THE

GROUNDBREAKING
EDITION
Lane Commu~ity College, Eugene, Ore.

2nd year, No. 10

Jan. 5, 1967

GROUNDBRE AKING FRIDAY AT 2

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Ol' Sol sparkled off rain puddles last week at new campus site.
View is toward the south with 30th Avenue in the foreground.
Colle.ge fathers are hoping for dry day at groundbreaking Friday.

Campus Plan
' Well Along'

Designer of the new campus is
the Eugene a:rchitectural finn of
Balzhiser, Seder and Rhodes.
The firm was retained by the
Board of :Education on Sept. 1,
1965, following a review of 15
applications and the inteiview1ing of the five finalists.
11 I think the Board chose them
because they came in with particularly creative ideas and designs, 11 said LCC President Dale
Parnell. 11 And they flatly guaranteed that they would be
able to get all the work done
on this large a project. 11
In the 15 months since their
hiring, they have developed an
overall campus design and are
well along on designing the first
14 buildings. "They're right on
schedule," Dr. Parnell said.

FIRST SETTLERS

WILLIAM MOORE

ELEANOR MOORE

on
Official commencement of construction
LCC's new campus will be observed Friday, Jan. 6
with a noon luncheon at ·the Eugene Hotel and a
2 p.m. groundbreaking at the 30th Avenue campus
site.
Students and staff have been invited to atLunch tickets will be
tend both functions.
sold at the hotel for $2 a person. Tickets are
not needed for the groundbreaking ceremony.
Dean of Instruction William H~in said instructors may cancel classes at their discretion
refrom 1 to 3 p.m. Classified staff may be
leased to attend the groundbreaking at the discretion of their supervisors, said President
Dale Parnell.
"There is not a lot of parking -at the site,"
Dr. Parnell said, "so those attending are requested to pool cars, where possible."
A host of dignitaries is to participate in
the observances.
U.S. Sen. Wayne Morse will speak at the lunch- ,
P.
eon. Delivering greetings will Dr. Leon
Minear, Oregon superintendent of public instruction, and Dr. Roy Lieuallen, chancellor of the
state system of higher education.
Board of Education Chairman Lyle Swetland is
to introduce Morse and Dr. Parnell is to make
other _introductions. The invocation is to be
delivered by Rev. Earl Gibbs, pastor of the
Springfield Christian Church and president of
the Springfield Ministerial Association.
At the groundbreaking, Dr. Arthur Flemming,
-will
president of the University of Oregon,
speak. Swetland is to respond.
Other speakers will be W.H. Gonyea, donor of
the site; Eleanor Turrell of Springfield, great
granddaughter of the couple wh.o homesteaded the
property more than a century. ago; and Richard
Rhodes of the architectural firm of Balzhiser,
Seder and Rhodes. Dr. Parnell is to handle
introductions.
Scheduled to turn shovels of dirt are Sen.
Education
Morse, President Flemming,. Board of
members, President Robert Wimberly of the LCC
of
student body, Gerald Rasmussen, president
Edwin
and Mayor
the LCC Staff Association,
Cone of Eugene.
The groundbreaking ceremony will take place
on the northeast corner of the building site.

Moores Homesteaded Campus Site A Century Ago
Comparatively little is known
about the early settlers on the
land where LCC's new campus
is being located.
Lane County Court House records indicate that most of the
LCC acreage was included in a
Donation Land Claim filed about 113 years ago by William
Moore and his wife, Eleanor
Limeric Moore. Part may also
have been in a claim f i 1 e d
about the same time by George
M. Coryell, of whom nothing
has been learned.
Details about the Moores, who
arrived via ox team from Brown
County, Ohio, on or before
Sept. 24, 1853, are set forth in
a 1963 mimeographed pamphlet prepared by their great granddaughter, Fay Hampton Robertson of Euge~e. She is one of three
descendants in the area, the

others being Mrs, Ray (Eleanor)
Turrell of Springfield, a great,
great granddaughter, and her
brother , Alfred Boone Smith of
Eugene.
The Moores were both 54 and
had been married more than
three decades when they arrived
with their family in 1853. Mrs.
Robertson's pamphlet suggests
that their son, Jonathan, had
filed on the land a year earlier
when in the Oregon Territory as
a trail boss and cattle driver.
Court House records, in any
event show the claim in William's name.
Probably each of the Moores
received 160 acres, since the
Donat ion Land Act provided
only half the original 320-acre
grants to settlers arriving after
1850.
The Act required that they

reside on and cultivate the land.
Mrs. Turrell says she believes
they had a log cabin and barn
at about the present sites of the
W. H. Gonyea house and barn
and that they had cows, a garcl--n
and harvested trees on the property for firewood.
"Both were born in Ireland or
at least were of Irish descent, "
Mrs. Robertson writes. "I recall hearing my mother s a y
that great grandmother Moore
spoke an Irish dialect and always during her lifetime spoke
with a decided Irish brogue and
all her children u s e d many
in•
Irish terms and inflections
their manner of speech.
"I feel that my great grand father, William Moore, was a
good,
very noble-minded,
kindly man, for my father often
spoke of him with the deepest

respect. rr
Like two thirds of those who
filed land claims, the Moores
held their property only a few
years, then sold it--apparentl y
in a number of parcels.
What they did after selling is
unknown. William died at 73
and Eleanor at 77 while residing
E.
with a daughter, Mary
Hampton, on adjoining property
to the south of their former
land. Both are buried at the
the
Masonic Cemetery beside
University of Orego·n campus.
Moore
Use of the one-time
property for educational purhave delighted
poses would
their daughter, Sarah Ann, for
she is believed to haye been the
first school teacher in the Eugene
vicinity. Using a few books
brought froIE- Ohio, she taught

for perhaps a yearor two at The
Point of the Hills School, which
was located at what is now the
northeast comer of the Masonic
Cemetery.
Tracing ownership of the fragmented Moore property through
the last century would require an
extensive records search, advises
Jack Stanley of the Pioneer Title
Co. of Eugene.
A cursory look, however, reveals such names, Stanley says,
as "David_ Copehhaver" in 1909,
"Mains" in the 1920s and later
"Chambers" and "Willis D.
Link."
Wilford H. Gonyea, who gave
the property to LCC, recalls
acquiring it in a number of parcels starting about the 1940s.
"It was re-log land when I got
it, " he says.

-

ONE OF ELc\lEN

LCC 2nd Larg est In Oreg on

ucation; William Cox, dean of
elected
A seven-:;nember
administration; I. S. Hakanson,
Board of £ducat ion has respon-:dean of students; William Mansibility under the law for establishing policies to guide LCC 1s sell, clerk-controller.
Overall supervision of LCC,
administration.
Its members are: Chairman Lyle as part of the community colSwetland of Eugene, print er, - lege system, is maintained by
elected At-Large, term expires the State Board of Education.
1970; Vice Chairman Dean Webb Operating expenses are derof Cottage Grove, dentist, Zone ived from tuition, about one
fourth; local funds, about one
4, 1968; Robert Ackerman· of
Spring£ ield, attorney, Zone 3, third; .and the remainder from
1969; Albert Brauer of Flor-ence, federal and state funds.
Major impetus to the growth
physician, Zone 1, 1968; Wilof community college in Oreliam Bristow Jr. jeweler, Zone
5, 1970; Olga Freeman of Eugene, gon was the passage of the 1961
retired public official, At-Large, community college legislation
1967; Clifford Matson of Junction and amendments effected by
the 1963 Legislature. All the
City, dentist, Zone 2, 1967.
Oregon community colleges
Dr.
Administrators include:
Dale Parnell, president and exe- have been founded since 1961,
cutive officer of the Board; Wil• LCC in 1964.
Like the other schools, LCC
liam Hein, dean of instruction;
C. S. Obin, dean of adult ed- admits any person 18 years or
older who is capable of profiting
from instruction, thus maintaining an "open-door" admissions
policy.
Classes are being h e 1 d this
year at these Oregon schools,
besides LCC and PCC:
--Mt. Hood CC at Gresham,
75Uu.ll time~udents.
--Southwestern Oregon CC at
Coos Bay, 731.
--Treasure Valley CC at Ontario, 705.
--Central Oregon CC at Bend,
699.
--Blue Mountain CC at Pendl~
'ton, 688.
--Salem, Tech-Voe. CC, 550.
--Clatsop CC ~t Astoria, 46&.
--Umpqua CC at Roseburg,
443.
.- -Clackamas CC at: Oregon
City, 55.
Classes are expected to begin
in September at a Linn-Benton
college in the Albany-Corvallis
.area.
Other areas studying possible
establishment of a college include: Mid-Columbia at Hood
River-The Dalles, South Central
Roof beams of three mechanics buildings will be exposed in
at Ashland-Medford, Washington
unusual space frame. Besides being architecturally dramatCounty at Beaverton-Hillsboro,
shop
large
of
spanning
the
ic, the framing makes possible
Klamath-Lake Counties.
and
made
be
will
frames
The
supports.

LCC is one of 11 community
colleges holding classes this yea1
in Oregon. Its 2,200 full-time
students make it second in enrollment to Portland Community College, which has 4,800
students.
proLong-range enrollment
seLCCremaining
show
jections
6,500
with
PCC,
to
size
in
cond
full-time students by the early
1970s. PCC by that time could
have 7,500 or more students.
Number of individuals (full
and part-time)enrolled' at LCC
is expected to reach 9,450 by
the conclusion of this school
year.
Administrators and faculty
number 110. There is a part-tbre
faculty of 68 and a classified
staff of SO.
The college district encompasses 5, 000 square miles and io

eludes all school districts in Lane
County, the. Monroe Elementary
District in Benton County, and
the Harrisburg Union High District in Linn County. Estimated
population of the district is
200,000.
Assessed valuation of the district for 1966-67 (one-fourth of
true cash value) is $337,458,913.
The present tax rate, in mills,
is 2. 9. This includes 1. 7 mills
for operating expenses and 1. 2
mills for a building serial levy.
A family with property worth a ·
true cash value of $14,000 contributes $10. SO toward support of
LCC.
~Classes presently are being
held in 47 geographicallocat ions.
Major campuses are at 200 N.
Monroe and 1000 Bethel Drive in
Eugene and at 305 So. 4th St. ,
Springfield.

MECHAN ICS BUILDING

areas without numerous
, if wood.

ADMINIS TRA TIO"'

Primary entrance to new campus 1
be on west side. Administratio1
Building will be at the entranci
handy for visitors with questio1
Learning Resource Center-Studenj
Center will be just behind the
Building at the center of the c,

THE TORCH

Published Thursdays
during the school year,
except on holidays and
during vacation periods
and exam weeks, by the
students of Lane Community College, 200 N.
Monroe St., Eugene, Ore.
97402. Views expressed
are those of the writers
necessarily
and not
those of the LCC Board
of Education, administration or faculty.
Co-Editors
Debbie Jo Briggs
Vicki Merrill

Property Donate d By Gonyea
Affords Maximu m Accessibility
More than two-thirds of the
new campus 'Y'ill be located on
property donated to the college
by Eugene lumberman and industrialist Wilford H. Gonyea.
Board of Education members
were searching for prospective
sites in early 1965 when the Gonyea offer of 100 acre s came
March 17, 1965. With it went
the right to buy an additional 50
acres at half its appraised value.
The Board formally accepted
the donation of what turned out,
on examination, to be 105. 81

acres on June 2, 1965. Value of
the property was estimated at
$318, 000.
An additional 50 acres was pul'chased for $50,000.
Gonyea reportedly donated the
property because of his interest
in the community college movement and vocational-technical
education and his desire to have
the college in the geographical
area of his residence and other
land hol~ings.
Located southwest of the inter-

section of Interstate 5 and 30th
Avenue, the property has about
1,800 feet fronting along 30th.
When acquired, the site was already cleared with most of it
under cultivation to grain crops.
A prime factor in choice of the
site was its accessibility to the
freeway and the county's two
largest cities. "Ninety per cent
of the potential student body will
be within 30 minutes driving
time, _" says LCC President Dale
Parnell.

STUDENT CENTER

Learning Resource Center-Student Center Building
will rise at center of campus, since it will be the
sole structure serving students in all programs.
It will be dominant physical reference of campus
and will link the upper and lower levels of the
sloping campus site.

College Busy ·p·tace
During Past 2 Years

roN

npus will
ration
trance,
~stions.
tudent
d the Ad.
the campus.

23 BUILDINGS PLANNED

2
The 3 buildings to be erected
th
on e n~w campus are to be
st
built in two ages. Fourteen
t
1
are to be completed in S age .
by the fall of 1968. Theremamder are to rise by the early 1970s.
.
.
Total cost of completmg buildings, grounds and equipment for
the total campus is estimated to
be $23 million. About $14 million of this is to be expended in
the first stage.
Stage I buildings are to go up
mein five groups: 1) three

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electronics, science.
Stage II buildings, which are
a
still to be planned, include
pool, fine arts, expansion of the
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mechanics bmldmg, math, Ian•
and a
guage arts, apprentice,
P. E. expansion.

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FORUM BUILDING

Upper floor of Forum Building will include
two 150-seat lecture halls, two 90-seat halls,
and several conference rooms. Lower floor
will be tv studio.

Six Main Principles
Used In Planning

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chanics buildings; 2) administration, business education, industrial technology and trades;
3) learning resource center, student center; 4) P. E. and health,

"Six main principles guided us
in designing the campus," says
architect Richard Rhodes.
"They were arrived at through
many meetings with the Board
of Education, administrative discussions and a trip to California
to see other two-year college
campuses."
The principles:
"1--The college should have a
strong sense of community-- a
sense of place and identity. Its
occupants should have a sense of
belonging and possession.
"2--There should be a mix of
the various educational disciplines. Status should not be assigned to any particular.program
according to location or style of
building.
11
3--A reasonable density of
buildings and people s:tiould be
maintained to give a real sense

full time and 2, 000 part time.
Major campuses were added at
Bethel arid Springfield.
Other activities during the two
years included these:
* Development of a 10-ye a r
master plan for the new campus
relating to facilities, pro gr ams,
and enrollment.
* Development of educational
speci ficat ions (kinds of spaces
needed and their sizes) for the
first 14 buildings on the new campus.
* Development of a staff handbook and its adoption by the
Board.
* Development of a Board
policy handbook.
* Three hundred ho u rs of
Board meetings.
* Organization of a study skills
center to offer individual help
to persons wishing to strengthen
such skills as reading and math.
* Organization of a staff personnel policies committee to
act as a link between Board and
staff.
* Organization of a staff assocThe staff of Eugene-Vocational- iation.
* Appointment of students i:b
Technical School was absorbed
standing faculty committees, a
by LCC.
* In September 1965 the staff democratic procedure unheard of
on most campuses.
totaled 138 as the first year of
* Elaborate planning for an inclasses got underway with 1, 400
structional material center, with
students.
* On May 2, 1966, v o t er s considerable emphasis on deveokayed a budget for $4. 5 for the lopment on audio visual resources.
1966-67 school year.
* Planning for an FM radio
* Tuer e was a 77. 8 per cent
station and a UHF tv station.
"yes II vote on Sept. 20, 1966 as
* Development of a strong
voters okayed a $9. 9 million
counseling service, with a counbond issue to be· applied toward
the first 14 buildings on the new selor for each 250 students.
campus.
Extensive emphasis on occu* The staff has grown to 230
pational education.
as LCC's second year of classes
Development of short-term
began in September. The new
occupational programs th at
staffers were selected from asequence in_with long-term p~
mong more than 1, 000 applicants grams, for those who start in job
for four dozen positions. Student entry programs and decide later
enrollment climbed to 2,. 200
to extend their training.

In the two years preceding
full-time executive seer et ary.
Friday's groundbreaking, LCC
•His job was to bu i 1 d a legal
has been the community college : framework for establishing a col"on-the-go-go. 11
lege and inform voters of the
A veritable whirlwind of acti- need for a college.
vities by the Board of F.ducation,
* On Oct. 19, 1964, voters
administration, staff, campus
approved establishment of a colplanners and other has brought
lege by a 5-1 margin and electthe school to its present compar- ed its first seven-member board.
atively advanced state.
The State Board of F.ducation
In this short period, college recognized the Board on Nov. 2,
officials have conducted success- 1964.
* The Board accepted a donaful elections, hired 230 staff
me~bers, developed a cirrucu- •tion of 105. 81 acres of land for
lum for 4,200 full and part-time a campus from Wilford Gonyea,
students, located 47 geogr a phi- businessman, and agreed to purcal locations at which to conduct chase an additional 50 acres.
Voters on May 3, 1965, apclasses, found a permanent camproved a $2. 5 budget for the
pus and completed much of the
planning for its first 14 buildings. 1965-66 school year and a fiveyear $400, 000 serial levy for
The diary inc 1 u des these
,entries:
campus construct km.
* After nationwide recruiting,
*. The. committee hired .the
.
Umvers1ty Bureau of F.ducationa1 Dr. Parnell was hired as president
Res ear ch to discover if a college He reported June 1, 1965.
* On July 1, 1965, LCC officiwas needed. The Bureau said
.ally became a college, That
"yes" in a report published in
.
week 27 women enrolled m a
October 196 3.
.
.
* In Feb ruary 1964 th e comm1·t- practical
course and b enursing
came the new school's first class,
tee employed Bert Dotson as

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of vitality and activity.
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4- -Buildings should be situated
functionally. The learning resource center-student center
-I
should be central because it ser....,.
ves all students. Administration
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and business educ at ion structures
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should be adjacent to enhance
joint use of a computer center.
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The physical education complex
should be close to the campus entrance.
"5--Design of individual buildings should incorporate maximum
= ~ · · · • ·~:
flexibility and capability for
change. Non-structural particions will allow the buildings to
be changed readily when the educational programs change; othe11Engine overhaul labs are at left and hanger work area at right
wise the buildings will soon be
in drawing of Air Technology building. Other rooms are for
obsolete.
tools, storage, machine and electrical fixit shops, wood shop,
11
6--The tot a 1 environment
shop, etc. Building will be one of first three to be
fabric
should produce a satisfac to r y
erected.
aestheti_c response. "

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AIR TECHNOLOGY

Campu s Will Be 'Visual Experie nce'
Though utilitarian in design,
LCC's new campus will also
provide what architectRichard
seRhodes calls "a pleasant
quence of visual experiences. "
The campus will "not only fulfill a physical function but also
an emotional function," he says.
"The total effect should 'feel
good' to its occupants."
The 155. 81 acre site lends itself to this kind of thinking. Locat ed southwest of the inter section of Interstate 5 and 30th
Avenue, it slopes topographically
five to seven per cent from its
its
high point on the south to
border 200 feet lower on the
northeast.
Pdmar y access is expect ed to
be from a proposed four-la n e
interchange on 30th Avenue approximately 500 feet west of

the northwest corner of the site.
Secondary access will be from
the east and from the frontage
road paralleling Interstate 5.
From 30th Avenue, the campus will be visable high on the
hill with the green of 30 acres
of playfields in the foregroll!ld·
Most of those making the expected 17,000 daily trips to the
campus will guide their vehicles
off 30th and around a landscaped
nine-acre ·storage lagoon along;
the western boundary of the c ~
pus. Viewing the campus to the
southwest, they might choose to
turn lei t (east) .into par king at
the main entrance.
They should have no trouble
finding car space, for there will
be 45 acr es of parking encircling
the cluster of building at campus
center. More than 4, 800 vehicles

Today ...
Both aerial views look toward the east,
with the primary west access road in foreground and physical education playing fields
at the left, the north end of campus.

•••

Tomorrow

and related structures.
will be accomodated in 1 o ts
Their arrangement reflects,
lands caped "to avoid," Rhodes
says, "making the central cam- Rhodes says, "a conscious attempt to mix the technical and
pus appear to be an oasis in a
11
This
acdemic disciplines. "
desert of asphalt.
At the main ent ranee will • be promotes the "one-college concept" and does not assign status
the administration building and
to any particular program or stubehind it, at the center of the
campus, will rise the dominating dent group according to location
and unifying physical reference.:.. or style of building, he says.
To the north of the LRC-SC
the four-story learning resource
and adm.instration buildings will
center-student center building.
The campus, says Rhodes, "is be health and physical education,
medical-dental, and fine arts
conceived as two levels joined
together by the central LRC-SC buildings. On the east are meat
bui ldi ng--the one structure com- chanics and electronics;
math,
the south are science,
mon to all campus activities. 11
forum, "language arts-social
Around the LRC-SC, inside the
science, construction and busi_parking circle, will be a tight,
25-acre cluster of 23 classroom ness educat ion buildings.

In spite of the tight design,
there will be "numerous spaces
between buildings," Rhodes
assures. With minor exceptions,
there will be cov~r ed access
between buildings throughout
the campus.
It is expected that 15 to 20
acres at the south boundary of
the campus, beyond the parking
ring, will be left largely as it
is. Fir trees form a band of
forest 300-400 feet deep. This
is the steep portion of the property, with grades of 15 to 20
per cent.
Development of a five acr e
lake in the southwest cornerhas
been considered for recreation
use and for water storage.