by Emily Jarrett
Lee’s Summit Journal /MCT Campus
1 October 2009
Stick it to them! Stick it to them! Stick it to them! Slugs!
It’s not much of a fight song, but for a few faculty and students, it’s a song they still remember, even 40 years later.
“That is one thing I’ll never forget, go slugs!” said John Kaczynski.
Zaczynski was one of six panelists at MCC-Longview’s 1969 Originals Reunion, which took place Sept. 25. After a meet and greet and a special video, faculty and students of Longview were invited to listen to the six faculty members speak about their memories of Longview in 1969. What they remembered most was the mud.
“Oh, the mud,” said Ron Greathouse, who started teaching in 1969. “I remember we used to take cardboard boxes and cut them up, so we had sidewalks.”
As the audience laughed and applauded, clearly remembering the days of cardboard sidewalks, fellow panelist Helen Curtwright spoke about her first experiences with a muddy Longview campus.
“I was coming in for a job interview and I remember thinking ‘how am I going to get through this mud without ruining my interview outfit?” she said. “I made it though, right into the building which had brand-new carpet – just covered with dried mud.”
The days of cardboard sidewalks and the slugs as a team mascot may be over, but for the panelists, 1969 Longview was just yesterday. The faculty members, some of whom are still teaching at Longview a few days a week, spoke about the community college’s early days and pointed out how different it was then.
“It was a little, hectic, shall we say?” said Herb Kramer, who taught in the math department until 2004. “Our first commencement ceremony was held in the parking lot. And I seem to remember someone ending up on fire because of a faculty member’s cigarette.”
Greathouse remembered there was no automotive lab for students for the first month of classes.
“Here I was, trying to teach a bunch of guys about how to repair a motor and there’s no motor to show them or practice on,” he said with a laugh.
Kaczynski taught chemistry in the chapel during the first few weeks at Longview.
“I have to say, it was a little odd being up at the pulpit, teaching,” he said. “And I only had three students in my organic chemistry class. Honestly, I didn’t know I should have had more. I thought three was a great number.”
Even if a teacher did have a classroom when the college opened, it typically wasn’t an ideal classroom.
“I was teaching Algebra and next door there was a biology class going on,” said Harold Baggerly, who taught engineering until 1995. “The rooms were in no way soundproof and here I am trying to teach formulas and next door the teacher is talking about the mating habits of black widow spiders.
“They all started paying more attention to the discussion of spider sex than to the algebra formulas. Students aren’t too different these days,” he said with a laugh.
All the panelists agreed that student personalities haven’t changed much, though, as Kaczynski pointed out, now he has to tell students to stop twittering in class.
“Technology changes are a given, of course that has made Longview a different place,” he said. “But at its heart, Longview is still about a learning community. That hasn’t changed at all.”
“I’m extremely proud of the time I spent here as a teacher,” said Tom Garrett, who helped create the Longview community services program. “I believe Longview is successful today because we established a strong foundation, a baseline.”
MCC-Longview will celebrate its 40th anniversary throughout the year with musical performances and other special events. For more information, go to www.mcckc.edu/longview.
October 1, 2009
Campus