This content was published: October 20, 2014. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
It’s official! Southeast is now PCC’s newest campus
Story by Kate Chester. Photos by James Hill.
Approximately 1,500 attendees visited Portland Community College’s Southeast Campus (2305 S.E. 82nd and Division) on Saturday, Oct. 18 for a grand opening.
Attendees had the opportunity to eat food from a variety of local food carts, listen to live music from Melao de Cuba, and enjoy taiko drumming, zumba, martial arts, Chinelos and Lion dancers and much more that collectively represented the multicultural and multiethnic community surrounding the Southeast Campus.
Taiko lead drummer Yumi Torimaru dazzles the Southeast Campus crowd at the Oct. 18 grand opening of the new campus.
“It was a great turnout today and we were given sunshine, too,” said Jeremy Brown, president of Portland Community College. “It was perfect – we couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate with the community.”
The party celebrated the center’s transformation into a full-service comprehensive campus, where students can earn an associate’s degree and have access to the full palette of student services at one location. The transformation, thanks to the 2008 bond measure, includes the recently completed Student Commons building, a three-story, 66,000-square-foot structure that houses an expanded bookstore, five science classrooms/labs, new classrooms and a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) center. The new Library is a three-story, 40,000-square-foot facility that features the Student Computing Center, Student Learning Center, Volunteer Literacy Center, traditional library services, classrooms and study areas.
As part of the “formal” program, Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Earl Blumenauer addressed the large crowd, as did Brown, Jessica Howard, president of the Southeast Campus; Courtney Wilton, PCC board director who represents the Southeast area; and a handful of Southeast Campus students who spoke to the new services and instructional aspects of the campus. The program was emceed by Melanie Davis, owner and publisher of El Hispanic News.
“This was a momentous occasion for all of us,” said Howard. “We now host a wealth of resources to share with students and the Southeast community, and that’s been a long term goal of the college.
“Today has been a long time coming, and we’re incredibly excited about what the future holds,” she said.
I live two blocks off Division and am thrilled that we have such a great facility on what was a blighted corner. My oldest son attends and loves the campus and I hope you will keep finding more ways to share the space with our local community. I also look forward to supporting more ways to have people with disabilities embraced in the diversity of the campus. What lovely photos and thank you to everyone who helped create the campus SE Portland needs it and we appreciate all the work staff and board have done to meet the investment of the bond and be responsive to the community