Volume 46, Issue 22 AprIl 1, 2011

By Jen AshenbernerThe Advocate

MHCC president John Sygielski said Tuesday he will work closely with his interim successor Michael Hay in May and June to prepare him to take over July 1.

“I will be spending the month of May with Michael to get him connected into the community,” said Sygielski.

He said Hay already is a member of “the president’s cabinet so there’s not a lot he has to learn,” he said.

After an internal search, the MHCC District board interviewed four candidates for the interim position and decided Mon-day that Hay, vice president of information technology and chief information officer, offered the opportunity for the smoothest transition when Sygielski leaves June 30.

“Michael has been with the college for several years and that gives us a running start,” said board member Brian Freeman. “He has one of the broadest backgrounds of anyone you will ever meet,” Freeman said.

Hay’s professional experience includes leadership roles at private industry compa-nies such as Pacific Bell, SBC Datacomm, Kaiser Permanente, and Gap Inc.

Freeman said Hay’s experience working in large companies and with large groups of people as well as large budgets gave him the upper hand over the other three candidates.

“They were all outstanding candidates,” Freeman said. “It was not an easy choice.”

Information about the other three can-didates could not be released due to confi-

dentiality, according Pamela Polito, human resources re-cruitment specialist.

Sygielski said, “Michael was my first hire when I came here in 2008. He is very capa-ble, respectable and will make a great leader.”

Asked what Hay’s goals are as interim president, Sygielski said, “I know he wants to keep the momentum going and what we’ve been able to do here the last couple of years.”

A community college grad-uate, Hay has an associate of art degree from Santa Barbara City College. He also earned a doctorate in education from University of Southern Cali-fornia, a master’s degree in communications from San Diego State University and a bachelor of arts degree in speech communication from University of Kansas.

Hay said in an interview Wednesday that his focus will be on MHCC’s organiza-tional health and how to offer students the best teaching and learning experience possible.

Regarding the challenges he faces com-ing in as the interim president, Hay said he is paying attention to what’s happening and is aware he will need to handle the budget

issues, the district board facing four seats up for election as well as doing his part to make a smooth transition when Sygielski leaves MHCC.

Sygielski will become president July 1 of

the Harrisburg (Pa.) Area Community Col-lege system

Asked what his feelings are about the current full-time faculty contract negotia-

Mediation fruitless in faculty talks; next step is uncertainBy Jordan TichenorThe Advocate

Despite some progress made during full-time faculty contract bargaining on March 16 during finals week, subse-quent bargaining sessions March 22 and Tuesday made no progress and further talks have been halted.

Asked if the MHCC District board would move to im-pose a contract, Randy Stedman, the labor relations con-sultant hired by the board to bargain the contract for the administration, said in a Wednesday email, “The 30-cool-ing off period has ended. The board has not yet decided its next step yet.”

The cooling off period ended March 24, meaning that with a five-day notice, the board may impose their last best offer — which would unilaterally establish new working conditions — and the faculty, with a 10-day notice, could go on strike.

Sara Williams, the faculty’s chief negotiator, said Wednesday there have been no talks of taking a strike vote on the faculty side.

“We’re still hoping for a solution,” she said.While both sides agree the faculty indicated a willingness

to move in the areas of health benefits and salary, no agree-ments were reached, and there has been no movement from either side on the issues of retiree health benefits, summer teach and extra teach.

Williams said, “The faculty continued to move dramati-cally toward the board on benefits and salary, and the board

insisted movement on everything. That’s not going to happen.”

Stedman said, “The association has refused since the beginning of negotiations to consider extra and summer teach pay that is closer to what comparator colleges pay. Also, the faculty continues to de-mand a retiree health benefit that is more than we settled at with the classified association. The college sees no reason why the faculty de-serves a better retiree health benefit than the classified employees.”

The faculty’s proposal on health benefits consisted of a 13 percent employee contribution, while the salary proposal entailed freezing the first year COLA (cost of liv-ing adjustment), with a 1 percent COLA the following year. Williams said the faculty was also willing to accept the board’s arrangement of the salary schedule.

Stedman said, “They talked about being willing to ac-cept the same salary and benefits package as the Classified Association accepted. Had they made such a proposal, we likely would have signed a tentative agreement on those is-sues. We could at least get those issues off the table.”

But Williams said, “When the faculty are offering concessions, negotiations seem to be going well. When the faculty stop and wait for the board to respond, they break down. The faculty aren’t going to offer anything else until the board responds.”

Some members of the faculty as-sociation have questioned how the board has determined the college has a $5.5 million shortfall, an issue addressed in a Wednesday budget presentation by MHCC President John Sygielski.

Sygielski attributed the shortfall to an increase in the PERS rate (ac-counting for an extra expense of $1.8 million), an increase in health insurance premiums of 12 percent

and an increase in debt service, or payments on money bor-rowed by the college. Sygielski said the college is also pro-jecting enrollment to be flat for the 2011-2012 school year.

Williams said of the enrollment projections, “We’ve had 20 percent enrollment growth in the last two years. That’s not a reasonable assumption.”

As of Thursday morning, no more bargaining sessions had been scheduled.

"When the faculty are offering concessions, negotiations seem to be going well. When the faculty stop and wait for the board to respond, they break down."

Sara WilliamsFull-time faculty chief negotiator

Interim president Hay during the 10 a.m. Thursday IT deptartment meeting with a guest speaker who was giving strategies to improve the department in the future.

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

7Baseball

Team heads to Eugene Saturday

BudgetSygielski presents plans64

See Hay on page 7

Board taps insider for interim president

Forensics Finish 14th in national

tournament

2 OPINION THE ADVOCATEAPRIL 1, 2011

Editors-in-ChiefJen ashenberner &Jordan tichenor

Sports EditorJon Fuccillo

Living Arts EditorDavid Gambill

Assistant Living Arts EditorAnevay Torrez

Photo EditorDevin Courtright

Advertising ManagerDavid Guida

Assistant News EditorJohn Tkebuchava

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Opinions expressed in columns, letters to the editor or advertisements are the views of the author and do not necessarily refl ect those of The Advocate or MHCC.

ReportersJill-Marie Gavin

Chanel Hill

Riley Hinds

Laura Knudson

Yuca Kosugi

Mike Mata

Kylie Rogers

Mario Rubio

Shelby Schwartz

Jessica Winters

EditorialA lot can happen in just one week

Budget cuts to shut down Steps to Success Program By Yuca KosugiThe Advocate

Steps to Success, an MHCC wel-fare-to-work program, will end in June after 23 years because of budget cuts by the Department of Human Services that fund the program.

There is a “likely layoff of approxi-mately 50 college employees,” MHCC President John Sygielski said March 21 in an email informing the college staff of the news.

Steps to Success is a regional work-force developing program run through MHCC as a part of the grant-funded program called JOBS (Job Opportuni-ties and Basic Skills) by the Oregon Department of Human Services that helps people get back into the work-force.

The program, with offi ces located on Stark Street and 122nd Avenue, is scheduled to close its doors June 30.

“I am very proud of our MHCC

STS staff,” said Carol Foster, the di-rector of the Steps to Success program. “We continue to perform our highest level and quality of work, achieving outstanding results and we continue to demonstrate our commitment to the families we serve and to our partners.”

Sygielski also pointed out that MHCC had routinely exceeded the tar-geted 109 job placements per month with the latest month being 133.

Due to Gov. John Kitzhaber’s bud-get proposal for the next biennium, the Department of Human Services is planning to cut 60 percent of funding to the JOBS program.

“In the governor’s proposal, he is recommending that the amount of time that clients can be on TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) be reduced from fi ve years to 18 months,” said Foster. She also said that many clients take two years or more of help and training to become ready for work.

On March 14, Foster learned that local Department of Human Services district manager Jerry Burns decided that if the JOBS program is funded suffi ciently in the Multnomah County, the department will give the contract to PCC Steps to Success. PCC may not work with MHCC but things are not yet offi cial.

Sygielski said the department may choose to make PCC the prime provid-er of the JOBS program around Mult-nomah and Washington counties. The Department of Human Services will make fi nal decisions in mid-April.

Since Steps to Success is funded through federal money from TANF, location of residence determines the branch an individual may participate in instead of enrollment in a school, said Foster. She said there are em-ployment training programs funded by WIA (Workforce Investment Act) that students may rely on as well those that MHCC offers.

News

Spring is in the air and stuff is happening all over MHCC, as it should be. A week may not seem like a long time for so much to happen but The Advocate would like to fi ll readers in on what’s been going on.

First, we are no longer in such a bind that we are looking at summer with no college president. That’s right, the MHCC District board has select-ed an interim college president.

MHCC’s vice-president of information technol-ogy and chief information offi cer, Dr. Michael Hay has been chosen as the space fi ller when Dr. John Sygielski fl ies the coop. Although Hay has not been a very visible face on campus, hasn’t been closely involved with faculty and students and many observers believe there weren’t many op-tions for obvious selections in an internal search, he does have extensive organizational experience and deserves the cooperation to make the most of his time as president.

While the search for a new, if temporary, presi-dent is over, contract negotiations continue to drag on. Although there was some progress made initially during fi nals week of winter term, ad-ditional bargaining over the last two weeks pro-duced no results in any direction.

The board and the faculty association cannot fi nd common ground on extra teach, summer teach and retiree health benefi ts. We’re past the 30-day cooling off period, meaning that with a fi ve-day notice, the administration may impose their last best offer and, with 10 days notice, a strike is a possibility on the faculty’s side. However, neither side has made a decision. No more meetings have been set. The board insists it will not move on its positions, and the faculty says the same.

So where does that leave us? Apparently, the same place we’ve been in for

the entirety of these negotiations. Nowhere. Ex-

cept now there’s an explosion of emotion waiting to rock MHCC, and there’s a possibility that the smallest spark will set it off.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: some-thing needs to happen to avoid a strike. No one on either side can honestly believe that a strike will be better or more reasonable than trying to make concessions. Both parties need to keep in mind that a strike at this point will be a major disrup-tion and cause a ripple effect that will not bode well for MHCC.

Much of the negotiation talking points have been based on the board’s projections of next year’s budget, which is nearing the deadline of when it needs to be balanced (June 30). MHCC President John Sygielski addressed the budget in a presentation Wednesday where subtle remarks were made by faculty about the “confusion” sur-rounding the $5.5 million shortfall and proposed faculty layoffs. Hats off to full-time math instruc-tor Jack Green for posing a question regarding the college’s plan to install a new telephone system. He said, “With the old phone you could pick it up and call me, with the new phone I’m assuming you can pick it up and call me.” However, we also have to give credit to our newly selected interim college president for his response, “A telephone system is critical to the operation of the college.” Well, duh.

We said stuff is happening. We didn’t say things were resolved. We have a temporary col-lege president to fi ll the position of a permanent college president. The administration and faculty have still gotten nowhere in contract negotiations and we are still facing the possibility that a strike might disrupt spring quarter. Last, but not least, although the budget is nowhere ready we encour-age the administration to continue to look under every rock to fi nd solutions to the problem.

APRIL 1, 2011 LIVING ARTS 3

Tuesday, April 5

C a l e n d a r

Wednesday, April 6

Thursday, April 7

Friday, April 8

Monday, April 4

Billy Elliot the Musical 7:30 p.m. Keller Auditorium 222 SW Clay St., Portland Baseball game v.s Chemeketa 1 p.m. (2)

Annual high school exhibit culture shapers contest 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Visual Arts Gallery

Kit Garoutte on guitar O'Connors Vault 7850 SW Capitol Highway, Portland Softball game v.s Chemeketa 3 p.m. (2)

Planetarium Sky Theater to show 'Guide to the Spring Sky' 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.Gart Swanson exhibit in the Fireplace Gallery 8 a.m. -7 p.m.

Soul'd Out Music Festival 7 p.m. Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside, Portland

High school art to hang in the MHCC gallery

By Shelby SchwartzThe Advocate

Student directors have been honing their skills in class for “Beyond Thera-py” and “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” both which open later this spring.

Part-time theater instructor Valory Lawrence teaches Theories of Directing. “The class has been working on the plays all winter, on analysis and directing styles and they are going to spread their wings and fl y next term,” Lawrence said. “None of them have directed before. They are doing the whole process from beginning to end.”

“ ‘Beyond Therapy’ is a play by Christopher Durang. A satirical look at ther-apy, the story line is that Bruce and Prudence meet on a blind date, each is in therapy and they try to act according to their therapists’ recommendations. The therapists’ are really horrible therapists’, scatterbrained.” Lawrence said.

Because the plays are student-directed this year, there will be two; both are full-length plays.

In the play “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” “Jean picks up a cell phone belonging to a dead man in a café. He becomes involved in the life the dead man left be-hind.” Lawrence said.

She said the college made the play selections prior to this year.

“I’m there as an adviser, to make sure they do well the fi rst time out of the gate.” Lawrence said, “If they run into any problems, I’m their safety net.” she said.

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” will be directed by two students, Lawrence said the play has been split into two parts and each student will direct half the play. Three students will direct “Beyond Therapy.” Each will direct one-third of the play.

“Dead Man” will run slightly under two hours while “Beyond Therapy” will run slightly over two hours. Both plays will have a cast of six people.

“There is a chance there will be double casting.” Lawrence said of the pos-sibility of students performing in both plays.

“They are all theater majors and a variety of ages and experience.” Lawrence said, “We have a professional actress in the class, somebody who’s done com-munity theater for 30 years and some are fresh out of high school,” she said.

“We have light designers, stage managers and actors trying to understand the art form of directing better.” Lawrence said.

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” will be performed April 28-30 at 7:30 p.m. “Beyond Therapy” will be performed May 12,13,14 at 7:30 p.m. and May 15 at 2 p.m. Both productions will be performed in the Studio Theater.

First-time student directors will put on spring plays

By Shelby SchwartzThe Advocate

Genesis will host a concert featuring vocal jazz artist and Genesis alumnus Emily Braden April 8 at 7:30 p.m. in the Visual Arts Theater.

“Last spring was the fi rst time we’d had her (perform on campus). This year we brought her back for some-thing else. Last year it was for a high school vocal jazz festi-val in May; this year it is for an MHCC vocal jazz festival,” Genesis director Dave Bar-duhn said.

Braden graduated from MHCC in 2002 and is a jazz singer in New York City. The concert will feature Genesis, who will open for Braden. Other musicians in atten-dance include drummer Todd Strait and Genesis alumnus pianist Dan Gaynor and bass-

ist Will Amend. All will back up Braden.

“She’s becoming a very suc-cessful performer and we like to show off our alums but I want to take advantage of her before I can’t afford her any-more,” Barduhn said.

Genesis member Kanda Mbenza-Ngoma said, “I’m ex-cited because Emily Braden is very inspirational, I really respect that the music she writes is very personal and she’s able to do that with great musical intergrity.”

On Saturday, April 9, Gen-esis will host a Vocal Jazz Summit featuring vocal jazz groups from 10 Oregon and Washington colleges.

The colleges include Cen-tral Oregon Community Col-lege, Green River CC, Clacka-mas CC, Eastern Washington University, Bellevue CC, Clark

CC, Edmonds CC, Colum-bia Basin College and Central Washington Uni-versity

“Just in Oregon and Washington to have these great vocal jazz programs is amazing.” Barduhn said.

The summit is not a competition but a chance for jazz groups to perform together and for each oth-er.

Mbenza-Ngoma said, “I’m excited to see what other groups are bring-ing to the table. It’s in-teresting to see young people dive into jazz and see what things they are learning and how they in-terpret it.”

Friday’s event is $10 for students and $15 for the general public.

Genesis to host and participate in two events next weekend

Photo contributed by Emily Braden

By Jessica Winters The Advocate

The selected artwork of high school students will be displayed at the annual Culture Shapers Contest in the Visual Arts Gallery from April 7 to April 28.

The contest is held to encourage high school students in their artwork and allow them to meet with other artists.

The categories of artwork entered in the contest are drawing, painting, mixed media, ceramics, sculpture, photography and printmaking.

The art will be judged by Kip Caswell, Kathy Allegri and An-gela Passalacqua on originality, technical skill, composition and use of elements, emergence of a personal vision and voice.

A reception is April 7 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. with awards pre-sented at 7 p.m at the Visual Arts Gallery.

Emily Braden will show o� her vocal talents next Friday at the Visual Arts Gallery.

APRIL 1, 20114 SPORTS

“Dolman (is) doing his thing, pounding the zone, challenging hitters and coming out on top at the end of the game. He isn't an overpowering lefty,

but a guy that that knows how to work the hitters and keep them off balance. Dolman (is) doing his thing, pounding the zone, challenging hitters and

coming out on top at the end of the game.”

Matt Pechmann

Saints rely on pitching in preseason

photo By Jon fuccillo/the advocate

Sophomore starting pitcher Nate Dolman leads the Saints with a 2-0 record to go along with his 0.82 ERA in 11 innings.w

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

Fourth-year head coach Bryan Donohue continues to cross his fi ngers that the Saints baseball team will have better luck with Moth-er Nature sooner rather than later.

The Saints were the last of 28 teams in the NWAACC to take the diamond during a pre-season where they only played eight of their 13 scheduled games.

The Saints (4-3-1) fi nished the preseason on a high note, picking up back-to-back road victories March 26 and 27, beating the Blue Mountain Timberwolves 3-2 and Columbia Basin Hawks 3-2.

“That was frustrating in the fi rst week be-cause we just wanted to play,” Donohue said Tuesday after their doubleheader with the Linn-Benton Roadrunners was rained out. “But now that we have got some games under our belt, it has been fi ne.”

Sophomore starting pitcher Matt Pech-mann said, “Every time we have a game, I swear it rains. If this continues, we could end up playing every few days and that will take a toll on our pitchers’ arms.”

Pechmann is 0-1 for the Saints in three ap-pearances including two starts. He has a team-best 0.00 ERA in 11 innings of action with 14 strikeouts.

In the Saints eight games, Donohue is still waiting for his young bats to get going. The Saints are only batting .215 as a team. The offense has only averaged three runs per con-test. Donohue believes those offensive num-bers will rise and that his pitchers will con-tinue to handle their business, as the pitching staff has carried its weight with a team ERA of 1.90

Thus far, the Saints starters and bullpen deserve all of the credit for the wins. Fresh-man relief pitcher and closer Christian Ban-nister has picked up three saves in three op-portunities. The Saints saves record is held by former all-star closer Brookes Lindsley, who recorded 10 in 2006.

“Since I have been here (2008), if we score fi ve runs (or more) we win 98 percent of our games,” Donohue said. “The magic number

in NCAA with metal bats is seven (runs). We haven’t come up with the big hits yet. I’m not concerned with our team batting average. It takes time.”

Donohue said his pitchers are right where he expected them to be with so many return-ers and some fresh arms among the freshman class.

“We knew from the fi rst day of fall we would pitch well,” Donohue said. “The biggest telling numbers are 15 walks in eight games. That’s incredible. The change from last year has been night and day. Last year we walked too many guys.”

In 71 innings, the Saints have given up 28 runs, but only 15 were earned. Sophomore Nate Dolman has dominated the competition on the hill and is 2-0 with a 0.82 ERA.

“All I know is that I am in the rotation and that all of the guys in the rotation are capable of being the No. 1,” Dolman said Tuesday. “We have complete faith that every guy on the staff can go out and put us in a position to win.

“It’s important for me and the sophomore (pitchers) to get off to solid starts to help take the pressure off of the young guys and the rest of the ballclub since (our) hitters generally know that we will hold the other team to a low score. Not to say that they can just relax and be satisfi ed with getting two runs, but know-ing they don’t need to score 20 to win.”

Pechmann said, “Dolman (is) doing his thing, pounding the zone, challenging hitters and coming out on top at the end of the game. He isn’t an overpowering lefty, but a guy who knows how to work the hitters and keep them off balance.”

Overall, Donohue likes where his team is and their willingness to learn and move on as a unit with Southern Region games about to start.

“All of the mistakes we have made, we ad-dress them after the game,” Donohue said. “It’s not like we’re trying to reinvent the wheel here. There is no doubt in my mind these guys will learn from their mistakes.”

The Saints travel to Eugene Saturday for a doubleheader with the Lane Titans (5-7). First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.

After slow start, Saints hope to rebound in South actionSophomore ace Chelsea Schriber pitches during last season’s NWAACC C h a m p i o n s h i p run at Delta Park. � e Saints are o� to a 2-4 start a� er being selected as the early favorite in the NWAACC preseason poll. Schriber is 1-1 with a 2.50 ERA.

file photo

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

The MHCC women’s softball team has started its pre-season with a 2-4 record.

The Saints, which over the break played in the Preseason Tournament March 18, 19 and 20, relied on returning sophomore pitcher Chelsea Schriber in game one of a double-header March 18 against the Walla Walla Warriors. Schriber, is 1-1 with a 2.50 ERA, had nine strikeouts leading the Saints to a 3-2 victory over the Warriors.

Game two saw freshman pitcher Kendra Groom in her fi rst outing on the mound for the Saints, but the team failed to sweep the day, fall-ing 10-5 to the Warriors, who are 10-4.

“We need to get comfortable with our new line-up,” said head coach Meadow McWhorter. “We are continually working on being aggressive. They have prepared, every single one of them are better ball players than they were in the fall. Now it’s time to put the pieces together and make things happen,”

On March 19, the Saints faced the Columbia Basin Hawks, who are off to a strong 10-6 start

on the season with a second seed position in the Eastern Region. The Saints fell 8-6 to the Hawks.

The Saints, who due to weather have not seen much time on the fi eld during practices, picked up steam in game two of the doubleheader and rallied to a 7-2 victory over the Everett Trojans who are 5-9 on the season so far.

The Saints have back-to-back NWAACC cham-pionships under their belts and other teams in the NWAACC seem to be gunning for them. “Ev-ery year is a new start,” McWhorter said. “The past is the past. Our only focus is the task before us. One pitch at a time, one game at a time.”

On March 20, the Warriors defeated the Saints 10-8, putting the Warriors 2-1 over the Saints in the tournament. The Saints closed the tourna-ment with a 9-1 loss against the Wenatchee Val-ley Community College Knights, who are 10-2 on the season.

The Saints were scheduled to play in the West Inter-Region Tournament March 26 and 27, but it rained out. The Saints will play the fi rst dou-ble-header of the regular season at home April 6 against Chemeketa Community College at 3 p.m.

APRIL 1, 2011 SPORTS 5

Pure madness when breaking down the Final Four

By Jon FuccilloThe Advocate

Shocking. Bizarre. Unheard of. Impossible.These phrases come to mind when refl ecting on

the “madness” of this year’s men’s NCAA basket-ball tournament, also known as the Big Dance.

It’s boiled down to two Cinderella teams (under-dogs) and two top-notch programs battling it out for one common goal – a national championship trophy and bragging rights.

To think, just two people in the entire country that fi lled out Final Four predictions on espn.com actually got it right in their guesses and non-logi-cal thinking process., That’s two out of more than three million fan votes prior to the beginning of the tournament.

Plain and simple, this has been the wildest tour-nament in recent memory. Not a single No. 1 or No. 2 seed remains after the games over spring break.

While some were partying it up in hot spot spring break joints such as Mexico and other re-sorts, along with beach and camping trips, my eyes were glued to the television. The HD added an even better element to the buzz-beater games and big-time victories.

In one semifi nal matchup, No. 3 Connecticut and Kemba Walker will square off against No. 4 Kentucky and Portland’s freshman phenom Ter-rence Jones. In the other semifi nal game, No. 8 Butler returns to the fi nal four for the second con-secutive year. They will depend on the leadership of senior forward Matt Howard along with big-shot junior and Kentucky native Shelvin Mack, as they square off against a hungry and very unfamiliar No. 11 Virginia Commonwealth, who have been the biggest surprise of the tournament.

Am I surprised that No. 8 and No. 11 seeded teams are still around? Not really. It all makes sense and it’s starting to become a trend as these big-time programs keep recruiting players who are one-and-done type of players. These top high school recruits play their freshman campaign and then depart for their chance to earn millions in the National Basketball Association, while the Cinderella teams have four-year players who gain maturity and a sense of chemistry. It’s not a slap in the face to the North Carolinas of the world, but it’s plain and simple: recruit kids who are go-ing to stick around and receive an education. That doesn’t sound too crazy, does it?

The NCAA will have to get together with the NBA for the millionth time and fi nd a fair and rea-sonable system that will make things right. I’m sick and tired of the debates and seeing young, talented kids wasting their time making poor decisions.

One thing is for sure: Either a No. 8 or No. 11 seeded team will play for the national champion-ship come Monday in Houston.

web photo

From le� : Virginia Commonwealth's Jamie Skeen, Kentucky Wildcats' Josh Harrellson . Ronald Nored of the Butler Bulldogs and Connecticut Huskies' Kemba Walker.

By John TkebuchavaThe Advocate

Sophomore Zach Young won the NWAACC athlete of the week after posting a 53.05 time in the 400-meter hurdles.

Young was honored after plac-ing second at the Oregon Pre-view meet March 19 and is the third Saints male to be so hon-ored in the fi rst three weeks of the season. Young was also hon-ored back in week one.

The meet, hosted by the Uni-versity of Oregon at Hayward Field, was for qualifying athletes who met the minimum stan-dards of the meet.

Young, one of the several MHCC athletes at the meet, nar-rowly missed fi rst to a Univer-sity of Oregon runner by 0.01 of a second.

“Young, he monstered,” said head coach Matt Hart. “An un-believable performance. He’s leading the NWAACC in both hurdles races.”

Other standout Saint per-f o r m a n c e s i n c l u d e d s o p h o m o r e W h i t n e y S w e n s o n ’ s eighth-place fi nish in the 100-me-ter hurdles with a time of 15.82 sec-onds, sopho-more Chris Zeller’s fourth-place fi nish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.35 seconds, and the men’s 4x100-meter team, which con-sisted of Young, Zeller and fresh-men Nick Mulick and Justin Oliveri, placing second with a time of 42.48 seconds. Sopho-more Spencer Marr placed sixth in the long jump with a jump of 6.37 meters and sophomore Ty-ler Callahan fi nished third in the javelin with a throw of 60.94 meters.

“Both 4x100 meter teams did well and we still have tons of room for improvement,” said Hart.

“I liked the experience since it was such a big fi eld with lots of (athletes competing). It was dif-ferent than the old high school meets but after being there for a little while, I felt more comfort-

able,” said Marr on the meet.“I did not accomplish what I

was going for by scratching all my jumps but one in the long jump. But I have to move on to the next meet.”

Swenson said, “I felt really good. I placed so much better in hurdles that I thought I would. I ended up getting fi fth overall in the 100-meter hurdles, which was a huge success for me per-sonally. And personally, it wasn’t overwhelming for me. I just knew I had to do my thing and I would be fi ne.

“I was very honored as a fresh-man to be able to go and compete there in multiple events and still do well. I can’t wait to go back.”

Hart said both conditions and competition for the meet were tough.

“The weather, believe it or not, wasn’t really great. Psycho-logically, it was challenging for some. They were over stimulated and over excited,” he said.

“It’s good because we get this nervous meet (feeling) out of our system,” he said, adding it will help “calm them down” for fu-ture big meets with tough com-petition.

Next up, the Saints will com-pete in Saturday’s Shotwell Classic meet at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash.

“We’ve got some people eli-gible now that weren’t eligible before. We have our team now,”

said Hart.“We had a handful of individ-

uals join during spring,” he said, adding that every new team member showed promise.

“I’m excited how they will compete in uniform,” he said, calling the Shotwell Classic their “fi rst full team meet.”

Asked whether the team had progressed as he expected, Hart said, “We really don’t look at it that way. I was a little worried coming out of winter break, but we’re about where we need to be.”

Hart also mentioned that in-juries, something that has been an issue for the team since the beginning of the season, have gotten better overall.

“The aches and pains are go-ing away. The quality of training is going up pretty high,” he said. “Some individuals, like Young, exceeded my expectations.”

Though the Saints track team has had its successes, Hart said there are still things to work on. “You need to com-pete as if it’s a self-expres-sion and have fun,” he said.

photo contributed by matt hart

Saints sophomore Zach Young prepares to hand the baton to freshman Nick Mulick during the 4x100-meter relay at the Oregon Preview meet March 19 at Hayward Field in Eugene.

Matt Hart

Hurdler snags top NWAACC honor

Saints Track and Field

Next up:The Saints compete in Saturday's Shotwell Classic meet at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash.

For meet results, go to www.advocate-online.net

APRIL 1, 20116 NEWS

By Devin CourtrightThe Advocate

The MHCC forensics team fi nished 14 out of 84 community colleges and universities — and third out of the community colleges, earning an “excel-lent” award —in the 2011 Pi Kappa Delta National tournament that concluded Saturday at the MHCC campus.

Shannon Valdivia, coach of the MHCC forensics team, said the team won “over 25 awards,” includ-ing four “Superior,” 10 “Excellent” and 13 “Good” awards. The team also earned second place in the “Individual Events Sweepstakes Race” and third in the “Debate Sweepstakes.”

Valdivia said she was “thrilled” with her team’s performance.

“I knew we had the potential to do well and they came through. It was a complete team effort,” said Valdivia. “Fourteenth in the country out of 84. Not too shabby for a tiny community college in Gresh-am, Oregon. I’m not complaining.”

Valdivia said two MHCC forensics students, Dal-ton Hellman and Jeff Lewis, were “honored” to par-ticipate in one of the eight event showcases for be-ing “superior” in their events. Hellman participated in the informative showcase and was named the top superior (national champion) in the event. Lewis was in the extemporaneous speaking showcase and fi nished as the national runner-up in the event.

Asked how he felt about winning six awards, one a national championship, freshman Dalton Hell-man said, “It was cool; it was wonderful to have that experience and do that well. It was fun.”

Valdivia said four student competitors who are considered “superior” performers were allowed to

participate in the following eight event showcases: persuasive speaking, programmed oral, editorial impromptu, extemporaneous speaking, informative speaking, prose interpretation, impromptu and the IPDA Debate.

The debates took place in 90 classrooms through-out the MHCC campus. Some rounds were based on elimination, while others were accumulative.

The semifi nals, for example, consisted of two teams of four students with a three-judge panel. The judges did not know of the topics until presented by the tournament director. The tournament director handed off topics to the teams by asking them to pick a side of the coin fl ipped by the director.

Hellman and Kevin Craig were partners in the World/British Parliamentary semifi nal round but “narrowly missed” getting into the fi nal round, said Valdivia. The duo, however, did receive an “Excel-lent” award for their efforts, she said.

“Those guys busted their butts,” said Valdivia. “I am so proud of them for getting into the top eight. That’s just fantastic.”

Valdivia also said former MHCC forensics stu-dent Sam Pagano competed in the tournament as the captain of the Boise State University squad, which fi nished fi rst and won the national champi-onship out of the 84 schools. She said Pagano per-sonally earned showcase/superior honors in poetry, superiors in programmed oral, interpretation, infor-mative speaking, open IDPA debate, and excellent in impromptu, extemporaneous speaking, and leg-islative debate.

“Boise overwhelmingly won fi rst place,” said Valdivia. “It was the Boise show.”

Valdivia said other schools known for their foren-

sics programs that participated in the tournament included the University of Michigan, Texas A&M, the College of Western Idaho and Webster Univer-sity. Valdivia said there were 760 competitors from 27 states and 850 awards were given out at the awards ceremony at the Red Lion Hotel in Janzen Beach. The College of Western Idaho and Clark Col-lege shared fi rst place among community colleges, earning “superior” awards.

Valdivia said Chartwells, the college food ser-vice provider, stayed open later than usual to feed the competitors and created special menus for the tournament. She said MHCC facilities employees, administrators, faculty members, and student vol-unteers helped out in the event, but added that her staff (three work-study students and assistant couch Elizabeth Kinnaman) mostly administered the tournament. The MHCC forensics team and Boise State helped clean up the campus on Sunday, she said.

“We are proud to represent an institution that can come together and put on an event this size,” said Valdivia. “It took a village and we did it.”

Valdivia said the next major forensics tourna-ment is going to be the regional tournament, April 28 through May 1, at Columbia Basin College in Tri-Cities, Washington. In addition, Hellman, Craig, Zach Nicholas and Jeff Lewis will leave next week for the community college nationals at the Hilton Hotel in Stamford, Conn.

Valdivia said the forensics team has a tradition where there’s no team captain because their motto is, “We’re all in it together, we support each other, and we back each other up. We go up as a team and we go down as a team.”

Pi Kappa Delta ResultsPersuasive Speaking: Dalton Hellman won the “Excellent” award and Jeff Lewis won the “Good” award. Programmed Oral: Interpretation, Zach Nicholas and Jordan Bradford won the “Good” awards. Editorial Impromptu: Lewis, a runner-up for the National Championship, won the “Superior” award, while Rob Sepich, Hellman, and Nicholas won the “Good” awards. Extemporaneous Speaking: Lewis, a runner-up for the National Championship and the “Showcase Participant,” won the “Superior” award, while Hellman and Sepich won the “Excellent” awards and Nicholas and Ryan Rhoads won the “Good” awards. Informative Speaking: Hellman, the “showcase participant, won the National Championship and Lewis won the “Good” award. Prose Interpretation: Nicholas won the “Good” award. Impromptu: Hellman won the “Superior” award and Nicholas won the “Excellent” award. Gabriella Guerrero, Lewis, Kevin Craig, and Rhoads won the “Good” awards. IPDA DebateOpen Division: Lewis won the “Excellent” award and Sepich won the “Good” award. Novice Division: Guerrero, a semi-fi nalist, won the “Superior” award. She was also noted as the “Top Speaker” of the whole tournament. Bradford won the “Excellent” award. World/British Parliamentary Style: Hellman and Kevin Craig, semi-fi nalists, won the “Excellent” award. NPDA: Lewis and Nicholas won the “Good” award.

Forensics places 3rd in nationals among community collegesPartners Kevin Craig (le� ) and Dalton Hellman prep for the semi-� nals in World/British Parliamentary event. Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

Power outage at end of finals week due to old electrical systemBy Mario RubioThe Advocate

The power outage that closed the Gresham cam-pus on Friday of fi nals week was due to a faulty ca-ble splice, MHCC Director of Communication Mag-gie Huffman said this week.

The March 18 outage was the third of this school year and Huffman says there could be more.

“Since the electrical system is more than 40 years old, it has outlived its life expectancy twice,” Huff-

man said in an e-mail. Northwest Natural Gas Co. inspected the faulty

lines to assure there were no gas leaks, Huffman said. Electrical crews repaired the service and pow-er was restored to the entire campus on 5:51 p.m. that same day, including the Industry Technology and Visual Arts buildings, which had been without power for one week at that time.

“It is unclear how much these outages are costing the college or how long till the next one will occur,”

said Huffman. MHCC President John Sygielski said in a budget

meeting Wednesday the district board had approved the college to take a $6 million loan to be used on the electrical system and the roof.

In a March 4 article of The Advocate, Director of Facilities Management Dick Byers said, “The pro-cess of trying to fi gure out the root of the power out-age could cause the campus to lose power again.” Byers could not be reached for an interview this week.

APRIL 1, 2011 NEWS 7

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By Jordan Tichenor & Jen AshenbernerThe Advocate

Questions about contract negotia-tions and the budget shortfall became the main focus after a budget presen-tation Wednesday by MHCC President John Sygielski.

“Maybe before we leave (today), we’ll have the budget taken care of,” said Sygielski. “We have between now and April 20 to propose a budget to the board.”

During the question and answer por-tion of the meeting, one person asked why Sygielski has not been involved in the current full-time faculty contract ne-gotiations, considering his involvement in previous negotiations.

“You said, ‘the next time we do this, we can do it in an hour,” said the audi-ence member.

Sygielski said, “It’s highly unusual for a president to be at the bargaining table.” He said he and the board decided prior to the beginning of bargaining it would be better if he wasn’t involved.

In his opening, Sygielski advised that nothing he would propose at the meet-ing was fi nal and that he understands there is always going to be “suspicion and emotion” about things said in the proposal. He said he will be engaging in discussions the next couple weeks with the board, faculty and holding budget forums.

One questioner asked how the board determined the $5.5 million shortfall, considering increased enrollment num-bers.

Heidi Franklin, vice president of ad-

ministrative services, explained that al-though MHCC has increased enrollment, projected state funding has been cut.“As a result, total revenue stays about the same,” she said.

In his address, Sygielski offered several reasons the college is facing a $5.5 million shortfall. A combination of cut state funding, projection of fl at en-rollment, a $1.8 million increase in ex-penses for P.E.R.S. (the state retirement system), a 12 percent increase in health benefi ts, and an increase in debt servic-es are behind the projected shortfall, he said.

Questions also arose about the re-serve fund when one audience member pointed out they didn’t understand how the college could be facing a $5.5 million shortfall when there is $4.2 million in savings available. He said it “looks like smoke and mirrors.”

Franklin said the college could spend the money in the reserve fund to pay the expenses, but that would leave no funds available in the reserve for “rainy days.”

Sygielski said several full-time fac-ulty members will receive layoff notices Thursday, but that he is very confi dent the college will not have to honor those notices.

Another audience member asked if there were plans to cut faculty members, and how many administrative positions were being cut as well.

The president responded stating cut-ting administrative positions was still being discussed but reiterated he was looking forward to making sure the fac-ulty cuts do not happen.

Contract questions arise during president's budget meeting

MHCC President John Sygielski discusses the college bugdet and other � nancial issues at the Visual Arts � eater Wednesday.

Photo by Devin Courtright/The Advocate

current full-time faculty contract nego-tiations, Hay said, “It’s a challenging time right now. I’m not a fan of compromise where one side is losing something. We’re looking for a win-win for both sides.”

Jack Schommer, full-time faculty as-sociation president, said Thursday he had no comment regarding selection of Hay as in-terim president.

Associated Student Government President Larry Collins-Morgan said, “We’ve worked on some policies together. He’s always been sup-portive and encourag-ing as well.”

Hay said, “I believe I have the background and experience to handle large budgets.”

“How are we able to invest in our stu-dents, which are also our customers? I’m in a position to recognize this,” said Hay.

“I have always aspired to be at the top of whatever business or organization I’m in,”

Hay said. “Being in an education leader as chief information offi cer is an executive lev-el position, but being the college president is the top.”

The search for a permanent college pres-ident is expected to begin within the next

60 days and will be expand-ed externally, according to Freeman.

“We are doing things one step at a time,” said Free-man. “Right now we must have an interim president who knows how the college works and can handle big budget issues.”

He said the search will not exclude anyone who is qualifi ed and all of the can-didates that applied for the interim position will be able

to apply for the permanent one, including Hay.

It has not been decided if the college will use a search fi rm, said Freeman. “We will be meeting in the next 30-60 days to dis-cuss.”

Hay: Search for permanent president expected to resume in the next 60 daysContinued from page 1

"I believe I have the background and experience to handle large budgets."

-Michael HayAppointed to be

interim president

THE ADVOCATEAPRIL 1, 20118 THE FLIPSIDE

FridayPartly Cloudy63o F

MondayFew Showers46o F

TuesdayShowers52o F

7Day

SaturdayShowers48o F

SundayMostly Cloudy51o F

Forecast

Forecast gathered from www.weather.com

Ready to transfer?Interested in thecreative arts?

Join us for an information session:

Saturday, May 14 at 9 a.m.Marylhurst campusBP John Administration Bldg., rm. 200

Register for this free event atstudentinfo@marylhurst.edu or 503.699.6268.

Academic excellence since 1893 www.marylhurst.edu17600 Pacific Highway (Hwy. 43)—10 miles south of Portland

MARYLHURSTU N I V E R S I T Y

ARTmarylhurst.edu/art

MUSICmarylhurst.edu/music

INTERIOR DESIGNmarylhurst.edu/id

CREATIVE WRITINGmarylhurst.edu/english

FILMmarylhurst.edu/culturalstudies

WednesdayFewShowers51o F

ThursdayPartly Cloudy52o F

"Guide to the Spring Sky"starts on Monday,

April 4 with show times at 7 p.m. and 8:15 p.m.MHCC students are free

with I.D. while other admission is $2.

Contact Pat Hanrahan at pat.hanrahan@mhcc.edu

for more information.

Interested in testing your hand at leadership?Run for ASG President or Vice President. The benefits include tuition waivers and $400 a month. For more information and to request a packet, see Meadow McWhorter in the College Center or send an email to ASG.elections@mhcc.edu

Web Exclusives Video Footage of

the March 30 budget meeting

Read the review on The Strokes new album "Angles"

Freeman to leave MHCC

New Planetarium ShowStudent's petition drive

supports faculty

By John TkebuchavaThe Advocate

Kimberly Freeman, the MHCC dean of corporate and government relations, will be leaving April 8 to take the new area director position at the Oregon Employment De-partment.

Freeman was originally hired at MHCC in the fall of 1995 as the assistant director for the Steps for Success pro-gram.

After working at MHCC for more than 15 years, Free-man held numerous positions at the college including in in-dustrial technology and Steps for Success and held the po-sition of dean of Economic and Workforce Development several times throughout the years.

“I am very excited about this new opportunity. As you know, MHCC has a long-term partnership with the Oregon Employment Department now,” said Freeman.

Note: A longer story about Freeman will appear on www.advocate-online.net begin-ning tonight.

www.advocate.online.net

Jenni Simonis, a second-year stu-dent, is organizing a petition drive in support of the faculty during the con-tract negotiations.

There will be two tables at the Col-lege Center Thursday where students can sign the petition.

For more information, see Simonis on facebook, the MHCC Faculty Asso-ciation on facebook or email at jenni@simonisformhcc.com.