As a retired faculty member who spent almost all of her professional life at SPSU I believe that I have a unique perspective regarding this institution. I came to Southern Tech as it was then in 1973 - and I was so impressed with the curriculum and the students. It was such a pleasure to teach mathematics to students who, even though it might sometimes be difficult for them, understood that they needed to understand this subject in order to be successful in their majors. These students are uniquely serious and dedicated and have been the foundation of the reputation that exists in the community, the state, and, most importantly, the businesses who employ them. Many of the faculty members with whom I taught are now gone - they gave their lives to this institution and have retired and are dead. Thus, I feel an obligation to speak for them and the legacy they have left. I am terribly afraid that there may be no one involved in this decision who has contributed institutional memory. Many people may not know that after World War II the Georgia Business and Industry Association faced a shortage of employees who could hit the ground running. This association approached higher education (I believe it was Georgia Tech) to provide education that would provide employees with the appropriate practical education and, in 1948, a man named L. V. Johnson formed such an institution in Chamblee, GA, using old wooden World War II barracks. The entire operation was done on a shoestring but students received a wonderful education thanks to dedicated professors and quickly found employment after attaining their 2-year degree. When in later years the institution (then know as Southern Tech) was invited to come to Cobb County with the ability to expand its campus, professors and staff had to move desks, blackboards and other equipment in their personal cars, as there was not enough money for movers. As the institution grew, so did the need for even more highly educated workers in Georgia, and so four-year programs in engineering technology were established. There was still need for the two-year degree and so that degree was continued until such time as business and industry (N.B. All the engineering technology degrees had industrial advisory councils that met regularly with departmental faculty to apprise them of their requirements) indicated that the preference was now for employees with 4-year degrees. I came to Southern Tech two years after the four-year degrees were established. I was hired in the Department of Mathematics to teach mathematics but also to teach computer programming (FORTRAN). I was appalled at the facilities that our students had to use: just to give you an example, we had two 026 keypunches and two 029 keypunches for students (and faculty). None of the keypunches printed out the correct symbols on the top of the cards. For example, if a student wanted a right parenthesis, one keypunch might print out an asterisk, another a forward slash, a third a plus sign, and a fourth an ampersand. Now all four of these gave the correct hole punches in the card, but can you imagine how much more difficult it was for students to learn how to program under these conditions? This was made even more problematic by the fact that in order to try to run programs, someone had to pick up the rubber-banded bunches of cards from a drop-off point each day, physically drive them down to Georgia Tech, run them through the machines, and then deliver them back to Southern Tech where the students would be able to see the results the next day. Many of the programs would not even execute, because there was a first stage with which one must first comply called compilation. At this stage the compiler checked for errors such a syntax mistakes; if a student failed to put in a required symbol or misspelled a command, the machine would simply kick it out. I give you this example to illustrate how very difficult it was to obtain funds from our parent institution, Georgia Institute of Technology, in order to teach classes properly. Because we did not have a president to plead our case at the Board of Regents, and because our dean came from Georgia Tech and whose loyalty was obviously to the parent institution, I was never able to get proper equipment for our students. We were the red-headed stepchild and, while Georgia Tech prospered, we struggled. We also had a real image problem in our own community - when I said I worked at Southern Tech, people would ask me how they could get some piece of equipment repaired by our students, as the perception was that we were a vocational school. Certainly those schools were needed and gave industry (and also students whose interest lay in that type of work) the ability for employment in such areas as air conditioning repair, hair styling, etc., but that was not what Southern Tech was about. There was much confusion in our community, the metro area, and across the state as to what kind of institution we were. When one looked up the list of institutions of the University System of Georgia, Southern Tech was not even listed. (This was, of course, because we were a division of Georgia Tech). I know this for a fact because when I applied for teaching jobs in the metro Atlanta area, I did not even know of the existence of (now) SPSU. It was only by happenstance that I was hired by the institution where I spent over 29 years, and that was, ironically, due to the kindness of Dr. Sturgis, the first president of (then) Kennesaw Junior College. I had interviewed with the division head and subsequently with Dr. Sturgis for a position in mathematics. Months later they informed me that I was their number two choice, and if their number one choice did not accept, they would contact me. However, the other applicant did accept and I continued my job search. I was very surprised to receive a letter in early September from a Dr. Richard Denning asking if I would come to Southern Tech for an interview; he was the head of the mathematics department and had received my name from Dr. Sturgis who generously recommended me for the open position at Southern Tech . There was no money for interviewees to come to campus, so I paid my own way from South Florida to come to Marietta for two days to be interviewed. I was very happy to be offered the job after three hours of interviews and I started teaching two weeks later. One of the points I would like to convey to anyone reading this is the joy I found in teaching the students and the courses - I knew all my students names, and they knew that I knew them personally - they were not just a number to me. I quickly grew to know the other faculty and staff and this was of enormous help as I tried to help students get into courses or untie some Gordian bureaucratic knot. When I came there were approximately 80 faculty and 1800 students. I was the fourth female faculty member and the only full-time female professor in mathematics (gratefully, that has been rectified over the years, both in overall faculty and in the mathematics department). All the degrees then were given by the engineering technology departments and my colleagues and I interacted frequently with them to determine what topics were of special importance to them. I often went down the hill to the mechanical and electrical departments especially to touch base with them on the examples that I was using in my differential equations course, preferring to show students real-world-type problems that were relevant to their degree. I sincerely thought that this was better for my students, for me (they were more interested in the class), for the other departments (whose students had been exposed to the why as well as to the how) and for the employers of these students. It is certainly the case that when transfer students took many of their math classes at another institution they did not receive these same benefits, but at the very least there was a critical mass of students that could help them as they had pertinent notes and experience. This was all because we thought of ourselves (as did the Board of Regents) as a Special Purpose Institution, with not only one or two departments needing special consideration but all departments geared toward a common goal and purpose. THAT is what makes SPSU unique - THAT is what makes SPSU special - THAT is what engenders such loyalty in her students, alumni, business and industry partners, faculty, staff and administration. One more point I would like to make: I was privileged to serve on both the Preliminary Council on General Education and the Council on General Education as the University System of Georgia changed from the quarter system to the semester system. I had been appointed to represent the views of the mathematics community in the system. We had many meetings; there was respect among all the members of the committees in that we could express our views openly. There was one time that I felt called upon to express a different opinion from a member who felt that calculus was calculus was calculus and it did not matter who taught it or where it was taught. I certainly agreed with the member that the rules of calculus had not changed and were not likely to change - but when one has a class which is by whatever means more prepared, one can by virtue of this preparation delve more deeply into topics and cover not only the topics mandated by the Academic Committee on Mathematics of the University System but additional topics that can help prepare them for a career in the STEM fields. Because SPSU has a higher entrance requirement than the majority of the system institutions, I claim that SPSU is able to give a more in-depth analysis of topics to our students. And yes, I use the word our because I am an emeritus professor and I am still much involved with the school. And are we not trying to encourage more students to enter STEM fields? Just recently in the October 20th edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution the headline of the Business section read State needs more skilled workers. Later in the body of the article it was noted that More than eight in 10 (in an informal survey of attendees at the Georgia Economic Developers Association annual conference in Savannah) said a highly educated workforce and strong education system is more important to a healthy economy than being the lowest cost /lowest tax state or offering a great quality of life. The members of this association help recruit companies to Georgia and they are telling us that its not state and local taxes, transportation or political climate. Its finding skilled workers and, by extension, good public schools. The article additionally stated that Georgia has historically trailed the nation in key education metrics. The state, like many in the U.S., and the South in particular also faces a shortage of skilled technical workers, coveted by such employers as advanced manufacturers. SPSU and her students, alumni, business partners, faculty, staff and administration have worked for YEARS to become recognizable as the wonderful institution she is; we are just starting to come into our own, our enrollment is rising and the university is finally starting to get the recognition she deserves. I am at a loss to understand why the state would want to undermine one of only two units of the University System of Georgia that has a specifically technologically oriented mission? It is hard for me to imagine the benefits to SPSU and I see a lot of detrimental outcomes for the institution - I also can see only short-term savings (and much of that will be spent in the efforts to merge). Can one even imagine a school with the prestige of Georgia Tech being forced to merge with, say, Georgia State, in order to save money and because they are geographically close? While I certainly in no way imply that Southern Polytechnic is of the age, size, or has the statewide and indeed nationwide reputation of Georgia Tech, I do believe that over our 65 years of existence we have shown that we provide a niche for those students who, while not necessarily straight-A students or who dont necessarily want to go into design engineering or do university research, but want to make the world a better place through technology in a more hands-on way and who may have other skills (such as being excellent team players, or who have an entrepreneurial spirit, or who may perhaps be people persons and love interacting with others) in additionally to meeting our academic standards . There are other institutions in the university system which offer degrees in education, in nursing, in liberal arts. I know that some of these have been merged. I admit I do not know whether or not these are true success stories or even if that is known yet. But there is only one SPSU, and I implore you to look more fully into this proposed merger before it becomes a fait accompli. And finally, may I leave you with something that I learned while teaching at the Polytechnic of East London: the English do not necessarily measure something by its price but by its VALUE. SPSU is a wonderful value to the taxpayers of Georgia of which I continue to be one. And the COST of something is not only in monetary terms. It is my sincere belief that the cost of this merger will be much greater than the savings its proponents have projected, and it will cost SPSU its reputation, identity and other priceless intangibles. I thank all of those who have read this and I ask that much more research be done (as any professor would ask of ones students before he or she would accept the finished product ). I thank Chancellor Huckaby and the Regents for reading these comments and I pray you will understand that all of the petitioners are sincere in their comments. Sincerely yours, Kathleen A. Hall Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, Southern Polytechnic State University
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 03:28:23 +0000
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