THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2020

 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17,2020

One week to Christmas Eve, two weeks to New Year’s Eve!!!

(And 15 days to 2020 is gone!!!)

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I have been going over my teaching positions - and the lessons learned.  I definitely grew stronger as a teacher as I went on.  Today, probably the most significant teaching position I ever had - at Dakota State University.  (Technically, it was Dakota State College, when I started - and Madison Normal School and General Beadle State College before that!!!  Of course, my friend Tom would say that GBSC stood for Grain Belt State College (after the beer)!!

*****

I settled in.  I loved my location - a house a block a week from my classes (if I left out the back door and walked across the parking lot), two blocks from my office. I mentioned before “these were my people” - people of the upper midwest.  Many were the first students in their families to go to college.  Some were scared of the two bigger schools in South Dakota - the University of South Dakota and South Dakota State University - and Dakota State was a nice size for somebody from Miller or Howard!!!

I taught Fortran (that I had taught before) - a good mathematical based language, COBOL - a business programming language, and some other classes.  The mainframe classes were done (at least originally) by punched cards - and my office was just down the hall from the card punch machines and the student lab.  As compared to my first mainframe programming, the results were fairly quick in coming back - so it was fairly easy to get your printouts and do the analysis and corrections and resubmit the updated code.  

(Aside, about two months into my life at Dakota State I was stopped by the city police.  I knew I wasn’t speeding, so I wasn't sure what was going on.  The policeman had noticed my Oregon license plates and strongly suggested that I get my car reregistered in South Dakota and get new license plates!!!  In reality, getting South Dakota license plates when I was employed by a South Dakota public college was indirectly supporting my employment!!!)

We could (and did) make the trip to Rosemount Minnesota where Connie’s family was frequently (especially for holidays).  

At age 35, I was finally stopping being a nomad and taking root!!

*****

The rumors, that Ernie Teagarden had mentioned, continued to flourish.  There were six colleges in the South Dakota Board of Regents and for a small state that seemed to be too many.  The governor, Bill Janklow, had enticed Citibank to move their credit card division from New York City to Sioux Falls. The State of New York had usury laws about how much interest could be changed on credit cards, and the nation was in a period of high-interest rates.  Governor Janklow helped the South Dakota legislature to enact laws that banks and credit card companies could charge whatever interest and fees they wanted (of course within reason as a person could still get a credit card from a business outside the state).  

Citibank built a facility on the north edge of Sioux Falls.  But - they needed computer savvy people to hire.  And, who was going to provide that savvy programming and analysis help?  It seemed like Governor Janklow thought it would be Dakota State College.  And, I was one of three computing instructors at Dakota State.  But, the oldest computing instructor was an accountant that taught one computing class; the second was a more traditional programming person, and the third was me - and I was teaching COBOL - a business programming language and just starting on some operating system materials.

In 1983-1984, that discussion grew.  Of course, in a state with a smaller population, there were some major voices  - such as Jerome Lammers - local attorney, and member of the South Dakota State Senate (and at times the majority leader of the State Senate). There was Jerry Prostrello - a local car dealer - who was a confidant of the governor.  I was brought into some planning meetings.  The president of the college when I was hired (at almost minimum rate) took a position in the State of Washington.  Citibank loaned us an executive to help us do the analysis.  I remember a Saturday as about five of us were in a meeting room off of the cafeteria, where we literally wrote a curriculum model on paper napkins.  

House Bill 1357 - changing the mission of Dakota State to be computer information systems-oriented and also changing the smallest of the state colleges into a minimum-security prison (“Pen State” we called it).  

The next four years were ones of immense change.  With some transition funds, another professor and I went to an exclusive IBM training program in the Dallas Texas area.  We wrote Pl/I programs and made PL/I our beginning language.  It was also a major language at Citibank.  

We had full-ride scholarships to “Citibank Scholars”. Some of those students were hired by Citibank and remained there.  At least one went on to a career in high education as a professor at Dakota State University.  (KS)

And, in 1984, I was named as “Acting Dean of the College of Business and Information Systems”, and in 1985-1990 was the Dean of that same program.  In 1985, I received a partial sabbatical to work on my doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  In 1990 I finished my doctoral program.  (Thanks Lynette for helping on this!!).  

And, you can’t have a Dean - who has the rank of “Instructor”, so I got promoted to Assistant Professor and then Associate Professor and in 1992, to Full Professor.  So, in twelve years I jumped through all the academic ranks.  (And, my wife was happy for the money).

The summer after I stopped being dean (1991), I didn’t have summer employment - so back to work again.  This time, I went to Citibank in Sioux Falls for 12 summers!!!  With so many alumni at Citibank’s Card Processing Services, it was almost like home.  For many years, I carpooled with others - like Jerry and Laree, and others!!!  Now about twenty years, I doubt that there are any remaining programs with the initials “baw” in the comments from my little coding experiences.  While I had a doctorate and knew the theory, Citibank gave me the practical experience that made my teaching even better!!!  

I had so many great students, mentored so many, harassed enough students so that in one class, they bonded “against me” and brought in a “busy box” to keep me busy during tests (and not wandering around the room kicking book bags!! (Thanks SF)

I (with others) was a pioneer in teaching online classes.  I think the “Pioneer Seed Corn” hat that Tom F and I had has disappeared years ago.  And, of course, Tom and I did Karaoke and played tricks on each other!!!  What awesome colleagues I had!!! 

I taught up-and-down the curriculum and even taught graduate classes.  God was so good!!!

And, the reputation of Dakota State grew - with so many great faculty (and awesome friends!!)

Then a new LOVE WINS Friday, an advancement on last week’s Saturday Story; a Sunday Funday - looking towards Christmas; and next week, some philosophical blogs relating to life, infinity, and beyond!!!

LOVE WINS!!!

Hugs!!!

Karen