The Cascade years
Cascade College, 1994 to 2009. Fifteen years as a four-year Christian liberal arts college, and the place its students called the Northwest Corner of Heaven.
A new college on familiar ground
When Columbia Christian College closed in 1993, its alumni and Northwest church members didn't want the campus to go quiet. Oklahoma Christian University agreed to lend its accreditation to a branch campus on the site, and Cascade College opened on Monday, August 29, 1994. Many former Columbia students set aside a year of their own studies to help get it started.
As a branch campus of Oklahoma Christian, Cascade offered bachelor's degrees and was accredited through the Higher Learning Commission. Students came from across the country to a small campus where everyone knew each other's names, with Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge close by.
Growing up
Cascade opened with 119 students. A year later, in fall 1995, enrollment had nearly doubled to 236, and it kept climbing to a high of 341 students in fall 2002. Students could study Bible, business, elementary education or the liberal arts, and the offerings grew from there.
Many traditions came over from Columbia Christian, including Monday night devo, Winter Formal and Chinook Court. Men's soccer became Cascade's first athletic team in 1995–96, and basketball and volleyball soon followed. Bristol Hall, a new residence hall, went up in 1996, and Sanders Hall and the Johnson Center were remodeled.
See more than seventy photos from Cascade's fifteen years.
The Northwest Corner of Heaven
Gary Tandy, one of Cascade's charter faculty members, wrote The Northwest Corner of Heaven: A History of Cascade College in April 2009, in the college's final semester. It is the most complete account of Cascade's fifteen years.
Copyright 2009 Cascade College, the Portland campus of Oklahoma Christian University. Shared here with OC's blessing.