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
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