ORMATYC Spring 2003 News Letter

PRESIDENT'S REPORT

Greetings from rainy Western Oregon! (for the enjoyment of those on the Eastern half of the state)

What a great ORMATYC conference in Lincoln City this year! Plans are already underway for next years conference, ORMATYC 2004, April 22-24 at the Inn at Spanish Head, Lincoln City, Oregon. If you have any suggestions, ideas for opening speakers or would like to share your expertise at the conference, please let me know.

Even in uncertain and anxious budgetary times at all of the Community College campuses, the values and purposes of ORMATYC were accomplished at this years conference! When lower attendance and moral were suspected, greater creativity and passion were unveiled! It is precisely the "problem solver" attitude in each ORMATYC member that makes this organization so valuable. That old teaching cliché that says, "we're not in it for the money" played out in actuality when we came together.

As we all prepare to finish out this current year, and look forward to the next, let me remind you of the purposes of ORMATYC: ORMATYC is a non-profit, educational association. Its purposes are:

• to encourage the development of effective mathematics programs,
• to afford a state forum for exchange of ideas,
• to further develop and improve the mathematics education and the mathematics-related experience of students in two-year colleges,
• to promote the professional welfare and development of its members, and
• to afford a forum for input at the state level concerning mathematics education.

These purposes go well beyond a single, annual conference. And well beyond the borders of any one campus. It says that we are here to help each other improve and succeed, so that our students will also. My hope is that each of you will continue to be enriched in your profession by encouraging one another in this organization.

None of these conferences just fall together. They take hard work from some very dedicated members. On behave of the ORMATYC Executive Committee, I would like to extend a sincere thank you to those who gave much of their time this past year for our benefit. Rene Webber who chaired the conference committee as ORMATYC President Great Job! Mariah Beck and Gary Parker who did a whole lot more than just be Treasurer and Technology expert. Virginia Somes and Garrett Gregor who put together all of the loose photos into great albums and slide shows. Frank Goulard for handling all of the Exibitors and arrangements. And last, but not least, Dennis and Becca Kimzey who have moved out of their Past-President and Secretary roles, but not before they picked up the fragments of past ORMATYC years and organized them into a strong framework for the rest of us to build on. Thank You all for last years efforts.

Now it is my pleasure to add to that group two more new members. They are newly elected officers Ronda Kingstad from PCC as President-Elect, and Frank Goulard from PCC as Secretary. Welcome aboard!

Be sure to plan on attending next Springs ORMATYC meeting in Lincoln City on April 22nd - 24th. Have a great summer!

Kurt Lewandowski
President

news from BMCC:

news from COCC:

Greetings from Central Oregon,

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight two members of our department who recently received awards.

For those of you who attended the general membership meeting at the ORMATYC conference, you heard that Julie Keener is this year's recipient of the COCC Faculty Achievement Award. This is an annual award given to the faculty member who exhibits outstanding performance and leadership in the classroom, department, and college. Julie has led the mathematics department in the development of curriculum and methods for developmental instruction, and is known locally, statewide, and nationally as a model of teaching methodology for K-12 mathematics instruction. Students consistently describe her as a passionate, creative, and caring instructor, with exceptional ability to motivate students of a wide range of abilities and learning styles. Finally, Julie is a model of the synergy that comes when the principal areas of faculty performance (teaching, service, professional improvement) are integrated and focused around a clear professional identity and set of goals. Way to go Julie!

This spring saw a very special award go to Jack McCown. Jack and his wife Barb were awarded COCC's President's Scholarship Award for their commitment to scholarship programs.

The following is part of the article published in the Bend Bulletin last week. "Jack and Barb have spent much of the last 11 years working to make sure students have the means to enroll at COCC and take the courses necessary to change their lives. As Jack sees it, he is working to find dollars that buy dreams. He says, "From my perspective, I can't think of a better way to spend my time outside the classroom than to help generate money to help students change their lives." During his work with the COCC Foundation, Jack and Barb have helped facilitate raising more than $150,000. Jack McCown has been teaching at COCC for 27 years and no one is more respected on campus than Jack."

We, in the department, are extremely proud of these two individuals. Both Julie Keener and Jack McCown are extraordinary instructors who continue to give so much of themselves to our department, our college, and our profession.

Enjoy the rest of your quarter and have a great summer.

Doug

news from LBCC:

LBCC has been busy spring term with Math Awareness Week, Tech Scholars and hiring new folks to replace some of the retiring department members.

Math Awareness Week was held May 5 - May 9. We sold hotdogs, chips, soda or root beer floats and ice cream cones at reduced prices for 4 of those days. Each day also had numerous games and contests. We again designed and sold T-shirts to commemorate the week. The grand finale was the team contest held on Friday. Teams of students or staff had a week to design a transformer from supplied materials. Transformer had to be capable of rolling down a ramp and along a sidewalk as well as move through water while being propelled by a fan. It's a lot of work, but students enjoy seeing their teachers slaving over a grill or dipping ice cream!

The NSF grant that we received allowed us to give 19 scholarships to "first-year" students this year and 11 scholarships to "second-year" students. To be eligible for a scholarship, the student had to be "within two years of moving into upper-division coursework", be enrolled in MTH 111 or higher, have a cumulative GPA of at least 2.75, be a full-time student each term, and be majoring in computer science, engineering, or mathematics. These scholarships are need-based and are for up to $3000. There is money to provide an additional 11 scholarships for first-year students next fall.

Probably the biggest news is that we had six department members retire this year! Three of those were faculty and three were classified staff. The retirees were honored at a division banquet on May 2. They are: Ron Mason, faculty; Bob Ulrich, faculty; Betty Westfall, faculty; Jan Wetherell, computer lab specialist; Nancy Clough, instructional assistant; and Carolyn Punteney, Learning Center secretary. Only two of the faculty positions were allowed to be filled. The newly hired faculty are Bethany Pratt and Hollis Duncan. We say a very special good bye to the following folks:

Bob Ulrich retired December 31 and finished up his tour at LBCC by teaching through the end of winter term. While at LBCC, in addition to teaching his regular load, Bob was department chair, Math Lab coordinator, Skills contest coordinator and helped with Math Awareness Week each year by coordinating and judging the limerick contest. Bob is enjoying his retirement by doing gardening, hiking and taking a trip to Hawaii with his wife and two youngest kids.

Ron Mason retired effective January 31 and taught through the end of spring term. He started at LBCC part time in 1978 and became full time in 1979. In addition to teaching, Ron was department chair (4 years), the first Learning Center coordinator (involved in designing and setting up the LC), skills contest coordinator, was actively involved in Math Awareness Week each year, developed classes for the industrial division, participated in the meetings on setting common course numbers for the state of Oregon, attended the first ORMATYC conference and missed only one since then, and attended10 AMATYC conferences. In retirement, Ron hopes to travel, maybe New Zealand and/or Australia, including the Great Barrier Reef. He's thinking of getting a sea kayak and maybe a boat. He's going to finish some ongoing home improvement projects, and, as always, work in his garden, complete some landscaping projects, and catch up on his reading.

Jan Wetherell retired effective January 31. She started work at LBCC in the Fall of to manage the Math Department's computer lab. She's held that same job for 20 years although the title changed from Instructional Assistant to Computer Lab Specialist. In the early years the computer lab supported programming classes and she spent my time helping students write and debug programs in Basic, Fortran, Pascal, C++, etc. For the last several years the focus has been on computer applications, mostly in mathematics, but also in agriculture, biology, chemistry, engineering, horticulture, physics, and general usage. After retirement she may return to LBCC part-time to work in the computer lab. How she'll spend the rest of her time is yet to be determined. She wants to garden, sew, work on family history, volunteer, exercise, continue to learn new things, and just generally live a happy, constructive, generous life. She's looking forward to this next stage of her life.

Nancy Clough, long-time instructional assistant in the Learning Center, also retired this year. She arrived at LBCC in 1984. In addition to working in the Learning Center, Nancy has also taught part time all of those years. Nancy has seen a lot of changes over those years! The students kept time cards when she first arrived and MTH065 tests were multiple choice! She plans to still teach part time for awhile and just retire from the contracted classified position. She's gotten more involved with quilting. She ran for Oregon Synod (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) Secretary for a third 4-year term this May. She says she will probably do more gardening also.

Betty Westfall retired after teaching 33 years, 17 of those years at LBCC. In addition to teaching math and some computer programming, she served as coordinator of both the LBCC Computer Skills and Math skills contests, was in charge of the Math Department Computer Lab for a number of years, and served as Department chair (3 years), Learning Center Co-coordinator (2 years), Math Content Liaison (2 years), chair of the Oregon Math Department Chairs(1 year), and played an active part in all 12 of LBCC's Math Awareness Weeks. She wrote many of the activities that the math department uses for its developmental classes and is co-author of the MTH065 book that LBCC currently uses. Now that she is retired, she hopes to still teach 1 class per term while starting a stamp appraisal business with her husband. She also plans to design their own web site to sell stamps online. She hopes to also have time for some of her many hobbies (landscape and abstract design painting, leather tooling, sewing, knitting, crocheting and gardening), finish landscaping their acreage, make draperies for their house and write a couple of books.