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RCC's White City site could become center for high-tech training BY JIM DAVIS Rogue Community College's proposed building project in White City could become an advanced technology center providing training ranging from electronics to manufacturing. The center would serve students -- and businesses -- throughout Southern Oregon, said Jerry Reed, dean of business and community learning services for the college. "We could bring the use of advanced technology to help local firms be competitive with other businesses and industry throughout the rest of the world," Reed said. The Southern Oregon Regional Technology Center -- as college officials are calling it -- would be located on land provided by the Veterans Affairs Domiciliary. And the idea is garnering support from at least one local business leader. Bill Thorndike Jr., president of Medford Fabrication, said industries change daily thanks to new technology and new software. "I think there is an increasing need for something like a technology center," Thorndike said. As the first step, educators will ask the Oregon Legislature next month to pay $500,000 for staffing the center for two years. That would pay for a director, a clerical person and part-time instructors from RCC, the Oregon Institute of Technology and other colleges as well as the private sector. The school would still need to raise money for the building -- possibly $4 million for a 55,000-square-foot building. If the state Legislature approves operating funds, Reed said that the school would try to raise money for the building through state and federal grants as well as through the Rogue Community College Foundation and possible private donations. In 1989, the state opened an advanced technology center in Wilsonville, which is operated by Clackamas Community College. At the time, the state also planned on opening two or three of these centers throughout Oregon. The Wilsonville center has been a magnet for new technology in a variety of fields, Reed said. Industry vendors allow the school to borrow new equipment and software -- for students and for businesses to try and experiment with. A technology center would offer local firms a look at such cutting-edge technology. Reed said that Southern Oregon has shifted away from a timber and fishing economy to a more varied economy that relies on electronics and software. "The economy of our region is changing," Reed said. "We think it's time to bring a technology center down to our region." Thorndike said that his business, which employs about 150 people at its plants in Medford and White City, is switching computer systems this weekend and his business could have relied on a technology center. He also said that a technology center could have steered Southern Oregon firms through updating software for the millennium bug, a fear that computers will crash at the beginning of the year 2000. "It would have been nice to have the technology center here a year ago," Thorndike said. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA