A blast from the past, a journey through 50 years

This school year, Mt. Hood Community College has been celebrating 50 years of successful education. With all the banners and fanfare, it is easy to overlook the fact that, along with the college, various organizations within the institution are also celebrating fiftieth birthdays.

One of those organizations is the humble, independent, and resourceful student newspaper you currently hold in your hands – that’s right, the Advocate is 50 years old. To reminisce, the editors took out many back issues, and pored over issues looking for stories and headlines that highlight quirks from different time periods in the Advocate’s existence.

The paper began its journey as Mt. Hood’s student-run publication in September1966. The obligation was to write about events on campus and the surrounding community, as well as other groundbreaking stories. Originally, the Advocate was called MHCC Weekly.

The stories varied from “free” email being offered campuswide in 1998, to a proposed campus hotel that would’ve been a 33-room, $6 million, full-service business in 2001.

In the Advocate’s first (ever) issue, 700 students were reported to be registered to attend Mt. Hood during its first term. Interestingly, there was a meat counter in the library as a display case. In that issue, the Advocate hosted a vote on the school’s choice of colors, a nickname and mascot to choose from options suggested by students.

Soon after, the Advocate reported that the school found a permanent location for the campus. Leaders had the choices of: (1) federally owned land at 148th and Halsey streets, (2) the 50-acre Multnomah County Fairgrounds, and (3) a 172-acre parcel on the southeast side of the intersection of Stark Street and Kane Road.

The proposed MHCC Inn & Spa would have been a three-story training facility and would’ve occupied space west of the Vista Dining room. In the article, Jim Russell, former dean of business & computer technology, spoke about the hotel plans. “There are other programs on campus such as KDOX (radio), The Advocate and cosmetology, that have hands-on training,” said Russell. “For travel, training students is just as important, to have hands-on experience.”

Funding would’ve come from corporate or community donations (50 percent) and the other half from revenue bonds. In the end, the hotel wasn’t built.

There were successes, though.

In early 1967, local voters approved a bond measure that totaled $6.5 million for the construction of Mt. Hood Community College. The voting turnout in 1967 was 4,802 votes cast out of a possible 74,800 registered voters, with 76 percent of those voting favoring the bond.

Dr. Earl L. Klapstein, Mt. Hood’s first president, said, “The total college family are humble and appreciative of the response that the citizens gave to the development of the college on Jan. 26. We make every effort to be responsive to this indication of belief in the college.”

The goal was to have most of the campus built by the fall of 1969, and the entire college by 1970.

Later would come a series of bond measure defeats.

In 2002, the school attempted a bond measure that would have raised $68.4 million; it failed. Robert Silverman, MHCC president at the time said, “The voters had a choice of raising taxes or not raising taxes and they decided not to raise their taxes. I think that is a very short-sighted view.”

The disappointment then very much mirrored that of this year, 2015-16: “It’s disheartening to many of us in education. People just don’t want to economically support education,” said Larkin Franks, faculty association president at that time.

In an issue of The Weekend Advocate, printed on Nov. 7, 1975, the cover featured a photo of a car-smashing: The caption said, “the annual homecoming car bash draws a swing of a sledge hammer wielded by Juan Rubio, student.”

There were more high-profile events, too: On Nov. 3, 1978, President Jimmy Carter visited MHCC to support the campaign of incumbent Gov. Bob Straub and other Democrats in that year’s election.

In the May 9, 1980 issue, an ad for director Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, “The Shining,” was advertised, alongside an article covering a campus visit from legendary psychologist Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo.

Zimbardo is known for his pioneering work on behavior and conformity with the infamous Stanford Prison Experiment, and is also known for extensive research on shyness. He came to Mt. Hood to lecture on “Understanding and helping the shy person,” on May 28 and 30. A selection of his books was available for purchase during his visit, and he was autographing them as well.

In the Oct. 31, 1980 issue, a full-page ad paid for by the Reagan-Bush Committee (for President) appeared on Page 7. During that year, Oregon was caught in a recession that the ad blames on the Carter administration, one the ad claimed “is worse than the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and with no relief in sight.”

This year, for the first time ever, The Advocate has been advertising cannabis (selling) businesses. That would have been unthinkable in the 80s. Back then, some people questioned whether ads for alcohol should be allowed to appear in college papers.

In an article that appeared on Page 2 on Sept. 25, 1987, the writer was addressing a Bud Light beer calendar that appeared in previous issues. The argument was that because many students were under 21 at Mt. Hood, it didn’t mean that the Advocate should avoid advertising alcohol.

“Keep in mind that a child can watch television and view a Rainier Beer commercial just as easily as a college student can run across a Bud Light calendar,” wrote the author of the article. “The Advocate is not promoting alcohol to the campus. MHCC is merely a part of today’s society.”

In 1994, the Advocate reviewed cult classic movies “Clerks” and “Pulp Fiction” as they were released. “Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ is a smartly intoxicating film containing rampage and meditation; it’s in-your-face action, with a pistol and a quote from the Old Testament,” wrote A&E Editor Kevin C. Strauser.

On September 24, 2001, the Advocate printed an issue commemorating the events of 9/11. The cover features photos of staff mourning.

In a section of the paper called “viewpoints,” the introduction for the page said “…collectively, we cried out for answers and understanding, demanded justice and as a nation, a community searched for something greater than ourselves for healing.”

On that page, Mt. Hood speech instructor and forensics coach Shannon Valdivia wrote: “Look into your hearts and fight this cycle of violence and hate. Embrace each other with love and understanding. Don’t stereotype and assume that everyone who is of the Muslim faith is a possible terrorist.

“Let’s not allow ourselves to fall into the same hole that has led a few demented souls to justify their actions or their cause,” she wrote.

Between 2003 and 2004, the Advocate mistakenly skipped a year by having Volume 36 in 2003 and then jumping to Volume 38 in 2004. The current staff at the Advocate isn’t sure about how this could’ve happened and can only speculate on what went wrong.

Some issues (concerns, not newspaper issues) – never seem to get old.

In 2004, Kelly Cooper, a former editor for the Advocate, met with presidential candidate U.S. Sen. John Kerry in a “closed meeting,” according to a story that appeared in the May 20, 2004 Advocate.

Cooper was going to ask Kerry a question regarding a proposal that would offer students a four-year college education, in exchange for two years of public service. Even though she didn’t get to ask her question, Cooper got a glimpse of the spotlight.

Today, thousands of new Oregon high school graduates have signed up for two years of “free tuition” at Mt. Hood and other community colleges, thanks to the Oregon Promise law passed in 2015. The cost of student college debt is a raging issue, meantime.

It’s been an interesting 50 years, to say the least – from standing presidents visiting MHCC, to campaigning to end our own football team and everything in between, we’ve kept on truckin’ and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.