EOU at the forefront of change
By Dick Mason
The La Grande Observer
2004 Progress special tab
Published: April 28, 2004
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C.J. Gish/University Advancement
The new science center addition, which included Huber Audtiorium (left) and a renovation of Badgley Hall, is just one of many projects EOU has accomplished in the past decade.
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Eastern Oregon University probably changed more over the past 10 years
than during any phase of its history.
Enrollment increased at least 20 percent, a $33.5 million science center
project was virtually completed, new degree programs were added and much
more.
Look for this pace to escalate over the next 10 years. Khosrow Fatemi,
who will become EOU's president May 26, wants to keep EOU on the cusp of
change.
"A university must change; otherwise, it will become obsolete. It has to
be on the forefront," Fatemi said.
Fatemi, the head of San Diego State University's Imperial Valley campus
since 1998, will be anything but a caretaker president.
"I am not interested in being a maintenance person; the status quo is not
for me. I would not be happy in a position in which I could not do things,"
Fatemi said.
What changes are on Eastern¹s horizon?
The most visible will involve EOU's East Dorion and West Dorion hall
dormitories. Fatemi wants to have the aging residence halls, built in the
1950s, torn down and replaced.
"They are old. They are really not conducive to college life," Fatemi
said.
He wants to replace them with a residence hall similar to Alikut Hall,
which opened in 1997. Alikut features 24 apartment suites, each with four
bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom.
Another structural change coming soon is the expansion of Pierce Library.
Expansion is needed because of increasing demands on the library
for storage space.
When it opened in 1951, Pierce Library had a total of 50,000 materials,
including 24,931 books. Today it has 500,000 materials, including 148,000
books.
The library was expanded once in the 1960s, but that addition has not
come close to meeting space requirements.
Jack Evans, who retired as EOU's library director in 1987, endorses the
expansion, noting that the library is solidly built and is in excellent
condition. Evans believes that expanding the library is a better idea than
building a new one. He said that if a new library were built, a serious
problem would be created since it would be hard to find a second use for
Pierce Library, which is designed mainly for book and periodical storage.
Pierce Library and all EOU buildings will face greater stress in the next
decade because enrollment should continue increasing. Fatemi expects
enrollment to grow 4 to 5 percent a year.
Many of the new students will be of diverse educational and cultural
backgrounds. Fatemi wants to add more students from throughout the United
States and from other countries, as students benefit from being around
people from other areas and cultures. Fatemi believes this is particularly
true with regard to the role international students play on campus.
Fatemi also wants to boost EOU's involvement in international exchange
programs. He wants students and faculty to have more opportunities to study
and teach abroad. He succeeded in doing this at Imperial Valley where, last
year, 7 percent of its students and 25 percent of its faculty participated
in international programs -- either taking or teaching classes abroad and
participating in international conferences.
Fatemi said this is critical because, after students graduate, they will
compete in a global environment.
"They need a global perspective," Fatemi said.
Paradoxically, while EOU is developing a more international flavor, it might
also take on a more Eastern Oregon feel. Fatemi hopes that a substantial
percentage of EOU's enrollment increase will come from drawing a greater
number of students from Northeast Oregon. Fatemi believes that there is
great potential for attracting substantially more students from this region.
The reason is that just one in eight high school graduates in Union, Wallowa
and Baker counties attend college. The state average, by contrast, is one in
four.
"We are trying to increase that (local) ratio," he said.
Fatemi hopes to increase enrollment by taking a more indirect approach.
He will have recruiters focus first on encouraging high school students to
attend college. EOU representatives will point out that the average college
graduate earns $50,000 a year while the average high school graduate earns
$26,000 a year.
"We will point out that in the course of one's life a typical college
graduate may make $1 million more than a high school graduate," Fatemi
said.
Fatemi's plans also call for EOU to develop a centralized data base for
businesses thinking about relocating in Union County. The base will be
formed by the Eastern business department and include information on
resources and education. The base will also address regional economic
issues. Fatemi had similar data bases compiled for the past two communities
he has worked in as college administrator. He had one compiled for
California¹s Imperial Valley and one for the Laredo, Texas, area where
Fatemi was a dean at Texas A&M International University.
Fatemi said that both data bases helped draw new business into those
communities. He is hopeful that the data base at Eastern will do the same.
Company representatives will find it helpful because it will prevent them
from having to go to a variety of places to collect information.
"The information will be just one phone call or a visit to a web site
away," Fatemi said.
