Viking_Yearbook_49

"Build thee more stately mansions, 0 my souL as the swift sea­ sons roll." During the past year Vanport College has been doing just that. May 3D, 1948, was indeed a sad day. On that day occurred one of the worst disasters in the history of the Northwest, the Van­ port flood, submerging our old "U by the Slough" under fifteen feet of water. It looked like the end for the school that had just celebrated its second birthday. Only the material things were destroyed, how­ ever; the spirit of the school lived and a determined, resourceful group of students and faculty members gathered up the pieces and decided to carryon. This wasn't easy . The Portland Teachers Credit Union and the Veterans Administration gave the college temporary office space first in the Education Center Building and then the old Elks Building. There was no assurance of a summer session, however, until Grant High School graciously provided classroom space and other needed facilities. There we pitched camp for the summer. There still remained the question of whether there would be a Vanport College in the fall. The State Board of Higher Education had approved continuation for another year, but there was the unsolved problem of a suitable plant and the further question of whether any available could be readied in time for registration in September. The first problem was solved when the Federal Work Agency arranged with the Oregon Ship Corporation to let Vanport Exten­ sion Center have the administration building at Oregon Shipyard rent free. Before it could be used, however, the basement, which had been flooded, had to be cleaned out, and the offices on the first and second floors had to be converted into classrooms. When September came, much work was still to be done. We sat on chairs without writing surfaces; there were no blackboards or any of the other classroom conveniences; the building was filled with smell of fresh paint and the noise of hammering, sawing, and other constfllction work. No one complained, however, and school started as though nothing had happened. During the fall term it was not easy to adjust ourselves to the new Vanport, superior though it is in many ways to the old. It was almost like living the summer and fall of 1946 all over again. Now, however, thanks to administrative planning and the tireless efforts of Les Eggleson and his maintenance crew, we are once mOIre able to study in a normal academic environment. Vanport Col­ lege has been reborn. A lot of courage, resourcefulness, and ingenuity have gone into making Vanport "the college that would not die." This book records the ups and downs of that struggle.