Features
Pg. 4 The Clackamas Print
Wednesday. June 2. 1993
Hooley retires after 37 years in education
Assistant Dean of Humanities takesan early retirement
by Jeff Kemp
Staff Writer
As with all things in life, the
presence of the hard-working John
Hooley at Clackamas, assistant
dean of humanities, will come to
an end.. It’s going to be espe­
cially hard for Clackamas to re­
cover from the loss of a man that
has dedicated 37 years of his life
to the field of education'^.
This year is Hooley’s final
go around. He claims that his
early retirement has been sparked
by the needs of some very weary
vegetables.
“My first project in July will
be to repair my garden. It has
kind of piddled away over the
years,” he joked.
Hooley, who started work­
ing in a school at the age of 18 as
a janitor, said that he has really
enjoyed the last 25 years, espe­
cially being able to observe the
classes and watching the instruc­
tors do their jobs.
“It will be kind of a dramatic
change for me,” Hooley noted;
Hooley is a wise old owl
when it comes to knowledge about
the teaching profession. When
asked what he thought was the
single most important thing he
learned over the years, Hooley
explained that a strong positive
motivation toward his students
was his biggest lesson.
“I always tried to tell a stu­
dent that he or she could succeed.
I tried to point out their strengths
and not so much their weaknesses,”
he said.
After being an administrator
for 18 years and managing 21
different departments, Hooley
feels like he’s done his part, at
making the college a better insti­
tution.
“The best thing I’ve done
here is hire people like Dian
Connett and Rene' Rathbum.
That’s the biggest difference
between Clackamas and some of
the other smaller colleges. We
have some women in powerful
positions. And not just women,
but strong, outspoken women,”
liooley explained.
Hooley, who said he never
hired a secretary who didn ’ t think
they were smarter than he was,
claims he has had some of the
best.
“Gale Miller, Melissa Banks,
Jeani Preble and Carole Yates
have all just been wonderful for
me,” he said.
Both of Hooley’s children
will be graduating from college
this spring and both with degrees
in English. Hooley said that now
that his children are ready for the
"re^l world" he’s ready to get out
of it. Maybe he’s afraid that
there’s only room for a few bril­
liant people at any one time.
“My family thinks that I’m
too young to quit. I think they’re
a little concerned about me,”
Hooley said. “But I think they
respect my decision. Ultimately,
everyone does what they think is
best for themselves.”
Photo by Anjanette Booth
Assistant Dean of Humanities John Hooley is looking forward to retiring after 37 years in
the education field. Hooley has been in administration for 18 years and has been head of
21 departments.
Political Science curriculum to be expanded
by Nicole Turley
Staff Writer
Instructor Dean Darris is
helping to expand the Political
Science curriculum at Clacka­
mas for the 1993-94 schodl year,
as well as offer students an open-
minded view of political science
in his classes.
Along with the American
Government course he has been
teaching part-time at the college
for three years, Darris plans to
teach a new honors political sci­
ence class next year.
“Political science has not been
a popular discipline for years at
the college,” said Social Science
Department Chair Marlene Tufts.
‘We wanted t6 expand the courses
offered at the college.”
Both Tufts and Darris hope
this expansion of course offer­
ings will get more Clackamas
students interested in what they
view as an important topic for
everyone to know. “It is a very
useful course,” Tufts said.
With great enthusiasm, Dar­
ris is looking forward to teaching
the new honors course for next
year.
“The reason we’re doing an
honors sequence is to do some
real political science atCCC rather
than just American civics stuff,”
Darris said.
During Fall Term of next
year, the honors class will focus
on ideology. This means the dif­
ferent schools of thought regard­
ing politics such as conservative,
liberal and radical. Darris says
he not only wants students to
learn about the different schools
of political thought, but also he
wants his students to understand
and be able to logically explain
their own beliefs regarding poli­
tics.
“I want you (the
student) to become open-minded,
then make conclusions,” Darris
said. “I want to equip students
with the ability to explain their
own beliefs.” he added.
Winter Term, the sequence
will continue with an introduc­
tion to politics, and the Spring
Term segment will cover inter­
nationalrelations. Students must
have a minimum 3.25 GPA to be
eligible for the honor sequence,
but his American Government
class is open to all.
Darris has a very open-minded
approach when teaching politi­
cal science. “I don’t take a politi­
cal position,” he said. “I’m not
here to do your thinking for you;
I engage you guys in a discussion
and the purpose of disscusion .is
to make you guys better think­
ers.” Darris went on to say that
the one of the most important
things to him is that students be
able to freely express what they
Relieve.
“The only position I won’t
tolerate is ignorance,” said Dar­
ris, who makes it a priority to
listen to the beliefs and ideas of
all his students. “All I care about
is that you can make sense of it
and that you can defend it.”
Tufts said Darris is very suc­
cessful at making students better
independent thinkers and is con­
fident he will have the same suc­
cess when he teaches the honors
sequence next year.
“He is a terrific teacher,”
Tufts said. “He seems to really
want to encourage students to
learn about the system wé’re liv­
ing in and encourage them to
think for themselves.**
Darris attended Mt. Hood
Community College and Portland
State University, were he received
his masters degree in public law
and political theory. One year
after he graduated he worked as a
law clerk for the state of Oregon.
Then he gave up the higher pay­
ing job to become a teacher be­
cause he really enjoyed teaching.
“I'm sure not in it for the
money,” he said. “I love it.*4
Besides Clackamas, Darris has
taught at Chemeketa Community
College, PSU, and done some
free-lance writing which has been
published in The Oregonian.
Currently, he is teaching at Ma-
rylhurst College and offering the
students there the same opportu­
nity to learn in a free-thinking
classroom environment.
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