OPINION
Missing out on part
of the experience
Dan Anderson
Staff Writer
Students attending two-year
schools often become frustrated
with private-college peers, some
of whom speak condescendingly
of the community-college expe
rience. They consider us, in
short, patrons of the K-Mart of
higher education.
We typically write this sen
timent off as macho arrogance,
but fail to consider the experi
ence they speak from Living in
dorms on campus.
Two-year transfer students
miss a vital experience in higher
education: the cold, drafty,
cramped, uncomfortable, filled-
to-the-brim-with-vermin resi
dence hall.
The minute a floor fills at
the beginning of the school year,
each resident is tied to the other
in a strange way, because every
one can hear each other through
the paper-thin walls and the fur
nace and heating ducts that
double as an uninvited intercom.
Residents learn much more
about other residents than they
ever wanted to learn, which
strips the veneer of formality
away from all informal relation
ships. No one can expect to
maintain a lie for long; no one
can expect animosity to last, ei
ther. Not to say that life in a resi
dence hall is an episode of
“Friends,” but residents gain so
cial and political skills beyond
the family dynamic without
indending to learn anything.
Of course, two years at a
community college has many
benefits, including smaller
classes, an open admittance
policy, no matter what, the
school has to let any student en
roll and a much lighter Stafford
debt to carry.
But, sometimes, living un
der an upside-down rowboat
seems to be a legitimate alterna
tive to enduring gnother moment
at home with Mother and Father.
Ask anyone. Also, many stu
dents at the community college
level find it difficult to make last
ing relationships with other stu
dents, since everyone lives at a
different location and always
seems to rush from school, to
work, to fast food and to sleep.
The low-cost housing cur
rently under construction near
the campus may alleviate many
of these problems for many stu
dents. However, they won't be
turned over to the school for
dorms until 2005. Time will tell.
As long as peers make dif
ferent decisions about education
and careers, they will cite these
differences and complain about
them among one another. At
least we don’t have to live with
them.
304th Rescue Squadron creates controversy
when they refuse to help search for hiker
Air Force shirks duty
Paul Ulmen
Staff Writer
Lost hiker Ken Budlong, miss
ing on Mt. Hood since Sunday,
could have been found by now, if
Air Force rescue units had agreed
to help. Sergeant Dwayne Troxel
of the Hood River County
Sheriff’s Department, lamented
that without a helicopter and crew
which were both ready and avail
able the search would have to be
conducted from the ground.
About 20 ground searchers, six of
them highly trained climbers
from Portland Mountain Rescue,
began looking at the 7,000 foot
level after discovering Budlong’s
base camp. But, Troxel felt he
would have been quickly spotted
from the air as the hiker wore
bright clothing.
This isn’t the first time the
304th Rescue Squadron, an Air
Force'reserve unit, has refused its
help, but has declined four times
in the last six months. Outraged
citizens phoned complaints to
Senator Mark Hatfield’s office,
and the senator called a general
inquiry surrounding the Air
Force’s refusal to help.
Sources within the 304th
blamed the problem on a lack of
money. Others felt the real rea
son is Wing Commander Rick
Davis’ emphasis on military
training over civilian rescues.
Colonel Gene Garton, speaking
for General Davis, who was ab
sent, mentioned they are not in the
civilian rescue business and the
community should not expect the
304th to always be available. Al
though the unit is considered the
best in the country, the squadron’s
main reason for existence is to
rescue pilots that have been
downed behind enemy lines and
have saved more than 750 people
over the years. However, during
peacetime rescuing civilians pro
vides further training.
Since it’s our tax money that
provides for the military and we
are not now at war, couldn’t that
money be used to help rescue ci
vilians? Isn’t that the job of the
military to protect and help a ci
vilian population it is sworn to
serve? Isn’t that the job of the
National Guard a military reserve
unit that year after year helps ci
vilians during fires, floods, riots,
earthquakes and rescue? A doc
tor who refuses to help when he
can do so denies his hypocritic
oath. A military wing com
mander who misuses his author
ity to not render aid because it
isn’t a military problem, should
be transferred to a war front like
Bosnia or Somalia. If it had been
Wing Commander Davis’ or
Hatfield’s sons that were lost
would this rescue still be refused?
Let’s hope that this problem can
be speedily resolved before some
one else is refused help and left
to die based on one persons whim.
The Clackamas Print
Wednesday, October 18,1995
American and Canadian colleges
discuss search for common ground
Eric St. Anthony
Columnist
Last Tuesday, I wound up in
a crowd of about 25K people, an
assemblage representing about
500 of America’s finest colleges,
community and otherwise. But
there was no sold-out stadium. In
fact, save for about 25 people, I
never even saw the multitude.
That’s because I attended a tele
conference at Gregory Forum.
The subject was “Exploring
America’s Communities: The
Quest For Common Ground.”
During the two-and-a-half-hour
telecast, emanating from Wash
ington, DC, panelists, for the most
part professors from major col
leges across the nation, were dis
cussing three concepts of commu
nity: those of place, ideas and ex
pression.
First up was the discussion
of “Communities of Place.” There
were two highlights of this part
of the conference: first up, Joy
Harjo, a professor of creative writ
ing at the University of New
Mexico, opened the forum with
some of her poetry. Afterward,
David Goldfield, a history profes
sor at UNC-Charlotte, compared
the experiences of the ethnic Sec
tions of two urban areas—Mem-
TAKE THE KEYS.
CALI A CAB.
take a siano .
phis’ Pinch district and the Sun
set Park district of New York
City’s Brooklyn borough—and the
different experiences each of them
faced.
Next up was a discussion of
“Communities of Ideas” and an
other poet, Pat Mora, opened that
part with her poetry. Afterwards,
the conversation went into the
subjects of Asians in America and
what they went through and
Mexican Americans and. their
experiences.
After an intermission, the
subject turned to “Communities
of Expression.” William Ferris
(the director of the Center for the
Study of Southern Culture at the
University of Mississippi) opened
this part with Mississippi folk
tales. Then Richard Long, profes
sor of interdisciplinary studies at
Atlanta’s Emory University,
talked about the Harlem Renais
sance of the 1920s. For those that
On Wednesday Oct.
10 colleges from
around the U.S. and
Canada held a
teleconference on
'The Quest for
Common Ground'
might not know, that was a liter
ary and artistic movement
amongst African Americans
named for the Harlem distict of
New York’s Manhattan borough
in which it started.
After each presentation, the
phone lines were opened to all
who would call in. To prove that
not every call was from commu-
nity junior colleges and the like,
one call came in from Oklahoma
State University. After all was
said and done, the conversation
turned to the individual campuses
across our 50 states and Canada’s
12 provinces.
At Clackamas, while I sat
there engrossed in the conversa
tion that took place and was tak
ing place, I learned a few good
points: one, there isn’t very much
we really do have in common;
two, one valuable suggestion is to
start with meeting your neigh
bors; and three, we live in a root
less society and celebrate root
lessness, whether it be the pio
neers that came out west or the
professional athlete that signs a
big-bucks contract with another
team (e.g. Deion “Prime Time”
Sanders). OK, a fourth valid
point: our problem is we’re go
ing at it way too big. We’re start
ing with the nation at large and
not with, as an example, the cor
ner of Fourth and Cedar or the
apartment building not too far
from here or the city of, let’s say,
West Linn, and working from
there.
My opinion is that this tele
conference couldn’t have been
any more pertinent, what with OJ-
gate tearing the country apart,
most notably among racial lines,
though I’m willing to bet among
socio-economic lines as well.
And, the first step to build
ing a community is not at the
higher levels of state and nation,
but at the lower levels of even
family, neighbors and friends for
starters.
(I want to make this entreaty
to those of you with the program
books from that teleconference:
Would you read them with your
family, friends and fellow stu
dents, as I will? I mean, what the
heck do you think the second “C”
in “CCC” stands for?)
DRUNK
DRIVING
DOESN’T
JUST KILL
DRUNK
DRIVERS.
If you don’t stop your friend from driving drunk,
TAKE THE KEYS.
CALL A CAB:
TAKE A STAND.
latever it takes.
FRIENDS DON’T LET FRIENDS DRIVE DRUNK.