Clark Hilden is a pillar.

He blushes when reminded, but Hilden’s reputation as a long-time instructor at Blue Mountain Community College proceeds him. Former students remember him, and usually say nothing but good things when they catch him on the street to say “hi.”

His passion is for all of these people, and for the subjects he taught – social science, geography and anthropology.

After retiring in 1999 after 30 years of educating, he couldn’t leave. The college wouldn’t let him. Administrators asked him to stay on to help advise students and to lead the college’s accreditation process.

He didn’t want to leave.

At least not until a couple of weeks ago.

Hilden has watched the college he’s loved and lived for more than 33 years change from a center of family, knowledge and curiosity, to an institution broken into factions, and struggles to keep education on the forefront of the community’s mind ahead of contentious news about budgets and on-campus clashes.

It came to a head for Hilden after his position leading the accreditation committee was shifted to the new provost.

In his mind, he wasn’t needed anymore.

That’s why he resigned from the college, cleaned out his small office, wrote his resignation letter, wrote a melancholy good-bye letter to staff members and turned in his keys.

“I don’t know if I could have stayed there anyway,” he said. “Some of my best friends are up there, but there’s also a lot of pain.”

Hilden was hired in 1970 by President Wally McCrae. Those were the days that the faculty and administration got together for dinners, and held a beginning-of-the-school-year picnic at Stillman Park in Pendleton where educators talked about education between Frisbee throws and laughs with friends not seen during the summer.

Those days are gone.

“It’s so divided on campus,” he said. “We’ve lost that closeness.”

Hilden blames BMCC President Travis Kirkland.

“He doesn’t want to foster that or something,” he said. “He just wants to break the faculty. It seems he feels the need to suppress the faculty.”

Contract negotiations have brought out the worst in the situation, he said. The administration wants to pay faculty based on a smaller number of hours that doesn’t reflect the actual time put into teaching at a community college, he said.

Hilden remembers working just about every Sunday during his years at BMCC, and knows other faculty members have worked evenings and weekends, both on and off the campus.

“On Sundays I could look down the hallway and see doors open and lights on,” he said. “That’s what teachers do.”

Hilden hasn’t enjoyed watching positions and classes fall under the budget ax throughout the year. And he worries as accreditation, which basically licenses the college to teach people, draws closer.

What’s vital through BMCC’s troubled times is keeping the faith of the community, Hilden said.

The community has supported the college for a long time, proving it by passing its budget for years before state funding changed, and through a recent bond campaign that built new buildings and centers.

“If we lose the faith of the community, we lose everything,” he said.

Hilden doesn’t doubt Kirkland works hard. But things have to change, whether in attitude or otherwise, he said. Hilden isn’t sure what the faculty can do differently to improve the college’s situation, except to improve its communication with the public and the administration.

In the meantime, Hilden is considering options of what he’s going to do next.

No matter what he chooses to do, he’ll miss BMCC.

“It is life changing,” he said. “It’s the hardest work I’ve ever loved.”

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Teri Meeuwsen is a reporter in the East Oregonian Hermiston Bureau. She can be reached at (800) 522-0255 (ext. 1302 after hours) or by e-mail tmeeuwsen@eastoregonian.com.