Gerald W. Smith Memoir - Brookens Library

Gerald W. Smith 224A. The rewrite activity began sometime during the mnth of May inaf"cer it had come out of the House. I would say thatmately three weeks to do it. The groups that did the yewritingevenings a week while they were dbing it and then Allyn Franlcie,attorney, as I recall at one the came to Springfield and stayed heseveral days. Of course he worked throughout the day and theconcert with Dr. Glenmy and the representative of theColleges.Q. When you speak of the representatives of the Association of the JuniorColleges then Gerald Mth was certainly one of those representatives.A. I was there, Kenneth Edwards was tkiere, Gill Renner was there, TurnerTrimble was there. I am almost afraid to list the names because in thecourse of the total work so ~r!any were involved, but these people that Ihave named--Renner, Edwards, Wimble, rqqself, and Robefi Birhimr, I mustn'tforget him. We were a group of people that were there almost continuously.Wayne Stonekhg, who at that time was executive secretary of the IllinoisEducation Association, also participated in this rewrite. Wayne had beenin research in the IEA for a long time, and was an expert in writing legislation.And again I want to say here, I apologfze for any names I maybe over looking in this narrative because in the total picture there wereso many who were involved.Q. That would be quite understandable, Gerry, and I how that, you havemade it abundantly clear throughout this long narrative, you're trying veryhard to be fair, but you're h w and you do have a human forgetfulnessof mmbers.A. Yes, and again I am providing this story in ny perspective, pointingout that merous other people have wrttten the more detailed factual storysince the Act was passed, in the form of stories or disser%ations, and soforth.Q. I think it would be of very real interest if you would say a few words,Gemy, here about the kinds of contributions you thought you particul$rlywere in a position to make to this rewrite. The kinds of ideas, the $inasof critfcisms, or whatever form it may have taken, if there is somethalongthese lines, I think that it would be very appropriate.A. Well, I don't how that I had any special contribution. I think probablyqy role would have been helpful in this sense. For 5 years I hadbeen working in this state in terms of the total state. I thereforebrought, I think, to the discussion, a state wide perspective which illsome cases was different from the perspective of a representative of #-iind5vidual institution. I had been active with all of the school disl$rictsas the Executive Director for the School Administrators Association au)d withall of the codty colleges as secretmy for their association and mereforeI think I understood the necessary relationships that had to be itakeninto account with regard to those matters. I believe, as I recall it, thatqy input on the mtter of powers and duties and on the mtter of procqdures,in many instances was helpfil as we tried to write the language.I was not and that was a bill drafter. I made no effort to tryspecific 1-e. Whenever that needed to be done I went to A1