By DANA TIMS/YachatsNews.com
Birgitte Ryslinge doesn’t mince words explaining the extraordinary challenges facing Oregon Coast Community College as one of the state’s smallest and newest post-secondary educational facilities prepares to open a new school year.
Ryslinge, now in her sixth year as president of the Newport-based college, cites pandemic-related budget shortfalls, administrative salary freezes and proposed tuition increases before adding, bleakly, “These are daunting times.”
Still, with fall-term classes set to begin Monday, there are numerous reasons to believe that OCCC will weather what is arguably the most severe storm it’s faced since its founding in 1987.
“We might be small, but we pride ourselves in being mighty and pretty agile,” Ryslinge said.
The main lobby of the Oregon Coast Community College stands empty but ready to welcome some students beginning Monday, when online classes and labs begin and facilities fully open.
At this point, most of the college’s instruction will take place remotely for the entire year, she said. That means OCCC students, like most of the nation’s pupils, will log onto their computers from home to take classes.
Unlike many, however, OCCC has several areas of technical instruction that cannot be done from afar. Its highly regarded nursing program, for instance, along with a newly launched maritime welding course, must be done at least partially in person
A whole spate of coronavirus-related safety protocols has been put in place to ensure that both programs can be conducted with an eye toward minimizing risk of infection. The college’s board has approved an 18-page list outlining specific safety protocols.
“With each new punch that comes along,” Ryslinge said, “we’re just trying to roll with it.”
OCCC got its own accreditation in February
That the college exists at all remains something of a minor miracle, says Jeff Ouderkirk, the Newport attorney who has sat on OCCC’s board since the college’s inception.
His father, Stan Ouderkirk, was serving in the Oregon Legislature in the 1970s, when concerns arose about the dearth of opportunities for Lincoln County high school graduates. The lack of an existing college meant they’d have to uproot themselves and leave the area to pursue further schooling.
A group of local officials asked county property owners to tax themselves to establish an educational service district. Although the college wouldn’t be founded for some years, a financial and legal framework was now in place to proceed.
In particular, Ouderkirk singled out county residents Rex Krabbe, John Baker and Patti Littlehales for taking the next step to start a community college.
“They were the visionaries,” he said. “The rest of us benefitted immensely from their work.”
The lack of a fully constituted taxing district, however, meant that the community college from the start lacked its own academic accreditation. That meant it needed a sponsor school, whose name would appear alongside OCCC’s on any degrees or certificates.
All that changed in February, when after five years of focused effort, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities granted OCCC full accreditation. In doing so, the organization praised the college for developing strong community ties and creating a “cohesive, collaborative, welcome climate.”
That recognition built on the landmark approval in 2004 by voters of a $23.5 million bond to fund buildings and campuses in Newport, Lincoln City and Waldport, Ouderkirk said.
“That’s what truly made us a countywide education resource,” he said. “And it says a lot about how much Lincoln County residents support education.”
OCCC President Birgitte Ryslinge stops to talk while going through the college’s nursing lab, which will be open to students for hands-on practice with proper coronavirus protocols.
Coronavirus is the latest challenge
Now, in a coronavirus-changed landscape, it remains to be seen how the coming year will play out.
It appears that enrollment may drop by as much as 10 percent over last year, which would be unusual. In past economic downturns, community college enrollment tends to surge.
Of the nearly 2,000 students expected to enroll fall term, about 470 will take the 12 or more credit hours needed to classify them as full time, according to college records.
Tuition and fees, meanwhile, both will climb by $6 per credit, leaving full-time students with tuition payments of $121 per credit.
“We run very close to the margin and do everything we can to keep tuition as low as possible,” Ryslinge said. “We realize fully how painful any increase is.”
Declining revenues, combined with escalating costs, have forced the college to cut travel budgets in half, limit materials and supplies budgets to prior-year levels and tell administrators and managers they won’t get previously approved salary increases.
In addition, the Spanish program has been discontinued, custodial services are being decreased and several other positions are being eliminated.
Still, plenty of bright spots remain.
The college’s aquarium science program, for instance, is the longest-running course of its kind in the country. The program, run in conjunction with the Oregon Coast Aquarium, provides classroom and in-field instruction for 15 to 20 students a year in everything from scientific diving to the pumps, heaters and chillers needed to power aquariums of up to 1 million gallons.
“Students who have gone through the program have landed jobs in aquariums throughout the country,” said Jim Burke, the Oregon Coast Aquarium’s director of animal care. “It’s a great training ground.”
Oregon Coast Community College welding student Cody Doty practices welding techniques at the college’s new marine welding lab at the Port of Toledo.
OCCC’s welding program is another example of how the college is tailoring instructional offerings to dovetail with the area’s commercial job needs.
The program, shut down by the pandemic shortly after it launched in February, recently reopened in an industrial park across the street from the Port of Toledo’s shipyard, and the first batch of graduates is expected soon.
“We have a whole industry where the skilled workforce is older and getting to retirement age,” said Debbie Scacco, the Port of Toledo’s assistant manager. “We are very much in need of skilled maritime welders and this program is going to be a big boost to our local industry.”
Coastal businesses hit hard by the coronavirus-related shutdown also found relief through OCCC’s Small Business Development Center. The center’s three-person staff found itself the go-to option for scores of business owners who were trying to negotiate a business landscape that was often changing by the day.
“I’ve never before seen that level of demand from folks who had the rug pulled entirely out from under them,” said Dave Price, the center’s director. “Ever.”
“At our core, what we provide is free business advice. And if ever a time that was needed, it’s now.”
The center’s work has received widespread praise from Lincoln County business voices.
“I’ve sent an awful lot of people their way for information and assistance,” said Laura Furgurson, executive director of the Waldport and Depoe Bay chambers of commerce. “They did a great job.”
Ahead is the challenge of ensuring that quality instruction takes place amid a public-health crisis that few alive could have envisioned. Ryslinge, for her part, is adamant that the college is up to the task.
“No one was expecting a pandemic, “she said, “but I’m confident we will emerge from this stronger than ever.”
- Dana Tims is an Oregon freelance writer who contributes regularly to YachatsNews.com. He can be reached at DanaTims24@gmail.com