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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 8, 2018)
Staff photo by Kathy Aney Pendleton and the Blue Mountains glow as the sun sinks in the sky Monday evening. THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2018 142nd Year, No. 101 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD One dollar PENDLETON EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY The rural advantage Staff photo by Kathy Aney Motivational speaker Cory Green- wood talks to a young audience about his life’s struggles Wednesday at the Attitudes for Success Conference at the Pendleton Convention Center. Reformed bully at the pulpit Speaker talks about a changed life at leadership conference Staff photo by E.J. Harris Regional advisor Wendy Sorey speaks to Umatilla seniors Celeste Rodriguez, left, and Daisy Garcilazo at an information booth for Eastern Oregon University at a job fair at the SAGE Center on Wednesday in Boardman. EOU hopes to leverage new designation to grow enrollment, funding By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Eastern Oregon University has always been a home for students looking for a smaller, more rural college experience in Oregon, but that role is now official. The La Grande-based school has been designated by the state legislature as Oregon’s Rural University. “It defines our role in the state and shows our unique mission,” said Tim Seydel, EOU’s vice president for university advance- ment. The designation — which passed both chambers of the legislature unanimously and was signed by the governor on Tuesday — doesn’t come with a boost in state funding or new rules for how the university is run. But Seydel said it could help set EOU apart when applying for state and federal grants for programs that are targeted toward helping first-generation college students, for example, or those from rural communities. “When they say, ‘Why Eastern?’ we can say, ‘That’s what we do,’” he said. Seydel said it could also help with recruitment at the univer- sity, which was at 3,016 students during the fall term. He said some students are searching for a smaller, more rural experience where their professors know them by name. Many of those students come from Umatilla and Morrow counties. Umatilla County students have made up roughly nine percent of EOU’s enroll- ment for the last decade, and this year there are 311 students from Umatilla County and 48 students from Morrow County. The university has increased recruit- ment efforts in both counties as it looks to boost its numbers. See EOU/8A Missing Liam Pilot Rock community embraces grieving family By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian The death of a child is a parent’s biggest nightmare. For Sara Hebard, the night- mare came true in January when her eight-year-old son died suddenly after crashing his bike and developing a rare infection called necrotizing fasciitis. As flesh-eating bacteria attacked the boy’s soft tissue, surgeons tried to get ahead of the deadly bacteria by amputating parts of his body during four separate operations. Liam Flanagan died on Jan. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Liam’s family keeps his ashes in a special Batman urn in the living room. 21, leaving behind a devastated mother, stepfather Scott Hinkle, and three stepbrothers. The death stunned the family’s tiny commu- nity of Pilot Rock. The weeks since losing Liam have been a barrage of emotions for Hebard. See LIAM/8A By KATHY ANEY East Oregonian Cory Greenwood laid his pride aside Wednesday as he addressed students at the Pendleton Convention Center. As a motivational speaker, Greenwood regularly tears himself down to inspire kids in those tough formative years. As an insecure, unfocused and irresponsible teenager, he had bullied others to make up for the attention he wasn’t getting from his unaffectionate father. He became a teenage father himself. No more, though. The Minnesota native now travels the country giving kids the message that they can make a posi- tive impact on the world just by becoming comfortable in their own skin. The young audience at the 28th Annual Attitudes for — Cory Greenwood, Success Youth Leadership Conference alternated between hilarity and rapt attention. He psychoanalyzed his former bully self. “I tore people apart and belittled them, thinking the smaller I could make people feel, the bigger I would feel,” he said. “I felt big and tough for a second, but at night, I felt even smaller.” The keynote address came halfway through the conference, attended by about 350 students in grades 6-12 from Umatilla and Morrow counties. They came to learn leadership skills and explore career ideas. The students attended breakout sessions on a smörgåsbord of subjects: various careers, goal setting, communicating feelings, college admission and stress management. See BULLY/8A “I felt big and tough for a second, but at night, I felt even smaller.”