NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
A5
Eastern Oregon to off er marketing degree
By ANDREW CUTLER
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon Univer-
sity students interested in a career in marketing
have a new opportunity.
The school is now off ering students a bach-
elor’s of marketing degree, a change from the
bachelor’s degree with a concentration in market-
ing the school had previously off ered. The change
is eff ective with the upcoming 2021-22 school
year.
“Students can put on their resume, when
they’re applying for a marketing job, ‘Hey, I have
a degree in marketing, not just a concentration, I
got the real thing,’” said Shari Carpenter, a pro-
fessor of business at Eastern. “That makes a big
diff erence.”
Carpenter said the school recognized a need
for the program to adapt with the changing times
to meet the needs of employers and students.
“It was always thought of as like selling and
stuff , but the strategy part of it and understanding
what moves people to make a purchase, under-
standing a consumer’s needs and what moves that
person, that’s the cool part about it,” she said. “So
that’s why it’s really become a path up. So they
can be in digital and social, create content, do
simplest Facebook posts, Instagram, those types
of things for companies, people, products.”
Carpenter added that the degree will have
applications for students interested in a career
in data analysis, public relations and SEO
management.
“Promotions, advertising. PR is really huge,
and it’s kind of an entity in itself and has a lot
of opportunity underneath that little umbrella,
because PR is so consistent right now, especially
using social media,” she said.
Carpenter said the core classes required for the
degree will provide students with knowledge of
business fundamentals, while also preparing them
to be successful in the marketing specifi c courses.
She added that the marketing degree will not
only provide students with a solid marketing foun-
dation, but also research and presentation skills
through learn-by-doing experiential opportuni-
ties in marketing. Carpenter said the skills learned
are immediately applicable and include emerging
digital, interactive, and mobile technologies; web
and data analytics; project management; interdis-
ciplinary integrated marketing
communications; creativity and
innovation. Students will also
develop important communi-
cation skills and will build their
teamwork skills.
Carpenter said students will
Carpenter
get a sense of the real world
while earning the degree.
“So this degree, I built so
that students could fi nish the
degree, walk out and go into a
real marketing job and say, ‘I
got this,’ because they learned
the core skills, not just these
books and academics and all
Henninger
that stuff , which is totally fi ne,
but I’d rather have students learn reality of what
it’s gonna be like,” she said.
The degree change has been in the works for a
couple of years, Carpenter said, adding she antici-
pates the fi rst degree recipients to start walking at
graduation in a year.
“I believe there’s over 10 students that have
already transferred into the program when they
saw it was available,” she said. ”Let’s say they’re
already a junior, all they have to do is add in these
specialty classes to fi nish up their degree.”
“It’s a pretty exciting time,” said Ed Hen-
nigner, the dean of the College of Business at
Eastern. “The revision has drawn a lot of interest.
We’ve seen pretty good enrollment already com-
ing in for fall. I think it is the right thing to do at
the right time.”
Our students will be exposed to in using
emerging technologies, interactive, global tech-
nology and data analytics,”
Marketing students will have the opportunity
to continue to gain practical experience through
the National Millennial/GenZ Club.
The National Millennial/GenZ Club off ers
members the chance to interact with executives
from all over the world.
“We’re the only one in the state of Oregon,
out of all the universities, that can off er member-
ship through us to the NMC,” Carpenter said. “So
that’s huge.”
Carpenter said initially the school was hoping
for 22 students in the program that fi rst year, but,
she said, it looks like the program is already set to
exceed those expectations.
“I believe that we’re going to head over that
by the time fall ends and we get out there and start
talking about it and having conversations, because
that’s what we’re seeing already,” she said.
Biologists study climate change’s eff ects on elk
By DICK MASON
The Observer
STARKEY — Rocky
Mountain elk in Northeastern
Oregon may fall prey to climate
change.
U.S. Forest Service research
biologist Mike Wisdom and
Casey Brown, a research biol-
ogist with the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife,
are among a growing number
of people who are concerned
about the role climate change is
playing in nature. Wisdom and
Brown are helping conduct a
Starkey Project study aimed at
determining if climate change
will hurt Rocky Mountain elk
reproduction.
The study is not complete
and intensive data analysis
remains to be done, but its pre-
liminary fi ndings indicate that
climate change could cause elk
populations to decline in North-
eastern Oregon and other areas.
“We are defi nitely con-
cerned,” Wisdom said.
The reason for the worry is
that rising temperatures result-
ing from climate change are
reducing the amount of time
quality vegetation is available
to elk.
“The nutrition window for
elk is shifting,” Wisdom said.
“It is more compressed.”
Wisdom said cow elk now
have less time in the spring and
early summer to build up fat
reserves, which are critical for
having successful pregnancies
and producing the milk needed
to raise their calves.
“Lactating females have
higher energy demands and
thus are more sensitive to cli-
mate change,” he said.
Brown said that in the past
the most nutritious vegetation
available to elk, grasses and
forbs fl ush with new growth,
were available in Northeast-
ern Oregon from early spring
to early summer. This vegeta-
tion is now available on a less
nutritious — but still valuable
level — from early summer
to mid-summer, followed by a
brown period when there is lit-
tle precipitation, from mid-July
through the fall, a time when
most of the vegetation avail-
able is dried out and off ers little
nutritional value.
Today, the best forage for
elk is available for about two
fewer weeks than before, and
the “brown” periods runs three
to four weeks longer.
“There is now a more pro-
nounced period of low precipita-
tion during the summer and fall,”
said Wisdom, co-project leader
Jim Ward/Contributed Photo
A female adult elk licks her calf in this undated photo. A Starkey
Project study is helping to determine if climate change is hurt-
ing Rocky Mountain elk reproduction by leaving less time in the
spring and early summer to build up fat reserves, which are crit-
ical for having successful pregnancies and producing the milk
needed to raise their calves.
of the Starkey Project with Dar-
ren Clark of the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
Brown anticipated, when
she and research biologist Pris-
cilla Coe started their plant
study at Starkey in 2015, that
they would fi nd less forage
was available to elk than three
decades ago. But she was sur-
prised by how much it had
decreased.
“It was greater than I thought
it would be,” she said.
Rising temperatures are
impacting vegetation growth
for a number of reasons, Brown
said. Snowpacks in mountains
are melting earlier and faster
each winter and early spring.
Previously, snowpacks would
melt slowly, allowing rivers
and streams to maintain strong
fl ows longer.
“Winter snowpacks before
provided a steady, slow delivery
of water to the region during the
spring and summer,” Wisdom
said.
Slow melts of winter snow
meant that moisture needed for
the growth of grasses and forbs
was available longer, giving
cow elk more time to consume
them and develop fat reserves
needed for successful pregnan-
cies and lactation.
Another climate change fac-
tor that may be hurting elk is
that much more of the precipi-
tation the region is receiving is
now in the form of rain rather
than snow. The change is hurt-
ing elk because rain runs off
faster from the region in streams
and rivers, unlike snowpacks,
which slowly disperse moisture
as they melt.
“Replacing snow with rain
is not good for elk,” Wisdom
said.
Biologists understand how
changing weather patterns
impact the growth of grasses
and forbs because of extensive
studies conducted at the Starkey
Project site in the 1990s by Coe
and research biologist Bruce
Johnson, now both retired.
The biologists measured plant
growth at plots there through-
out the year and determined
how changes in temperature
and precipitation in the region
impacted it.
Wisdom admires how for-
ward thinking Coe and Johnson
were when they did their study
in the 1990s.
“It took a lot of foresight,” he
said. “This was before climate
change was a major issue.”
The plant study conducted
in the 1990s by Coe and John-
son was followed by Brown and
Coe’s study from 2015 to 2019.
Brown and Coe measured plant
growth at the same plots used in
the 1990s study.
The Starkey Project, based
at a 25,000-acre fenced facility,
is a joint wildlife research proj-
ect conducted by the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wild-
life and the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice at the Starkey Experimen-
tal Forest and Range, 28 miles
southwest of La Grande.
The project is designed
to measure the population
response of deer and elk to the
intensively managed forests
and rangelands of the future.
Research at the Starkey Project
began in 1989.
Research done at the Starkey
Project is one reason scientists
understand how critical it is for
cow elk to develop fat reserves
needed for successful pregnan-
cies and to raise their young.
The Starkey Project site is one
of the places that body fat lev-
els of cow elk were measured
during a breakthrough study by
John and Rachel Cook, a hus-
band and wife team of biolo-
gists who were working for the
National Council for Air and
Stream Improvement.
We would like to recognize and congratulate all of the
Grant School District 3 students on their 4H & FFA
projects in this year’s Grant County Fair 2021. Thank you
for your hard work and dedication! A special thank you to
everyone who purchased and supported our students!
CHICKEN
Morganne Wyllie *Grand Champion* / Buyer – John Day True Value
Payton Whitmore / Buyer – Jarrod Weaver
BEEF
Wyatt Suchorski *Grand Champion* / Buyer – Iron Triangle
Monel Anderson *Reserve Champion* / Buyer – Chester’s Market
Weston Suchorski / Buyer – Michael Cearns
Kingdon Kirby / Buyer – Chester’s Market
Beau VanCleave / Buyer – Solutions CPA
Rowdy Wilson / Buyer – Chester’s Market
Carson Weaver / Buyer – Silvies Valley Ranch
Wyatt Lemons / Buyer – Les Schwabs
Everett Vardanega / Buyer – Gibco Ag and Industrial
Talon VanCleave / Buyer Central Oregon Livestock
Raney Anderson / Buyer – Willow Canyon Trucking
Tate Waddel / Buyer – Triangle Ranches
Bridger Walker / Buyer – Wilburn Ranch Brokerage
Colton Lindsay / Buyer – Rude Logging
Keira Steiner / Buyer – Hueckman Contracting LLC
Cooper Ross / Buyer – Ed Staub and Sons
Jacey Mickey / Buyer – First Community Credit Union
Sage Browning / Buyer – Clark’s Disposal
Jerett Waddel / Buyer Darren Kimball LLC
Preston Boethin / Buyer – Deanne Driscoll
Abbie Justice / Buyer – Nick and Amy Steiner
Hayden Spencer / Buyer – Tor S Ranch
Gracey Kenyon / Buyer – Willow Canyon Trucking
GOAT
Bryant Baker / Buyer - John Day True Value
Emmalyn Northway / Buyer – Chester’s Market
LAMB
Madelyn Bailey *Grand Champion* / Buyer – Parma Post & Pole
Adeline Northway / Buyer – Thomas General Construction
Gus McDaniel / Buyer – Rude Logging
Naomi Blood / Buyer – Les Schwab
Lilly Huerta / Buyer – Juniper Ridge Acute Care Center
Aaliyah Judd / Buyer – Figaro’s of John Day
Liberty Woehlert / Buyer – Solutions CPA
Max Bailey / Buyer – Iron Triangle
Audrey Walker / Buyer – Ken and CiCi Brooks
Akeelah Vielma / Buyer – Fields Grassfed Beef
Reid Dole / Buyer – Ken and CiCi Brooks
Eliza Bailey / Buyer – Law Office of Rob Raschio, PC
Katelyn Hughes / Buyer – Holliday Land and Livestock
Savannah Watterson / Buyer – Parma Post & Pole
Rhynna Wyllie / Buyer – John Day True Value
Tempest Kalin / Buyer – Wilco Farm Stores
Adalyn Judd / Buyer – Snaffle Bit / Silver Spur / III Peaks Contracting
Emmalyn Northway / Buyer – Chester’s Market
SWINE
Brooke Taynton *Grand Campion* / Buyer – Southfork Juniper Works LLC
Fallan Giffin *Reserve Champion* / Buyer – Iron Triangle
Gracee Hueckman / Buyer – Deanne Driscoll
George Ashley / Buyer – John Day True Value
Sarah Clark / Buyer – Chester’s Market
Noah Spencer / Buyer – John Day True Value
Colton Lyman / Buyer – Les Schwab
Owen Parsons / Buyer – Rude Logging
Kara Hansen / Buyer – Iron Triangle
Eric Culley / Buyer – Nick and Amy Stiner
Fletcher Grove / Buyer – Chester’s Market
Brynlie Koppel / Buyer – Community Counseling Solutions
Macy Carter / Buyer – Timbers Bistro
Eliza Ashley / Buyer – Pioneer Feed & Farm Supply
Emmie Saul / Buyer – Solutions CPA
Karlie Chappel / Buyer – Old West Federal Credit Union
Haven Giffin / Buyer – Riverside Feeders
Trevor Sasser / Buyer – Oregon Telephone
Trey Brown / Buyer – Southworth Brothers
Zoey Rookstool / Buyer – Wilburn Ranches
Paige Weaver / Buyer – John Day River Vet Clinic
Tymber Moore / Buyer – Rude Logging
Riddick Hutchison / Buyer – Thomas General Construction
Mayley Saul / Buyer – Strong Construction
Garrett Ashley / Buyer – Silvies Valley Ranch
Jenna Chappel / Buyer – Oregon Telephone
Ava Brown / Buyer – Silvies Valley Ranch
Allyson Moore / Buyer – Country Preferred
Parker Manistas / Buyer – Donna Carter
Evan Chappel / Buyer – Elkhorn Custom Meats and Deli
Ava Gerry / Buyer – Gibco Ag and Industrial
Trevyn Coalwell / Buyer – Crown Cattle Co.
TURKEY
Danner May *Reserve Champion* / Buyer – Pioneer Feed & Farm Supply
Sydnie Brandon / Buyer – Nick and Amy Stiner
Congratulations to Sam and Bailey McCracken
for earning their way to the National High School Rodeo
Finals in Wyoming this past summer! What a huge
accomplishment and we are very proud of them!
S261930-1
School now off ering bachelor’s
of marketing degree