theThe independent student voice of

Mt. Hood Community College

advocate Gresham, O regon | Novembe r 30 , 2012 | Vo l ume 48 , I s sue 10

Men’s basketball

First regular season gaMe today

page 7

Mike MataThe Advocate

The victim of an assault with a metal rod shortly af-ter 8 a.m. on Tuesday is good condition after sustaining non-life threatening injuries according to Director of Institutional Safety & Security Gale Blessing Wednes-day afternoon.

“He had an injury, we treated with him ice and he didn’t want to be transported to a hospital, he was later taken by a family member to a hospital,” said Blessing, adding that the injuries were not life threatening.

This incident was in addition to another involving someone with knife in the gym Tuesday afternoon.

According to a press release from the college sent on Tuesday just before 10 a.m., the victim, a male student, was assaulted in parking lot J by a male person with a metal rod after the two were exchanging words in re-gards to one of them speeding on campus. The male person then, according to witnesses, grabbed a metal rod that the student was carrying for his class and then hit him, causing injuries to the head and hand.

Automotive Tech Instructor Steve Michener saw the incident and reported it to Public Safety immediately, who responded to the scene and provided first aid.

Witnesses in this case described the suspect as being a white male standing at six feet tall, weighing approxi-mately 200 pounds, with grayish hair and a “scraggly beard,” wearing a grey beanie hat, dark waist-length jacket and dark backpack.

“At this point, we don’t know who assailant is, the victim did not know, none of the witnesses who were present knew the assailant,” said Blessing.

“He [Michener] did exactly what he was supposed to do, which is great. Any time anyone sees anything suspicious or a crime in progress, he did exactly what we ask our community members to do, then we can respond quickly and engage local law enforcement,” said Blessing.

The other incident occurred on Tuesday afternoon around 1:40 p.m. at the basketball courts, where a man who lost a game during the open recreation time “bran-dished a knife in a menacing manner,” according to an-other press release.

Dean of HPE Kim Hyatt alerted Public Safety about the incident, who then arrived at the scene and inter-viewed eyewitnesses and looked at surveillance vid-eos.

Witnesses in the gym say the man then left the gym. He was described as being five feet, four inches tall, around 120 pounds, slender with long dark hair styled in two buns on the top of his head. Witnesses told Pub-lic Safety he appeared to be of Pacific Islander descent and was wear-ing jeans and white t-shirt.

Katelyn HilsenbeckThe Advocate

Eight Mental Health and Human Services (MHHS) club members at MHCC put on their work gear and braved the rain to help build local homes as a part of a Habitat for Humanity project.

“It’s muddy, but it’s fun!” club member Mary Jane Doran said of the Nov. 17 Habitat team effort.

Habitat for Humanity has been working in Portland for 31 years and has built more than 200 homes locally. Internationally, volunteers have built more than 500,000 homes.

Each home is adapted to fit the needs of the partner family, local architecture and local culture.

The 10 homes the MHCC club helped to build are at the corner of Southeast 106th Avenue and Stark Street and will consist of two triplexes and two duplexes. Ten fami-lies will move into the homes once they are completed within a year.

The club worked alongside one future “partner home-owner,” Luis. He was diagnosed with cancer, yet has can-celed doctor’s appointments due to lack of money. “The bill is coming at home and I don’t have money to pay it,” he said.

Luis is living in a trailer park with his wife and two sons while his Habitat home is being built. However, his trailer is very cold and contains mold, which contributed

to his cancer diagnosis, he said.His four-day workweeks do not generate enough in-

come to provide safe housing for his family and pay the bills, he said. His wife is unemployed and disabled.

Luis spends his Saturdays compiling his necessary partner hours to earn the new Habitat home. He hopes the finished house contains “a ramp for the wheelchair and no mold,” he said.

A native of Mexico, he moved to the U.S. in 1998. “It’s difficult here; in (Mexico) it’s worse,” he said.

The MHHS club chose to participate in this event to help address the immediate need for housing for families now in substandard housing.

Club President Ashley Bright said, “I am happy do-ing whatever is needed,” while lifting wood onto a stack nearly as tall as she.

The volunteers started their day with a briefing by Ev Hu and other Habitat employees. They then began mov-ing lumber to allow heavy machinery to enter the home-site for construction.

Hu began volunteering in the mid-1990s and “got hooked,” she said. She has been working for Habitat for three years.

Bright is similarly enthused. “I like working and build-ing and doing stuff with my hands,” she said. “It’s going for a good cause and helping people, which is something I’m also passionate about.”

Assault and knife incident

unsung Hero

awards presented to aquatics, Facilities and political science per-sonnel

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MHHS club President Ashley Bright and member Allen Burchell climbed onto the roof of one of the duplexes at a Habitat for Humanity event on Nov. 17.

Above: a Habitat employee is working wih sheeting.

for the hopeful

An MHCC club worked alongside future home-owners and volunteers to build ten homes.

See “Habitat” on Page 3

See “assault” on Page 6

scrooge lives

page 5

annual craFt sale

page 3

Commonly referred to as “the most wonderful time of the year,” the winter holidays are just around the corner. And yet, De-cember brings not only the snow (or slush), Christmas lights and crazed shoppers, but also the end of Fall Term and the dreaded fi nal exams.

Though some of you undoubt-edly look forward to all the fes-tivities, the stresses of shopping, fi nals, and even the discomfort of the cold can be a bit much for stu-dents to endure, all in just a couple of weeks.

So, we at The Advocate would like to help inform MHCC stu-dents on ways to deal with these stresses and what options for both studying and counseling are available.

Be it through the tutoring center, computer labs or coun-seling centers, MHCC provides a wide variety of options for peo-ple struggling with their classes or those looking to refresh their knowledge with fi nals on their minds.

The MHCC tutoring center, in the mezzanine above the library, offers some personal assistance with their classes in nearly all subjects, such as math, science, English and literature. Make sure you check the times tutors for spe-cifi c subjects are available before scheduling a study session.

You also might consider meet-

ing with your teachers during offi ce hours to get help on home-work or studying. Who better to help you with your studies than

the instructors them-selves?

To even further ex-plore tips and tricks for students to imple-ment in preparation for fi nals, The Advocate sat down with Law-rence Gillius, a Learning Suc-cess Center co-ordinator and the main man behind the student success seminars.

Gillius said the best way to head into fi nals with a level head

is to stick to the basics. Make sure you get at least eight hours of sleep, eat regularly (and avoid caffeine) and if you’re fi nding the pressure too much to bear, go work out or go for a run. After all, a healthy body is a healthy mind.

According to Gillius, time man-agement also is something

students will often overlook, and

that “distribu-tive practice,”

rather than studying all in one night, is the most effec-tive way to keep the stress out of studying and to help retention. He said students can print off a monthly and weekly planner on-

line at www.mhcc.edu/lsc (under the “study skills” icon) to help them organize their time.

At the same website, students who might not have time to head for the tutoring center can obtain some online tutoring. They may chat live with a tutor or submit some of their work, like an essay, and within 48 hours receive their paper back with feedback.

Besides tutoring, Gillius said there are Student Success Semi-nars available to any interested students.

The seminars, all held in Room AC 2307, run through Thursday. Scheduled sessions are as follows:

“Coping with Stress,” 1:10 – 2 p.m. Tuesday.

“How to Succeed on Tests,” 2:10 – 3 p.m. Tuesday and 4:10 – 5 p.m. Thursday.

“Understanding Test Anxi-ety,” 1:10 – 2 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.

“Satisfactory Progress: Keep-ing Financial Aid,” 12:10 – 1 p.m. Thursday.

If you take advantage of all these seminars and tutoring ser-vices and still fi nd yourself in a

panic come fi nals week… just take a step back and breath. It’s not the end of the world: That’s at least a week later (according to some).

There are far worse apoca-lypses than failing a math test, just waiting to happen.

OpinionNov. 30, 20122

Co-Editors-in-ChiefJohn Tkebuchava & Mike Mata

Associate EditorKylie Rogers

Living Arts EditorShelby Schwartz

Assistant Living Arts EditorDorothy Ocacio

Opinion EditorJeff Hannig

News EditorMike Mata

Sports EditorJohn Tkebuchava

Copy EditorsKylie Rogers & Dorothy Ocacio

WebmasterLogan Scott

Photo EditorJeff Hannig

Mt. Hood Community College26000 SE Stark Street

Gresham, Oregon 97030

E-mail advocatt@mhcc.edu

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letters to the editor and guest columns for publication. All submissions must be typed and include the writer’s name and contact information. Contact information will not be printed unless requested. Original copies will not be returned to the author. The Advocate will not print any unsigned submission.

Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words and guest columns should not exceed 600. The decision to publish is at the discretion of the editorial board.

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Please bring submissions to The Advocate in Room 1369, or e-mail them to advocatt@mhcc.edu. Submissions must be received by 5 p.m. Monday the week of publication to be considered for print.

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.

the advocateDaniele Caldwell

Katelyn Hilsenbeck

Brandon Kissir

Shaun Lutz

Aaron Marshall

Cameron Miller

Danny Perez-Crouse

Lisa Sorenson

Kayla Tatum

Jackie Garrity

ReportersTyler Heyl

Jonathon Long

Photographers

Howard Buck

Dan Ernst

Bob Watkins

Advisers

Editorial: Juggling the holidays, finals and weather without slipping

Guest Column:

Avoiding the fiscal cliff may require more of a political commitment than economic

Letter from the editor: Assaults reported at MHCC

Ted Scheinman Economics Instructor

What is this thing called the fi scal cliff? (Or, as most stu-dents would spell it – the “physical cliff”.) The picture I have is the Roadrunner in cartoons, who was always running down the road and going off a cliff. (But, the Roadrunner never got hurt!) This has been a main topic of news since the election.

The fi scal cliff refers to the consequence of Congress and the President failing to pass a bill that would stop some poli-cies from taking effect. The main parts to the issue include taxes, government spending cuts and the national debt. Ear-lier this year, when the U.S. debt ceiling was being reached and Congress could not agree to raise it (normally a simple matter), the compromise reached was that Congress would increase the debt ceiling if efforts also were made to reduce the defi cit by the end of 2012. If not, well, Congress came up with the worst possible threat to almost everyone:

(1) Elimination of the Bush era tax cuts for every-

one, raising taxes on the typical taxpayer by nearly $2,000 per year, but also raising taxes on the rich by much more. President George W. Bush and Congress had cut taxes tre-mendously without any corresponding spending decrease to pay for them, resulting in a huge increase in the budget defi cit. The Bush tax cuts included reducing the marginal income tax rate for the rich, reducing the tax rate on capital gains (which primarily affect the wealthy), complete elimi-nation of the tax on inheritances and a small tax cut for oth-ers. These tax cuts were set to expire a few years ago, but were continued because of the Great Recession.

(2) Reduction of spending across the board – includ-ing military spending, education, unemployment, general spending and social programs. Although critics might wish to trim one or more of these programs, as a whole they in-clude something for nearly everyone. Cuts would affect ev-eryone in some way, especially lower income people who receive most of these benefi ts.

(3) The effect of the bill was supposed to reduce the growth of government, and therefore the defi cit. Most analy-

sis of the tax-and-spending consequences of doing nothing by Dec. 31 predict it would throw the economy back into a recession and raise the unemployment rate to about 9%. So, Congress passed a bill that was so bad, members were sure it would never be allowed to be implemented. Nobody actu-ally wanted the results of the whole bill, while many wanted some provisions.

Now, here we are after the election and Congress is trying to fi x the problem by passing a bill that will satisfy everyone. And, as before, Congress is having trouble fi nding a solu-tion, with this impending disaster to the economy looming.

It is not an economic issue, really, but a political issue. Who will blink fi rst?

On Tuesday, early morning in lot J, a man was assaulted with a metal rod, sustaining injuries to his head and hands. Another man was reported to be bran-dishing a knife in a menacing manner the same day in the af-ternoon on the basketball court. In the second occurrence, no one was reported injured.

Thankfully, no one in either instances were seriously injured, we would like applaud the MHCC administration and pub-lic safety for getting the info out on the assault and dangerous in-dividuals on campus as quickly as they did.

These attacks seem to have been spontaneous and unpro-voked, as such diffi cult to con-trol such situations, but Public Safety behaved in a quick and effi cient manner to get the word out on the occurrences to ensure that students are aware of any dangerous situations on campus and can ready themselves appro-priately.

It is reassuring to know that the college puts the safety of its students and faculty fi rst instead of hushing the whole matter and simply taking matters into its own hands.

For a full story on the above-mentioned occurrences on cam-pus, go to page 1.

Want more from Ted?Ted wrote two columns for us this week.

We ran the second as a web exclusive. www.advocate-online.net

3Newsthe advocate

Jeff HannigThe Advocate

Aquatics, Facilities and Political Science personnel received Unsung Hero awards from members of the Associated Student Government (ASG) on Wednesday after-noon.

Emma Bird, Student Activities Board (SAB) reception coordinator, wanted to make the recognition of staff and faculty on campus a bigger and more consistent event.

“It’s been done in the past, but I hope to make it something we do every term,” said Bird.

The ceremony was emceed by Bird, but each award was presented by a different ASG member. Student Senator Steven Page presented the fi rst two awards to Larry Ste-

vens and members of the MHCC Facilities staff as a whole. Stevens was unavailable, as were other facilities workers, so Dick Beyers accepted the award in their honor.

“He (Stevens) works far beyond the ex-pectations of ASG. He has the biggest smile on campus,” Bird said in a speech. “He of-fers the best help and is always striving to make our events as successful as possible. He’s caring, sincere and an incredible Facili-ties staff member.”

Bird said the Facilities staff are “always effi cient and helpful” with ASG events.

Jonathon Gates, ASG fi nance director, presented the third award with a glowing in-troduction, to Steven Hula: “(He) has tapped into sources of revenue that have been aban-doned and need to be rekindled…” Hula, MHCC Aquatics and Recreation manager,

was grateful for the award.“I’m very honored. This is totally un-

expected,” he said. “It is great too see the recognition come from the students, who are trying to make their experience the best it can be.” He was glad to see the Facilities staff recognized because “they do so much work that goes unseen,” he said.

Janet Campbell, MHCC political science instructor, also received an award but was unable to attend. After taking several of Campbell’s classes, ASG President William Miller said, he realized that she has gone “above and beyond an instructor’s respon-sibilities to ensure her students’ success.” Miller said she gave him a “spark to learn” more about political science.

In addition to the award winners, the Unsung Hero event pays tribute to all un-

derrepresented staff and faculty who make signifi cant contributions.

ASG’s executive cabinet, senate and ac-tivities board selected the group honored on Wednesday. Nomination was based on instances where ASG members witnessed “small acts that don’t call attention to them-selves” and “going above and beyond in making MHCC a great place to be,” Bird said. The nominations were then voted on informally.

In a follow-up interview, Bird said she was pleased with the formalized ceremony.

“Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the staff members were very apprecia-tive,” she said. “Because of that, it was very rewarding and I am looking forward to holding another event like this one.”

Continued from page 1

Habitat:

Three individuals on campus receive ‘Unsung Hero’ award

Bright and the other Habitat volunteers smiled and joked as they worked, even dancing to the folk music being played.

Travelling to Mexico three times on mission trips and building a total of six houses, Bright has seen plenty of vol-unteer work. “It’s nothing like this, though,” she said as wood sheeting began to rise on the units later in the day.

Ashley Ermann, a Lewis and Clark College student and fi rst-time Habitat volunteer, took her assigned trash duty in stride. “It’s not like (directly) building the house, but it’s something that defi nitely has to be done,” she said.

Another Habitat building project is at Southeast 171st Avenue and Division Street. When fi nished, the site will

contain 45 homes. Some are already built and are occupied, while the entire project will take several years to complete.

Third-time Habitat volunteer Scott Neigeut reported that the Division Street site has more helpers, but “they’re equally as hectic” as the Stark Street project.

Soloman future partner homeowner at the Division site who was logging hours at the Stark Street work project, is eager to settle down.

His family—two children, his wife and mother—have been frequently moving, so he applied for a home in April. He hopes his three-bedroom home will be ready by March.

“We wanted a safe environment for our kids,” Soloman said. “I feel so happy. I can’t wait to get my home.”

For several MHHS club members, the Nov. 17 event was their fi rst with Habitat. The club hopes more will follow.

“I love to give to the community,” said Doran, who will become club vice president in the winter term. “I really think this is a great way to be involved and help people cut down the cost of a house, so it’s affordable.”

To be eligible to purchase a Habitat for Humanity home, applicants must:

— Demonstrate the ability to pay by having a job.— Possess good or improving credit.— Apply and host a home visit.— Commit 500 volunteer hours to Habitat for Human-

ity.

Students involved in giving back to community

Jackie GarrityThe Advocate

With wintry weather gusting its way around campus, the col-lege is gearing up for the possibility of closures as fi nals week ap-proaches.

Russell Johnson, MHCC associate director of facilities manage-ment, said there have been instances where the college was closed temporarily because of inclement weather during fi nals. “How-ever, our faculty was able to reschedule fi nals to accommodate the students,” he said.

“With ample notifi cation from the (National) Weather Ser-vice prior to a weather event, our facilities staff treat all driv-ing surfaces and walkways with magnesium chloride,” John-son said. “This helps prevent the formation of ice. However, it does not prevent the buildup of snow during a major event.”According to the MHCC website, information on college closures will be available on the college website (mhcc.edu), through local radio and television stations “and by Flash Alert notifi cation for those that have registered for this service.”

For those unfamiliar with Flash Alert, it’s a tool for the public to get instant and emergency information regarding organizations, schools, hospitals, etc., in their own area. Once the user has sub-scribed to received alerts on a particular agency, organization or school, they can get updates via e-mail, Twitter, text message, and now, through a new smart phone app, push notifi cations. There are step-by-step instructions on how to sign up for Flash Alert on MHCC’s website.

“Please pay attention to your local radio and TV stations,” dur-ing bad weather, Johnson said. “MHCC tries to make timely an-nouncements that would affect your commute. Facilities makes every effort to keep the campus open or reopen as soon as possible, keeping the safety of our staff and students as the No. 1 priority.”

Bad weather requiresstudents to watch forclosure announcements

Living Arts4Nov. 30, 2012

Celebrate being on the “naughty” list today at the Krampus Nacht Ball at the Mt. Tabor Theater, with vendors, costume contests and musical performances. Krampus is known for doing St. Nick’s dirty work: Instead of reward-ing children, he punishes the naughty ones. The theater is at 4811 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Tickets are $10 advanced and $15 at the door; event starts at 9 p.m.

Take the opportunity to share your talents with America and make your dreams come true, with the chance to win a $1 million prize: “Ameri-ca’s Got Talent” comes to Portland today. Au-ditions run 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Oregon Conven-tion Center, 777 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

The Iron Bartender competition is held 8:30 tonight at the Radio Room. Three bartenders compete for the title of Iron Bartender for charity in three six-minute rounds. They must create an original cocktail each round, with a different se-cret ingredient revealed at the start of the round. Judges will score the nine cocktails created, based on taste, originality and presentation. Tickets are $10 - $15. 1101 N.E. Alberta St.

Prepare for fi nals by taking a load off, before you take on the big load. ASG will be administering a stress relief event, “Chill Out”, in the Jazz Café from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Enjoy a per-formance by local artist Tope from 11:45 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and learn stress relief and study skills. The event includes numerous activities such as building your own ice cream sundae, prize give-aways, a Twister contest and a free, fi ve-minute massage.

saturday 2.1 se Portland

Ne PORTLANDSATURDAY 12.1

saturday 12.1 N e PORTLAND

monday 12.3 mhcc

the day tripperyour weekly event planner

mhcc

The world’s acclaimed fi rst and only stand-up economist, Yoram Bauman, will visit MHCC from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. today, in Room AC 3303. Among many accomplishments, Bau-man has a doctorate in economics and has co-written two books. For more information on Bauman, see www.standupeconomist.com.

thursday 12.6

Living Arts BriefsEnd of Term Music Department and Jazz Night Concerts

The MHCC Ceramics Club will host its annual Holiday Sale from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Vi-sual Arts Gallery.

The sale will feature func-tional items from Ceramics Club student members as well as the Visual Arts department. Bowls, cups, plates and some Christmas items will be on sale: “Things for the table,” said club adviser Joe Davis. Jewelry and print makers’ art will be on sale, along with the ce-ramics. Most items will go for $5 to $20, with some larger items at higher prices.

It’s the club’s biggest fundrais-er of the year. “I would encourage people to come, even if they feel like they can’t afford to buy any-thing. It’s not only a sale, it’s a show,” Davis said.

Seventy-fi ve percent of the pro-ceeds will go directly to the artist, and 25 percent to the Ceramics Club’s account. Members choose how to use account funds and of-ten decide to bring in local artists to conduct workshops, Davis said.

“It’s really nice to show off what the ceramics students are making,” he said. “They get a chance to sell their work, which is

exciting, of course, because they get to earn some money, but they also get a little taste of the busi-ness side of the pottery world.”

Most items will be glazed stoneware made for a class assign-ment. However, “some really pro-ductive students” have produced additional items, Davis said.

The Ceramics Club has about 20 members this term, about half participating in the sale. The club will hold its annual chili bowl sale again in spring, in partnership with Chartwell’s.

—Katelyn Hilsenbeck

For this year’s end of Fall Term concerts at MHCC, the Jazz Night Concert will be held Wednesday and the End of Term Concert will be held on Thursday.

“What Makes You Beautiful”, a song by British boy band One Direction, is among the numbers to be per-formed at the MHCC Music Department’s End of Term Concert. The song will feature music students in the choir and on piano, and a student beat-boxer.

The End of Term Concert includes orchestra and choir students. The Jazz Night Concert features the Jazz Band under the direction of Robert Crowell.

Both concerts will be held in the College Theater be-ginning at 7:30 p.m., and are free.

Choral director Kevin Lambert said the chorus will perform music ranging from the Italian Renaissance to current “Top 40” songs, along with some gospel ar-rangements.

The theatre department cancelled its “Holidazical”

show due to lack of enrollment in the class that would have staged it, said Jesse Merz, theatre artistic director.

Students participating in the various music pro-grams, including orchestra and choir, include both mu-sic majors and non-majors.

For information on the choir, contact Lambert at 503-491-6024 or email him at kevin.lambert@mhcc.edu. He encourages any student who would like to sing in a choir to join.

For information about orchestra or strings, contact Marshall Tuttle at 503-491-7010 or email him at mar-shall.tuttle@mhcc.edu.

For information on the Jazz Band, contact Crowell at 503-618-1677 or email him at robert.crowell@mhcc.edu.

—Dorothy Ocacio

Ceramics Club Holiday Pottery Sale

World Holiday Harmony

Above: Russian Folk singer Natalia Hougen entertained guests of the ASG hosted event, the World Holiday Harmony in the Student Union on Wednesday.ASGʼs Crystal White and Aerie Fuller saw an opportunity this season to recognize holidays celebrated around the world. Clubs that are not attached to a culture adopted one; the hospitality department hosted a table representing India. From 9 to 11 a.m. 100 second-graders from Alder Elementary School participated in cookie decorating and took pictures with Santa Claus and the student government President William Miller and Vice President Antonio Guerrero-Jimenez.

Living Arts 5the advocate

Dorothy OcacioThe Advocate

Many students dream of traveling the world, but with Worldviews events, MHCC students get a taste of countries like Mexico and the Dominican Republic, two of the most recent countries highlighted by students.

The Worldviews are presentations by SEED students about the countries they come from and are coordinated by SEED program coordinator Nikki Gillis and Modern Lan-guage instructor Michelle Hampton.

SEED students do a presentation on their native country, with one country being presented per Worldview. Cultur-ally themed activities such as folkloric dance and the World-views are held two-to-three times each term, either on cam-pus or in the community, said Gillis.

During presentations, students describe traditions, foods, clothing, history, climates, landmarks, famous peo-ple, resources and other aspects of their country and culture, along with a slide show. Some articles from the country are exhibited and a short fi lm displaying the people and coun-try is shown. A traditional dance from the country also is performed.

Students Citlali Reyes from Oaxaca and Moises Maqueda from Queretaro conducted the presentation on Mexico Oct. 30. The native dessert known as bionico, which is made of fruits, nuts and a sauce, was available for sampling.

The Dominican Republic was presented by student Mar-lennis Diaz on Nov. 20. She said there is no “specifi c face”

for the people, as the population of the country is a mixture of African, Spanish and Tainos, represented by the typical faceless dolls of Dominican Republic.

The SEED (Scholarships for Education and Economic De-velopment) program is a partnership between several orga-nizations that helps bring Central American and Caribbean area students to study in America for two years.

MHCC is one of the eight U.S. schools to participate in the program. Other partner countries include El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua.

Students who participate in the program must go through an intensive and highly competitive screening pro-cess. Leaders within their communities also recommend them. The students must have shown academic ability, dedi-cation to community involvement, personal responsibility and outstanding leadership skills.

All of the SEED students at MHCC are majoring in en-vironmental technology. Upon graduating, they will return home to put their education into practice in their countries and communities.

Diaz plans to work on a recycling system for her com-munity, for starters, once she returns. “I want to work,” to preserve the Dominican Republic environment, she said. “I believe in me.” Diaz said that once she sets her mind to a task, she works relentlessly to see it through.

“The knowledge I learn here will be for all of my life,” said Diaz.

The SEED program can benefi t both the U.S. and part-ner country in several ways. For example, it benefi ts the

student’s country through skills and knowledge they bring back home, and enhances public diplomacy efforts for the United States.

Nikki Gillis said some of the benefi ts to guest students are cultural adaptation and education and professional de-velopment opportunities. The college and community bene-fi t from the numerous SEED activities students are involved in.

They continue to work on improving the Beaver Creekwatershed, have joined restoration projects by local nonprof-it groups, and volunteered for the SUN after-school program at nearby Hall Elementary School, to name a few activities.

Gillis has worked with SEED students since 2002. She said she has always been passionate about other countries and cultures.

“This job was a perfect fi t for all of my passions: edu-cation, international sustainable development and cultural exchange,” she said.

Each year, SEED students arrive in August to attend MHCC. They live with host families that are picked the pre-vious spring and summer.

All MHCC students are invited to attend the Worldview presentations and other activities staged by the SEED stu-dents. The events are free. Some may count as extra credit for certain classes.

For more information regarding events with SEED stu-dent involvement or on the Worldview presentations, con-tact Nikki Gillis at Nikki.Gillis@mhcc.edu or Michele Hampton at Michele.Hampton@mhcc.edu.

Shelby SchwartzThe Advocate

As the weather turns soggy and cold, it’s time for win-ter coats and boots, cozy hats and scarves and gloves. And in the case of MHCC, it’s time for “Scrooge Lives,” the annual craft festival held during the fi rst week of December.

Scrooge will offer an abundance of handmade items including candles, soaps, ornaments, bamboo clothing, bird feeders, wood turned bowls, pottery, jewelry and hair accessories.

Scrooge will take place Dec. 4 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Dec. 5 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Student Union.

ASG bookkeeper Mary Burlingame, responsible for much of the planning concerning for “Scrooge Lives,” said, “This year I top out at the all-time high-est (number of vendors), with 51. In the past years we’ve had between 35 and 38, but this year I’m liter-ally turning people down,” she said.

“The more vendors I get, and I get their $40 for the two days they are here, the more of these lovely little $5-off coupons we can give students. All the money we make from the vendors goes to taking these cou-pons and buying them back from the vendors so stu-dents can all take benefi t of it,” Burlingame said.

There are 300 coupons available for each day of “Scrooge Lives” that are worth $5 each. “Every penny we make goes into those. It’s nice because with a stu-dent, if you have an $11 pair of earrings, you can get $5

off. That’s a gift they can afford,” she said.To get a coupon, students must have a current student

ID. The coupons will be available at the front desk of the Student Union during the event, and the coupons are one per day, per student.

Burlingame said “Scrooge Lives” gives people from the community the opportunity to see what type of place MHCC is.

“One of the things I hear the most from them (the ven-dors) is that they love the interaction with the students,” she said.

“There is a guy who restores stringed instruments. There is another man who sells all bamboo clothing. There’s a lot of people that are doing what they called up-cycled crafts. I’ve had people take bike inner tubes and do stuff with them, that kind of thing. A lot of jewelry, that kind of typical crafty stuff, and everything they sell they have to handmake,” she said.

The process of applying to “Scrooge Lives” involves an application process and a jury process; the jury is composed of Burlingame, a student and another college employee. “We go through it and do a yes-no-maybe on it,” she said. “My juries usually know that I like to be a capitalist and give as many people a chance to be in as I can.”

Both days, from noon to 1 p.m. will incorporate the “First Thursday” concert series. MHCC alumnus Shawn Schlogel, will be playing solo holiday piano music to offer students musical accompaniment as they shop.

“I always try to have people that work here, or are stu-dents here, so we’ll actually have actually more of those employees and students than I’ve seen before, as vendors.” Burlingame said. “It’s nice to have the fl avor of ‘Scrooge Lives’ perpetuate what Mt. Hood is like for people. I want to think that the people who come in as vendors and aren’t as familiar, walk away with a sense of what the school is like.”

Kylie RogersThe Advocate

Monday’s planetarium show at MHCC will high-light the activity of our sun and its cycle in a show titled, “Our Sun Reaching Solar Maximum.”

“What happens is, the sun goes through an 11-year cycle where it goes from its most-active (phase) to its least-active to its most-active again, said Planetarium Director Pat Hanrahan. “Solar maximum is where you have maximum solar activity.”

The solar activity results in sunspots and solar prom-inences, Hanrahan said.

“Every now and then (the sun will) have eruptions

where you’ll get a solar fl are. You’ll get streams of mate-rial that are thrown off into space,” he said. “Every now and then, some of these streams of material fl y towards Earth and you get some pretty northern lights.”

There can be disruptions to technology from the so-lar fl ares, said Hanrahan. There was an event in 1859 re-sulting in a telegraph line fi re, and in the 1980s, a severe power outage in Canada.

“There can be some consequences for electronics here on earth. We are largely protected by the earth’s magnetic fi eld. A lot of these things don’t affect us that much, and instead, if you live in the northern lati-tudes you’d see the Northern Lights and if you live in the southern latitudes you’d see the Southern Lights,”

Hanrahan said. Hanrahan wanted to dedicate a planetarium show

just to the sun. “The sun is very interesting all on its own, because it

is going through this cycle. It’s the only star we can look up and see close up,” he said.

“We can’t see sunspots on distant stars. By observing our sun, we can get some idea of what might be happen-ing on the distant stars. We’re able to see this very in-teresting activity up close that otherwise we couldn’t.”

Shows take place at 7 and 8:15 p.m. on Mondays. They are free for students with a valid I.D. and cost $2 for general admission. Families are welcome and ques-tions are encouraged.

Worldview seminars offer students a unique look into Latin American cultures

Scrooge Lives craft festival will debut with 51 vendors on Tuesday

Planetarium show shines spotlight on the sun

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Vendors, such as the ones pictured above from last year, will sell handmade items during Scrooge Lives.

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Nov. 30, 2012

News6

Instructor comes up four votes shy of city council seat, awaits recount

MHCC enrollment and tuition are on the decline, according to college analysts.

The enrollment numbers are represented in SFTE (Student Full Time Equivalents), senior budget analyst Mark Denney said. “That is the best way to look at enrollment, because it adjusts for the fact that a student enrolled in 12 credits per term is not the same as a student taking only one course per term,” Denney said.

In 2010-11, enrollment declined to 10,715.58 SFTE, a 1.3 percent de-cline. In 2011-12, it declined again, and signifi cantly, to 9,724.79, a 9.25 percent decline.

“That’s a very abrupt decline for one year,” Denney said. “As for this year, although I don’t have the actual fi gures, we are again declining somewhere in the range of 2 percent” said Denny.

This trend of declining enrollment is relatively new compared to re-cent history. As the recession grew, all colleges across Oregon, but com-munity colleges specifi cally, saw a signifi cant growth in enrollment, as people lost jobs or couldn’t fi nd work after high school. Denney said they came to the community colleges to prepare for a new career.

In 2007-08, state aid was just under 50 percent but dropped to 36 per-cent by 2009-10. In that same time, revenue from student tuition went from approximately 29 percent up to 36 percent. And by 2011-12, state aid was down to around 34 percent and student tuition was almost 45 percent of the total funding for the college.

“For the coming year — it is diffi cult to say where state funding will be — current projections are that we will receive a bit of a restoration. But that is very diffi cult to predict, and it is too early in the state’s budget cycle to know either what receipts are looking like at the state level, or what the governor will likely propose to the Legislature in his budget proposal,” said Denney.

— Danny Perez-Crouse

Danny Perez-CrouseThe Advocate

MHCC geography teacher and criminal justice coordi-nator Chris Gorsek focused on both the aggressors and the victims in domestic violence incidents during a presentation Wednesday in the Visual Arts Theater.

Gorsek has been doing seminars on domestic violence for 14 years.

“I like to do community outreach and it’s an important topic,” said Gorsek. He said he has knowledge and expe-rience with domestic abuse from his 10 years as a reserve police offi cer from 1987-1997.

In the seminar, Gorsek detailed all kinds of domestic abuse ranging from date-rape to simple house-hold spats and serious fi ghts. Gorsek went in depth with the psyche of those prone to cause pain to others within the cycle of

abuse. He also talked about the survivors, and why they re-fuse help and stay in such dangerous relationships. “They stay because they’re in love,” said Gorsek.

Gorsek used examples of how domestic violence was handled in the ‘80s with footage from the show “Hill Street Blues.” He would go on and elaborate on the evolution of how the police handled domestic violence. There were also music videos shown to illustrate the various forms of do-mestic abuse and how it affects relationships.

Gorsek gave advice on how to talk to those caught in an abusive relationship and the six things to say to someone surviving a violent relationship. He stressed that the most important piece of advice is to tell them it is not their fault. Gorsek also gave the warning signs of those who would likely become physically violent toward their signifi cant other. He would end the presentation with a humorous spoof video to lighten the mood.

October was Domestic Violence Awareness Month and evolved from the fi rst Day of Unity observed in October 1981 by the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV). The intent was to connect battered women ad-vocates across the nation who were working to end violence against women and children. In 1989, the fi rst Domestic Vi-olence Awareness Month Commemorative Legislation was passed by the Congress. Such legislation has passed every year since. In October 1994 NCADV, in conjunction with Ms. Magazine, created the “Remember My Name” project, a national registry to increase public awareness of domestic violence deaths.

If you would like more information on domestic vio-lence, go to www.ncadv.org. Here you can fi nd informa-tion about domestic violence month, how you can help the NCADV, learn ways to protect yourself, and gain access to various confi dential help lines.

Mike MataThe Advocate

Just four votes separate part-time MHCC English instructor Zach Hudson from joining the Troutdale City Council, with an offi cial recount in progress.

Final offi cial results for the race, which drew more than 2,200 votes total, were unavailable at press time. The close margin triggered an automatic recount.

Hudson and his opponent, John L. Wilson, are vying for the sixth seat on the Troutdale City Council, as Doug Daoust vacated the seat in his successful bid for the mayoral job.

Hudson said of his decision to run, “I follow politics like other people follow sports. I also see political in-volvement as one way to make a positive difference in my community or in the world.”

Hudson ran for the Troutdale City Council two years ago, but ended up pulling out of that race.“After meeting one of the other candidates, Rich Allen, I decided that he was far more qualifi ed than I, so I

endorsed him, and he went on to win,” Hudson said.Hudson was better prepared and qualifi ed this time, having worked on two city committees and Troutdale’s

Summerfest and getting to know “various community leaders,” he said.While resigned to a razor-thin defeat, Hudson found the effort rewarding.“It was a great experience despite losing by four votes. I learned a lot and have gotten to know a lot of

forward-thinking people who really care about their community,” he said.

Instructor informs campus with domestic violence presentation

It is unknown whether either man is a student or MHCC employee.Gresham Police are now handling the fi rst case.Blessing noted that a look through Public Safety’s crime log and Clery Report (a federally required cam-

pus safety report) would fi nd few instances of stranger-on-stranger violence.“It’s very unusual we would have two incidents in one day or a week or a month,” said Blessing.Blessing and Public Safety urge anyone who spots either of these individuals or has information about

them to immediately alert Public Safety. Blessing also encouraged students to take precautions on campus, especially when it is dark, and to try to travel in pairs. Public Safety offi cers can be called for escorts to and from the parking lots, at any time, at 503-491-7310.

Enrollment on the declineAssault: Unknown assailant at largeContinued from Page 1

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ASG President William Miller (left) and Antonio Guererro at the Presidential Forum in the Student Union on Thursday, The pair discussed the progress of ASG thus far in the term.

ASG executives enlighten students at forum

the advocate Sports 7

“It will defi ntely be a learning experi-ence, when you have a young team, it takes ti me to learn how to play our style and with each other.”

Geoff GiborMen’s basketball coach

Aaron MarshallThe Advocate

With the MHCC men’s basketball team

playing its fi rst regular season game today against the Walla Walla Warriors, head coach Geoff Gibor says he is more than ready to start.

“I am excited for this season,” said Gi-bor. “This team is very unselfi sh. They share the ball really well. As they grow and learn exactly what we are asking from them, they will be a very good team.”

This past weekend, the team won once and lost twice in Longview, Wash., at the Red Devil Classic but showed promise for a younger team.

In their fi rst game against Walla Walla Community College, their opponent today, the Saints won 88-73. Sophomore Colby Mitchell contributed 17 points and seven rebounds and freshman Mac Johnson added 17 points with 12 rebounds. The team shot

53 percent for the game, while the Warriors fi nished with 38 percent.

The team’s fi rst loss was 77-65 to Yakima Valley. Johnson had a double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds. Freshman Landon Rushton added 16 points but the team end-ed up shooting 35 percent in the loss.

In the Saints’ second loss, to Lower Co-lumbia, they were just barely edged 61-58, shooting 43 percent for the game. Mitchell had 25 points, Johnson had 12 rebounds and

Rushton added 12 points and fi ve rebounds.Before the tournament, Gibor had expec-

tations for a challenging weekend, saying that Walla Walla, Spokane, and Lower Co-lumbia all had competitive teams.

“Every year the fi rst games are a great test. The Red Devil Classic is probably the best tournament we could play in. The teams are all perennially strong teams,” he said.

Gibor said some key team members have played consistently well, mentioning

Mitchell, Rushton and Johnson among the leaders.

“Defensively, Colby Mitchell, Brock Otis, Landon Rushton, and Mac Johnson are un-derstanding our style. Offensively, Colby has been very effi cient. As a team, we have shot the ball pretty well from the perimeter,” said Gibor.

Chemistry takes time to develop to its full extent and, according to Gibor, it’s no different with this year’s team.

“It will defi nitely be a learning experi-ence. When you have a young team, it takes time to learn how to play our style and with each other. We are looking forward to the challenges ahead this year,” he said.

Tonight’s game against Walla Walla, on the road, starts at 8 o’clock.

On Saturday, also in Walla Walla, the team plays at 4 p.m. against Big Bend. On Thursday, the team will play its fi rst regular season home game against Wenatchee Val-ley at 7 p.m.

Volleyball finishes fourth at NWAACCs, loses to Blue Mountain

Young men’s basketball team tests waters at Red Devil Classic

Shaun LutzThe Advocate

Attempting to repeat as NWAACC champions for the fi rst time since 2006-07, the Saints fell just short, fi nishing fourth at this year’s season-ending tournament.

After knocking off Wenatchee Val-ley (25-17’ 25-16’ 25-17) and Bellevue (25-22, 25-18, 25-19) in their fi rst two matches, MHCC faced their toughest challenge of the tournament and suf-fered a fi ve-set, hard-fought loss to the Blue Mountain Timberwolves (25-21, 25-21, 17-25, 23-25, 15-11).

Falling into the losers bracket, the Saints found themselves one game away from elimination, facing the Ta-coma Titans, looking to avenge a loss in their only meeting earlier this year.

Proving too strong for the visiting Titans with a quick two-set win (25-19; 25-20), MHCC moved on to meet Walla Walla. Defeating the Warriors in their only previous match-up earlier in the season, the Saints went into their elimi-nation match confi dent.

Unfortunately, the road to repeat ended there as Walla Walla ended their tournament life in three sets (25-17, 21-

25, 15-13). “We fought hard, but we just com-

mitted too many unforced errors in the games we lost,” said head coach Chelsie Speer about the tournament losses.

“We fi nished fourth, which was where we were supposed to,” she add-ed.

Asked whether in general she felt this season was successful, Speer seemed content.

“Myself and the coaching staff were pleased with the performance of our team this season. Dealing with all the pressure of defending a title isn’t easy, and they handled it well,” said Speer.

Speer said that the success of this year’s season was owed in part to many of the second-year players. With a lot of underclassmen, Speer said the veterans helped the freshmen buy into the pro-gram.

Though the team failed to repeat this year with a team full of younger play-ers, the program can look forward to more success in next year’s season.

“Next year, we can probably im-prove our consistency as far as being a confi dent group goes,” said Speer when asked what they can improve on for the following year.

MHCC freshman player Lihau Perreira spiking the ball over the net at the fi rst volleyball match of the tournament, which they won. The Saints went on to lost to Blue Mountain in the quarter-fi nals, pushing them into the loserʼs bracket, where they were eliminated by Tacoma.

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“We fought hard, we just committ ed too many unforced errors in the games we lost.

Chelsie SpeerHead volleyball coach

After making short work of their fi rst two op-ponents with sweeps at the beginning of the tournament, the Saints fall in fi ve sets

SportsNov. 30, 2012

8

Ducks projected to make ‘Fiesta Bowl’ appearance

Sport�����entral

- Bowl Projections -

SC

With a blowout win in Saturday’s Civil War, defeat-ing the Beavers 48-24, Oregon is expected to play in an-other BCS bowl game.

After Oregon lost to Stanford earlier this month and with other top teams not stumbling this past week, the Ducks’ chances of playing the national championship game are all but gone. Finishing the regular season with an 11-1 record, the team is widely expected to play in the Fiesta Bowl, which falls on Jan. 3 in Glendale, Ariz. Projected opponents are either the Kansas State Wildcats or Oklahoma Sooners.

Despite Oregon’s one loss, the team has had a suc-cessful season, averaging 50.8 points per game, which is second in the country. Freshmen quarterback Mar-cus Mariota fi nished the regular season with 30 passing touchdowns and 2,511 passing yards. He also fi nished top 10 in the nation with a QB rating of 165.4. Senior run-ning back Kenjon Barner is a fi nalist for the Doak Walker award, which goes to the nation’s best running back.

Last January, Oregon won the Rose Bowl, beating Wisconsin 45-38. But after Stanford beat UCLA last Sat-urday, Oregon will not return to Pac-12 title game, and will see its three-year conference championship run end. However, next season should be better for the Ducks, if that is possible to believe.

If Oregon were to have a consistent placekicker throughout this season, they would be in the national championship. Sophomore kicker Alejandro Maldonado was 1-for-4 on the season kicking fi eld goals and missed two in Oregon’s loss to Stanford. The Ducks ended up losing in overtime by a fi eld goal. That wasn’t the fi rst time Maldonado missed a clutch fi eld goal for the Ducks. Last season, he missed a 37-yard fi eld goal to force over-time against USC and Oregon lost, 38-35.

I would expect the Duck coaching staff would en-courage Maldonado to transfer elsewhere before next season, due to his inconsistency.

I predict that whomever Oregon plays in the Fiesta Bowl, will be an easy victory for the Ducks.

- Aaron Marshall

John TkebuchavaThe Advocate

In their fi rst non-scrimmage games of the season, the Saints women’s basketball team went 1-2 last week at the Clackamas Thanksgiving Tournament in Oregon City.

The Saints opened the tournament against the Pierce Col-lege Raiders, who left MHCC in the dust, winning 86-56.

Turnovers were a huge issue with the Saints, with 28 of Pierce’s 86 points coming following miscues compared to just four points off turnovers for the Saints.

Though it was a lopsided loss, the teams in shooting per-centage, with Pierce fi nishing at 42 percent and MHCC fi n-ishing at 40 percent. The Saints had 46 rebounds to the Raid-ers’ 51.

Freshmen Whitney Warren and Kelsey Barnes led the Saints in scoring with nine points each.

The Saints followed their tough loss by overcoming S.R. Alumni in their second game, comfortably winning the game 74-60. Warren had an explosive game against the alumni, scoring 19 points with 10 of 12 in free throws.

Sophomore Hannah Mocaby and freshman Sydney Men-danoza added 14 and 12 points, respectively, with Mocaby shooting 4 of 6 from the fi eld and 4 of 5 from the free throw line.

The Saints took better care of the ball against the alumni, and scored 23 points off of turnovers while allowing only 13. The Saints also added 46 rebounds and shot 38 percent.

MHCC started game three against George Fox with a frustrating fi rst half, shooting only a lackluster 22 percent. Although the Saints fi nished with 32 percent overall, and fi n-ished the game with 21 points off turnovers to the Bruins’ 11, MHCC lost the game 67-54.

George Fox was 42 percent in shooting overall and fi n-ished the game with 57 rebounds.

Freshman Kristen Schockman led Saints’ scorers with 4 of 8 from the fi eld and 4 of 6 from beyond the arc.

Warren was 4 of 16 from the fi eld and Mocaby was 5 of 9 with both players fi nishing with 10 points.

Today the women’s team will head north for the Bellevue Invitational, which will be held in Bellevue, Wash., through Sunday.

Women’s basketball goes 1-2 at ‘Thanksgiving Tournament’

- Fiesta Bowl -

- Rose Bowl-

- BCS title -

Nebraska Cornhuskers vs. the Stanford Cardinal

in the Rose Bowl

Oklahoma Sooners vs. the Oregon Ducks in the

Fiesta Bowl

Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Alabama

Crimson Tide in the BCS title game

UPCOMING GAMES:

■ Fri-Sun Nov.30 - Dec.2 Bellevue InvitationalBellevue, WA TBD

■ Fri Dec. 7 Vs Walla Walla CC Gresham, OR 7pm

■ Fri-Sun Dec. 14-16 Whatcom X-Over Tournament Bellingham, WA TBD