Eldon Schafer Oral History

[00:00:00] Eldon Schafer:
If you're ready, my experience with Lane Community College resulted shortly after I came to start Lynn Vinton Community College in the spring of 1967. And I had chatted with Dale Parnell, who was the founding father of this institution, and he invited me to come down and sit in on some of their discussions. And at that time, the district offices were down on Monroe Street, which is now the headquarters for 4J. And I recall coming down, and Dale was in the midst of a cabinet meeting, which at that time probably included all of the department heads and all of the staff, discussing again the developments that were going to lead to moving out here. At that time, they were scattered in numerous places without a campus. After our meeting down at Monroe, he brought me out here, and it was like this kind of weather. It was typically rainy, muddy, and the campus yet was not completed. And so you were ankle-deep and mud,

walking around the campus almost everywhere. It was impossible to get to the building without walking through mud. But it was obvious at even that early stage that the board had conceived, and the board and staff had conceived, a plan that was unique and offered great potential for vocationally-oriented students.

[00:01:20] Interviewer:
What year was that again?

[00:01:22] Eldon Schafer:
1967. That was my first year returning to Oregon to start Lynn Benton Community College. Lane had preceded us a couple of years, but they were just in the stages of starting the campus here.

[00:01:35] Interviewer:
Well, then how did you feel? I mean, here you were already obviously very much involved in this kind of educational process. What did you think about what they were planning? Did it seem too adventuresome?

[00:01:50] Eldon Schafer:
Of course, having come from a community college in California, I very well knew the program, but I was new to Oregon's community colleges. And Lane actually was, I think, a goal for many of us as we looked at the development of the colleges in Oregon. And as I looked at it from my perspective at Lynn Benton, we had no site, we had no college, we had no plans yet at that point. So looking what they were doing in Eugene was an inspiration to us. Again, knowing that we probably couldn't replicate this because that's a smaller area with less money available. But it did give us some thoughts, and particularly I was impressed with the concepts that that first board administration had of developing something that would be unique, something that would give status to vocational education and not let it be out in the back somewhere in dirty looking facilities. Now, can you be specific about what you must have been thinking at the time now,

[00:02:47] Interviewer:
what is it that they did that enabled them to get to this point? Well, the fact that they

[00:02:52] Eldon Schafer:
had the vision to put all their people on an airplane and fly down to California to look at what were considered to be some of the most forward and best examples of community college construction. And then, of course, they put Bird on a plane to tour the United States, looking again at what were considered to be lighthouse kinds of districts. And then having the boldness to set the architects to work to design a campus that had components of what were considered to be those excellent facilities. And I think there was some reaction from some segments of the community as this college began to emerge out of the mud and this large concrete structure began to go up. And I heard it in Albany. Occasionally, I would hear people who said, I don't know what they're doing down there in Eugene, they're building another palace, another university out there, and we don't need one. That word filtered up to Albany.

But of course, it was a major change from the old Eugene vocational technical concept. But that first board and that first administration set the tone for what caused us to be what we are today, in my opinion. They had an objective. They had a goal to do something different, to look at new and innovative kinds of programs, to be open, to intermingle vocational education facilities with transfer education so that students would be not isolated from one program, but they would see these various programs on this campus and that they were all treated like worthy students, whether they be in vocational programs or college transfer areas. And that was a deliberate plan by the initial board. That's something that I want to get to,

[00:04:32] Interviewer:
is why did it happen here that they had such innovative open ideas? Have you ever been able to pinpoint that? No, I think probably there were a variety of factors. One, they had

[00:04:49] Eldon Schafer:
preliminary study done by the University of Oregon educational offices. Keith Goldhammer was the dean of the College of Education, I think at that time, to take a look at the needs in Lane County. It was obvious in the early 60s that the Eugene Vocational School was not conceived and on a basis to serve the total Lane County needs. There were examples of other states building a community college system, and I think the quality of the initially elected board probably had a great deal to do with it. And the fact that Dale Parnell and the type of people that they gathered together here started, whether the board initiated or others, I really can't say, but the idea that let's do something that's really a step forward and set our goals high to become, and they I think started out to become in the initiative of the national leader in innovation. And I heard many times that the need to raise the status of vocational education

so that it wasn't a second class education. And I think that concept permeated the thinking of the board and administration. So now you worked with

[00:06:04] Interviewer:
the first board, didn't you, the initial board? When I came in 1970, there were still

[00:06:13] Eldon Schafer:
four or five of the initial board, five perhaps, but shortly thereafter they began to retire. And the only, well there were only Dr. Brower from Florence as the remaining board member after the first year that I came in 1970. So that the turnaround and the change in the board structure is always a critical point in the history of the college. Those founding fathers have commitments that sometimes don't maintain over time as new boards are elected during new conditions and the college is already established and moving. So that first board was critical and they hung together very well during those first four years of the college's development, even though there were tough times with four presidents and four years before I came on board, it was a growing, expanding, developing institution. And so they went through,

[00:07:06] Interviewer:
I think, exciting times with lots of pressures and lots of successes. Can you tell me about that?

[00:07:12] Eldon Schafer:
I had only heard about Parnell and Pickering. Well, there was Parnell and then rather than appoint another president, the board appointed Bob Hamill for a year as acting president, and then they selected Pickering and then me. So there were four of us in a period of four years. So Hamill was just a stopgap. He was an acting president. He, I think, was an applicant at the time that Mr. Pickering was hired, but I'm not certain of that. But I think that he wanted to be, perhaps, I guess I really don't know the details, so I couldn't comment on it.

[00:07:48] Interviewer:
Can you tell me how you felt? Did you have any feelings about what you thought the board wanted? When I came? No, at the, at what you understood the board was

[00:07:59] Eldon Schafer:
after at the beginning and then how the board evolved and the kinds of differences and shifts that went on at that point. My recollections really come from reviewing publicity brochures and other public relations activities that occurred as the college was being formed. And there was the issue from the beginning, whether or not the college would be a vocational technical institute or whether it would be what we term comprehensive, meaning offering broad transfer programs and others. And the newspaper coverage, the editorials, the initial brochures that went out to the public laid out the proposed program, which was indeed comprehensive. In the board elections, there were people who were running for the college to become technical or comprehensive. And in all cases, the comprehensive concept was that which was supported by the public and the board candidates. So that the direction was pointed initially, I don't believe

the people fully understood the breadth of the new institution, but it was stated out there for everyone to look out and sample transfer programs for the first two years were laid out in all the brochures. But when I came in 1970, again, in the midst of heavy growth, there was a fear that Lane was becoming transfer oriented and was going to become like the University of Oregon. That never really happened, but it was in the minds of some, because of the rapid growth that was occurring, that that would indeed happen. It did not. We serve a different clientele than does the university. But that first board that was elected were strong supporters of the comprehensive community college concept, providing broad services for people. And I think the concept that's been stated over and over and is still contained in our mission that the college ought to be accessible financially, psychologically, in all of these things that had in the past

kept people from getting into higher education. It was not elitist. Now it was open for all and ought to be available to all. Do you consider those problems like the elitism of some higher

[00:10:02] Interviewer:
education, higher educational institutions, do you consider those negative things? Negative things? Well, I don't that may be too strong a word. I think that higher education in

[00:10:15] Eldon Schafer:
the United States had until the advent of the community college always been elitist to some

[00:10:20] Interviewer:
degree. Is that good or bad? Oh, in American democracy, I think it's bad. Very easy to

[00:10:31] Eldon Schafer:
screen out and to develop a second class society for those who for a variety of reasons can't or don't see that higher education or post-secondary education is a viable alternative for them. But I guess what I'm trying to say is it seems like a lot of the push for Link Community College came from people feeling that higher education was not meeting the needs of a lot of the community. No question, it was not. It was meeting only a very small percentage of the needs of the community. Another thought I have is, well, shouldn't the education be as highest quality

[00:11:16] Interviewer:
as possible, therefore getting the best students who can get the best grades? Do you know what I'm trying to say? The highest quality may be in training an auto mechanic who is superb. Is that

[00:11:29] Eldon Schafer:
high quality? You bet it is. Training somebody in philosophy or ancient history may be one aspect of quality in a university. But I think we have quality in all fields and also lack of quality. A good philosopher may be worth his salt in this country. He may not be worth a damn. It depends upon what purpose this knowledge is to be put to. So I think quality has to be very carefully defined. We have quality electricians, quality mechanics, quality lawyers, quality teachers, and I guess it has to be measured in those terms, what the objectives are. Well, then is there a place

[00:12:11] Interviewer:
for those elitist institutions as well as comprehensive community colleges? I think

[00:12:17] Eldon Schafer:
very definitely our society is so complex we need people of all sorts. But as Pat Cross, one of our leading research psychologists in the country, has said that everyone is remedial in some areas. As I would be if I were asked to fix an automobile, I wouldn't have the slightest idea what I should do. And so I really am vastly undereducated as it relates to that particular technology. So I think it takes all kinds of education to make us function at the highest possible level. Well, let me get back to your own career at Lane. When you were hired as the

[00:13:00] Interviewer:
president, what was the mandate that you felt the board gave you? Well, during those times they

[00:13:10] Eldon Schafer:
needed, after having this tumultuous time, some stable leadership with a concern for some financial understanding because the college at that point was in a deficit position because of some unforeseen estimate errors in the funding side. I think they wanted somebody who was a generalist, which I consider myself to be understanding the broad concept of the community college, not a specialist in anyone, knowing a lot about things but not much about anything. In other words, but having a broad understanding of the mission of the community college, the need for some stable leadership. And as I look back on it, I probably did too little that first year or so, but I was reluctant to make many changes in an institution that I had great respect for. And there were a lot of strong people here, but they were kind of uncertain as to where they were going. And there didn't seem to be credibility from the administration

of the board. They had lost confidence in the leadership of the institution. And so it was very difficult. Some of my friends in the community college movement like to kid me by saying that Shafer, you know, nobody can govern Lane. It's ungovernable. It's so wild, you know, the things are going on. And part of that was, I think, a compliment to the kind of staff we had, great enthusiasm and great expectations, but there wasn't a great deal of coordination or planning nor consistency. And I guess if anything, during those times when we were facing lack of money, which is nothing new, at that time great growth and the desire of the board to retain the open door concept, which perhaps we may have overdone that, we perhaps would have been better off had we not have served as many people and have done a better job of serving those who did come. But the philosophy was to keep the college doors open. And that we tried to do and

I think succeeded fairly well. One looks back, of course, and wonders had we have looked at it in other ways, we might have done things differently, but I'm not sure. Well, we're now facing some of the results of our serving more students than we could handle, and we've let some of the maintenance on the plant go. We're now becoming an older facility, 17 years old, 18 years old. Roofs are in drastic need of repair. Some of our equipment has not been replaced to keep it at the state of the art because it's extremely expensive. And so when you get down to, should we do that or serve students? And it's not a simple question because our money comes from serving students, at least over half of it, two thirds of it, FTE from the state's support tuition. And so you find yourself needing to have students because that's the way you generate money. But we also need it, I think, in retrospect to have spent more on maintenance

of the plant and perhaps finding ways to keep our equipment updated. And that isn't to say that we don't have good equipment. Most colleges are envious of what we have, but we have a high expectations too. And so we need to now, I think, spend time thinking about what we can do to keep the college in a position to provide the right kind of education for modern technology.

[00:16:37] Interviewer:
That's a big, big problem, isn't it? It is indeed. And we are facing it right now,

[00:16:42] Eldon Schafer:
and we're in the midst of trying to come to some conclusions as to the alternatives that we face for this next year. Well, looking back now, you've been president for 12 years now. This is the 13th,

[00:16:54] Interviewer:
yes. What is it? How do you see you changing or molding what's going on here?

[00:17:04] Eldon Schafer:
Well, I don't really know that I had any major hand in changing the thrust of the LCC or what's going on here. I may have had some small impact in moving us down the road in the use of technology, feeling that, and I think evidence shows that education has generally lagged 20 years or more beyond the technology. Once it's adopted and developed and in use in industry, education is very slow to move and for a variety of reasons. And so in some cases, I may have pushed pretty hard to get us moving into alternative delivery systems and created some ill will among college staff back seven or eight years ago when we began to push for the use of television and things of that nature. But I think Lane has dared grapple with new ideas, and I think we were the first to move into a micro computer lab, mini computer lab, before others had even taken their first step. And so that kind of leading, being out front, I think is a basic tenant of LCC.

Maybe I had some help there, but the staff are the ones who really, you know, I'm only one person, there are hundreds of them, and they will do what they think is best. And sometimes it helps to push, shove, cajole, encourage, and I think we encourage innovation wherever we can find it. And that's been, again, a basic tenant, that it doesn't take a total department or a total institution, you find staff members who are interested, and then you encourage them and you support them in those endeavors. And that's what we've tried to do. And if it's a good idea, and others see it in operation, somebody else is going to grab it. And that happens. I recall when I came, Jack Creitz, head of the business department was very reluctant to move into individualized instruction. In fact, we had a program called clerical assessment, which was working with the ADC and other unemployed women essentially, open entry exit concepts. And Jack

Creitz didn't see that belonging in the business department. So it was under Jerry Rasmussen at that time when he was an associate dean. Well, eventually the business department did indeed see the value of independent study and innovated as open entry exit. Typing programs were changed. And so it's been a gradual evolutionary process by individual faculty members who have gone out and led the way. And again, the Oregon Community College system, which allows a great deal of local initiative and local flexibility, and a local board that's supportive of trying new things and willing to take risks, and you have to be willing to take risks and make any change, that lane has done probably more than any other. And on balance, I think they have been most effective. One of the things that I've been hearing over and over again is that it was so exciting to start this college. That was a wonderful time. It was like a clean

blackboard and now let's do what we want. But now it's so big and it's already there that the whole direction of the college. The momentum, any college that starts and has a momentum becomes either difficult to change or in one case one might say that you develop certain traditions and the traditions can become ruts. I don't think that's happened at Lane. I really don't. That's a tendency over time to develop a plan and then stick with it and there's no change. I think that is not true in the case of Lane Community College. There's not a department here that's teaching the way they did when I came 12 years ago, 13 years ago. There have been changes throughout. The math department had no open math lab, no open entry exit, no video cassette program, no independent learning. The building was not even complete when I came here and already we've remodeled it I think two or three times to fit the changing instructional delivery system.

So things have changed but it becomes a concern of mine too that as we age and as the institution ages and the employees age that we become less willing to gamble and less willing to take risk and it's more energy consuming. It's hard. I can say we will innovate. That doesn't mean a damn thing unless people really do it and someone long time ago reminded me that and I get impatient sometimes that we don't move rapidly enough but to use the example of gears and I'm a big wheel and I make a little turn and all these little wheels down there just have to work like mad to keep up and so they have been working like mad I think over time with new ideas and new curriculum development. I think one needs only look back through board minutes to see the amount of changes that occur in curriculum on a constant basis updating modeling dropping courses adding new ones and that's what keeps the college a little bit different and the envy I would say

of most colleges around the country. Well now here's another problem with with the institutions that have passed their innovative stage in that or that beginning stage and that is that people begin to see how some of their ideas didn't work. They start developing guidelines of ways in which to do things. Procedures become more intricate and it's a possibility that things can get bogged down in paperwork and how many people have to know about a certain project. The larger the institution the more bureaucratic processes seem to get in the way and again Lane has I think actively tried to attack that problem and again that's enhanced by the Oregon system that allows us to put in new programs. For example it didn't take us two years to establish a business assistance center. I looked and listened and one day I said you know we're going to start one and I dumped it on the deed of instruction and others and so that was done

like that and I took the idea and the concept to the board and it was done. Now in many states and many systems that couldn't happen and in a lot of institutions it might not happen and that trust and emphasis may not make everybody in the college happy but I think again that's one of the rules of leadership is to grab an opportunity when it seems evident that that ought to be done and all of the evidence that we could bring to force said we need to help the economic health of this community and one way we can do that is to provide more resources to that area where they need help and that means drawing them away from other areas of the college. So in a sense you reallocate limited resources and that's always a sensitive difficult thing to do and some people will not be totally comfortable with that. The college has never had agreement I think I can say

a unanimous agreement as to its role in mission. There are still those who think we ought not have performing arts. What the devil are we doing in that business or you know you could take that into other areas. We've discussed that over the years with the board and they've looked at the plan several times. They've always retained the basic concept of broad comprehensive programs so that people of all sorts can get exposed to some of the liberal arts as well as more traditional programs. It's hard sometimes to maintain that. It's right. We're now looking again at what we generally call community education and how it might better be refocused and if you know some have said that community colleges try to be all things to all people and that has sounded good for many years but the time has come now when I say we cannot be all things to all people and that seems to be an accepted view. That means some very hard work in terms of refining the

goals and missions of the institution and we're in the process as you may know of doing that starting last summer with some work and now carrying it on to I think a hundred people now have been involved in some of the planning sessions looking to what the future holds for LCC and so I think this institution is not stuck in the mud, stuck in a rut, committed to old outmoded programs. It may be that we will be faced in the future with reducing and eliminating some programs. Our actions in the last two years where we've been faced with these unexpected cuts the board has said not eliminate things just reduce the size of the institution but keep it comprehensive. Once you've done that the next squeeze causes you to begin to drop off some programs and so we're in that very precarious position where the next cuts may force us to

[00:26:05] Interviewer:
do that even though we don't like to do that. Where would you cut if you had to? Well that

[00:26:09] Eldon Schafer:
would be preordaining the results and I wouldn't say we do have and the reason why we're spending so much time in reviewing the missions. We have developed each year for many years instructional priorities that say these are the things of the highest priority and so forth and those have been approved by the board. We have used them as we built our budget and planned what we call our decision packages how we would cut if we're faced to from one hundred to one

[00:26:33] Interviewer:
to down to several hundred of them and we use those. Does it change? Do they change? Oh yes indeed they do. What kind of change do you see in all the years? What becomes more more important?

[00:26:47] Eldon Schafer:
Oh you look at areas that may be combined whenever we look for opportunities for shrinking the staff through retirements. I have a basic rule and our administrators all know that we stop, look, and listen when we have a vacancy created by someone leaving or someone retiring or someone dying. Is that person, do we really have to replace that person? Can we reorganize and still

[00:27:10] Interviewer:
accomplish the goals? We'll be doing that this next spring and summer as we look at the

[00:27:16] Eldon Schafer:
retirements that we've had. We're restructuring with the retirement of Niall Williams from community education which is coming up shortly. We're looking at that whole reorganization and probably will change the way we have functioned. You can do that for a while and it's the easiest thing to do rather than have to face termination of some people or layoffs. If we can reorganize when people leave we don't hurt people and so that's a high priority and some of that can be done but there comes yet a point beyond which you can't do that. You begin to lose programs. Yeah I guess what I was asking more was you have a list of what is most important to the board. To the public too. The public approve it, the board approves it, our staff have approved it. I see Vocational education is our number one priority. That's number one. We don't argue with that but with that is developmental education for those who need help with basic skills

and transfer education and then the community education counseling and guidance and public services. So high school completion falls in that at a lower priority. So we have some general guidelines that have worked I think quite effectively but they have been general. They have not been program oriented. Saying for example our next review might and this is only problematic or not likely. We will eliminate the flight tech program. We can do that. It eliminates the program that is highly regarded and respected. Has an awaiting list for enrollment. It's a fairly high cost program but it could be eliminated. That's one item and we can do the same with other programs on campus. Or we can move toward offering some program every other year rather than every year. So they are fine tuning the institution as an ongoing task during these times. But my concept is to keep the college as responsive to the needs of the

community as we can. That's what makes the difference I think. It must be extremely frustrating for you to have come in on something like this and then find less and less and less money to do what you want to do. I can understand how you would say that but I don't think that has really happened that way. We were in great financial crisis when I came 12 years ago. It hasn't changed but it hasn't stopped the college either. And again partly because of that early thrust to want so much and to want the new things and want things to do things better than others. We have had very high goals and ambitions. There were doomsayers when I came. Things are going to the dogs in 1970. Those people, some of them are still around, some are not but we just ignored them. And when the college is still a leader in the country. And so it may be oversimplification to say that necessity is the mother of invention. But believe me I believe it

is. You know there are a dozen ways to skin a cat and we're always looking for alternative ways to accomplish the goals. And if you don't do it through the front door you go to the side door or the back door or you do it some other way. And sometimes I think that pressure has caused us to do some things that we might not have done. If we'd had all the money in the world we might not have worried about finding new ways to do things. Now that doesn't solve our problems. But we have been most fortunate with a community that has supported us. And sometimes as you may know we've been to the polls a number of times that have always ultimately had sufficient support that we continued. I think the sadness comes in the fact that we have undoubtedly turned away many students over the years whom we would like to assert merely because we didn't offer the sections. We cut back on the curriculum in some ways. That's been the biggest problem I think

we have. But I cannot honestly say that we have fallen behind anyone that I know of. We're the envy of most as I say. When our staff go visit other places around the country they come home. I believe without exception saying gee whiz you know things are better here than they are there whether that be California or Washington or anywhere in the country. Lane has developed a reputation not by my doing or not by any overt plans to go out and publicize programs but by fact of what our staff have done that when people here at Lane Community College they immediately kind of think this is the mecca where all good things have started. And we know that isn't quite true but it's kind of satisfying and I think it makes you proud of the institution when people believe that. And I just that's happened so many times and not just to me but to teachers and to

staff members who have gone elsewhere and people when they hear you're from Lane that's something

[00:32:25] Interviewer:
special. And again why is that? I think it goes back to the board establishing a college a beautiful

[00:32:32] Eldon Schafer:
entrance to the college a beautiful maintained campus teachers who were friendly an environment that is conducive to that openness and people are willing to be helpful to students and that kind of just pyramids over time and I have always feared that you know we would lose that it's a very fragile thing a college atmosphere and teacher student attitudes about the institution and you could visit some places where graffiti is always painted on the walls and on the cement you don't have that here and students thousands of them over the years have come here many who were unsuccessful or problems in earlier years but for some intangible reason they have taken to the institution to the people of the institution and so they have pride and respect for it and that's something that not every college has and we haven't lost that over the years I have a

series of questions that I have not changed as I pick up students who are hitchhiking occasionally from the campus back to town or from downtown out here and most of them do not know me of course because I don't deal that often with students and I have a series of questions about why they're here what they're taking how they like it and what they think almost without exception you know the best place they've ever been it's a beautiful place teachers are friendly staff members family students are friendly classes are small good you know good support and they love the place and that's existed for the history of this college up to date you know true you always worry about someday that won't continue I can't put my finger on it but it's a lot of things I think that caused that attitude to prevail what do you see in the future what do you want to see happening what are some of the things that you well we have been for several years

trying to protect the institution from the vagrancies of the legislature and the economic situations and going into the valleys and hills so many of our agencies have go down and up and down we've been able to over the years through planning for the last seven or eight years at least retain sufficient carryover funding so that we don't hit the valleys we're able to slide across these these deep recessions and that's been our overriding administrative concern for several years to retain sufficient flexibility and funding to soften the blows so that lane doesn't go up and down so much and we have succeeded to date I'm pleased to say because of the help and the willingness of all staff to squeeze and look for ways to do things less costly and I think we are being affected less than almost any other institution with the current recession sure we've had to squeeze a bit and we have let some things go but by and large our

morale of the institution is outstanding really and I think anyone who came in with an independent assessment would say that and I believe our staff have said that in times when others are are crying the blues we've done it because we've we've been able to have sufficient funds to carry on not as much as we would like but to carry us through this tough time has been our plan and goal and we knew a long time ago that 83 85 would probably be the toughest it isn't going to be a better roses for lane but it is going to be less severe here than most places most of or at least I get the sense that when uh an institution like this is threatened with major cuts often what they'll do is cut the most favorite program the one that will touch the community the most oh no I wouldn't buy that well I don't see that no I wouldn't I wouldn't buy that I think there are some who've who've done that maybe at the public schools we're

going to cut out athletes or we're going to cut out things that they know people will rally behind no we have not used that philosophy uh again I think the board is to be credited for that and maybe maybe all of us deserve some credit to say no we're not about to use that sledge on the public you know we don't buy that we think the community has great respect for lane community college and we have for the public that supported us and so it's that kind of close tie with the community that we don't want to lose okay now if you were given say an extra two million dollars it's near christmas so we can pretend very good what would what would you do with it if you could up that to four million I would tell you uh because I've just received from the the request that they think we must have to get on with deferred maintenance to maintain the investment of 60 70 million that the public has here is going to take upwards to

four million dollars to bring our equipment up to the state of the art to repair the roof repair the parking lots I think I would use that money in that way as an investment to help protect what we have out here to make it possible for our teaching programs to be at the again the cutting edge and I would use the money that way rather than at this point increasing salaries for everybody increasing our enrollment I would take this opportunity to have everything here at the best possible level then we're in a position to continue quality programs okay well then I guess I'll have to give you eight what would you do with the extra four we would probably

reassess the next five-year period of what's going to happen in Lane County using the best available evidence we would provide uh facilities for the future in what we call outreach centers we've had plans for some time in the state has indicated our top building priority would be a facility in Cottage Grove we think eventually we'll need a small facility in North Lane County out toward the airport toward Junction City and perhaps out toward Marcola we would further our use of technology we would take another big step in the I guess broadly defined the communications computer age because we are while we are doing a lot that technology is changing so fast and is costly that we would put some major resources to bring us up and be prepared for the future that seems like a reasonable way it's a terrible question to ask well and it's hard it's hard to predict the future I could sit back and say I would sock

it in the bank and try to get 10 interest you know so that we'd be prepared in every way but we did an assessment some time ago in terms of the building needs of the college and it was rather dramatic I think at that time we came up with an estimate of about eight million dollars that we needed to prepare for the future in terms of construction since that we have managed to get the downtown center we still have another remodel at the downtown center that'll come eventually when funding is available and we are we were before this current fund crisis which has caused students and all of us to suffer we were reaching a point where we were about as you know capacity on this campus we would go ahead and probably build the building that we already have the plans designed for here on the campus a classroom building we would probably put in a pool also covered and hopefully with solar capacity because that's one

aspect of the college that has not completed the only major concept that has been delayed on this campus to fully complete this campus and there is not a swimming pool in this southern part of the metropolitan area so that's again a priority that the board has sustained over the years but have been unable to fund.

[00:40:44] Interviewer:
I think that money would just disappear so fast one would wonder, how could it go so fast? Well, if there's a— I think I'm pretty well done, but I would like to ask you if there's anything that I haven't asked you that you'd like to mention that you would feel is important when we're dealing with the 20th anniversary.

[00:41:08] Eldon Schafer:
well again I I've said repeatedly over and over in public that we are what we are today because of that first board and administration which set goals high enough most public agencies I think fail to set high standards and look far enough in the future and that board did they did things that could not be done today I think we couldn't build this campus today if they'd want done it piecemeal slowly and so the people in that board that took the major step to create outside the city limits of Eugene an institution which was geared to serve those who had not been served by the university deserve the credit for where we are