GWC Colleagues - Golden West College

Golden West ColleagueSpencer CarleAn Interview with Spencer Carle, Professor,Economics – the last charter faculty memberto retire out of the original 70 charter facultymembers.Q. Tell us about the career path that led you to Golden West CollegeI went to Morningside High School in Inglewood. I walked to schoolevery day because the school was only 2 blocks away. I was always a”Goody two shoes” at school. I was the kind of person whom all theteachers liked. I did all of my homework and was always quiet. I was onthe swim team and played water polo. I was never good at those things,but I really enjoyed them. I graduated in the top 10 percent of my highschool class. When I graduated from high school, I didn’t know whatI wanted to do. I knew I was going to college. My mom told me I usedto say that I wanted to be a teacher. While in high school, I rememberone day that I got up around 1:00 a.m., and rode my bicycle throughthe El Camino campus, and thought to myself, “Gosh I’d just love to stayhere.” I went to El Camino Community College because I never thoughtI would be able to go to a 4 year college. I never thought my parentscould afford to send me to one. I was the first one in my family to go tocollege. I was a business major and took a number of economics coursesat El Camino and really loved them. I transferred to UCLA as a businesseconomics major, where I received my B.A. and then received, M.A.degree in 1964. I lived at home that whole time.After graduating, I went to work for the City of Los Angeles in theSewer Maintenance Division, earning $5700 per year. I was doing postgraduate work at UCLA in 1966, when the opportunity became availableto interview for the position at GWC.Q. What are your memories of that interview?I was interviewed in the farmhouse that was used as the administrativeoffice for the college, while the college was under construction. I wasinterviewed by the Dean of Instruction, Jim Nelson and the SocialScience Division, Chairman Jim Catanzaro. It was a very informalinterview. They asked me how much money I would like to be making,I didn’t find out until later that our pay scale was a little bit lower thanthat of other schools. I told them that within three years, I would like tobe making $10,000 dollars. They said if you teach both day and nightclasses, you will earn around $10,000 a year. I accepted the position. Mycontract would be for $5700 and I would be working only 10 monthsand would have a vacation. I was working for the city for 12 months andhad no vacation.Q. What was it like, starting a new college?The people that were here were exceptional. Everyone came fromdifferent places and I was the youngest in the Social Science Division,at 25 years old. I just felt empowered because there were these olderpeople and, in many cases, I thought smarter people. I was actuallythe same as they were. The first four years I had time to be on a lot ofcommittees, which I enjoyed. Committee members would get togetherafter meetings and go out to dinner. We had disagreements with theadministration, had disagreements with Bill Shawl, Dean of Instructionand disagreements with Dale Miller, Dean of Students, but I never feltthreatened in any way. We had a collegial atmosphere, I really enjoyed it.Our division got as big as 27-28 faculty. We had Police Science as part ofthe division at one time. We just had a really good group of people whogot along very well.I had not meet Bill Owens from the Business Division until our twodivision chairs brought us together to develop a new course. At thattime Cal State Fullerton was saying that students transferring there,Continued on page 192Wavelength May 2010 Special Retirement Issue