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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2000)
Letters 2_____ _ All signed letters to the editor should be 500 words or less and will be considered for publication if submitted by 1 pm the Friday prior to publication. Letters to the Editor arc subject to editing. We reserve the WEdNEsdAy, Appi! 26, 2000 right to not publish any letter. Editori Yes on Clackamas bond This is are-print of the Editorialthatraninthe Oregonian April 13,2000. Support education, vote yes Editor-in-Chief: JohnThorbum (x2447) Managing Editor: Megan Oldenstadt Design Editor: Timothy A. Bell Feature Editor: Shelbi Wescott A & E Editor: Angie Daschel Copy Editor: Sandy Lupo Associate News Editor: Diana Scrivner Sports Editor: Mandy Good Opinion Editor: Salena De La Cruz Business Manager: Karl Katzke (x2578) Cartoonist: Joel Gunderson Chris Lundgren Staff: Mike Pollock Erin Bernard Steve Nielsen Tam Oliver Toni McMichael Jason Lingel Maggie Jirasek Matt Shempert Secretary: JoAnne Gale Advisor: Linda Vogt (x2310) Goals: The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, pro fessional manner. The opinions expressed in The Clackamas Print do not necessarily reflect those of the student body, college administration, its faculty, or The Clackamas Print advertisers. Products and services advertised in The Clackamas Print are not necessarily endorsed by anyone associated with The Clackamas Print. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication and is distributed every Wednesday except during Finals week. The Clackamas Print Copy right 2000. Advertising: The advertising rate is $4.75 per column inch. 19600 S.M o I a U a A ve . O reqon City, O regon 970 4 5 (505) 657'6958 ext 2509 CCCp Rt N T@C I AC k AM AS . CÇ . O R . U S In recent months, The Print has covered various stories regarding the upcom ing bond measure. For those readers who are unaware of such stories, if passed, the bond would renovate most of the campus, adding wings con necting Streeter and Dye, as well as adding a new building for the arts, music, and English/communication departments. Now, to be frank, the passing of the bond will not have much impact on most if not all of thestudents at Clackamas today. Changes on campus would not even begin to take place for two years. Your little brothers and sisters, your parents, anyone who attends this college in that time will reap the rewards of an improved community college. So, why vote? This is an age-old question. Here’s the answer: It is time to start investing in a prosperous future for the students of tomorrow. To succeed in today’s career world, a state-of- the-art education is required. It is the feeling of the staff of this newspaper that a state-of-the-art campus is needed to achieve that education. Over the past few months, a number of students have brought the credibil ity of our college’s administration into question. As evident in some of the letters published this week, the school spends more money than is budgeted for each year. According to College President John Keyser, this is not a debt Funds are spent from dwindling reserve funds due to the state's failure to provide support for growing student enrollment At first look, the budget differences are appalling. At second glance, we must look deeper. This is a government-funded community college that owes money... to its own bank account. If you look at other colleges in Oregon, if not America, you’ll notice the same practice of spending more money than they anticipated year after year. Is this different from how the federal government works? This question raises the age-old argument of “Ev erybody does it so it’s okay.” This statement provides endless ammunition for opposition. That ideal is looked at as a bad one. It is, however, the world we live in. So, what can you do? You can either say, “No, I’m not going to give money to a college that loses money every year,” or “Yes, I’m going to support students and education because it's critical to attain a prosperous future.” On a national scale, saying no is like saying, “I’m not going to pay for education or health care because there’s a national deficit.” Is this the stance you want to take? For the first time in more than a decade, Clackamas Community College will ask voters in May to approve a bond issue. Voters should say yes. The 35-year-oid institution is facing rapid growth enrollment has gone up 25 percent in the past five years with no ra@l prospect of the oressure easing any time soon. Two-thirds of the metropolitan regrcm’s (^pected grSIWth in the next 25 years is projected for Clackamas County. The colleg^wid» head-count is about 27,000 this year. The college’s last bond issue was approved in 1989. The college’s board promised to make the $10 million in bonds last the school for 10 years. In retrospect, that was a rash promise, but Clackamas Community College kept the promise. The credibility the school’s officials earned in that effort should work in the school’s favor now. The current proposal is for $47 million in bonds to pay for renovating five existing buildings on the Oregon City campus. College officials say the up grades would strengthen the school’s programs in science, nursing, computer science, computer-aided drafting and other areas. Those improvements would cost $ 15.5 million. Another large allocation $ 14.5 million would go to build and equip a multipurpose classroom building. If approved, the bond would cost homeowners about 20 cents per $1,000of assessed value, or about $31 a year for the owner of a home valued at $150,000. Over the years, Clackamas Community College has emerged as something more than an educational institution in the North Clackamas-Oregon City area. Roughly half the county’s population has taken some kind of course through the school, but CCC also has become a central civic institution, serving as a meeting place and catalyst for community discussions. Approval of the bond issue in May’s primary election would help the college maintain its status as an important part of the growing Clackamas County com munity. We urge voters to pass. —> Say 'no' to administrative spending on bond 2000 “Bond 2000.” What do you think of when you hear that phrase? The ad ministration of Clackamas Community College wants you to think of a building for the music, theater, and art depart ments. My question is: after 30 years of waiting why now? Why didn’t the ad ministration use the millions of dollars they have recently spent on a new sher iff training center facility, located near the Town Center mall which remains unfinished due to lack of funds, to up grade the music, theater and art depart ments? What happened to the money collected from this year's substantial raise in tuition that has been pillaged from 27,000 students? Why do they have their hands in your pockets again? The administration prides themselves on the fact that the last time they asked for a bond sale was in 1989. What they won’t tell you is that they have been selling the school out from under us by peddling “Certificates of Participation,” a euphemism for the word “bond”. These have put our college in over 22 MIL LION DOLLARS worth of debt. Now they say they need even more money because enrollment is up 25%. Actually it is much less, but the growth percent age of administrators is high. In fact, it is higher then the growth percentage of instructors (who seem to be disappear ing rapidly). Does this school exist to facilitate the careers of bureaucrats or to educate citizens? Don’t let them use your family’s money to cover their mis takes. The administration still has not ac counted for the $313,000 of misappro priated funds, which put them in viola tion of local budget law. Can you trust them with 47 million dollars? That is a lot of money to give to bureaucrats who do not feel accountable to the public. I have a suggestion for the administra tion. If you need more money to cover your mismanagement of public funds why don’t you cut back on your department instead of raising property taxes again, and again, and again, or is that not an option? Say NO! To out of control ASG and administrative spending, say NO! To downsizing our faculty and social sci ence department, and vote NO! On Bond 2000. I support the arts. If students want their funding we are willing to help. Glenn McCarthy Student Series of events; students mobilize into action I want the same thing all of you do. A better higher education facility to teach our children and improve our communi ties. Many of you are aware that an alarming chain of events has mobilized many students for action. Yet It is im portant to point out that we do not want to destroy anything, just make it better. I believe most of us are on the same side and the possibilities are endless if we work together. The entire administration is not corrupt nor is all of ASG unrepresen tative. I believe the majority of us want to improve this college, we just have dif ferent views of what that improvement entails. This is a college not a high school. Movements against corporate and admin istrative control over public institutions are taking place across the nation in all different colleges. Just because we are community college students and the ad ministration treats us like we are stupid does not mean we cannot mobilize and take action. We will not ignore harass ment of instructors nor allow misuse of college facilities to engage in that activ ity. We will not ignore millions of dollars being put on the shoulders of the com munity without asking questions. We will not go away if denied access to public records, nor will we ignoré a student gov ernment that is run by the,administra tion: Rather than attack the people who are asking questions, why not ask your self why you are not involved? Many of you have no knowledge of what l am talking about and a few of you know a little. I challenge you to get in volved and let your voices be heard. We all have something to offer and we need to unite to improve. We have been work ing with student groups at PSU and get ting, organized for this purpose, and we need the help of all students, members of ASG and faculty to make this college a better place. Luke Precourt Student OCA sponsors attack on academic freedom I stayed out of the fray over Donald Epstein, but I feel compelled to speak on the broader topic of academic freedom. There is a real and immediate threat to academic freedom on the CCC campus that does not, whatever Dr. Epst.ein’s apologists say, come from recognizing hate speech as wrong. The OCA (Oregon Citizen's Alliance) is sponsoring a direct attack on academic freedom, tentatively scheduled for the November ballot. One major irony emerged from the discussion over Dr. Epstein’s comments. He and many of his defenders said that he needed to make anti-gay comments in his classes to provide balance because all students ever hear is “the other side.” Right. How many CCC students have gone even a week in public school with out hearing anti-gay remarks? “You fag got.” or “That is so gay.” are the mildest comments. It gets much worse from there and you don’t have to be gay to hear it. Of course, it is much worse if you are gay, or suspected of being gay. Ask those students about “academic freedom” some time. Ask them how free they feel to express their opinions or even to just be themselves. The attempt to deny gay students and faculty their academic free dom isn’t limited to ignorant or hateful remarks. It isn’t even limited to gay stu dents and faculty. The latest OCA-sponsored ballot mea sure reads, in part: “Notwithstanding any other law or rule, the instruction of be haviors relating to homosexuality and bi sexuality shall not be presented in a pub lic school in a manner which encourages, promotes or sanctions such behaviors.” This measure explicitly includes com munity colleges. It pointedly does not define “behaviors relating to homosexu ality” nor what it means to “sanction such behaviors.” Would a teacher be able to say that Walt Whitman’s gayness informed his poetic sensibilities or his world-view? Would a teacher be able to mention the gay men killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust without implying, or even stat ing explicitly, that they deserved their fate? Could a support group for gay and lesbian students continue on campus? Could the Clackamas Print print this let ter? The OCA measure provides that any school deemed in violation would lose “all or part of their state funding.” One comment, by one faculty member, could jeopardize all of the school’s state fund ing if that comment were deemed to sanc tion homosexuality. It’s hard to imagine much that would have a more chilling effect on academic freedom than that. Students and faculty truly concerned about academic freedom will want to speak out against this measure and work hard to see that it is defeated. Doretta Schrock Student Students trying to improve the college It has been expressed on campus that the work of Glenn McCarthy, Luke Precourt, Saida Johnston, Jen nifer Rankin, and a few other indi viduals have been working against the college trying to bring down ASG or the administration. This is simply not true; in fact they are trying to im prove the college for the students and instructors alike. They are trying to bring to light the enormous amount of money that is being spent through ASG and with the help of James Gould’s audit on ASG they have come closer than ever in finding out were the money is going. It is their belief that the money could be spent more productively with in the college. Caleb Gandy Student
