Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 9, 2011)
2 The Clackamas Print Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2011 Cougar creates campus craz By John Howard The Clackamas Print For a school with a mascot that’s a cougar, we don’t see the bigcat all that often. According to file Associated Student Government, that is about to change. “We’re starting to bring the cougar back,” said Trevor Hoffmann of ASG public affairs. Along with a logo and chosen colors, a school’s mascot is often the most recogniz able thing about the institution. Whether it is because of Clackamas Community College’s commuter nature or whether it can be attributed to poor publicity of athletics and student activities, there is an astonishing num ber of students that have never seen “Cougie,” as the school’s mascot is named. Even fewer students seem able to name the school colors of navy arid scarlet. “I just see people going to class and going home,” said Hoffmann. That lack of awareness shows in the atten dance for many school sponsored events, including sporting events and ASG functions. Men’s basketball, for example, cannot even fill up the stands, despite back-to-back NWAACC championships and a 5-2 division record. “We’re trying our best to raise interest,” said Sean Briare, ASG vice president. “Really Fans find the cougar warm and cuddly at the men’s basketball game on Feb. 5. Cougie has been making many more appearances here on campus and will be hand-delivering the ASG newsletter on campus. the only place you can go to see whM school colors are is over in (Randall] because that’s where the athletics arj even then, there’s one thing that says Cou Country’ and the court has (the CCCiJ but that’s not enough. It’s definitely a difl situation.” ■ Several new ideas have sprung out ■ tight spot that Cougie and his colors hi been put into. The first was to spruce■ mascot’s outfit by adding a jersey than ba the school colors making this the first yw Cougie has sported such attire. The ■ was the implementation of a new can^BJ Cougie Days. Cougie Days are the days on whi^K ASG newsletter is distributed through^B, campus. On those days, Cougie the will be walking among us in broad d^^ The experience is one that our col very fond .of. He enjoys being out ami students and loves to see people exp] school spirit. “Cougie really makes it feel like a si said student Ceili Smythe. “He’s a il Whatever the school does, Cougk is thfl helps create that atmosphere.” While Cougie’s identity is kept fail y J wraps, the qualifications for the posit« fairly simple and up front. “If you have the courage to get up 1 f of your peers and make a fool of you™ ahead,” said Cougie. “At the ‘Make-AIV event, I remember the DJs were playin Jm and somebody said, ‘Hey, can we gel ouj and I showed up and just started dancing.I wouldn’t want to see the cougar do the] ning man?” It seems that, while there is still I ways to go, there is progress being |mi Posters advertising school spirit eventsU around campus and plenty of informal always be found inside ASG’s office. Aso networking attempt has taken off in rec months, with ‘likes’ on the Facebook p nearly tripling since September. lloweB most recent push for spirit is the most pron ing, and by far the cuddliest. Whokna Cougie might even pose for a picture or tv DEFICIT: College seeking ways to lower spending, fill ga Continued from Page 1 Although these cuts are being looked at in all divisions, they won’t be made across the board. Wilton said the preliminary decisions on what will be affected will be completed by the end of this term. “We’re going to look at spending as well. Our general fund’s budget is around $40-44 million and a one percent reduction equates to about $450,000,” said Wilton. The second option is to increase the college’s revenue and because of the drop in state sup port, tuition and fees have become one of the college’s biggest sources of income. Wilton noted during the College Council meeting on Feb. 4 that increasing tuition, while it helps fund programs on campus, has a “tight rope” effect. “A $1 tuition increase generates roughly $180,000; that assumes the same enrollment (of students). It’s always challenging to estimate tuition revenue, because if you raise it too much there’s a danger of losing enrollment,” said Wilton. Wilton did not specify how much of a raise in tuition the college would be looking at pro posing. The third option would be to pull money from the school’s monetary reserves. If accessed, the college would have around $6 million to help cushion the loss. “But understand that those need to last a multi-year period. We wouldn’t want to take all those in one fell swoop,” said Wilton. But while the school does have this cushion, some instructors, such as math instructor Adam Hall, wonder how much of it is going to be spent. “In your estimation, is this college commit ted to spending all $6 million of that to get us through this recession?” asked Hall. “We need to look at how long this problem is going to last and if it truly is a six-year problem, which is what we’re looking at right now,” said Wilton. “I think we can program it out. If we do, we’re down to a very low reserve level and if we end up having problems on top of that, we’re going to have a problem. We’re not going to have the insulation we have now.” Clackamas is still in discussion on how to deal with this deficit. Whether the board chooses to go with option one, two, three or a combination of those choices, it shows that CCC is quickly running out of options as state support continues to decline. “The deeper you get into this, the harder it gets,” said Wilton. Council on Feb. 4 that Clackamas faces as state support dwindlf -Staff- The Clackamas Print 19600 Molalla Ave. Oregon City, OR 97045 503-594-6266 I & ■ 'J Co-Editors in Chief: Ad Manager: Staff Writers/ Photographers: Production Assistants: Goals: Kayla Calloway Erik Andersen James Duncan John Howard, Cristi Powers Katie Aamatti, Celeste Field, Markus McCollum, Stephanie Millard, Jasmine Moore, Tom Redick, Shauna Salopek, Mireille Soper The Clackamas Prin [I aims to report the news lij in an honest, unbiased maimefl professional Content published in The Print is not screened or subject to censorship. I News Editor: Copy Editor: J* John Simmons Brian Baldwin Co-Design/Web Editors: Associate News Editor: John Shufelt Corey Romick Mandie Gavitt \ Sports Editor: Photo Editor: Journalism Adviser: Robert Morrison Michael Bonn Melissa Jones Arts & Culture Editor: Associate Photo Editor: Joshua Baird Nathan Sturgess E-mail comments to 1 chiefedfrz clackamas.edu^ j
