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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2018)
SPEAKER RYAN TO RETIRE COLLINS AIMS FOR CIRCUIT COURT SEAT TRAIL BLAZERS WIN NORTHWEST DIVISION SPORTS/1B RECORDS/5A REGION/3A THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2018 142nd Year, No. 125 One dollar WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Staff photo by E.J. Harris Staff photo by E.J. Harris Staff photo by E.J. Harris Staff photo by E.J. Harris Staff photo by E.J. Harris BMCC kicks off 20th annual arts and culture celebration Hermiston High School graduate Kodie Arnold Heppner High School graduate Patrick Collins Pendleton High School graduate CeCe Hoffman Pendleton High School graduate Ryan Lacey Hermiston High School graduate Laura Zepeda By TAMMY MALGESINI East Oregonian Laura Zepeda is pulled in several different directions as a student, but she’s not complaining. The college sophomore works as a resident assistant at one of the dorms at Oregon State University. Zepeda, a Hermiston High School graduate, also works as a teaching assistant for a math class that she took last year. “I love both my jobs,” Zepeda said. “At first, I was only going to be working as an RA, but then the opportunity to be a TA came up.” Zepeda, who’s studying biomedical science and hopes to become a physician’s assistant, said she has scholarship money that covers most of her tuition costs. The money she earns from her jobs goes toward housing, meals and textbooks. A feminist writer/poet, facilitated discussions, food and even animals are featured during Blue Mountain Commu- nity College’s Arts & Culture Festival. The festival is Monday, April 16 through Thursday, April 19 and includes activities on the Pendleton (2411 N.W. Carden Ave.) and Hermiston (980 S.E. Columbia Drive) campuses of BMCC. The activities are free and open to the public. A special 20th anniversary celebration is Monday from 5-6 p.m. in the Student Union in Pioneer Hall. Doug Radke, who founded the festival, will speak. In addition, Susie’s Cafe will provide light refreshments. At 6 p.m., Natasha Ria El-Scari, the festival’s artist-in-residence, will give a presentation in Bob Clapp Theatre. Other opportunities to hear El-Scari include Tuesday at 1 p.m. (Hermiston), and Wednesday at 11 a.m. (Pendleton). Her poetry, academic papers and personal essays have been published in anthologies, literary journals and online. El-Scari’s 2015 DVD, “Live at the Blue Room,” demonstrates how she connects with people with warmth and unrelenting honesty. When asked in an interview what makes her unique, El-Scari said “… most people lie to themselves, but I like to reveal myself.” A past Kansas poet laureate, Natasha Denise Low speaks Ria El-Scari highly of El-Scari. “Poems lift off the page, almost reading themselves,” Low said. “Unlike some performance poetry, her words translate well to the printed page.” Other highlights in Pendleton include inaugural video contest (Monday, 10 a.m.); a barbecue (Monday, noon); a presentation by a National Public Radio senior producer (Tuesday, 10 a.m.); Indian relay races (Tuesday, 11 a.m.); information on immigrant rights and DACA (Tuesday, noon); Ekphrastic poetry with Shaindel Beers (Tuesday, 1 p.m.); writing compe- tition readings (Tuesday, 1:30 p.m.); the Eastern Oregon Forum featuring a panel discussing how service animals help change lives (Tuesday, 7 p.m.); an Oregon Humanities Conversation Project facili- tated discussion, “In Science We Trust,” (Thursday, 11 a.m.) and a Video Film Fest (Thursday, 4 p.m.) Activities in Hermiston include a focus group about food insecurity (Tuesday, 11 a.m.), the Conversation Project “In Science We Trust,” (Wednesday, 10 a.m.) See COLLEGE/3A See BMCC/6A Working through college Staff photo by E.J. Harris BMCC prints math textbooks from an open education resource, or OER, which helps keep prices down. By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN and ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian C ollege is expensive. Even students on scholarship often have to take on a job — or several — to reach their academic goals. Tuition and fees, room and board, books and supplies, transportation, and other expenses add up pretty quickly: College Board estimated a four-year in-state college student who lives on campus spent $25,290 during the 2017-2018 school year. Costs for textbooks and other educational supplies are only about 5 percent of an average public college budget, but it isn’t getting any cheaper. The average price of a new textbook rose from $58 in 2010-2011 to $80 in 2015-2016. At $84, Blue Mountain Community College’s new textbook price average is right in line with national statistics, although community college students at the national level tend to pay more for textbooks and school supplies and direct more of their financial aid toward them than their four-year counterparts. Over the past few years, BMCC has been aggressive in transitioning their primary educational materials from textbooks to open educational resources, which are free or low-cost materials developed directly by faculty. “For many faculty, the starting motivation to develop and implement open educational resources was to break down the cost barrier of attending college for many of our students,” Jacquelyn Ray, BMCC’s director of library resources, said in a statement. But in doing that, Ray said many faculty discovered that developing their own course materials improved student learning as well. Spread across 53 courses, Ray said open materials make BMCC’s Associate of Arts transfer degree the second most affordable in the state from a textbooks standpoint. The East Oregonian caught up with some of the students from the Promise and Potential series to see whether they’re supplementing their incomes as they study, and where that money goes. Council mulls ceding ownership clause to the Round-Up By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The Pendleton City Council is poised to relin- quish one of the last pieces of control it has over the Round-Up Grounds. At a workshop Tuesday, Mayor John Turner told the council it would consider selling the city’s remaining interest back to the Round-Up at the April 17 meeting, clearing the way for Blue Mountain Community College to build an indoor arena on the grounds. According to a staff report from City Attorney Nancy Kerns, the Round-Up bought the grounds from the city in 2011, but the city retained interest in the property through a “reversionary clause” that would revert ownership back to the city if the Round-Up didn’t hold a rodeo for two consecutive years. Turner, a former BMCC president, said the college wouldn’t be able to own the land or enter into a longterm land lease on the grounds without the elimination of the clause. Additionally, Turner said Round-Up officials main- tained that it handicapped the rodeo’s ability to obtain a loan when they expanded the western grandstands. BMCC’s project — Staff photo by E.J. Harris The city of Pendleton sold the Round-Up Grounds property to the Pendleton Round-Up in 2011. dubbed FARM II — is a multipurpose facility with an indoor rodeo arena and space for agriculture classes. The mayor told the council that he was bringing the issue up before the next meeting to gauge whether there was any opposition to the $13,000 sale of the interest. No one said they would oppose the deal, but veteran councilors explained why the decision was made. “If the bank was ever to collect on (the Round-Up) ... it would come back to us,” Councilor Neil Brown. “It wouldn’t go to the market and be sold to a private entre- preneur.” Although the council could forgo their interest in their Round-Up Grounds, the city does have a stake in FARM II. See COUNCIL/6A