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