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