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LA GRANDE CITY COUNCIL EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY
• The number of Micronesian students at Eastern may double within a year
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• Parking, trafic topconcerns of councilors, residentS
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Closer look
By Kelly Ducote The Observer
Dick Mason/The Observer
Eastern Oregon University students Ciara Haruo, Ngeyaol Polycarp and Meyar Mamis enjoy a light moment Monday at EOU's Multicultural Center. All three of the students are from Palau, a part of the region of Micronesia. By Dick Mason The Observer
astern Oregon University's pipeline to the Western Pacific, after slowing to a trickle, may soon begin flowing robustly again. Eastern is stepping up its efforts to recruit students from Micronesia, a drive that may bring back memories of the 1970s and 1980s when the university had at least three times the number of Micronesian students it does today. "In some respects this is a return to our roots. We have a historical connection," said Xavier Romano, EOU's vice presidentforstudent services. The effort to boost the number of Micronesian students coming to Eastern gained momentum last fall when Bennie Moses-Mesubed, the director of EOU's Multicultural Center, made a 10-day recruiting trip to Micronesia, a tropical region in the Western Pacific that contains more than 2,000 islands and covers 2.9 million square miles of ocean. Moses-Mesubed met with about 1,000 students, 300 of whom expressed interest in coming to Eastern. 'There is a lot of interest in Eastern because we have many alumni there," said Moses-Mesubed, an EOU graduate from Palau, an island country within Micronesia."Our hope is to double iEOU's Micronesian enrollment) by next year." See Eastern / Page 5A
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BEND — Public health officialssay they need to do a better job making sure middle-aged adults know about ways they can find help if the state wants to bring down the suicide rate
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"Thereis a lot fointerestin Eastern because we have many alumni there. Our hopeis to double (EOU's Micronesian enrollment) by nextyear." — Bennie Moses-Mesubed, EOU's Multicultural Center dlrector
Susan Keys, an associate professor and senior researcher at
OSU-CascadesCollege of Public
per 100,000 people.
Health and Behavioral Science. aWe've done a lot, but there's a lotmore that needs to be done." According to the Oregon Violent Death Reporting System, the suiciderateforthe state's
A study published last week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found three other states — New Jersey i36.7 percent), W isconsin i32.3 percent) and Oklahoma i24.3 per-
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CONDITION REMOVED The city council voted Wednesday to remove a condition from the conditional use permit of the city's second medical marijuana facility. Page 5A
UNION COUNTY
Tim Mustoe/The Observer
40- to 64-year-olds was 27.8 deaths per 100,000 people in 2010. This was the highest rate forpeople in this agegroup since at least 1999 and represents a 30 percentincrease from the suicideratein 2005 forthis age group, which was 21.4 deaths
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Eastern presently has a total of 15 full-time and part-time students from Micronesia. For much of the mid to late 1970s and 1980s, Eastern had at least 40 Micronesian students each year. For two years in the mid-'80s, Eastern also had a branch campus in Micronesia.
Tackling suicideamongmiddle-agedadults By Mac McLean
WHAT'S NEXT? A public hearing will be continued April 1. A decision is expected then.
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among this age group, a rate • Report: Suicide rate that peaked in 2010 and has yet for 40- to 64-year-olds to come down toitspre-recession levels. still higher than it "These are things we need to communicate more about," said was 10 years ago
Despite worries about traffic flow that topped concerns during public testimony Wednesday night, the La Grande City Council dedined to require a traffi cstudy foraproposalof additional street vacations on the county campus. In February 2014, the La Grande City Council approved a vacation of KAvenue from Fifth Street to Sixth Street to help the county meet its parking requirements for the new county courthouse. The parking plan was sufficient enough for the courthousesit e plan tobeapproved late last year, but came with several conditions. One stipulates that the Joseph Building not be backfilled when the courtsmove untilparkingfor that space is addressed. That condition, among others, will go awayif the See Issues / Page 5A
cent) — saw a similar increase in their suicide rates for that age group. The national suicide rate for40-to 64-year-oldsincreased by 15.3 percent between 2005 and 2010, according to the study. The study's authors contend the increasedsuicide rates were likely due to a mixture of behavioral health problems such as depressi on,relationship problems and job/financial problems that were only made worse by the economic downturn and See Suicide / Page 5A
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541-963-3161 Issue 28 3 sections, 26 pages La Grande, Oregon
DINNERS THATCOOK THEMSELVES — ALMOST •000
AlertSense moves forward By Cherise Kaechele The Observer
Union County could be seeing a countywide emergency services notification system in the near future. J. B. Brock,theUnion County emergency servicesmanager, presented in frontofthe county commissioners with the contract between the county and AlertSense, a company based in Boise, Idaho. In January, the commissioners approved going forward with the notification system, a system, Brock said, that has several very useful capabilities. The first is an opt-in that allowsresidents tosign up forthe serviceand, generally speaking, enter their email address See County / Page 5A
CONTACT US
R F u ll forecast on the back of B section
Friday
Tim Mustoe/TheObserver
J. B. Brock, emergency manager, and Annette Powers, emergency services department specialist, look over an incident command system form Thursday.
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Email story ideas to newsC~/agrande observer.com. More contact info on Page 4A.
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