Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 19, 2011)
Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011 The Clackamas Print 3 et coordinator eployed to fghanistan By Pamela Hollis The Clackamas Print Sunday, Jan. 9, United States Marine Captain Greg Myers boarded a plane [for Hawaii. This is not a trip of and fun. It is the first step in a pent to the war stricken country of pistan. Myers will spend a month in preparing for his orders of mobili- [and his actual set of duties. He will prated from Clackamas Community L his wife, two small boys, fam friends for 13 months. Myer’s was Ito Afghanistan where he will assist 1,000 international soldiers who have received their orders. p’s reserve status returned to active as pber was called. “It is inevitable that our number comes up you are going pr number is going to come up. It is natter of when,” stated Greg Seaver, reterans’ service work study program . For Myers, that time is now. deployment has aroused many emo- deployments usually do. In DeJardin paver sat with emotion filling his nth the fierce intensity of concern kt ’ s and his family. Everyone reacts nation differently. The intensity of [varies and the ups and downs occur ly. ioyments are hard; there is a time and for everything. For Myers’ wife and k life will go on but normal, it is not. [life as the civilian knows it and life nilitary wife and mother. The fear of [le loss is constantly looming, ly will have feelings of fear, anger, le, denial, resentment, confusion and fear of loss. Anger affiliated with self- ,No one wants a life put on the line, 'ers has made a commitment to his .He knows this as do his friends and Denial creates the positive because wants to think the negative that war s.The possible resentment of leaving nes behind. Seaver is concerned for has a family. It is not like a young ■old boy that is only dealing with i Greg has a wife and two young at must be considered in every aspect ie,” said Seaver. [Veteran’s Education and Training Center is a service of CCC dedicating gratitude to providing hospitality, advo cacy and the highest quality of service to all veterans. The veterans center staff have a common goal to support every veteran’s transition from warrior to student to gradu ate and finally to working professional. At CCC, Myers has done a number of things that have led the way to making CCC a benchmark, not just for community colleges but for all institutions of higher education. Myers was project manager for the Yellow Ribbon Career and Benefit Fair on June 26,2010. This project had a strong focus in the 41st Brigade’s return from Iraq, which was a historical deployment, the largest of its kind in the history of the state: deploying 2,600 men and women of the 6,000 Oregon National Guardsmen. “The main focus of this project was to reintegrate that group,” said Myers in a December interview. “We hosted fam ily reunions to help returning soldiers with challenges that may arise. Not only while they were gone, but also when the return.” Myers is a dedicated man. Napolean Hodgers, a veteran advising specialist at CCC, said, “Greg is very devoted to his family and his faith. He has strong personal beliefs; his family, his spiritual beliefs and his duty to his country. You wouldn’t be able to shake him on any of those beliefs.” Jan Godfrey will be filling the role of Myers until his return. Godfrey has held many titles at CCC and this role just shows one more way she is dedicated to the college. Sharon Maggard, Veteran Education Benefits Specialist, at CCC said, “I think having (Godfrey) here is a great addition to the team.” It should now be the goal of CCC to offer Myers what he has strived to provide other veterans when he returns. In the meantime support needs to be given; to his family, himself and the program he ran while he was in service to CCC. His e-mail and United States Postal address will be provided in a future edition of the paper. Until then, stop by DeJardin Pamela Hollis Clackamas Print and give your messages to Seaver and they U.S. Marine Corps Captain Greg Myers is currently in the process of getting will be forwarded to Myers. ready to go to Afghanistan for a 13-month-long deployment. Myers, the vet Hodgers added, “We will keep the place erans affairs coordinator at Clackamas Community College, has been very running till he comes home safely.” : If passes, learning inment to improve Continued from Page 1 pamas Community College student Andrew J. Senase F) works on a project in the chemistry help lab on Ry, Jan. 18. Campus science labs are a potential [Pient for bond benefits. involved in many campus activities in the past. “We may have a piece of technology available that is more current, it may not be recent ... but we only have one of it and we have 3,000 students who are coming through here in a year trying to access one piece of equipment,” said Truesdell. “The rest of it is out of date and ... we’re at the point where part of the out of date component is ‘Can you find replacement parts when the machine breaks down?’ We’re at the point where no we can’t” The automotive department may also be lacking the proper equip ment for modern training opportunities according to Truesdell. “We also, in Automotive, don’t have the technology (and equip ment) available in order to actually train and teach our students about alternative fuels and car technology,” said Truesdell. “We have diagnostic equipment that is outdated.” Bond funds would also be used to increase or add additional class room space with updated equipment, particularly lab space for the science, automotive, manufactur ing and microelectronics courses. Currently the preliminary plan, should we receive the bond, does not state that we will build another building. Rather CCC would expand upon existing buildings unless expansion is improbable due to infrastructure needs according to Truesdell. The expansion is also to ensure that classrooms are provided in a safe and sta ble learning environment To help facilitate that sev eral bui ldings will undergo renovations for seismic upgrades, replacing elec trical systems, repairing infrastructure and also making sure that disabled services such as the eleva tors are in working order. McLoughlin, Barlow, Pauling, Clairmont, Randall and the commu nity center are the build ings that these upgrades are most needed for. Another plan for the bond funds is to acquire property for Clackamas Community College as well as pay off a $20 mil lion debt we owe the state of Oregon. Currently the college maintains cam puses in Oregon City, Wilsonville and the recent addition of the Harmony building. We also have a small stake in the Oregon Institute of Technology. “We have an opportu nity at ... the Harmony campus where the Oregon Institute of Technology is located we own a portion of that building (and) they own another portion of that building. We’ve been able to secure state match funds. They are planning to leave that facility and that portion would be up for sale,” said Truesdell. However despite all this planning it is still up to the voters of C lackamas County to give CCC the funds it needs for these renovations and upgrades as well as paying off the certificate of participation we took in 2008 to build Harmony. When Harmony was built, the college received a state match of $5 million to help fund Harmony. As soon as that support runs out the col lege must pay for the debt service of Harmony out of its operating budget “Certificates of partici pation come out of operat ing dollars. Our operating dollars come from state dollars, tuition dollars and property tax dollars that come into the institution for general operations. So the payment for those would come out of the operation of the college,” said Truesdell, “In that instance (of the bond fail ing) ... we would have to not fund something else in order to pay for that”
