A8
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East Oregonian
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Online enrollment numbers are up An earlier opening
By SABRINA THOMPSON
The Observer
EO REMOVES PIERCE NAME FROM LIBRARY
LA GRANDE — Eastern Ore-
gon University’s fall enrollment
showcases a rise in the number
of students learning online and
in its Master of Arts in Teaching
program, according to a Tuesday,
Nov. 10, press release from the
school.
University Vice President Tim
Seydel said the online enrollment
increase was expected due to the
coronavirus pandemic. The uni-
versity saw a 6.6% increase in
online students from the 2019
enrollment numbers, with 48%
of undergraduate students taking
courses online.
“If you look at the num-
bers here, that’s where you see a
shift: fewer on-campus students,
more online students — and that
helps us balance out our enroll-
ment portfolio,” Seydel said in the
press release. “The other big thing
we work on a lot is retention. It’s
not just about getting them in the
door, it’s about how we take care
of those students when they get
here.”
Kevin Walker teaches online
business courses for EOU and said
students often choose to study and
learn online because of the flexi-
bility it allows when scheduling
for classes.
“Ordinarily, students tend to
be interested in online education
because of work or family com-
mitments,” Walker said. “It’s not
hard to see how rural students
would fit this category, but it’s not
at all unusual for EOU’s online
students to be working in urban
areas and can’t simply quit work-
ing to get a degree they need to be
promoted or to change careers.”
Walker said classes that were
already online did not have to
change much, but for classes that
were more suited for in-person
instruction, such as art, music,
theater and lab-based courses,
there was a scramble to find an
online equivalency for teaching
the classes online.
“Sometimes you can use tech-
nology to create workarounds,”
Walker said. “Not ideal but suffi-
cient. Faculty have adapted to the
pandemic restrictions and their
own risk factors. I meet with my
LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon
University’s Board of Trustees
unanimously agreed to remove
the name Pierce from the univer-
sity’s library.
The decision came Thursday, Nov.
12, during the board’s virtual
meeting. University President
Tom Inkso said a new name is un-
der consideration, and there are
plans for a display acknowledging
the history of the library’s name.
The board heard comments from
the public and reviewed the final
report from the Pierce Library
Naming Committee. The board
agreed the library’s namesake,
former Oregon Gov. Walter Pierce
and his wife Cordelia, do not rep-
resent the mission and diversity
within the university.
“The name is something people
take a great deal of pride in, at
the same time it is a name that
a great deal take concern with,”
said Tim Seydel, University vice
president and naming committee
member.
Seydel said the name of the
library has been a topic of discus-
sion and rumors for decades. The
report from the committee found
Walter Pierce had known connec-
tions to the Ku Klux Klan and sup-
ported racist and discriminatory
policies. While he and his wife
helped the advancement of East-
ern Oregon’s recognition across
the state, the report indicated,
their beliefs are not indicative of
what Eastern Oregon University
strives to be for students.
students via Zoom both as a class
and via individual meetings pretty
regularly to keep them on track.
Most faculty do that to try to keep
them engaged.”
Eastern Oregon University
enrolled 2,853 students for the
2020 school year. According to the
report, 35% of these students are
from Eastern Oregon. While that
represents a 0.4% dip in enroll-
ment from 2019, the school antic-
ipated a possible drop in overall
enrollment due to the pandemic.
The university also saw a dip
in retention overall, with 73% of
students from the 2019-20 school
year returning this fall.
“As I’ve observed the conversa-
tions on our campus as a student
and as an administrator now,” In-
sko said, “I think we can find a bet-
ter balance between the history
of the naming of the library and
the legacy of Walter and Cornelia
Pierce, but do it a way that is from
a historical perspective rather
than elevating his name on the
campus.”
Library faculty member Katie
Townsend said she hears students
talking about the name on
campus and is concerned and dis-
heartened some students don’t
feel comfortable entering the
library because of its namesake.
Townsend also is a member of the
library renaming committee.
“We continue to have students
express discomfort with coming
into the library. To know there
were students out there who
felt that was really upsetting,”
Townsend said.
The changes to the library will
not be immediate, Seydel and
Townsend said. The school will
update the signs at the library
and update the university’s web-
pages, in addition to updating
stamps in the large collection of
books at EOU. This will occur over
time to not burden the staff and
keep costs low.
“You can’t just do a global search
and replace,” Seydel said. “We do
expect there to be some cost, but
largely born out over time.”
— Sabrina Thompson,
The Observer
More graduate students are
enrolling at Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity. In 2019, the Master of Arts
in Teaching program enrolled 45
graduate students. The program
now has 60 students. Graduate
students make up about 8% of the
total student population.
Popular undergraduate majors
include business administration,
health and human performance
and psychology.
Diversity at the university
remains steady, according to the
press release. More than 65% of
students identify as white, with
28% of students identifying as
culturally or ethnically diverse.
Series of storms could
lead to Anthony Lakes
Ski Area opening for
Thanksgiving
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
NORTH POWDER — A lit-
tle more than a week ago, pedaling
a mountain bike probably was the
fastest way to descend the slopes at
Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort.
Today, anything with wheels
would be about as useful there as a
motorboat.
Since record-setting warmth
made the first week of November
feel more like late summer than
mid-autumn, a series of decidedly
wintry storms has plastered the ski
area.
The blizzards have been benef-
icent enough that the resort could
potentially open the weekend of
Thanksgiving.
That hasn’t happened often in the
past couple decades, and only once,
in 2011, during Peter Johnson’s
10-year tenure as the resort’s general
manager.
“Things are looking really good
right now,” Johnson said on Thurs-
day, Nov. 12. “It’s easily the best
start we’ve had since I’ve been here.”
The situation is dramatically
different from a year ago. In 2019,
Anthony Lakes didn’t open until
Dec. 21.
“We could be looking at an earlier
opening than we’re used to,” John-
son said. “A Thanksgiving weekend
opening is realistic this year.”
Storms over the past week or so
have dropped about 36 inches of
snow at Anthony Lakes, Johnson
said.
Snow settles during lulls, and he
said that as of Nov. 12 the base depth
was about 15 inches.
That’s not enough to start ski-
ing, but Johnson was watching with
glee the National Weather Service
forecast.
The agency on Nov. 12 issued a
winter storm warning for the latest
blizzard, which was scheduled to
arrive Friday, Nov. 13, and continue
into the weekend.
That storm could bring from 1 to
2 feet of new snow.
“I don’t want to jinx it,” John-
son said, while clouds were begin-
ning to stream into Northeast Ore-
gon but the first flakes of the latest
tempest had yet to fall. “But it looks
promising.”
Despite the prospect for what
amounts to an early holiday gift for
skiers and snowboarders, the specter
of the COVID-19 pandemic looms
over the upcoming ski season, John-
son said.
Although he’s still working on
the operating plan — some details
will depend on how things go for
the first few days of skiing — John-
son said Anthony Lakes will have
to limit the number of people on the
mountain each day.
The first priority, he said, is for
people who buy a season pass. They
won’t have any limits on how many
days they can ski or snowboard, nor
will they have to make a reservation.
Chelsea Judy, the ski area’s mar-
keting director, said that in past sea-
sons, on a typical day about 25%
to 30% of the visitors have season
passes.
The second priority constitutes
people who have a discount ticket
from one of the resort’s 48 lodging
partners, which includes motels,
vacation rental homes and other
establishments.
The ski area will also have 20 lift
tickets for each operating day, at a
50% discount, for guests who have a
receipt for a purchase of at least $40,
from the past 7 days, from a locally
owned restaurant or retail shop in
Baker, Union, Grant, or Wallowa
counties.
Lodging partner and local busi-
ness support discount tickets will be
available only at the ticket window
at Anthony Lakes. Visitors can show
their voucher or receipt and have a
ticket printed.
Once the priority groups have
been counted, a certain number
of general one-day tickets will be
available, Judy said.
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