Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Here's what the Southeast Center would get from bond measure

Photos and story by Dana Haynes

This week, I’ve been working my way campus-by-campus, explaining what the bond measure would mean for students at each site. We’ve hit Rock Creek, Cascade and Sylvania. Today: Southeast Center.

The center is at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Division. It’s not a full campus, lacking a library and some other amenities. But if the bond measure is successful, the center would start Stage 1 of a two-stage plan to turn it into a proper campus.

The campus would get:

• Science labs. Believe it or not, science students either have to drive to another campus for their lab work, or go to a nearby high school and schnore equipment! That’s obviously not ideal.

• Career training facilities for welding, construction, and/or electronic engineering technology programs. Again: It’s workforce development, workforce development, workforce development. This is the reason behind so much of the bond measure. There is a workforce shortage in this region and it’s only going to grow worse as the population booms. All of these fields train workers for well-paying jobs, which helps the whole economy.

• Library and tutoring services space. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. College-without-library: not so good. College-with-library: better.

• Added classrooms. A few years ago, Southeast Center opened at capacity. On Day 1, they had waiting lists and turned-away students because the demand for classes is so great.

• A child-care facility for students. I’ve said it before: One of the biggest impediments to a college education can be the lack of affordable, high-quality child care.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at Newberg and Sherwood.

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