The Torch // Volume 53 // Edition 9E

theTorch stories that matter

MAR 14, 2018

VOLUME 53, EDITION 8E

EUGENE, OREGON

Women's Day Event / pages 2 U of O robberies / page 3 Titan Spotlight: Mark Harris / page 4

Don’t Stop Retrievin’

The knights who say ‘tea’ Swordfighters rekindle medieval traditions Fiona Watkins Corrigan Reporter

photo by Diana Baker / photojournalist

Sammy the pug enjoys pets from an LCC student during a stress relief event on Mar. 12 in the Center Building of LCC’s main campus. Sammy and his owner Ina Dunlap volunteer as a therapy team for the organization People and Animals Who Serve.

Students embrace therapy dogs on campus Diana Baker Reporter Sammy the pug, Maxwell the German shepherd and Dory the terrier lab mix were on main campus to interact with students in an event put on by Lane First Experience on Mar. 12 in the Center Building. The group People and Animals Who Serve, or PAAWS, brought three teams of dogs and their handlers so students could get some puppy cuddles during the stress of quiet week.

Tammy Walters, a First Ye ar Experience team member, estimated that between 50 and 100 students attended to pet the dogs and grab snacks or hot drinks. She said she loved seeing all the smiles on students.

PAAWS Oregon is a volunteer group that brings certified therapy dogs to different community organizations for life

enhancement, according to their website.

The 20 dog and handler teams in the Eugene area are trained and certified through Project Canine.

Hana Belighl, an LCC student in the sonography program, enjoyed petting Maxwell the German shepherd. Maxwell reminded Belighl of Haba, her German shepherd back in Libya. She lived out in the country, far from neighbors, and appreciated the companionship and protectiveness Haba provided. Haba once pulled Belighl’s son away from a busy road.

Ina Dunlap, Sammy the pug’s owner, was one of the founding board members of PAAWS. Her mother had been recovering from surgery when Dunlap brought two of her pugs to visit. Their normally exuberant nature turned to calm in her mother’s presence, and one dog laid under each hand.

“They just laid and cuddled her, and made a big difference for her. To me, seeing what they could do, seeing the difference they could make with the situation of her recovering from surgery was just an exceptional thing,” Dunlap said.

“When I came back, I found a training.”

Barbara Berkley, president of the PAAWS Board of Directors, watched her dog Dory roll on her back and ask for belly rubs from students. Their eight years of PAAWS work have been full of memories. Berkely has watched kids in the juvenile detention center light up in the presence of Dory and be more receptive to staff afterwards. The team visits Emerald Valley Assisted Living monthly and participates in Reading Education Assistance Dogs, a program that helps students practice reading to dogs.

“It’s good for her, it’s good for people to come and visit, it’s good for the volunteers,” Berkley said.

Dunlap said that Sammy loves people and being the center of attention. The pug’s wide smile and wiggling curly tail as he walked around the small circle of LCC students led to students petting him, grinning, hugging him and taking photos. Dunlap reflected warmly on people responding to Sammy.

“I’ve seen people in tears, I’ve seen him kiss away the tears, and I’ve seen a bit of a smile before we’re done,” Dunlap said. “It’s amazing to see what a little bit of time interacting with the dog can do.”

New challengers pressure incumbent University district could have new rep in November Marek Belka Reporter A primary election for Eugene City Council will be held on May 15.

Four of Eugene’s eight wards are up for grabs, but only two — Wards 3 and

5 — had challengers file campaign paperwork in time. Ward 3, the area around the University of Oregon, is currently represented by four-term councilman Alan Zelenka, who faces two political newcomers who hope to bring their own perspectives to Eugene’s government.

The two challengers, Hugh Paterson III and Tom Bruno, have much in common. Both were raised in military families and spent their lives traveling all over the world. Both have multiple degrees from several universities. Neither of them are Eugene natives, but both have similar stories about arriving in the Willamette Valley and instantly falling in love with the city. And both Paterson and Bruno hope to

The two founders of the Order of Steel, Kurt Stuenroth and David Herzog, spoke of their club of well-practiced knights over tea. The men spar publicly in full armor and maintain a goal to display honor and history to the community.

When they saw each other for the first time, they both thought: “that guy’s trouble.” The men started sparring in Eugene together and a couple more members joined them. Before long, their practices became regular. When they started to get attention from the media and press, they officially named themselves the Order of Steel.

“It requires constant devotion to be a good swordsman,” Stuenroth said while he and Herzog sat, fully armored, in Townshend’s Tea House.

They sipped tea from ancient silver cups. “Our non-fighting-related activities tend to revolve around drinking tea.”

The two knights didn’t start their club on purpose.

“I would say it was a phenomenon,” Stuenroth said.

The knights originally sparred at local parks in 2015, trekking in their armor even on the hottest summer days.

In Jan. 2017, the Order of Steel went to Old Nick’s, a local pub in the Whiteaker neighborhood. The owner allowed them to come in and stage a fight in full armor. The performance was such a hit that the owner asked them to come back. Soon, the OS was performing regularly at the pub, every Thursday night.

“We’re an exhibition. Most of us have been formally trained,” Herzog said. “It’s very much connected with honor.”

To become a part of the OS, members have to undergo an initiation so the founders don’t have to “babysit” fighters.

“We don’t have referees,” Herzog said, reiterating that “it’s very much about [the] honor system.”

“Of course we like to fight,” Herzog said. “But also, educating people on what we’re wearing, or our swords or fighting styles is a big part. That has to do with what we are pursuing.”

“You have to be a poet, a historian, all of these things to be a good swordsman,” Stuenroth added.

The knights can be seen at Old Nick’s Pub on the third Wednesday of every month, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and can be found on Facebook under their page “Order of Steel.”

use their extensive world experiences to bring new ideas to Eugene.

At 35, Hugh Paterson III is considerably younger than his opponents. He also doesn’t look like a typical political candidate, with a voluminous reddish-blonde beard and a pattern of cautious speech. Paterson has lived in Eugene since 2012 but had his sights on Eugene long before then.

“When I first came here in 2005, I wrote in my journal, ‘I want to be from Eugene,’” Paterson said.

A linguist by education, Paterson has spent the last ten years with SIL International, a non-profit organization that works with indigenous populations around the world to develop their written languages. He’s worked with small communities from Mexico to Nigeria and continued on page 3

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Wednesday, March 14th, 2018

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theTorch The independent student newspaper of Lane Community College

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THE STAFF Editor-in-Chief

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Photojournalists

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‘In search of the same dreams’ photo by Anna C.K. Smith / photojournalist

Jenny Chinchilla, guest speaker at the MIUSA Disabled Women's Day Celebration, speaks to a crowd of people about some of the triumphs and tribulations of her life as a disabled woman growing up in El Salvador.

Josh Chatfield

News Adviser Charlie Deitz

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Non-profit organization promotes disabled women activists for Women’s Day Sabrina Piccolo Reporter On International Women’s Day on Mar. 8, the disability-led organization Mobility International USA held an event at the Miner Building in downtown Eugene to celebrate disabled women activists worldwide.

According to the non-profit organization’s website, MIUSA is headquartered in Eugene but offers programs and internships worldwide “[t]o empower people with disabilities to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development.”

Past the clutter of guests and hosts sipping on drinks, nibbling on snacks and chatting near the entrance was a hallway where ceiling lights shone on easels that held portrait photographs of women from various countries, including Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Nigeria and Mexico.

The exhibit, which has travelled throughout the U.S. and worldwide, featured ten of the 30 photographs of

disabled women activists in MIUSA’s 2013 book, “Brilliant and Resillient: Celebrating the Power of Disabled Women Activists.”

The women in the book are all alumni of MIUSA’s major training program, the Women’s Institute on Leadership and Disability (WILD). The portraits featured in the exhibit on Thursday were paired with poster boards that told the stories of the WILD alumni through their own quotes.

“I desperately wanted to create a world where nondisabled people acknowledge that people with disabilities go in search of the same dreams,” the quote next to the portrait of Olga Montütar Contreras, a Mexican woman who contracted polio as an infant and graduated from a university years later with an engineering degree, said.

Dulamsren Jigjid is a Mongolian woman who lost her hearing in elementary school, where she was “considered disruptive and someone who should be sent home,” her quote said. After being homeschooled throughout secondary school, she attended a university and became the leader of her country’s deaf community.

Ruth Acheinegeh, a guest at the event who was also featured on one of the ten exhibit portraits, was born in Cameroon and faced rejection and shame for her physical mobility disability. She strives to promote the necessity of including women with disabilities in more occupations back home.

“Women with disabilities are the

poorest of the poor,” she said. “I hope more women with disabilities will be more involved in education in West Africa.”

The guest speaker during the event on Thursday was Jenny Chinchilla, a disability rights activist from El Salvador, WILD alumnus and recipient of MIUSA’s Mike and Lisa Sygall Scholarship, which provided her with an internship at MIUSA as well as an English course at the University of Oregon’s American English Institute .

“This is a time to remember women of the past and present who make today possible,” Chinchilla said, with an ASL translator interpreting her speech.

The world is still far from providing equal rights to women with disabilities, the activist said, but she has hope in investing in communities. She added that MIUSA aims to achieve these goals for all people, including men and children.

The event resonated with various guests that night, including those who had never attended a MIUSA event before.

“My best friend, Anomoli, is disabled and I recently found out I have epilepsy,” Twiga May-Whittier, who attended her first MIUSA event that night, said. “So I am just discovering my own identity as a disabled woman and wanted to celebrate Women’s Day with other disabled women.”

MIUSA hopes to host a WILD program this year and will be carrying out more events in Eugene to promote the program.

Upcoming events will be posted to the organization’s website and Facebook page.

CORRECTION NOTICE: In the printed edition (volume 53, edition 9) there were errors in the infographic on page 7. We have corrected the errors, and the updated graphic can be accessed in our online edition at http://www.lcctorch.com/2018/03/the-guns-remain-the-same/.

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NEWS continued from front page

spent the last four years developing business strategies and product and service designs for SIL. According to Paterson, this unique balance of world experience and business savvy makes him an ideal candidate for city council, despite his lack of political experience.

“I’m learning as I go, but I’m very happy to be of service,” Paterson said. “My life, for a long time, has revolved around service to communities. I want to make a difference in Eugene and make a better Eugene today and a better Eugene tomorrow.”

Paterson’s platform is focused on reforming land use policies in Eugene, as well as tackling the city’s growing low-income housing crisis. He’s also calling for improved cooperation between the university and City Hall in order to maintain the livability of the neighborhoods around campus.

“We see, in our community, that prices for students have gone up and prices for small families have gone up,” Paterson said. “Housing has to be solved in a way that impacts students’ livability, and livability for students boils down to cost.”

Tom Bruno, a plain-spoken 70-year old veteran with a

hearty laugh and sharp wit – he referred to himself as a “Roads scholar” in reference to his construction experience – is the other new candidate for the Ward 3 council seat.

Bruno, who describes himself as “a 60-percent disabled veteran,” spent 22 years in the Army, where he worked in logistics and engineering. Since being discharged in 1992, he’s worked as a civil and government contractor, developing technologies that “mistake-proof manufacturing processes.” According to Bruno, his extensive civilian and military logistics experience would make him an asset on the council.

“I’m all about urban efficiency and planning,” Bruno said. “I’m a big ideas man, and I want to bring in money that isn’t Phil Knight’s money.”

Bruno’s top priority as a city councilman would be to address Eugene’s homelessness crisis by creating a team of university professors and students to “definitively answer why people become homeless and then address it.” He also wants to foster improved connections between the University of Oregon, Lane Community College and the City of Eugene to increase engagement between students

and their communities.

“I want to sit down with LCC students and professors to see how the city can improve trade school policies,” Bruno said. “Students and citizens should have greater input in city council decisions, not the other way around.”

The two challengers for the Ward 3 council seat also have one other important thing in common: both are critical of incumbent councilman Alan Zelenka.

“Most of these issues have been major city issues while he’s been in office,” Paterson said. “The leadership that he provides our ward hasn’t led us to discussions to solve these things.”

“My opponent doesn’t return emails,” Bruno said, referring to Zelenka. “His staff says he’s busy, but he should be listening to his people.”

Zelenka’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The primary election for Eugene City Council is May 15. If no one candidate receives a 50 percent vote majority, the top two vote earners will appear on the November ballot.

March robbery count up to six INCIDENTS FROM MARCH 2ND-12TH Lil's Deli (March 2)

Neighborhood Market (March 2) 16th Ave & Hilyard St. (March 3) Tom's Market (March 5)

15th Ave & Hilyard St. (March 8) Subway (March 10)

Lucky Lou's Deli (March 12)

infographic by Cat Frink / production director, via google mymaps

Police still hunting for suspects, information Mckenzy Gausnell Reporter The local law enforcement agencies are investigating a string of six armed robberies involving perpetrators with similar descriptions in the neighborhoods around the University of Oregon.

Around 7 a.m. on Friday, Mar. 2, a man with a mask and a gun robbed Lil’s Deli on River Road.

Later that Friday at 11:45 p.m., the Neighborhood Market on the corner of 24th Avenue and Hilyard Street was robbed at gunpoint. The suspect was described as a 5’9” white male in his twenties with a medium to heavy build.

At 2:39 a.m. on Saturday, Mar. 3, a young woman was robbed at gunpoint while walking around East 16th Avenue and Hilyard Street by a six-foot black male in his twenties weighing around 180 pounds.

Later that Saturday evening at 9:06 p.m., Subway on 18th Avenue and Chambers Street was robbed by two men with handguns. The suspects were described as one black male standing anywhere from 5’10” to 6’2” and weighing 140 to 180 pounds. The other suspect was described as a white male between 6’ and 6’3” in his twenties and at an estimated 180 pounds.

Tom’s Market on 19th Avenue and Agate Street was robbed by two men at gunpoint around 9:30 p.m on Mar. 5. The suspects, yet again, were a white male with a medium build and a black male standing 6’ to 6’2” and in his twenties.

Another young woman walking by East 15th Avenue and Hilyard Street on Thursday

around 12:30 a.m. was robbed by a white male with a handgun depicted as 5’10” to 6’ and about 180 pounds.

On Monday, Mar. 12 at 12:58 a.m, the Lucky Lou’s on Main Street in Springfield was robbed by a white male with a handgun and a white bandana covering his face. The suspect was described to be in his twenties.

Police are still investigating the robberies and have not released any information to suggest that they are connected.

“We are working this case with detectives and patrol,” Melinda McLaughlin, the Eugene Police Department public information director, said. “We are looking into connections and similarities.”

Until the perpetrators are in custody, the University of Oregon Police Department has recommendations for citizens who may find themselves in a robbery.

“Bystanders should try to be aware of their surroundings, and if there are signs of a person in distress, bystanders should make themselves known and offer assistance, if it is safe to do so, and/or seek immediate help from police or security personnel,” McLaughlin said. “If someone attempts to touch you against your will, you have the right to yell ‘no’ loudly, or do whatever is necessary to get the person to let go, and flee to a safe place and seek help. When safe, try to remember as much as possible about the person's appearance and behavior.”

There are also resources that students and community can use to help prepare for situations that can be threatening.

“Assaults by strangers are far less common than assaults by people known to survivors,” McLaughlin said. “Self-defense classes can prepare people to deter or escape an assault, and have benefits for improved awareness and confidence.”

Police say the suspects are considered dangerous and they advise people to not approach them. Anyone with any information on the robberies is encouraged to call the police.

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Wednesday, March 14th, 2018

NEWS

First ever intersectional awards A joint committee honors inclusivity and sustainability Fiona Watkins Corrigan Reporter ASLCC’s Inclusive College Committee and the Sustainable Students Committee hosted their first-annual awards ceremony on Mar. 9 where 14 awards were handed out to students and staff members.

“We decided to do an awards ceremony to lighten everyone’s spirits, to remind everybody that there’s positivity, and to hopefully bring up energy,” Amadeo Rehbein, treasurer of Lane’s Student Government and chair of the ICC, said. “Sometimes we feel that in the winter term, people lose energy and feel down.”

The SSC hosts a community meal every term. With that idea in mind, the ICC asked them to join forces and create the award ceremony meal. The mission of the dinner: to celebrate and commemorate students, staff and faculty for their actions that support sustainability and inclusivity.

“Sustainability can really work with inclusivity,” Rehbein said. “You can spin

those ideas together.”

The committees gave out separate awards.Timothy Ingalsbee, a sociology teacher at Lane, received an award for social sustainability.

“We should focus our efforts on both social systems and ecological systems because they’re interrelated,” Ingalsbee said.

The SCC also gave awards for ecological and economic sustainability.

The Asian/Pacific Islander Student Union was awarded for community outreach by the ICC, who also handed out awards for outstanding student advocacy and fostering growth.

The ICC, SSC and Accessible Care Committee are three committees put together by the student government in an effort to improve LCC’s relationship with its students. These three committees meet weekly and advocate for student rights and representation. This is their first year in action, so they’re looking for student input, involvement and engagement.

The ICC’s mission is to “transform LCC into an inclusive and welcoming space for all people through educational events, community events, and leadership opportunities,” according to Rehbein.

The SSC’s goal is to “promote awareness of the three pillars of sustainability - ecological, economic and social sustainability - by helping students understand what sustainability means through means of sustaining themselves,” Keely Blyleven, Sustainability Coordinator of the SG and Chair of Sustainable Students Committee, said.

Drug counselor draws inspiration from African and Native-American traditions P.W. Braunberger Reporter In a conference room on the second floor of Building 1 leans a kora, a 21-stringed instrument played by griots: troubadours, historians, healers and diplomats who travel through West Africa. Mark Harris, a musician, writer, Associated Press Award winner, Black Student Union advisor, Lane Community College instructor and LCC’s substance abuse recovery program coordinator, seeks to carry the healing traditions of griots to Oregon.

“Mr. Harris is an amazing man,” D’Ante Carter, a member of the BSU, said. “He has to deal with people who are disapproving of people of color and he helps them, regardless of whatever agitation they may have towards him…It’s tough to help somebody who doesn’t want your help just because of the way you look.”

“Being a drug counselor is on the front lines,” Harris said, “whether I have skinhead clients or ex-Black Panthers in recovery. We’re all human. We all face some of the same problems. We all have our own racial-trauma, our sexualtrauma, our trauma-trauma.”

Part African-American, part Choctaw, Harris was born in 1954 and raised in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. His mother taught second, third, and fourth grades. His father, at 89, is still a psychiatrist.

“Dad learned to read at two. I learned to read at four,” he said.

When Harris was seven, he got on the Alice in Wonderland teacup ride at Disneyland and someone dropped a lit cigarette into his hoodie. His parents then had to explain the realities of racism.

“I had to wrap my Romper Room mind around: White people don’t like me? How do you tell? The people next door? No. They’re cool. The people on the playground? No. They’re cool. Well, how do I tell?” Harris said.

The drive to read people, as well as books, motivated Harris to study psychology against the wishes of his psychiatrist father.

“I wanted to understand why people are thinking the way they’re thinking, particularly why they hate us so much,” Harris said.

photo by Sterling S. Gonzalez / photojournalist

Mark Harris, LCC’s substance abuse recovery program coordinator, explains the benefits of recovery systems like the Wellbriety Movement, the Terms of Resistance, and the Nation of Islam 6 Steps. Harris is the only addiction recovery counselor at a community college in Oregon.

In the fourth grade, Harris was so far ahead of his class that his teacher asked Harris’ mother to stop teaching him how to read.

“Mom said, ‘Homey don’t play that. We are taking you out of that school and we’re bussing you to Bel Air,’” Harris said.

Harris was the only Black kid in his class. The other kids didn’t assault him with racial slurs because they expected “the stereotype of me to be violent” but they did engage in microaggressions like picking Harris last for every ball game, even though he played well.

For three weeks, Harris wished he were White. “Then I realized, wait, there’s nothing wrong with me. It’s them.

They’re screwed up.”

Harris became enraged the day after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, when his history teacher said he was glad King got killed “because he was a troublemaker” and his homeroom teacher agreed. “I used to smoke weed because of my rage,” Harris said.

Nonetheless, Harris did not become an addict. “I am the anomaly in this field because I’m not an addict or an

alcoholic,” he said, estimating that 80 percent of drug and alcohol counselors are former addicts.

“My main reason for not using is it gets in the way of my art,” Harris said. “It makes me lose focus and it doesn’t really get rid of the anger, so I’d rather use the anger to fuel further exploration.”

Among other things, Harris explores how addictive substances have been used to control people of color and how systems of recovery that take racial and sexual oppression into account, like the Wellbriety movement, the Terms of Resistance and the Nation of Islam 6 Steps, can help all people to unshackle themselves from addiction.

“When I teach an African-American class, I say the reason that White people should take this class is because what was done to us because of race is now being done to you for the money,” Harris said.

“White people are basically going through this opioid crisis that is now being caused by ‘Big Pharma’ and they have no idea what to do. Well, we do, because we faced that,” Harris said.

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OPINION

A tough pill to swallow Donny Morrison Columnist In the past three decades, we’ve seen the face of opiate addi c t i on change drastically. The stereotypical heroin junkie used to fit a mold.

They were dropouts and hippies, they were Vietnam veterans self-medicating to treat their PTSD, they were impoverished innercity dwellers with little to lose but much to gain from a warm opium buzz. They were easily identifiable and even easier to forget about. If they didn’t overdose, they hung around long enough to get a hefty prison sentence, and then it was out of sight, out of mind. Back then, there was little to no compassion for the junkie. This was before the cultural rebranding of opiate addiction that took place in the past decade. Nobody cared about compassion when the crack epidemic plagued the black community in the 1980s. It’s only when middle-class white people started dying that we really made a fuss.

Compassion, within the context of contemporary rehab centers, drug court, and 12 step programs, is only awarded to addicts who actively want to quit. Only once an addict has displayed this desire, which I can assure you, is very tough for a heroin addict to even imagine doing, will he be offered entrance into the compassion club of mainstream recovery. This model excludes a large portion of opiate addicts who will probably never seek the help they truly need, because it doesn’t exist.

So what does compassion look like for the junkie that doesn’t want to change? There seems to be this belief that all opiate addicts would choose recovery if given the resources to change, but people aren’t addicted to heroin for the same reasons as they used to be. The quick rise of over-prescribed and cheap prescription opiates in the early 2000s has given birth to a generation in constant withdrawal. Percocet is a party drug. Smokeable black tar heroin plagued the community I grew up in. Benzodiazepines such as Xanax and club drugs like MDMA and Ketamine are continually found containing heroin or synthetic opiates like Fentanyl.

It’s no longer associated with poverty and beatniks. It’s associated with the white middle class and suburbia, as well as the smaller towns that make up large portions of middle America.

Vancouver, British Columbia has the only clinic in North America that offers prescription grade heroin. According to an interview Scott Macdonald, the head physician at the Providence Crosstown Clinic, had with Vox in 2017, of the 200 patients treated at the Providence Crosstown they’ve had, not one single person has died while in their care.

The heroin these patients receive is of a consistent purity, thus making overdose considerably less likely. Vancouver isn’t the first city to implement what is known on the streets as “shooting galleries.” Switzerland embraced these kinds of treatments in the 1990s, following a rapid rise in heroin use during the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in a full-blown public health crisis concerning the spread of HIV and AIDS. According to The Swiss Federal Policy on Public Health, overdoses have steadily declined since the programs were introduced in the 1990s.

In Oregon, we have free needle exchange programs to help avoid the spread of disease.

These same programs also offer injectable Narcan, a drug administered during an overdose that reverses the effects of opiates, to anybody willing to sit through a ten-minute class. These programs that save lives recognize the inevitability of opiate addiction.

However, this is only a Band-aid for the much larger issue surrounding impurities in the street heroin that addicts are unwittingly overdosing on daily. Legalizing heroin and controlling it the same way we control pharmaceuticals is a logical solution to helping “junkies” navigate their addictions without landing on a “hot shot.”

This is what compassion looks like for the modern day opiate addict. The epidemic is vast enough to warrant a new approach. We can’t simply push treatment on every addict.

There aren’t enough resources available. We can’t simply lock everybody up. There aren’t enough jail cells. There isn’t a “one size fits all” solution to treating opiate addicts and recovery can look different depending on the person. Choosing a faith-based, 12-step program isn’t any more admirable than the person visiting the Methadone clinic for opiate maintenance treatment. It’s time we show compassion to all addicts, not just those who we deem worthy of it.

A letter from LCC President Marge Hamilton "A year ago, I observed the budget process from 3,000 miles away and became committed to help LCC approach planning and budgeting in a way that focused on the goals of the college and student success. This summer, I worked with our board and staff in a commitment to 1) begin the process earlier, 2) be more inclusive and transparent, and 3) focus on creating a mission-based budget aimed at improving student success within our means. The board committed to four principles to guide future budgeting: • • • • •

Invest in initiatives that drive student success.

Invest in growth opportunities to meet workforce demands.

Focus on mission:LCC can no longer do everything it has done in the past.

Be more planful in using one-time funds.

I have added a fifth goal: Work toward building a more sustainable budget for long-term planning.

All fall, the college community sent me and the vice president's ideas on how to improve the efficiency of the college, reduce barriers and improve student success. These ideas were discussed among the vice presidents with regard to how they met college mission, supported student success, or addressed regional economic growth.

I asked the vice presidents to vet these ideas with the executive team and then with those who were directly involved.

Ideas that reached the level of the budget proposal were based on recommendations coming out of program review to improve student success, patterns of escalating costs resulting in increased financial burden on students, potential for new program growth, or program/service redesign intended to increase student success and/or reduced costs. The current budget proposal is intended to address access and affordability,

student success and economic growth.

However, as ideas appeared in a budget proposal, the college community sprang into action,contacting me, board members and members of the executive team to please not make any changes to their departments,their benefits, their services or their programs. So, as your new president, it is time for me to ask you if this is what you think is best for your college? Budget proposals are public and being discussed. You have an opportunity to attend the next budget forum and identify what proposals will have the most impact on increasing the efficiency of the college and student success and what proposals will help us build a more sustainable longterm budget that will not put LCC in the position of cutting positions each year. The next forum is Thursday, March 15, 3-4:30 p.m. in CML 103.

I would rather see every department on campus work with their vice president toward thoughtful solutions to improve their efficiencies than a lack of participation in the solution. The most effective way to address the constant decline in enrollment is to address student success through retention and completion. Lane Community College needs to rally together to improve enrollment and retention. Schools that work together as a team to improve enrollment and retention are seeing results. By challenging ourselves to deliver programs and services more efficiently, we are making a commitment to free up desperately needed revenue to provide students more academic support services, update or enhance the programs we have, and create new programs needed to grow the economy in the region.

Many of you have asked why enrollment is down. We have become too comfortable responding that unemployment is down and students are working more hours. But if we dig a little deeper, there are strategies and initiatives being implemented all across the country that are improving enrollments at

other colleges in the same situation. These colleges have embraced putting students first. That means asking students when they can attend classes,and offering classes atless traditional times, in less traditional modalities like evening and weekend hybrid classes for non-traditional adults and developing a robust online education program to truly address access in our population of working adults. For a student friendly schedule to exist, we all need to reconsider what courses are offered, when they are offered, and how they are offered. We also need to ask ourselves if we are prepared to address the growing number of students who are taking their online courses elsewhere.

We also know that schools who take retention seriously are rewarded with increases in enrollments and graduation rates. Instructors who take attendance and contact students who aren’t attending will have higher retention rates. Schools that use early alert programs and assign proactive advisors to contact students after the first missed class will have higher retention rates.

Instructors who use class time to encourage students to register will increase enrollments, and schools that encourage full-time students to take at least 15 credits will see improvements in completion in their fulltime population. Schools that are able to let go of a reliance on one standardized test to determine college readiness and use multiple measures and co-requisite courses rather than requiring prerequisite developmental courses are demonstrating significant improvement in completion and success rates in their college level courses.We need to look at our barriers restricting students from taking college level courses and ask how other colleges have helped students overcome these same barriers.

Each and every one of us has an opportunity to increase the bottom line at LCC –by helping students achieve their completion goals. I am asking you to think about how we

serve students, how they see your program or service on our website, what they hear and what message is received when they call us or walk into your department. How are we perceived when they use our application process, ask for help in financial aid, walk up to a counter on any campus to pay a bill or ask for help in picking a major or career.

I am asking every instructor to take some time in class to ask students if they registered and if they know where to go and who to ask if they need help.

I am asking everyone who talks to a student to ask them what their program of study is, when they plan on graduating and if they are using a curriculum map to get them to that goal.Most important, I am asking everyone to encourage students to stay in school and not drop out. If we all work together to retain the students we have, help them register for courses offered at times they need; and if we tell them we expect them to complete and we believe that they can be successful, they will be successful and complete in much larger numbers.

As we move through the budget season, I ask you to work with your department or program to think about ways for the college to improve retention and enrollment, increase revenue,and offer services more efficiently. If you don’t agree with the ideas in the current proposal, then provide some alternate solutions. We need to be thinking about growing and thriving, and ways to be entrepreneurial if we are truly committed to our mission. Please send your ideas to the appropriate committee member, dean, director, or vice president who can bring your ideas to the table.

I thank you for your ideas, and I ask you to please put students first as we continue to build the FY19 budget.

Sincerely, Marge Margaret Hamilton, President Lane Community College"

6

stories that matter

theTorch // www.lcctorch.com

LIFESTYLE

Wednesday, March 14th, 2018

Wednesday, March 14th, 2018

theTorch // www.lcctorch.com

stories that matter

7

SPORTS

Lane falls short of final four Titans lose to top seed Warriors in second round of playoffs Noah Noteboom Reporter In the first game of the NWAC Championship tournament, the Titans faced off against #3 seed Skagit Valley, who had an overall record of 13-14 and a conference record of 8-4. Skagit Valley came into the tournament winning four of their previous six games. The red hot Titans entered the tournament on their own eight game winning streak.

Just up the road from Eugene in Seattle, Washington, the University of Oregon Ducks women’s basketball team won the PAC-12 tournament for the first time in school history Mar. 4. The Lane Titans will try to match that success and add another NWAC tournament trophy to their trophy case. The Titans last won the NWAC tournament in 2016, when they defeated the Peninsula Pirates 76-59.

This win streak includes one against the first seed Umpqua Riverhawks. In the final game of the first round, the Titans took care of business and defeated Skagit Valley 83-43 on a huge second-half surge.

After a competitive first quarter of play, Lane held just a two-point, 14-12 lead. Sophomore forward Sarah Hall had eight points on 4-4 shooting in the first quarter.

Rebounding was key for Lane to stay in the game, as the Titans out-rebounded the Cardinals 15-5.

At the end of the first half of play, the Titans had taken a 32-21 lead with Hall leading all scorers by 10 points along with seven rebounds. Freshman Taeli Carrillo followed closely behind with all nine of her points coming from behind the arc. Carrillo had the green light to shoot Thursday evening. The Titans made eight 3-pointers in the game, and Carrillo was responsible for seven of those eight makes.

The Titans scored 31 points in the third quarter, which also featured Skagit Valley Head Coach Steve Epperson getting thrown out of the game for receiving his second technical foul of the game. As Skagit Valley’s frustrations continued, the Titans poured it on and outscored the Cardinals 51-22 in the second half, and advanced to the

Elite Eight with a commanding 83-43 victory.

Their win against Skagit Valley set up a matchup against #1 seed Walla Walla Warriors the next day. The Warriors came into the Elite Eight fresh off a 41-point win against Highline. In arguably their biggest game of the season, the Titans came out of the gates on a 9-4 scoring run, but the Warriors fought their way back into the game and took a 27-21 lead going into the second quarter.

Walla Walla’s Teresa Acock seemed to be the go-to scorer for the Warriors, scoring 17 first-half points while Hall led the Titan-scoring charge with 12 at halftime. At the half, Walla Walla was up by just six points with a trip to the NWAC Final Four on the line.

Lane managed to keep up in the third quarter, but Walla Walla front court duo of Cierra Jo McKeown and Acock combined for 48 points and 12 3-pointers in an 85-62 victory. McKeown made four of five 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to push the Warriors into the Final Four.

Hall finished with 18 points and three rebounds while point guard Amber Lease recorded eight points, six assists and two steals in her final game as a Lane Titan. Sierra Carrier scored 12 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the losing effort.

LCC Women's 2018 Basketball Highlights The LCC Women's Basketball season came to an end on Mar. 8. The following images are highlights from the athletes' season.

Titans guard Amber Lease blocks out a Mt. Hood guard from getting the rebound after another Saints guard misses a shot on Jan. 20. Lease attended high school in Klamath Falls before coming to Lan

photo by Nathan S. Calkins / photojournalist

Titan sophomore Sarah Hall extends for a layup over Roadrunner center Megan Ely on Feb. 21. Lane’s win over Linn-Benton kept it tied with Clackamas for second place with two games remaining in the regular season.

photo by Sterling Gonzalez / photojournalist

Titan sophomore Asha Tullock pulls up from behind the 3-point line. This was her third 3-pointer in a row. Tullock scored a total of 14 points as the Titans beat Clark 102-46.

photo by Nathan S. Calkins / photojournalist