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Volume XLIV
Number 41
bscrncr 14
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 15, 2014
Established in 1970 T j p s i y ®
Committed to Cui tursi Diversity ^community servic
A community celebration on Saturday will usher in a new era for Portland Community College serving underserved communities in southeast Portland. The college district
is marking the fall opening o f its facilities at 82nd and Division becoming a comprehensive, full-service campus where students can earn an associate’s degree and
have access to the full palette o f student services at one location.
PCC Southeast
campus grows
to full service
Portland Community College is celebrating the expansion
of its educational facilities at Southeast 82nd and Division
into a full-service campus jo in in g Sylvania, Rock Creek and
Cascade as PCC’s fourth comprehensive campus site.
On Saturday, from noon to 4 p.m., the community is invited
to join a grand opening party as PCC ushers in the new era
of educational opportunities for underserved communities
where student can earn an associate's degree and have
access to the full palette of student services at one location.
This transition is part of PCC’s 2008 voter-approved $374
million bond program. For the Southeast Campus, $49 million
went into the construction and improvements that have more
than doubled the size of the former PCC Southeast Center to
18 acres.
Attendees at the public celebration will have the oppor­
tunity to eat food from local food carts, listen to live music
and taiko drumming, enjoy zumba, martial arts, Chinelos and
Lion dancers, and participate in family-friendly activities and
crafts. A moment of transformation ceremony will occur at 1
p.m., and a campus dance party with Melao de Cuba will
follow. The events are free.
"For all of us this will be a momentous occasion," said
Southeast Campus President Jessica Howard. "We're cel­
ebrating our new resource-rich learning environment de­
signed for students to succeed and the fact that the doors of
opportunity are quite literally thrown open for the histori­
cally underserved communities of Southeast Portland. This
is a visible realization of the commitment of the college's
faculty and staff after so many years of service in the area."
People who stop by can view the recently finished Stu­
dent Commons and Library buildings. The Student Com­
mons is a three-story, 66,000-square-foot structure finished
last spring that houses an expanded bookstore, five science
classrooms with labs, six general purpose classrooms, four
career technical education and computer classrooms and a
new STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math­
ematics) Center.
The new campus library is a three-story, 40,000-square-
foot facility that contains the Student Computing Center,
Student Learning Center (including tutoring services), Vol­
unteer Literacy Center, traditional library services, four class­
rooms and study areas. Both buildings will house street-level
retail space as part of the college's effort to integrate services
continued
on page 4