Jack Kondrasuk: Former educator, wants to give back

One of two candidates for the MHCC District board Zone 1 position – to replace outgoing Chair Susie Jones – is Jack Kondrasuk.

A former educator at University of Portland and Portland Community College, Kondrasuk is running for the board because he said he “want(s) to make a difference, and make this a better world. Most of my life has been in education.”

What has he enjoyed most about teaching? Kondrasuk explained how he saw the job: “The students were coming from a lot of different areas and I thought it was important to try to help them understand psychology. I think it’s helpful to people regardless of what they go into, whether it’s being a technician or a Ph.D. or all kinds of other things, so helping them was important to me.”

Kondrasuk worked at UP in varying positions for 38 years, where he taught students transferring from Mt Hood. He said that community colleges, specifically Mt. Hood, deal with “a huge spread of activities. You’re dealing with people in technical roles… and society needs that. At the other end, you’re helping people get pre-university courses so they can go on to get bachelor’s (degrees). There’s a huge difference in there.”

He said the board must reflect the college itself. “It’s got authority to do things. But without the faculty and without the students, it’s nothing… it needs to know what the faculty can provide and what they think they should provide for society, and it needs to know what the students want,” he said.

“The people in the (college sub-) districts,  what do they want? What do they want for education? What do they want to learn more about? This is a learning institution; what can it provide?” he said.

Kondrasuk was quick to identify MHCC’s primary challenges. “The bond measure. That’s one,” he said. “But whether it passes or not, you want to stay in existence and you want to provide the best you can. Hopefully it will fly and we get the money. And money is needed, to upkeep things and to change (as) our society changes, our world changes.

“I don’t have as long a future as you do,” he joked. “You’ve got a lot to look forward to and a lot of changes. So how do you stay up on those changes, so you can be the best person you can be, and can contribute the most you can to this world, and can be happy?”

Kondrasuk discussed the uncertainty that undocumented MHCC students may be feeling.

“I don’t know how to reassure them. I’d like to help them,” he said. “Reassuring them that they would not have a knock on the door at 10 o’clock at night from an ICE agent… I don’t know how to (reassure students in the face of) that…

“Training, understanding, short courses in what they’re up against and what their alternatives are would he helpful because that’s a real need for those people,” he said. “I don’t have all the answers for all that… but I don’t think you should prejudge countries based on some of the things we’re reading in the news; there’s a lot of good people (out there).”

The main things that Kondrasuk would like to bring to the board are availability and accessibility, he said. “I think it’s more than just making decisions about other people. The board needs to understand what the students want, and what the constituents for this area want. It’s their money.”