.
, One of the bills is to postpone
we had to do it in a roundabout
way - real cloak and the plan until there is a better
daggerish...all this just for two understanding of benefits and
people to meet and have disadvantages. Another bill is
about the issue of block transferr
coffee.”
Norman had received a letter ing from community colleges.
Community colleges are not re
from Mikhail the day before the
interview. Apparently, Mikhail quired to change to the semester
had to go through some more system, but since many students
cloak and dagger rigamarole transfer to a four year college,
just to mail the letter: “It (the community colleges are consider
letter) was postmarked Austria. ing to make that change too.
Roberts said that if we do
He had to give the letter to an
Austrian tourist and have him transfer to a semester system all
mail it for him because of the the courses need to be
i strict controls of postage bet redeveloped. The first semester
will then be from the last week of
ween Russia and the West.
If it’s true that the Soviet August until Christmas and the
Union and the United States are second semester will be from the
achieving rapprochement (more second week of January until the
cordial relations), it seems first week of May.
The advantages are that there
ironic that both countries’ com
mon people should encounter will be more opportunities for in-
such difficulty when attempting depth study, fewer registration
a simple, non-political friend periods and flexibility and oppor
tunity for exploration.
ship.
Roberts said that it’s “really
difficult to determine if there is
actual advantages in either
system.” Most colleges in the na
tion are on the semester system;
65% of the students are enrolled
in a college with that system.
Roberts said there isn’t
be extremely important.” The
microcomputer, which is installed anything definite yet about how
in the audio-visual room, the semester system would affect
receives the electronic signals summer school. Community col
leges probably will have a system
from the dish.
Heard pointed out that the col that would tie in with four year
lege is linked with NCTV (Na colleges’ schedule in fall.
Roberts feels that “we would
tional College Tdevison.) “We
have a contract with them need to convert to a semester
(NCTV) to receive their programs system if four year colleges are
and broadcast them in CC mall. going to do it.”
The decision of what the com
“It takes several months
before I get faculty educated on munity college will do will be
what we can do. I’m making my decided by the Council, and
way around,” Heard concluded maybe adopted by the Board.
Roberts summed up, “what we
to explain how faculty and
students are reacting to the fact do need is to be in best interests
Clackamas Community College for students, especially if they
plan to transfer.”
has a satellite dish.
Satellite dish widens CCC’s horizons
by Heleen Veenstra
March 11, 1987