News Releases
News from Lane Community College
For release May 21, 2008
AWARD-WINNING LCC FACULTY-LED JOURNAL RELEASES TIMELY "DEMOCRACY MOMENT"
EUGENE, OR - What do media critic Norman Solomon, environmental writer Bill McKibben, six Oregon politicians, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, and a riot on the Lane Community College campus have in common?
They all appear in the 2008 Community College Moment, the faculty-led journal of professional development and scholarship published annually at LCC.
Now in its eighth year, this Moment presents 120 pages of nationally known figures side by side with local authors, and brings together international and local concerns. Bill McKibben speaks about launching a democratic movement to raise awareness of global warming. Norman Solomon recalls his early days of activism at Reed College in the 1970s. Chinese intellectual Ji Xianlin remembers contemplating suicide during Mao Zedong's "Cultural Revolution" of the 1960s.
Six Oregon politicians -- Bruce Hanna, Bill Morrisette, Bill Dwyer, Peter DeFazio, Vicki Walker, and Pete Sorenson -- respond to the question, "What is, or should be, the role of the community college in a democracy?"
This issue's democracy theme is timely not only because 2008 is an election year, but also because it's an opportunity for the community to reacquaint itself with the wide range of work being done at LCC.
"The Moment showcases the breadth and depth of experience and expertise found at a comprehensive college like Lane," says President Mary Spilde. "This is a way for students and the community to see the scholarship and professionalism of our faculty and staff and why we're consistently recognized as a top-ranked college."
In this issue, President Spilde also contributes to a "conversation on democracy" with union presidents Jim Salt and Bob Baldwin. The LCC archives provide visuals, and the Internet provides memories, of a riot scene from the 1970 Hollywood movie, "Getting Straight," filmed on main campus and starring Elliot Gould, Candace Bergen, and a then-unknown Harrison Ford.
Faculty and staff from LCC and other colleges offer artwork, research, and reflections on the social, personal, physical, and cultural elements of democracy. Topics include an analysis of the Japanese kanji characters for war and peace, comments on the new Lane Peace Center, and research on how physical spaces influence democratic choices.
Journals like the Moment are a rarity at community colleges. The focus at these schools is on teaching -- as it should be, says co-editor Steve McQuiddy. "But faculty and staff bring so much more to their professions. The Moment bridges the area between academic-based information and generally accessible work. This issue has everything from an argument for civic literacy, to research on cooperative education, to an oral history reminiscence about counting ballots in a downtown Eugene office basement in the 1960s."
The democracy theme should suit the upcoming academic fall term well, McQuiddy says. "We'll be promoting the book as a learning tool for classes. Many of the contributors are in the area. It will be easy and inexpensive to get permission for copyright reproductions or to bring in guest speakers."
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PIO: Joan Aschim, (541) 463-5591, aschimj@lanecc.edu
Contact: Steve McQuiddy co-editor, Community College Moment, 463-5780, mcquiddys@lanecc.edu
