Gerald W. Smith Memoir - Brookens Library

Gerald W. Smith 20(running as a thread through all of this. I had mentioned this earliq,but I repeat it here again because I mntioned their policy group in1960 and their joint sponsorship of this fom in 1962. I would lik 4to also point out that in March of 1964 when the Master Plan by the wardof Higher Education was under review and study before final adoption, avery important meeting of the IAJC was held on the campus of IllinofsState University. The outcome of that conference was that the IAJC endorsedthe Master Plan as it was published by the bard with a notationin their endorsement, of course, of cefialn concerns abaut specific it&mwithin it. But they endorsed the system of hi@er education as outlipledin the Master Plan in March of 1964.9. I am b e ~ ~ to n understand g now mch more clearly this phenomenalgrowth that the c m t y college system underwent in this very short periodof time. That this kind of interest and comitment and clarification andleadership . . .A. I do not want to make this section so long and detailed that it becomesboring, but there is another elernent that needs to be introducedhere. Robert Birkhimer came from the position of Dean at Centralia JuniorCollege to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction as a con-sultant in 1959.He was a moving force continously f'rom that time onthrough the period that I am talking about, here in the State of IlUnois.He left Illinois in 1965 to go to Iowa, but in that period of the BobBirkhimer's name appears and Bob Birkhimer's activities are again a verybasic pax%. In the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction,of course, he was consulted by all so&s of groups that were interestedin the junior college.Q. You said he had gone back to Iowa in 1969. That is . . .A. I'm sorry. 1965. And one of the things that I want to point out isthat in this period, partlculmly along about 1961 and 1964, Robert Qirkhhrwas engaged in cornrmnities in several areas of the State where peoplewere interested in developing a local junior college concurrentwith thedevelopment of the Mmter Plan. And prior to the passage of the ComqmityCollege act of 1965, there were in some cormunities rather intensivestudies in progress which made it possible later on for some of thosecommunitsles to move, as we shall see later on, with almost incrediblespeed. That is, in other words, a little later on we are going to betalking about the incredible speed with which the formation of juniorcolleges advanced after the passage of the act. I do want to point out,talking again about poundwork, that had to do both with the Master Planitself, there were comnslnity groups at work and in every instance BobBirkhimer, from his role of consultant in the affice of Superintendentof Public Instruction, was involved. There was much of that going on,I am going to submit into this record at another later session the documentationon that.Q. Very good. Very good.A. I have been talking now for some little time about studies and activitiesin the State which had a strong bearing on the developmnt of the