Gerald W. Smith Memoir - Brookens Library

Gerald W. WthQ. I didn't realize that.A. And he proceded to work within that spirit, you see. And all,tFthrOughhis term I think that Governor Walker has had essentially, the smb cmerit to the central management and central control. All agenciesstate government are subject to that feeling.Q. Not only the state agencies but every institution in our societyactually is undergoing this kind of change. Well, that has been a veryuseful and a very interestirg discussion, Gerry, and I think that you havemade a real contribution through it.A. Now I believe we're ready to go to the next section, which I have entitled"gettirg under way."Q. Well, good mx-ming, Gerry. This is the day af'ter Septenber 8, 1976.You were telling me a moment ago that there are some additional elementsthat you want to add to yesterday's discussion about the content, thenature of the act itself and the reaction to it. So before we get on withyour voyage, qp2jl-E this would be a good time to include that.A. Before we begin the theme of getting underway with the new act, it doesappear that it might be well to offer some comnts with regard to specificsin the act, which for the most part were either supportive of the generalconcept of the master plan for a state system or which were detailed legislationin response to the issues which were being discussed, about which wehave talked considerably~ And so I've put down about five topics here towhich I'm going dm make some comment.First of all, with regard to conrprehensiveness of the conarmnity collegesor the comprehensive college. This concept vdth reg& to the campEhensivecollege as dilscussed in the master plan, as dilscussed in the hearings andso forth, was written very cleavlly Into the act. The act first of allrefers to the term ltcomprehensive college" in the definitions that a~ inthe first article. And then it goes into detail as to what the GenenalAssembly meant by a comprehensive college, by dbfining a comprehensi~college as one which offers the liberal arts and sciences, general ewcation,adult and continuing education, and then because the General Asemblyunder the influence Dr. Glenny and Dr. Browne wanted to W e ce-inon this matter of the occupational programs, they wrote into the definitionthat at least l5 percent of the courses offered must be in the accupational/vocationalfields, no more than half of which might be listed in thearea of business edcation. They were trying to give a thrust to the comprehenssWmess-theywere trying to give a thrust to the matter of oacupationalpropams and you'll recall that I also noted earlier tkt thesepeople had discovered in their study tqey thought, a wealmess on the partof the existing system. So this was mitten specifically into the efinition.Q. Am I right in this, Gerry, that it was prwily Dick and Lyrrm thatkept pushing for the vocational and technical kind of programs in the college?A. Let me say they were the people who spoke to the subject moyeI would have to say that Ithinlr that many of the supporting agenciethe general movement were very mch in favor of this. There was