1984 - Special Collections - Virginia Tech

Creativity runs rampant in the
College of Education's many locations
Unity Despite Separation
unity.
G_linll the smell of chlorine from the
swim mine pool whll .. approachinll the
dean's olflce. a visitor might hav .. won·
dere.:! If this colle, .. might have had obvious
hardships due 10 Its placement
Upon ml!f!tinl Dean RobertSmlth.these
obst.lCles beame miniscule. Dean Smith
refI~led the enthusiasm and wlilininess
to serve that th .. Colle,,, of Educatlon
stood fof. As he said. ''There are enormous
amounts 01 Intellectual sUmulaUon under
the 51",ln of rIOt beln, In One buildi" • ."
This stimulatiOll be"," with the faculty
and III'iIS then broughl to the students. [)o,an
SmUll called the colle,"'5 professors a "super,
younll faculty ... dOin& interesting
lhln,s." BKause of the faculty_ Inte.est.
many new pfOirams were begun at the Collelle
of Eduation.
" Center fo. dia&nOSlk and remedial ed·
ucatlon wa5 established to provide for chll·
dren wl!h educonlon problems. This program
not only he l~d th~ Impaired chll·
dren, but also tilught the stud~nt5 Involved
new Ideas On approaching thiS co~cem .
An educational microcomputer lab ""'"s
created to provide stud~nts with romputer
IIt~racy using microcomputers. This lab
sponsored three IWO-week summer camps
far 210 children from the e;ost cooS!.
An exer.:lse physiolOljY cardiac lab was
Cfeited to t""n students WMlwanted to be
cenlfled physloloslsts. An Institutional
study 01 uceptlanalilles was also made to
I~t stude~t ... nd the facully sludy Ih~ hand·
lwofk of one another. This WaS an e.ample
01 the Intellectual Cfea!ivlty the faculty pas-
........
As !he premiere Collese of Educalion in
Vlralnia. this call~lIe not only 1",ln~d slu,
dents In leachlne. but also trained them for
wort outSide of public schools. These plans
Induded training as su~rvlsors. superln·
tendents. and counselors. in such as;encles
as the Red Cross. and training In drug and
aloohol programs.
The undereraduatesof the Coi!ege of Ed·
uc.allon were not restricted only to educa·
tion malors. Twenty to 25 percent were stu·
dents already ""'loring In another ooll~g~ .
Of the IInd~re'ad""tes malarlng In educ.a.
tlon. n to 80 percent of their d"sses we,e
In other ",,,deml, levels In order to
achieve. as Dean Smith said. "" pedagOlj"
lcal education."
Despite location difficulties. the College
of Education continued to add to th~ ex·
cellence of th~ UnlversUy by Indudlng
community se'\llce with their Own
academics.
KOSC"~ Mllit. _ _ _ _ _