Wildcats find NFL a
different game
Part
of the ‘Remembrance of Games Past’ series
By Rusty Rae of the McMinnville
N-R/News-Register. Oct. 30, 2020
You
don’t have to be a pencil-necked geek Monday Night Football broadcaster to
understand how the game played in the National Football League differs from
what happens on the Wildcat gridiron_. True, it’s still blocking, tackling,
running, passing and kicking.
And
yet, those from Wildcatville who advanced to the big show, regard the sport in
a different light.
Here’s
a four-pack of Linfield players who found places in the NFL: Fred Von Appen,
Randy Marshall, Jim Massey and Paul Dombrowski – each with a story illustrating
their different perspective of football.
Von
Appen entered Linfield as an undersized offensive guard from South Eugene High
School.
“Clearly,
at 180 pounds, my size was a limiting factor at the time. And, quite frankly,
my fundamentals were not very good either,” Von Appen admitted.
However,
Larry Burleson, former player and assistant line coach for the ‘Cats, took Von
Appen under his tutelage.
“I
asked him to help me become a better football player, and he put me on a weight
program and taught me to eat better,” Von Appen said.
The
following fall, Von Appen, now 220 pounds with an improved technique, was the
starting guard for the ‘Cats.
Eventually,
he earned a pair of all-conference seasons at guard over the next three years
before an invitation to tryout with the San Diego Chargers. Though Von Appen
trained maniacally for his chance to play in the NFL, an injury redirected him
to coaching.
His
journey as coach began at an instructional clinic at Lewis & Clark, where
Arkansas head coach Frank Broyles spoke. Broyles told Von Appen,”If you show
up, I’ll put you to work (as a volunteer coach.)” Von Appen and his wife packed
everything they owned into their car and traveled to Fayetteville where he
became immersed in the life of a football coach.
His
career included a multitude of stops and starts. The head coaches he worked
with seemed a virtual who’s-who list of Hall of Famers. From 1983 through 1988,
he worked in several positions under San Francisco 49er head coach Bill Walsh,
and remains the only Wildcat to have snagged a pair of Super Bowl rings.
Now
retired, he lives near Missoula, Montana.
Recruited
to the football team by graduate assistant coach Pete Dengenis (a teammate of
Von Appen’s), Randy Marshall, from Santiam High School, was originally called
to Linfield to play basketball. One major difference Marshall noticed was the
business aspect of the game during his first training camp with the Atlanta Falcons.
Marshall
played two years under Paul Durham followed by two years with Ad Rutschman,
earning all-conference honors three years and an all-America selection his
senior year. An unstoppable force in the Northwest Conference, and a sixth
round pick in the draft by the Atlanta Falcons, Marshall received a baptism of
sorts in the pros. Flying with mild trepidation to East Tennessee State
University and the Falcon training camp, Marshall remembers, “I had no idea
what or where I was headed.”
What
he found was a completely different atmosphere. “The pro game is a business,
and there is more individual focus at times rather than the team focus I had at
Linfield,” he said.
Marshall
found training camp something of a vets-versus-rookies scenario with the
newbies definitely at the bottom of the pecking order. Caste systems were not
in Marshall’s psyche – he simply wanted to play football.
Standing
in line the first day of practice for a blocking drill, a veteran yelled at
Marshall, “Hey rookie, it’s your turn, get in there!”
Well,
it wasn’t Marshall’s turn, as he informed the veteran player in no uncertain
terms. Subsequently, a fight broke out between them.
“The
coaches and players just let us go at it. I whipped his butt and later found
out I wasn’t supposed to do that,” he said.
That
veteran was none other than Tommy Nobis, the all-pro linebacker and first-round
pick in the Falcons’ initial draft.
Marshall
made the team’s taxi squad for the 1970 season and was later called up to
replace an injured player. For his aggression against Denver, he was named
“Lineman of the Week.” Later in the season against the New Orleans Saints, he
tackled QB Billy Kilmer in the end zone, forcing and recovering a fumble for a
touchdown.
A
knee injury drove Marshall from the game after he was traded to the Buffalo
Bills. Today he lives on his ranch in the Tigh Valley.
Another
player with small-town roots, Jim Massey of Neah-Kah-Nie High School on the
North Oregon coast, injected a competitive toughness and thoroughbred speed to
the Wildcat running back position. A transfer from the University of Oregon,
Massey powered his new team to success – the Wildcats won or shared the
Northwest Conference title in each of his seasons.
With
uncanny speed, he clicked off a 9.9 100-yard dash in a track meet against
Pacific University.
He
was a 10th round draft choice by the Los Angeles Rams in 1972, and eventually
spent two years as a cornerback with the New England Patriots under head coach
Chuck Fairbanks. Speed and unflinching toughness allowed Massey to compete on
the defensive side of the ball after a career as a running back at Linfield.
Today, Massey and his wife, Diane, live in McMinnville.
Perhaps
one of the more successful Linfield graduates graduating to the pros was Paul
Dombrowski, who spent six years in the NFL as a defensive back and kick
returner.
However,
Dombrowski, a 1978 Linfield alum, recalls a circuitous route to both Linfield
and the pros.
He
was supposed to attend Linfield but wound up at the University of Hawaii in his
home state his freshman year. After sparse playing time at Hawaii, he decided
to transfer to Linfield, but still didn’t experience much playing time with
veterans Mike Rex and Chris Knudsen ahead of him. He decided to return to
Hawaii.
As
a confused and somewhat lost soul, Dombrowski listened to advice from his
father, who convinced him he needed his degree. He returned to Linfield. The
elder Dombrowski blamed the distraction of the beach and his friends; his son
should concentrate on his studies and football.
Linfield
head coach Ad Rutschman became a father figure for Dombrowski, and the lessons
he learned in McMinnville would guide him the rest of his life, both in the NFL
and after his playing days.
“The
thing that has stuck with me through the years is Ad one time told me, ‘Once
you learn to quit, it become easy to quit again.’
“Ad
was more about developing you as a person and I wouldn’t be the person I am
today without his guidance. In the pros you’re just a commodity – a cog in a
multi-billion dollar business,” he said.
Dombrowski
made the team with the Kansas City Chiefs, and also played for the Patriots and
Cleveland Browns before retiring. During retirement, he survived a rare bout of
breast cancer. Today, he lives in the Tampa Bay area.
Even
some 45 years later, Dombrowski remembers his time at Linfield; his
appreciation for playing football under Rutschman still warms his heart.
Four
Wildcats whose football lessons at Linfield allowed bestowed the key to success
in the NFL and beyond.
Unprompted by me (Wildcatville), on Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 1:45pm Linfielder Art Larrance emailed me a copy of a letter he received from Linfield. (See what’s posted here. I took the liberty of blurring Art’s address. ) With the letter Art’s message said, “FYI on Linfield...share with our Cat friends...Art Larrance.” I responded to him by email saying, “Hi, ART — Congrats! May I post at BWC-Linfield Facebook and at Wildcatville blog with link in email to those on Wildcatville email list? Please let me know!” Art’s response to me was “fine with me. Art.” So, here is the letter.
Journal Jackpot from Thur.,
Oct 1, 1970, edition of the Portland Oregon Journal daily evening
newspaper. Note listing of "Linfield at Pacific Lutheran" game. It
was played Sat., Oct. 3, 1970,
==For the Wildcats, Steve "Sparky" Davis from Salem (North Salem High School) was a
linebacker in the 1968 and 1969 seasons and a kicker after that. His
straight-ahead kicking made him Linfield's leading football scorer in the 1970
season. During the Oct. 3, 1970, night game (8 o'clock kickoff) he “booted” a
33-yard field goal with nine seconds left to beat PLU, 16-13, on Franklin
Pierce High School field, said story in Sunday Oregonian, Oct. 4, 1970.
The Monday Oregon
Journal, Oct. 5, 1970, reported “Linfield,
16-13, winner over the Lutes in the NWC ‘game of the year’ in Tacoma on a dramatic
field goal by Steve Davis with nine seconds left…”
In his game story (Sunday Oregonian, Oct.
4, 1970), Oregonian reporter Lynn Mucken, wrote that Davis' kick was
“drilled right down the center of the goalposts, capped a bitterly-fought
contest between the two undefeated NWC powers. PLU was ranked first in the NAIA
in offense and Linfield led the nation in defense.”
PLU kicked a field goal with 2:31 left in the
game. Then, Linfield's offense took over, wrote Mucken. "Mike Achong, who
scored twice, started things with a 31-yard scamper around left end. Then Dave
White, the Wildcats' blossoming quarterback hit tight end Bernard
Peterson with three big passes to push the ball to the PLU 22-yard line.
"There, Davis, who beat Oregon College of
Education last season with a field goal after time had elapsed, drilled his
game-winner to give Linfield a 3-0 season record and a big victory over the
team favored for the NWC title."
Scoring
for Linfield only in box score for Oct. 3, 1970 Linfield in 1970 football game
vs. PLU in Tacoma from Sunday Oregonian, Oct. 4, 1970:
TD – Mike Achong 4-yard run (PAT kick by Steve Davis failed)
TD – Mike Achong 10-yard run (PAT kick by Steve Davis good)
FG – 32-yard kick by Steve Davis
::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note that game story in Sunday
Oregonian of Oct. 4, 1970, said Steve Davis’s field goal was 33-yards. Box
score says it was 32-yards. Steve made his field goal in "last four
seconds of the game" said, PLU Scene,
Oct. 1970 issue of Scene, PLU alumni newspaper. However, Sunday Oregonian story says the field goal was made with nine
seconds left. The Oct. 9, 1970, edition of the Seattle Times said, “Linfield’s Steve Davis kicked a 32-yard field
goal with four seconds to play.”
POSTSCRIPTS
--Holding the football for the fateful kick was Linfield wingback Sonny Jepson of Salem (South Salem). He told Wildcatville on 10/29/2020, "To this day, I recall that as the ball was going between the goal posts, the game film verifies I nearly jumped up as high as the posts, with my hands in the air. Sparky and I went crazy, and it was a moment we often recalled in later years."
--Linfield won the 1970 Northwest Conference championship.
::::
Story below from Sunday Oregonian, Oct. 4, 1970.
Charles Humble, Statesman Sports
Writer, reporting on the Oct. 3, 1970, Linfield at PLU game in the Oct. 4, 1970,
edition of Salem’s Oregon Statesman daily
newspaper said the Steve Davis kick was 33-yards with 8 seconds left.
A story in the Oct. 5, 1970, Salem Capital Journal daily newspaper of Salem
by Jack Sareault, “Capital Journal Special Writer,” wrote the “Steve Davis is a
hero among heroes on the Linfield College campus” for kicking a 32-yard field goal
with “a mere four seconds remaining…” to beat PLU in Tacoma.
The Oct. 3, 1970, Linfield College “Wildcats” and Pacific Lutheran University “Knights” game was played in Tacoma, says the Oct. 7, 1970, McMinnville News-Register. The game story says Steve Davis kick to win the game took place with 9 seconds left and it was for 33-yards. However, cutline for Rusty Rae’s photo in the same issue showing the kick says it was for 32-yards. The photo here is a cropped version of what ran in the N-R.
A D-III powerhouse is about to
build a massive new scoreboard. But why? And why NOW?
Linfield University, in Oregon,
is about to unveil a scoreboard larger than some D-1 programs. I asked their AD
why.
From Extra Points with Matt Brown, an off-the-field college
sports newsletter
Date: October 23, 2020 at 2:44:14 AM PDT
Photo Credit: Linfield University
Good morning, and thanks for your continued support of Extra
Points.
The COVID pandemic only accelerated a challenging environment
for many D-III athletic departments. As enrollment declined or slowed, many
departments looked to find more ways to save money. Some sports were cut.
Employees were furloughed. A few even looked at getting out of athletics
altogether.
But one D-III program is doing things a bit differently.
Linfield University, located in McMinnville, Oregon, isn’t downsizing. In fact,
they’re about to complete a huge new facility improvement, a 1,800 SF
video scoreboard for their football stadium. That will
easily be the largest video board in D-III. It would be one of the largest
video boards in D-II. Hell, it’ll be larger than some FBS video boards.
Athletic director Garry Killgore told me, smiling, that Linfield’s new video
board will be bigger than BYU’s.
That’s an impressive facility improvement. But why are they
doing it? And why now?
Who the heck is Linfield, anyway?
Linfield, with an enrollment of just under 2,000, plays in the
Northwest Conference with eight other small, private schools in Washington and
Oregon. The Wildcats have dominated the league on the football field, wracking
up 64 consecutive winning seasons. In 2019, they scored more than 70 points
in multiple conference games. And that
regular domination has helped make Linfield football a popular attraction.
That’s part of the appeal of the athletic department. Killgore
described the school to me as typically trying to recruit a more blue-collar
type student than some of the other private schools in the region, seeking to
serve working-class and first-generation students. Building a highly visible,
and community-connected athletic department helps with that recruitment and
retention effort.
And Linfield appears to be connected. Killgore was quick to
mention Streak Street, a
community party outside of football games, that brings in music, food trucks, and
family-oriented programming. There’s a beer garden in the
stadium, where local dignitaries are known to swing by. And the official
stadium capacity of around 2,200 seats, augmented by temporary seating, fills
up every game, leading to fans watching the action from outside.
And if fans want to follow the action from outside the stadium,
well, what better way to do that than on a big ol’ scoreboard?
How can a school with only around
2,000 students pay for something like this?
Killgore is quick to point out that the scoreboard project was
paid for entirely by private donations, with the largest coming from Jim and
Sondra Wright, longtime Linfield athletic boosters. Other local businesses
stepped in to donate in-kind contributions to make the project possible. And
the school plans to use the scoreboard for more than just football games. The
track and field program shares the stadium and will use the scoreboard, and the
school also plans to use it for freshman orientation and potential student life
programming, like movie nights.
Okay, but wouldn’t it be cheaper
to just build more stadium seating?
Killgore told me that the school does plan on expanding their
football stadium to potentially accommodate over 4,000 fans in the future. But
at the end of the day, funding this specific scoreboard project was very
important to the Wrights. The family had already made significant contributions
to other Linfield athletic facility improvements, including the school’s
soccer, lacrosse, and track.
“I think if you if you understand donor relations, and you
understand the motivations of the donor, you still have to find what they're
passionate about. And they're really super passionate about that experience,”
said Kilgore.
And while laughing, he added “Jim and Sondra, they’ll tell you
that this project is really critically important to them. They want it to do
that big scoreboard now, as they’ll tell you, is because they can't see it as
well, because they're in their 80s. And they want to see. He even laughed and
says ‘and I can’t hear it as well’, but well, our neighbors can hear it!”
It raises an interesting challenge in university administration.
It isn’t uncommon in college sports for an individual donor to become really
passionate about a specific project, maybe even a project that wasn’t
immediately in a strategic plan, and offer a lot of money just for that
project. This is exactly how some lacrosse or tennis programs get
funded in the first place. So if an important donor, somebody who has already
given a lot of money, is passionate about a very specific thing that you’d also
like to have, it’s not as if that money could be theoretically transported to
the Chemistry department instead.
Still, the optics of this particular project are not lost on
Kilgore, who admitted that the timing of the project is “strange”, and that
he’d understand why a faculty or community member might ask why the school was
pushing through this project now. He worked with the school’s administration to
make sure the entire community was aware that the scoreboard was driven by
private donations, rather than out of the general budget.
Community is hard to build
anywhere, but especially at the D-III level
Plenty of schools with much larger athletic department budgets
struggle to community engagement or a strong in-game experience. That Linfield
seems to have done that, not just by regularly winning, but by creating
something that the entire town, campus, and athletic program wants to be a part
of, is unique, especially at the D-III level.
Of course, none of that means anything if the school itself
isn’t healthy. Kilgore admitted that the scoreboard will increase power costs a
little bit. And the university itself wasn’t completely spared from the
enrollment and financial challenges that many smaller private schools face
(Kilgore told me the school reduced headcount via encouraging early
retirements). Building a great student and athlete experience is great, but if
the Nursing and English departments are struggling, it isn’t enough.
Maybe it wouldn’t be the first project the athletic department
would have picked if they were using only their own money. But now, they’ll
have another unique calling card as they build out a strength of the school.
So don’t worry if you can’t score a ticket to the next Linfield
game. I hear it’s about to be a little easier to watch from afar.
#
By Rusty
Rae, McMinnville N-R/News-Register 10/23/2020
Part of ‘Linfield
Football: Remembrance of Games Past’ series
If football’s your game, statistics indicate a
narrow path to the heights of NFL fame. Those numbers indicate it’s a 1000 to
one shot to make an NFL team out of high school. From an NCAA DI school, it’s
one out of 50 and from a DIII school like Linfield, decidedly less.
In fact today, depending on the latest cuts,
there are likely around a dozen professional football players from DIII schools
– 12 out of 1,760 rostered athletes.
The proverbial four-leaf clover in a field of
dandelions.
As narrow as those odds appear, through the
years Linfield’s football team has supplied an infusion of talent to the NFL.
More than 40 ‘Cats were called to pro football since 1954. Most only had a cup
of coffee in the big show, but these five: Doug
Hire, Jim Massey, Randy Marshall, Paul Dombroski and Fred Von Appen relate
a unique story in the Wildcat football tradition.
Hire, Linfield’s Senior Associate Director of
Athletics for Facilities, Operations and Events and the NCAA Inclusion
Designee, holds a title nearly as long as his NFL career. Formerly, he was the
associate head football coach and line coach for 20 seasons after moving to
McMinnville from Hawaii.
His initial dream? To play in the NFL.
A DI prospect until a bout with leukemia
curtailed big school offers, Hire was recruited by Linfield head coach Ad
Rutschman. After doing some research on the school, he found himself a freshman
on the oak-lined campus in 1983.
Hire went to regular chemotherapy for the last
two years of his high school career and first three seasons at Linfield. The
late Joan Rutschman, Ad’s wife and administrator made arrangements for someone
to drive Hire from McMinnville to Ft. Lewis for treatments, which essentially
sucked the life out of him.
He’d crawl into the back seat after treatment
and sleep all the way home – but never missed a practice or a game. “Doug never
complained and never missed any significant practice or a game. He was as
mentally strong as his character was large,” said Rutschman.
Regarding his desire to join the Wildcats, Hire
noted, “They’d just come off winning the national championship and I thought
this was the best place for me to reach my dream.”
However, in his first year, he saw little action
and considered transferring to the University of Hawaii. That is, until a
senior on the team, Tom Vincent, persuaded him to stay.
“He told me I had potential to be a top lineman.
Of course I heard that from coaches, but when it comes from a peer it carries a
bit more weight — particularly as a freshman,” he said.
Hire remained and next season started on the
‘Cats’ second NAIA national championship. This was perhaps his earliest lesson
about the value of the culture of a program and how relationships among coaches
and players are key elements in the success of a program.
In his senior year, 1986, he started and was not
only all–conference but also an all-America selection on Rutschman’s third
national title team. Later, as the Linfield ‘Cats’ line coach, he earned
another national championship ring with the 2004 program as a coach, one of a
few with three championship rings.
Noted Rutschman, “Doug became a dominant
lineman. I learned pretty quickly, if we needed one yard, the ball was coming
to Doug’s side.”
After graduation, he was offered a free-agent
tryout with the Jets. During rookie camp, he survived the week competing
against a bevy of DI players. Although expecting to be called back to New York
for training camp that summer, he was released during the summer via a letter.
Hire suspected his aspirations for the NFL were
over. He returned to Linfield to pursue his master’s degree in Education while
simultaneously working for Rutschman and his O-line coach, the late Ted Henry.
When the NFL strike of 1987 occurred, Hire
received the call from former Linfield QB Randy Mueller, now in the player
personnel department of the Seahawks. Hire earned a roster spot as a center
with Seattle, responsible for making the line calls.
“It was the experience of a lifetime,” he
remembers, adding, “Life in the NFL is pretty easy compared to playing for a DIII
team. The weight room was right across the hall from the lockers and the little
things are pretty much all taken care of — like the pop machine didn’t take
money — just press the button and out popped a can,” he said.
His NFL experience was equivalent to a masters’
degree in coaching. “I knew I was going into coaching, so I approached this not
only as an opportunity to play football in the NFL, but to develop my library
of coaching skills,” he said.
Hire played in three NFL games, both as an
interior offensive lineman and on special teams. The Seahawks went 2-1 during
the strike period, which helped them become eligible for the playoffs.
Notes Muller, “I remember Doug blocking and
competing against an NFL defensive end from Detroit who had crossed the picket
line in our third strike game. He held his own — got big props from all of us.
The moment was not too big for him and I was like a proud papa.”
Seattle won that game 37-14 on the road in the
Silverdome. Several of the Hawk starters crossed the picket line, including
center Blair Bush, who played in place of Hire. Hire did his job on special
teams and as tight end on the PAT team and had an opportunity to snag a pass on
a botched snap — but the ball zipped well over his head.
He remembered linebacker Fred Young taking the
members of the strike team out for dinner, thanking them for helping the
Seahawks become eligible for the playoffs. He also recalled chatting casually
with the great Seattle wide receiver Steve Largent on one of the bus rides.
Following his pro experience, Hire received a
call from the Phoenix Cardinals, who had incurred numerous injuries to their
offensive line. He flew in on a Friday, reviewed offensive schemes with a coach
and by Saturday was making line calls in practice.
Suddenly, the future intersected with the
present.
He had applied for several teaching jobs; his
fiancée informed him he had several calls for interviews. He realized teaching
and coaching were his future and asked to be released, which the team granted,
allowing him to keep his signing bonus.
Hire landed at Sprague High School teaching math
and weight training and coaching football. He spent 11 years with the
Olympians.
He next interviewed for a job at Linfield, but
the position went to another candidate. Hire spent two years coaching the
offensive line at Willamette before finally returning to Linfield in 2000.
Hire spent 20 seasons coaching the Linfield line
before his latest promotion last spring to associate athletic director, when he
retired from coaching. However, his impact on the program and trench play
remains.
He combined the detailed approach of his first
mentor Henry, a math teacher at Linfield, with the tools he learned in the NFL
and his decade of coaching high school football.
“Ted broke line play down to the base elements
and taught them so you understood them and to use technique to be a better
football player and I tried to incorporate that into my coaching style,” he
explained.
But while technique is important, Hire added,
“Coaching is really about relationships. When kids know you love them like your
own, they’ll run through a wall for you.”
Reflecting on his former line coach, current
Linfield head football coach Joseph Smith said, “Doug was an incredibly intense
player — I really enjoyed getting to play against him in some of the alumni
games. He was the perfect offensive lineman — that combination of intelligence,
physicality and desire and it was fun to watch him compete.
“He harnessed those same attributes of passion,
intelligence and attention to detail — a true master offensive line coach,” he
said.
Today, Hire carries that same intensity and
passion to his leadership role with the university.
“We, as an athletic department and as a
university, are concerned with retention. We have to understand why we are
losing students and then change. To make a change, we have to start the
change,” he said.
Hire, that Hawaiian four-leaf clover, hopes to
see many more lucky talismans populating not only the football squad, but the
many sports Linfield supports.
Note:
Last week, an article titled, “Smith family rooted in ‘Cats’ football success,”
stated the 1991 National championship game was played at Memorial Coliseum. The
title match was actually played at Portland Civic Stadium, now known as
Providence Park
“LINFIELD COLLEGE, McMinnville (Special) – Remodeling of the old college commons in Pioneer Hall and other work in Melrose Hall is being completed here during Christmas vacation.
“The commons area has not been used since the new Dillin
Hall was opened two months ago. Soon the old commons will be converted into classroom,
laboratory and office space of the art, psychology and philosophy departments.
“Work on the second floor of Melrose will arrange an area to
be used as a joint reception room and individual offices for the deans of
faculty and administration and the college chaplain.
“All these campus remodeling jobs are expected to be
completed early in the new year.”
Source:
Sunday Oregonian, Dec. 25, 1960
Skidmore, Owings &
Merrill (SOM) architectural firm designed both.
The coliseum opened Nov. 3,
1960. Dillin (originally called Linfield Commons) was dedicated Oct. 29, 1960.
Photos here show Linfield
Commons (later named Dillin Hall). Photo 1 was taken in 1965. Date when three
other photos of Linfield Commons taken unknown. Thanks to Linfield Archives for
these Linfield Commons photos. The three other photos at the bottom of this posting.
According to a plaque inside
the building, it was dedicated Oct. 29, 1960.
A story in the Nov. 1, 1960,
Oregon Statesman (morning daily newspaper of Salem, Ore.) during a Linfield
College homecoming banquet in the building on Sat., Oct. 29, 1960, "Dr.
Harry L. Dillin, Linfield president since 1943, was honored by his board of
trustees here Saturday night in the naming of the new $750,000 dining hall,
Harry Dillin Hall. Dr. Dillin received a standing ovation from 1,000 alumni and
friends at the homecoming banquet which initiated the new building."
At some point, the
building’s name came to honor both Dillin and his wife, Irene Hartman Dillin,
Linfield Class of 1939.
Photo of Portland Veterans
Memorial Coliseum "Courtesy Oregon Hist. Soc. Research Lib., Orhi90685” ...
photo appears in The Oregon Encyclopedia, a project of the Oregon Historical
Society. Photo is at top of this posting.
#
With fewer students on
campus, university drops contributions to retirement funds
By Starla Pointer, McMinnville
N-R/News-Register, 10/16/2020
With
fewer students on campus, university drops contributions to retirement funds
Linfield
University has ceased contributing to employee retirement funds as part of an
effort to balance its budget during the coronavirus pandemic.
The
school, which employs more than 500 people on its McMinnville and Portland
campuses, is midway through its fall semester of in-person learning. Some
students didn’t return this year because of the pandemic, and others chose not
to live in dorms, which helps fund the university’s operations, leaving
Linfield short financially.
A
committee of faculty, staff members and students examined several options for
balancing the budget, said Mary Ann Rodriguez, the university’s financial
director. Instead of reducing salaries or cutting jobs, the group recommended
eliminating retirement contributions for the 2020-21 school year as of Oct. 1.
Employees
can still contribute to their own retirement accounts, but the school will not
add the 12% for faculty members and 9% for staff it had been contributing.
The
change will help balance the budget without affecting regular salaries,
Rodriguez said. She said retirement contributions may be reinstated in the next
fiscal year.
President
Miles Davis said “no one is happy about this, including myself,” but added,
“we’re trying to preserve the institution and preserve jobs.”
Linfield
is in better shape than many colleges and universities, Davis said. Reed
College in Portland, for example, has a $10 million deficit. The University of
Portland recently laid off 230 people. And schools are affected across the
country, he said. Ohio Weslyan University announced Wednesday it is cutting 18
majors.
“We’re
not in that situation, fortunately,” he said.
After
years of declining enrollment, Linfield had a record incoming class of about
532 in fall 2019 as a result of school-wide efforts at recruitment.
This
year’s entering group of 400 freshmen and 75 transfers is slightly smaller, but
still bigger than the class that entered in the fall of 2016, Davis said.
In
addition, Linfield’s retention rate for upperclassmen was high this fall, he
said. And the incoming class includes about 37% first-generation college
students, double the percentage they represented five years ago, as a result of
recruiting efforts and additional mentoring and support.
All
those factors “show the hunger for students to be on Linfield’s campus,”
he said.
Many
other universities continued virtual learning this fall, as they had done in
spring after the pandemic closed schools at all levels. Linfield was in the
minority in reopening its campus.
“Some
criticized the fact we’re trying to stay open,” Davis said.
“It
wasn’t driven by finances,” he said, “but out of a desire to serve our students
and create an environment for everyone to succeed.”
College
is about more than classroom education, he said. It’s about campus experiences,
interaction between students and between students and professors, and more.
For
some students, it’s also a place where they can be assured of health care,
three meals a day, a room, and reliable computers and internet connections,
Davis said.
He
and his colleagues heard from many students and parents wanting to return to
in-person classes. “They wanted to be back. That helped bolster what we’re
doing,” the president said.
Fall
classes are smaller than usual, and some are offered online or are hybrids of online
and in-person. Large tents have been erected to provide additional classroom
space. Students have pledged to wear masks and maintain social distancing.
They
were tested for the virus as they arrived on campus and are being retested
periodically.
The
university, which has nearly 2,000 students, had reported seven cases among
students, faculty and staff on the McMinnville campus, as of Oct. 14. Fewer
than five were reported on the Portland nursing campus.
Both
students and employees have been willing to adapt, the president said. They
have embraced opportunities to think creatively, he said.
“I
don’t want to paint too rosy a picture; it’s challenging,” Davis said. “But
we’re doing well.”
The
costs to erect tents and otherwise accommodate social distancing, as well as to
offer so many COVID tests, have added up, Rodriguez said. Combined with the
loss of revenue from dorms and on-campus meal service, that led to the steps to
balance the budget.