Nearly $1 million given to support wine program

By Roy Warner · The Mainstream
Published April 20, 2010

The UCC Foundation, headed by Dennis O’Neill is preparing for a fund raising campaign that will put UCC in the center of an emerging wine industry in southern Oregon and this region’s readiness to accept increasing economic diversity.

“This initiative has received tremendous support throughout the project region. What differentiates this project from other community campaigns is this is a regional project that involves seven counties in Southwest Oregon. The Southern Oregon Wine Institute or SOWI, will provide training services for the wine industry in the seven counties of this region,” according to O’Neill.

The fund raising campaign received a huge boost when local attorney Danny Lang committed $800,000 to the cause. As a supporter of community colleges, Lang believes SOWI is a worthwhile investment and is committed to the mission of community colleges, helping people get education and find employment.

“About four years ago, the college really started the planning process to decide what was the best way to structure a degree program here, that would allow non-traditional or even younger students to get enough education that they can plug right into the industry and start working around here,” added Chris Lake who is the director of SOWI.

The viticulture and enology degree currently available at UCC encompasses grape growing and wine making and prepares students for entry into the industry as winemaking technicians. Techniques of entering the market place are also covered in the curriculum. But the goals of SOWI go beyond the vineyard.

“This is not about helping us grow the wine industry. This is an economic development initiative that will help all of the allied sectors of the economy prosper,” said O’Neill.

The Wal-Mart Foundation also is in support of this project. “What they are looking for [with their donations] are projects that have an economic impact in suppressed rural areas. So we put forward a proposal that by teaching this skill set to people in an area were it is possible to grow very good fruit and that fruit can be turned into wine, we can start economic development based on a natural resource that is already here and it would keep the jobs local,” said Lake.

Fruits of the fundraising campaign will provide the initial funds of almost $4 million, which is the first half of the almost $8 million needed for a 24,000 square foot L.E.E.D. certified state of the art wine teaching facility.

This facility will house classrooms, a commercial-scale winery, an incubator, a laboratory for testing, a tasting room and a 225 seat event center for conferences, meetings and receptions.

Gordon Burns, the President and Director of ETS Laboratories, which is one of the two largest enology testing labs in the U.S, has committed a half million dollars worth of lab equipment and two full time employees in it in exchange for space and utilities in the UCC’s new wine making facility.

“Those two employees will assist us in training our students as well as training the industry within our region on the newest techniques. There is only one other community college in the nation that has an enology laboratory in it and that is Walla Walla,” said O’Neill.

“In the event center, we are going to be able to put 225 guests, and on our wonderful late summer evenings we can use the courtyard and terrace to hold an additional 200 people,” said O’Neill who continued, “When we open this facility it is believed [it will] be one of the premiere event centers of Douglas County.”

“We can also arrange this so that somebody who is in Medford, Grant Pass or Ashland can get this instruction and be successful in their area which is a bit out of the UCC’s service district.So the first thing that had to be done is to develop the courses so that they are a hybrid of distance education and hands-on training,” said Lake.

The program is currently serving 50 students who are working toward a one-year certificate or a two year degree. Local wineries are assisting students with the necessary facilities while preparations are being made for the on-campus facility.