MONDAY, JULY 5, 2021 - IT CAN’T BE DONE!!

 MONDAY, JULY 5, 2021 - IT CAN’T BE DONE!!

Happy July 5th.  For those who work, you get this day off.  For retirees like me, I also get this day off!!  (And the rest of the week!!!  (and Month and Year!!!))

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Comment.  I like to write a daily blog.  (I think I NEED to write a daily blog - for my own personal benefit as well as for anyone that likes to read it).  But, sometimes my brain runs dry.  I don’t like repeating too much, or going too deep spiritually (I can, but I don’t think I should!!!)  Today’s and the next few days are about a historical event that shaped my life - and from the recent issue of the Dakota State Magazine -from Dakota State University.  The basic thought is “We did the impossible”.

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I had left high school teaching in August 1978.  I say God had given me the desires of my heart to be able to teach on the college level.  I was pretty low on the totem pole - “wet behind the ears”, “green”, a neophyte.  

I taught two years at my alma mater - Winona State University in Winona Minnesota.  During the first year, I was told if I could teach computing classes, I could have summer employment (and summer income).  That was needed.  So, I flexed my schedule as much as possible and took all the computing classes I could get - including the one class in COBOL (which was going to be my summer class).  I took advanced Fortran, an operating systems class, and more.  

I became kind of the “Business Computing” person in the Math and Computer Science Department.  On the math side, I taught Calculus for Business Majors, and then on the computing side Iaught COBOL - COmmon Business Oriented Language.  (My comment is that COBOL is one credit computing and two credits of typing is not far off - as the language is very wordy - “MULTIPLY HOURS-WORKED-IN BY RATE-IN-PAY-IN GIVING GROSS-PAY” is a lot longer than Gross=Hours * Rate!!!)

But, at the end of two years, I was out - I didn’t have a PhD, I could not be hired full-time - panic!!  My young family (Steve was four-years-old, and Becky was two), and I needed a job.  Yes, I looked in academia only.  (Thinking back, I could have embarked on a business computing career - but that wasn’t in my mind - I was an EDUCATOR!!!)

I took a teaching position at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon (outside of Portland) and on clear days could see Mount Hood - teaching computing.  I was also the coordinator for the academic computing system (not sure how I got that role - I guess my other computing colleague didn’t want it - so “tag, you’re it”).

I got into the role - this was now my career.  I learned, I made mistakes, I took training on the HP 3000 operating system.  During my second year, my father in Iowa had a mild heart attack, my wife was missing her Minnesota family - so I started looking at academic positions in the upper Midwest - that didn’t require a PhD.  

I found a position for a computer instructor at Dakota State College in Madison, South Dakota.  It was about 40 miles from Pipestone Minnesota (my wife wanted us as close to Minnesota as possible).  I was invited to campus for an interview with Dr. Ernie Teagarden - from the Business Insurance and Public Affairs department (BIPA).  The sticking point was that if they gave me a job offer and I refused the position, I would have to repay my travel expenses (flight, rental-car, hotel).   They offered me the job - about $5,000 a year less than what I was getting in Oregon - and I took it at $18,000 a year.  (Later I figured out, we were just about $500 over the line for reduced lunches in the K-12 schools)!!  Dr. Teagarden indicated that there was some idle talk about changing the mission of Dakota State to be more technology oriented, but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere.  

So - boom - I’m in South Dakota - teaching Fortran, COBOL, BASIC programming.  The pay difference wasn’t significant as the cost of living in Madison South Dakota was lower than in the Portland Oregon area.  

During my second year at Dakota State, the talk of changing the mission grew in intensity.  Dakota State had been “Dakota Normal College” for the teaching of K-12 educators - but in the 1980s technology was an important area.  Citibank had moved its information Systems and Processing to Sioux Falls - about 45 miles away - and wanted to hire students for their technology jobs.  South Dakota did not have a limit on what credit cards could charge for interest; but not all their staff in New York City wanted to move to the hinterlands!  There also were too many public higher education colleges in South Dakota.  

Eventually, House Bill 1357 was approved, Dakota State’s Mission was to be “information systems” oriented, the University of South Dakota satellite campus at Springfield was turned into a minimum security prison, and we were off!!!

With the most computing education of the staff, somehow I was asked to be the acting dean - at age 37.  Citibank loaned us an “executive in leave” to be our campus president; a small group met in the cafeteria on a Saturday and literally drafted an Information Systems curriculum on napkins!!  With a green light from the Governor’s office, and the Board of Regents, our mission was changed officially in 1984.  BOOM - we were off and running.  

Our new president had ties with IBM’s corporate training center in the Dallas Texas area. So, in January 1984, Eric Johnson and I attended a five week class in PL/I programming in Dallas.  (Hmmm - so South Dakota was getting winter - temperatures below zero, and Eric and I were in Texas.  Eric loved to play tennis and got to play frequently.

I, being a computer ‘expert’, excelled at the class (other than the day when I had a page break in the middle of a loop and the printer printed out about 45 blank pages before we stopped it!!!).  

How do you change an academic institution that quickly?  You get naïve people (me), who are gung-ho and willing to put in long hours.  You also get a lot of support from the unseen player (Citibank) trusting in our ability to make it work!!!  

“It can’t be done, but it was done”!!!  And, I became a man, a college dean, and my brain learned I was an achiever!!!

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So, what is YOUR take-away from today’s post?

Don’t let the naysayers get to you.  We didn’t know that we couldn’t create a curriculum on napkins - so we did it!!  We didn’t know you could change the mission of a college (institution) with some gung-ho players and hard work.

So, how about you?  Is there a mountain to climb that looks formidable? Go for it - but don’t go half-heartedly - buy-in to the project, live the project!!!  

“Nothing great was ever achieved with enthusiasm” one of my favorite quotes from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

More in the next few days!!!

LOVE WINS!!!

Karen