Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

A campus-by-campus look at the bond. Today: Sylvania

Photos and story by Dana Haynes

This week, I’ve been going campus-by-campus, outlining the things that each site would get should voters OK the bond measure in November (which is, gulp, 76 days from today; ballots hit mailboxes in about 58 days).

We looked at Rock Creek on Monday and Cascade on Tuesday. Today, it’s Sylvania, which is looking at:

• An expansion of the dental program, which is in high demand. That will only grow more so as the area’s population expands. Which it will.

• Upgrade of space to add renewable energy technician training. You can’t be “too green” in the Portland area these days, and PCC wants to train the technicians for the spate of environmentally friendly jobs that everyone is anticipating.

• Increased classroom space. That one’s pretty obvious. So many classes are at or beyond capacity.

• Increased capacity for student services. Right now, students have to travel hither and yon to register, see a counselor, pay for classes, etc. The vision is a “one-stop shop” for students. Note: I don’t actually know what “hither and yon” means; it’s just something my mother says.

• Expand child-care facilities for students. This is big. Many students tell us that one of the largest barriers for higher education is lack of affordable, high-quality child care.

• Upgrades to automotive, machine manufacturing and photography facilities.

So that’s the big picture for Sylvania. Tomorrow we’ll look at the Southeast Center.

Send your feedback to dana.haynes@pcc.edu. And thanks in advance.