Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 25, 1998)
Spo r t $ Scores Inside Clackamas captures the Southern Division title with its sixth straight victory. Read more about it on Page 6. Clackamas students show off their art work in the Pauling Gallery. The art show will run through March 20. Read more about it on Page 4. Men’s Basketball Women’s Basketball Clackamas defeats Lane 1 Q*y cc 1 ® ■ “03 Quick Nix: 27 pts., 8 reb.; Bean: 17 pts.; Stats: McKinney: 43 pts., 8 reb. Clackamas falls to Lane Quick Stats: 1104-75 Silly Bright: 15 pts. Alfredo Villarreal: 10 pts. Datatei system to facilitate registration TIMOTHY BELL I Clackamas Print Entertainers at Clackamas' Datatel party, dressed as hippies, sing a song about the new Datatel system. The Datatel system will help speed up the registration process. g ç BRAD ZIMMERMAN Co-Editor-in-Chief ...all that maintenance is shifted over to Datatel. >5 Paul Rothi Associate Dean, Computer Informa tion Management In the future you will be able to register for classes at Clackamas by phone, by the World Wide Web or the old standby, waiting in line. All of this is made possible by Clackamas Community College's Datatel records system. In 1993, Clackamas decided that they needed to purchase a new data base system. Clackamas originally looked at three differentdatabase pro grams and decided to go with Datatel. CARS, a similar database program was less expensive than Datatel but provided less internal control over ac counting and SCT Banner which was approximately two times more expen sive and "we didn't see twice as much functionality," said Associate Dean of Computer Information Management Paul Rothi. Clackamas has been using Datatel for three years now. Datatel is a computer program designed to make storing and retrieving records easier and faster. "[Datatel] is the administrative software system to manage all of the college records, student records, fi nancial records and HR/payroll records," said Rothi. The college has been using Datatel to manage their financial records since July of 1995 and has been man aging the HR and payroll records with Datatel since January of 1997. Now, the first of the "student mod ules" are coming on-line. The new est modules will give Clackamas the ability to compile and generate re ports on recruiting efforts, along with information regarding admis sions and financial aid. Clackamas' previous software sys tem, DataGeneral, was replaced sim ply because it was becoming cost-pro hibitive to keep it running along with lacking the flexibility and function ality Clackamas needed. "The DataGeneral system is an old, custom-built information sys tem. It's built on an old technology database using COBOL [a program ming language]," said Rothi. With the old DataGeneral system, generating reports using the stored database information wasn't an easy task. "Some of the problems we were encountering was every time an of fice wanted a report or some infor mation, we had to get a program mer to write a program. One of the things we're hoping to gain by mov ing to the new system is more flex ibility in generating reports," said Rothi. Rothi also said that the Datatel corporation will handle all of the up dates to the database system. In the past, for example, whenever finan cial aid information changed (a yearly occurrence) the DataGeneral system would have to be manually updated. "One thing that changes every year is the federal financial aid regulations. Any information that comes from the feds we download that information electronically. It changes every year. And because [DataGeneral] is a home-grown system, we had to main tain it. Verify that it works. Now, all that maintenance is shifted over to Datatel. They're responsible for it," Rothi said. Besides all of the labor-intensive problems, DataGeneral was also go ing to be a victim of the "year 2000 problem." The year 2000 problem, or Y2K problem as it's also known, is caused by the fact that in the 1970's pro grammers used only two digits to designate year information. IE, 1970 became '70. Of course, that means that all these old systems would think that '00 referred to 1900 instead of 2000. - "We would have had to do some See Datatel, page 2 Plant sale brightens winter, helps Horticulture Club LAURA ARMSTRONG Staff Writer Winter has been brightened by many green thumbs thanks to the Horticulture Club. On the afternoon of Feb. 13, the club hosted a plant sale in the Community Center. Student volunteers from the Horti culture Club and the Horticulture Department set up, handled sales and cleaned up after the event. Linda Lyons served as the committee chairperson and or ganized the plant sale. She was responsible for making sure tables were staffed at the sale, for determining which plants were sold, for transporting the plants to the Community Cen ter and also for the publicizing the event. In addition, Naomi Hughes, vice president of the Horticulture Club, helped to advertise and prepare for the sale. Department Chair of Horticulture and Horticulture Club Advisor Elizabeth Howley was pleased with the plant sale. “We had a great time,” said Howley. “I’m really pleased and proud that the students do so many things for people to enjoy horticulture.” The plant sale was not only a way to make the Horticul ture Department visible on campus, but also was a fundraiser. Many different kinds of houseplants and primroses for out door gardens were sold. Sherrill Wallam of the horticulture department was responsible for growing the primroses. Howley noted that about a couple hundred dollars were made during the sale. “But the main focus was not to make a lot of money,” said Christofferson. “It’s more just about emptying out the green house so we can start more things growing. We also want to let everyone else see what the Horticulture Club does.” The proceeds earned will go towards both a horticulture scholarship and also to fund ALÇA (Association of Land scape Contractors of America), a new club at Clackamas. One horticulture scholarship is awarded quarterly and cov ers a full year’s tuition. According to Howley, preference for this scholarship is given to students who are studying horti culture or who are a part of the Horticulture Club. However, all Clackamas students are eligible for the scholarship. ALCA is sending 10 students to North Carolina for a na tional competition. “It’s like the Olympics of landscaping,” said Christofferson. This is the first year that Clackamas has representatives there. Christofferson is excited about the progress that the horticulture department is making. The plants sold during the one-day fund-raiser were priced at “student affordable prices,” said Howley. According to her, the people buying plants were mostly stùdents and oth ers who were just passing though the Community Center. “It was a lot of fun. This plant sale far exceeded my ex pectations-for a quick plant sale,” said Christofferson. “It went really well. It was great that there were so many people interested in buying plants.” The next sale will be held in the parking lot near Clairmont Hall on the Friday before Mother’s Day. “There’s a really exciting variety of plants that will be in that sale, like perennials and annuals,” said Christofferson. “Anybody who wants great summer plants for their yard Student volunteers recently held a plant sale in order to raise funds and make the Horticulture club more visible on campus. should come check it out. There’s lots of great deals.” There are plans to have additional plant sales in the fu ture. According to Howley, there will “definitely, definitely be one in the spring.”
