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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (May 10, 1995)
OPINION The Clackamas Print Page 3 Wednesday, May 10,1995 CCC working to implement the ‘Net’ for fall term ‘95 by Paul Rothi Chief Information Officer The articles recently pub lished in The Print have given some interesting historical back ground and political commentary on the Internet and Information Superhighway. I’d like to take this opportunity to write specifically about the status of the Internet connection at CCC. CCC was connected to the Internet in October of 1994. The college is connected by a high speed link directly to the Clackamas ESD rather than dial up type access common for home use. This service will cost the col lege about $8,500 per year, the college’s entire Internet expense. There isn’t any per message type fee that is tacked on top. There are no plans at this time to pass this cost on to students, faculty or staff in the form of a user fee. Connection, however, does not mean everything is ready-to- run. “Using” the Internet takes on a variety of forms. One of the most common forms is electronic mail delivery (Email). Other common uses include gopher, world wide web (WWW or Web for short), file transfer protocol (FTP), telnet, news reader services and inter relay chat (IRC). A single soft ware program that makes all of this functionality available in a nice neat package doesn’t exist. Many of these tools are available for free on the network, but it takes time to locate them and set them up properly here. A direct connection to the Internet allows the college to “publish” information for others on the Internet to see. This is done by setting up information servers using FTP, gopher or WWW. The college is exploring how to pub lish things like the course sched ule, catalog and other general in formation about the college. It may even be possible one day to register for classes via the Internet - but that’s at least a couple of years from now. For the last six months, tech nical staff at CCC have been lo cating and testing various soft ware programs for many of the uses listed above. In some cases, it has required us to locate and try three or four software pro grams before we found one that would work reliably at CCC. Everything has rules for ac ceptable usage. The Internet is no exception. There are “cannons of conduct” that have been estab lished by the Internet community that describe good network citi zenship. Similarly, policies for usage must also be established by CCC. The CCC policies are put in place to describe what is and is not acceptable at CCC beyond being a good Internet citizen. These policies must be developed and distributed to the campus population. One important thing to remember is that the use of the Internet at the college is not a right, but rather a privilege. Here is the current status of the Internet at CCC. E-mail access is now avail able to all students, faculty and staff that have campus electronic mail accounts. Students may re quest E-mail accounts throughout the Streeter computer lab. All fac ulty and staff that have PCs on their desks have Email accounts. The CCC Electronic Infor mation Policy is now in draft form. It has been distributed for wide review and comment to the following: President’s Council, Instructional Council, Informa tion Resources Committee, Fac ulty Senate, ASG, Classified As sociation, Part-Time Faculty and College Attorneys. The goal is to present the draft policy to the Board of Education this month for a first reading and have them adopt the final policy statement at the June board meeting. The ability for individuals to publish their own information on a server at the college will be ex plored as part of the Electronic Information Policy development. Training classes are being conducted for faculty and staff on the use of Email and Netscape. Netscape is a single tool that does have many of the software pieces like FTP, gopher, and WWW. Using the Internet as part of the curriculum for some regular classes is being discussed and planned, too. Connectivity of the PCs in Streeter lab to run Netscape is planned in the future. All Netscape-capable PCs must have an Internet address. The college is in the process of getting more Internet addresses. This has been made more difficult because of the explosion in Internet connectiv ity worldwide, and the resulting shortage of addresses. The time frame for getting these addresses is unpredictable at this time. The goal is to have things ready for fall term in September 95. THIS CANNOT BE GUARAN TEED BECAUSE OF STATUS OF INTERNET ADDRESSES WORLDWIDE. The goal of all this effort is to have a reliable set of Internet programs in place for students, faculty and staff to make use of. The next question to ask and answer is “How will CCC use the Internet in the process of deliver ing education?” That will be a topic of ongoing research and de velopment, and could be the sub ject of another article some time in the future. Uniform diversity and part-time justice? Letter to the Editor: This letter will address two issues springing from the recent diversity forum. First, I must express concern regarding the Print’s coverage of the forum. Although your article gave token recognition to the di versity of views expressed in the forum, its main statement on the proceedings lumped “most of the participants” into an oversimpli fied single category, “the anti-di versity plan side.” Using the phrase not only suggests that the people involved all share a uniform opinion about the current Diversity Plan (which they do not) but also implies that they are opposed to diversity it self, even though many of them merely voiced concerns about the current plan. Such a sweeping generalization is counterproduc tive, especially considering the already charged atmosphere sur rounding this controversial topic. In fact, I propose to you that the Diversity Plan and the under lying problems exposed by the controversy call for much more in-depth coverage by The Print, to try and correct the many mis understandings so that perhaps the problems can be resolved. But the decision to make such a larger effort is up to you: - - Right now I hope to shed some light on the implications of just one of these underlying prob lems: the treatment of part-time instructors. This problem is hardly limited to Clackamas, and discussion of it is usually sub merged by discussion of the finan cial crises constantly sweeping Oregon’s system of higher educa tion. I would like to take a mo ment to bring us back to what is being done to people’s lives. It is fundamentally a question of jus tice. Clackamas has a number of excellent part-time instructors. Perhaps some may be quite com fortable teaching part-time, and have plenty of income from other sources. But many must teach a staggering load of classes, both here and at other nearby colleges such as Marylhurst and PCC, or else hold additional part-time jobs to make ends meet. These instructors are making a substantial contribution to our college and to our community as a whole. We reward their efforts with low pay, no benefits, and constant uncertainty about whether or not full-time positions will ever become open for them. It is in such a context that some of the strongest concerns regarding the Diversity Plan must be understood. I will use my own thought process as an example. I have a strong religious con viction of the oneness of human ity, and believe that all people are of equal value. I have generally been favorable to the idea of af firmative action, not only to cor rect the injustices of Western civilization’s more racist past, but also because I see a diversity of cultures and worldviews as beau tifying and ultimately strengthen ing any community. The current situation of part- time instructors at Clackamas has given me much food for thought. Would I favor affirmative action if it meant that an excellent part- time instructor, after enduring years of uncertainty and near-pov- erty, might be replaced by some one recruited to meet a diversity goal? Let’s sidestep some of the tra ditional fears of affirmative action opponents, and assume that the person recruited is just as quali fied for the job as the part-timer who was overlooked — perhaps the new recruit is even a little bet ter qualified. There is still an al- Will the new Diversity Plan sacrifice quality, part-timeinstructorS? Does the plan correct historic injustices by perpetrating new injustices? most instinctive sense of injustice to the idea that one who has con tributed so much to our commu nity, with so little reward, should be treated this way. Is it possible to correct historic injustices by perpetrating new injustices? I cannot claim to have easy answers to these questions, but they have convinced me of one thing. These issues are not nearly so simple as we would like them to be, nor can we easily separate them into their own neat compart ments. The questions of how to secure justice for women and mi norities cannot be separated from questions of justice for everyone, and the deeper questions of eco nomic justice. I believe that any diversity plan hoping to meet its goals with true justice must rest on the fun damental principle of the oneness of humanity. It is undeniably true that racism and sexism violate this principle. But neither can we claim to act on such a noble prin ciple when our society consis tently denies to the poor, regard less of race or sex, any meaning ful opportunities to advance them selves or contribute to their com munities. Many of the part-time in structors struggling to achieve security in their chosen profession are among the few who have over come the great obstacles facing anyone unfortunate enough to be bom into poverty. From these few who have come this far, even fewer will actually reach the goal of secure employment as profes sional educators, if current trends in our colleges and our society are any indication. Our treatment of part-time instructors is only one example of how our society fails to live up to the American principle that all people are of equal value. How ever, perhaps it is an area in which Clackamas Community College can begin to make changes. The present controversy over the Diversity Plan, while it may seem unpleasant and even danger ous, actually provides us a pre cious opportunity to focus on the deeper principles of justice in volved. With appropriate recognition of the complexity of the issues in volved, we may be able to forge from our passionate disagree ments a powerful consensus re garding the best way to promote principles of justice that will im prove life for everyone. Perhaps, gradually, this institution can truly become a leader in the pur suit of justice for all. Such an achievement would require great effort from all in volved, but the potential benefits would be well worth the effort. Will the leaders of our college, and the leaders of opinion on ev ery side of the issue, step forward to take the necessary actions? This is a question that can only be an swered by all of us together. Sincere Regards, Kevin Haines
