BARNEY ERICKSON
Math
1969-2002
(Transcription of Tape 1, Side 1)
JP: This is December 15, 2002; and this is the CWU Living History Project. I’m Jean Putnam. I’m going to be interviewing Barney Erickson, today, and I’d like to start, Barney, by asking you to give us a brief history of your past. Let’s start with when you were born. You don’t have to go into great detail, but family and education, if you would.
BE: Okay. I was born October 10th, 1939, in a little community of Fairview, Utah. Central Utah. Uh, moved around a little bit the first couple of years. We wound up in Spring City, Utah, uh, a small town, about four hundred, four hundred and fifty people, where I spent my years ‘til I, uh, went to college. Uh, went to Spring City Public Schools through the ninth grade, North (inaudible) High School, uh, ten, eleven and twelve; graduated, uh, in 1957; went to Snow College for two years, uh, in Ephram, Utah; graduated from their junior college in 196 – ’59 and, uh, went to Utah State where I got my Bachelor’s Degree in 1961, in education - math education, essentially. Uh, I have, uh, six brothers and sisters. We had a relatively large family. I was the oldest. Uh, twenty years difference between myself and my youngest sister and, uh, the, uh, experiences I had in Spring City were great – like I say, a small community, and a lot of fun. You knew everybody in town. That isn’t the case now. The town is now better than doubled in size and, uh, people moving in all the time, uh, like so many other places we’re aware of. In 1961, then, after graduating from Utah State, I took a teaching position at Tuwilla, Utah, in high school – taught there for two years, math and science. In, uh, 1963, I went to Kerns, Utah; taught in the junior high school for one year, after which I went to Syracuse University for, uh, in those days, it was called an NSF Grant, uh, math/science. It was right after Sputnik and they were putting a lot of emphasis in the math and science areas; and we had a full year academic, uh, program at Syracuse, where I got a Master’s Degree, uh, in something – I’m not exactly sure what it was, even yet. I returned to Utah in 1965, then, and taught at Clearfield High School for one year, in mathematics. After completing that year, I returned to Utah State to continue my education – uh, got a Master’s Degree in Mathematics – M.S. in Mathematics and Doctorate of Education in – Mathematics Education, technically, I guess, it was curriculum supervision. Uh, I had received that degree in 1969. I, uh, at that time, then, I came up to Central and spent the rest of my career here.
JP: How did you get to Central? Did you read about it? Did somebody tell you?
BE: Well, of course, at the end of schooling, I sent out, uh, letters of inquiry to many places. I restricted myself quite a bit. I wanted to stay in the West. I wanted someplace where the huntin’ and fishin’ was supposed to be good; and, uh, so I looked, basically Utah, Oregon and Washington. Uh, Spring Break of 1969, which would have been in March, we made a trip up through the Northwest and I interviewed, uh, Bob Dean, at the time. It was an informal interview, uh, during Spring Break, here, and, uh, interviewed a few other places and returned to Utah and a few weeks later, I received a phone call from Bob, asking if I would accept a contract here. Uh, eventually, I signed the contract and came up here.\
JP: And you arrived. Uh, Barney, what was your first rank? And what, what assignment were you given when you first got here?
BE: My rank was Assistant Professor of Mathematics. My assignment was primarily to develop and, uh, bring along a good, secondary education teacher, secondary education program and enhance the mathematics for elementary teachers.
JP: Mm-hmm.
BE: Uh, I was the first math educator, per say, uh, on campus; and, uh, definitely the first one in the mathematics department. And, uh, part of my assignment was to, uh, also supervise student teachers in mathematics, as well as develop and teach the math ed courses.
JP: And since that time, while we’re on your responsibilities, uh, how has that changed overtime from the time you started until you retired? What kinds of responsibilities in the department and outside the department did you assume?
BE: Well, to start off with, part of the assignment which I was given initially, which was in my original contract, supervising student teachers never materialized. Uh, a little conflict between the Education people and the disciplines at that time. Uh, my career was spent, primarily, in the mathematics education program. Shortly after arriving, I also developed a mathematics education program, uh, for Masters, uh, Master’s Degree in Mathematics Education. Uh, I think, at first we called it, uh, Master of Education in Mathematics, and then later on, we changed it to an M.A.T., Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics. Uh, it’s still a unique program, one of the few in the country and, I think it’s the only one yet in the State of Washington. Uh, it used to suffice for the fifth year, which, of course, in the education area, the fifth year is no longer fifth year as such. There are other types of things, but, uh, and that program – it was started slow, but, uh, now is, uh – I think they have probably twenty, twenty-five people in the program. It’s a summer’s only program, uh, so that we wouldn’t interfere with the teachers in their, uh, the early teaching activities. It’s been very successful.
JP: Good. Uh, then haven’t you done several things outside the department that I recall?
BE: Right. Uh, well, in, uh, the early 1980’s, I can’t remember exactly when it was, uh, I became Director of Summer School, where . . .
JP: I think it was ’82, possibly.
BE: ’82, when you were Dean of the Extended University Programs.
JP: Mm-hmm.
BE: And I continued in the Summer School Program until I think, uh, maybe ’91. I’m not – I can’t remember for sure. Uh, we saw some changes there with you moving on and new people coming in; and then it got totally reorganized and kinda dropped out of the program, as such. Uh, in 1994, I think, I became Chairman of the Mathematics Department and, uh, in, uh, 2000, I became Dean of the, uh, College of the Sciences.
JP: Mm-hmm.
BE: Uh, and I retired, uh, after two years of Dean of the College of Sciences.
JP: In 2002. And didn’t you work – It seemed to me like you were on a Budget Committee. Was that in Senate or . . .
BE: Oh, I spent several years on the Senate Budget Committee, uh, as well as working on the Professional Leave Committee and the Teacher Education Committee and, uh, several other, uh, both Senate and University committees.
JP: Mm-hmm. Well, uh, you have mentioned a couple of things I wanted to see if we can’t maybe get into a little more detail on, um, as they relate, basically to some of the political atmosphere on the campus. Maybe, I don’t know whether we want to call them problems. Uh, you mentioned, uh, M.A.T. or the Academic Departments versus Education. There was always a little problem in terms of the relationship of the two; and what – what really were – was the crux of the matter there? Do you remember?
BE: I think it was, uh, basically, domain. The Education Department had people who they hired to do Student Teaching Supervisors. At that time we had our Student Teaching Centers, different locations in the state; and they were full-time people in the field doing that; and I think there was some concern about the, uh, Departments – one of the things that I heard was that people in the Departments were academically prepared and not educationally prepared, which I think was – well, I know wasn’t true, in my case, because my degree was in curriculum supervision, and a large part of my degree was, uh, in the practical part of it was supervising student teachers. Uh, and I think that there just wasn’t a, uh, a good look at what was going on. This wasn’t true just in mathematics, but sciences, English History, uh, several of the other areas had people, uh, prepared to do that type of thing; and I think it would domain. They – they wanted to keep control of it, and they did.
JP: Right. Um, and you also mentioned – I didn’t want to interrupt you, but we talked about summer session; and at the time that you took on that responsibility as Director of Summer Session, um, it was centralized. In other words, were you - you were in charge of the programming with all the departments?
BE: Right.
JP: And then it changed and I don’t remember – What were the changes that occurred at the end of your responsibilities? Uh, did the university then make some changes, did it not?
BE: Right.
JP: Organizational structure? What were those?
BE: When, when I started, uh, we’d run summer session through a state budget that was the State – Central took money from the State allocation and funded Summer Session. And, uh, so we were bound by dollars on our curriculum, and salaries and so forth, in the summers. Uh, about 19- probably ’86, ’87, right in there someplace, the legislature gave us – uh, gave the approval to all of the state universities, uh, to do a self-support summer school, which took us out of the university budget and put us on a self-support program, in which we had to generate the funds for everything that went on in summer school from publicity, to paying salaries and, uh, so on. Uh, that – I liked that because it gave us the flexibility to a lot of things that we were unable to do. As you’ll recall, we had a lot of people wanting to do things, but just didn’t have the money to do it. We did offer – set aside some money to do some innovative things in math and science, which came and went. Uh, but we didn’t have much flexibility in our programming; and then, uh, when they gave us the – the self-support part, then we became a little more flexible, although we had to – we couldn’t go in the red. Uh, we had to make our way, and, uh, within a couple of years, we were doing very well; and it is now - the same idea, I think, is still in force today. Uh, and it has grown to the point where departments get a lot of supplemental funds into their department by the money they generate in summer school, which has helped departments to, uh, get equipment and other types of things that they have sorely needed and couldn’t get through regular university budgets.
JP: Is there still a director’s summer session, or is the responsibility now given to the – each of the departments?
BE: I think there is no director of summer school, there’s a coordinator in the Registrar’s Office that – that does the publicity and so on, but the budgets are all driven by the Deans of the respective colleges and, uh, they work with the departments in the curricular offerings and, uh, signing contracts and making sure that – that, uh, everything is funded.
JP: Good.
BE: So, it’s decentralized in that sense.
JP: Right. It’s gone from centralized to decentralized, over that period of time.
BE: Right. Yeah.
JP: Uh, let’s go on to, um, some of the people that you have worked with or under or have worked for you. Can you identify a few of the influential or unforgettable people – some of the people that you respected, in terms of – while you were here at Central? Can you name a few of those people?
BE: Well, I probably shouldn’t, but I will (chuckle).
JP: (laugh)
BE: I, I think I owe a lot to you because you gave me the first position that was, uh, in the administrative area which I, I really enjoyed; and I appreciated working with you and it opened some eyes that I hadn’t, uh, been aware of before Gave me a lot better idea of what the administrative part of Central was all about. So, I owe you, uh, in that sense.
JP: Well, I wasn’t asking that for (chuckle) reason, however, - but there were others, um, those that you would maybe like to comment about some who maybe weren’t as effective or not, but, uh, just some names of some individuals and maybe some comments about them that might help us establish their – their responsibility and/or character.
BE: Uh, of course until I worked with, uh, with you, my relationship with the administration was almost non-existent. I taught my classes and did my, my thing in the department and didn’t have a whole lot of – of contact with anyone above the Department Chair. So, I really didn’t know the Deans or – or any of the other administration until the early ‘80’s, when, uh, when I got into Summer Session. Uh, after that – well, working there, it was really nice, because I got to work with the Deans. Uh, we had to work budgets out and so on, and I got to know the Deans, at that time, very well. And probably, my favorite Dean was Bob Brown. Uh, Bob was very influential in, in my life; and, uh, was very easy to work with.
JP: And he was Dean of . . .
BE: He was Dean of CLAAS, at that time – uh, College of Letter Arts and Sciences. I think, uh, at that time, we had only three deans, uh, three colleges – Letters, Arts and Sciences; Education; and Business.
JP: Mm-hmm.
BE: And, uh, working with Bob was, uh, was very enjoyable and, uh, he, uh, I felt, was a good administrator, but he was the first one in my college that I really, uh, had much to do with. Uh, I got to know Jimmy Applegate a lot better, Dean of the, uh, College of Education. Uh, he had been one of them that was instrumental in not allowing us to do our student teaching. Uh, later on, in later years, he says, uh, “We all grew up.” He said, “We all made mistakes and, uh, and had we to do it over again, maybe it would have been different, but who knows.” Uh, so I got to appreciate the Dean level much bigger when I was, uh, in the Summer School. And Bob Brown and Jimmy Applegate are two of the people that I probably worked the closest with and the best with, and got to know the best. Uh, Don Cummings then took over, or was – I think he took over for Bob there for awhile and I worked with him a little bit. Uh, we had some problems with him and with, uh, Eddington, who was the Vice President at that time, in my Summer Session, uh, position. I finally wound up resigning the position because some of the political problems that I ran into.
JP: Right. Well, were those problems of decision-making, of budget, of, uh, - What were the main . . .
BE: They were mostly budget, uh, uh, it was personal, a lot of it. Uh, I felt I was overworked and underpaid like so many of the rest of us, and, uh, Eddington didn’t feel that that was the case, even though I presented the facts. And, uh, it eventually, uh, - Well, and then I was elected Chairman of the Math Department, which Eddington vetoed, and, uh, would not let me, uh, be Chairman of the Math Department because . . .
JP: Did he have a reason?
BE: Yeah. It was – He and I didn’t get along good because the Summer Session thing, and, uh, so, uh, he wouldn’t let me be Chairman of the Department. Later on, when he was taken out and I became Chairman of the Department, things worked out just fine.
JP: Well, good. Well, were there any other individuals, uh, faculty, uh, presidents, uh, provosts that you would want to say anything about?
BE: Well, I guess, one of the highlights of my career was, uh, when, uh, I was, uh, Chairman of the Faculty Senate and we had the inauguration of President Nelson, Ivory Nelson. And, uh . . .
JP: And what year was that? 1992?
BE: That would have been ninety- Let’s see I went to
JP: Yes.
BE: Uh, but that was, uh, kind of exciting because as Chairman of the Faculty Senate, you, uh, played a minor role, but I thought an important one in the inauguration ceremony and so forth. So that was neat. I didn’t especially care for Ivory’s administrative techniques, but it was interesting to be here and be in the position I was in when a new President came aboard, and watching him through his tenure as President. Uh, I was, uh, quite impressed with the new President. Again, I was, uh, Dean, I guess, when the new President came aboard and I enjoyed working with her and the new Provost. Uh, uh, I think that the new Provost is, uh, . . .
JP: You mean the Provost that we have now?
BE: Right. Uh, David, uh, Soltz. Soltz. Dave Soltz.
JP: Soltz. Yes, yes.
BE: And David Dauwalder. . .
JP: Oh, that’s right.
BE: . . .was Provost that, uh, was aboard when I became Dean, and, uh, they had vastly different administrative techniques, but, uh, I was able to work with both of them quite well. So. Again, the President end of things, as well as – well, mostly the President, uh, I didn’t get to have much contact with them, other than that little bit with Ivory, uh, as Faculty Senate Chair; and so I can’t say a whole lot about, uh, personal knowledge about the Presidents ‘cause I just wasn’t, uh, in that, uh, - in a position to really know them up until Ivory’s time.
JP: Right. Um, well, we can always come back if you remember some things here, but let’s talk about – Let’s talk about the relationship between Central and Ellensburg – the “town and gown” relationship. When you first came onto campus, what was your impression?
BE: My impression, when I first came here – and I remember, uh, we, uh, we moved into our own house about two years after we moved here. So, we were shopping for furniture and so on. And I remember going down to the local furniture stores and, uh, talking to them and, uh, as they determined that we were from the university, they, uh, - I don’t think that we were as warmly received as we should have been. As a result, we did almost all of our shopping in Yakima, ‘cause we felt that the local people, uh, were not that enthused about Central and, uh, the faculty and the students. Uh, now, that has changed over time, and I think that, uh, the, uh, “town and gown,” whatever you want to call it, relationship is much, much better now than it was back there in the ‘70’s. Uh, they’re much more, uh, - I think they cater much more to the university. They’ve finally realized that, uh, the university is the major industry in the county, and, uh, they need to take advantage of that. But, early on, I felt that the, uh, relationship between the town and the university was not good.
JP: Mm-hmm. Do you think, uh, Central did anything – Were there any specific things that they might have done in terms of changes, relationships, people that might helped the situation as it has improved the relationship?
BE: I think, uh, probably as much responsibility as any goes to faculty, as they’ve got to, uh, work with the community and committees and different things; and let the community know that the faculty are humans and they are interested in the community and so on. I think the administration has done their share, but I think the actual faculty have been more instrumental in changing an attitude than anything else.
JP: A true Faculty Senate Chair comment (chuckle). Uh, no, I - Iagree. Well, let’s talk about, um, some of the changes that you have seen throughout your tenure here at Central. Uh, and starting, maybe, with, uh, the whole organizational structure of the campus. Uh, we don’t have to be specific ‘cause I sure we don’t, either one of us, specifically know all of the changes, but, um, how do you perceive the changes that have taken place over you thirty year period of time?
BE: Well, I think that, uh, probably the biggest change and the best change has been a lot more interaction with the colleges, as time has gone on. As I mentioned early on, I – you know, the Education College did their thing and the Arts and Sciences did theirs and the Business did theirs and as time has gone on, a lot of barriers have been broken down. Uh, even though we had a Teacher Ed Committee early on, I don’t think it was instrumental – very instrumental in breaking down barriers between departments and, uh, colleges. Uh, but over the years, uh, that has been taken care of. There’s a lot of interchange now. Faculty members in the Sciences work with faculty members in the Education Areas, uh, both in research and teaching and so on. So, I think that’s one of the major changes I seen, is the, uh, uh, working togetherness of the departments and the colleges, much more that it was to begin with. And, uh, another thing I’ve seen is the, uh, change from an education teacher training institution, to a much more liberal arts-type program. Early on, the biggest program we had was teacher education. Now, I think probably the biggest program we have is business. Uh, I’d be surprised if that wasn’t our biggest, uh, area. Uh, we’ve seen a lot of growth, uh, over the years. I can’t remember what the population of the student population was back in the – in the early ‘70’s, but, uh, maybe 4,000 – something like that, uh, at our peak. And then, uh, up to eight – more than 8,000 now, so, - which had been done mostly in the last few years. Uh, the biggest problem I think the university has yet, and it’s been the ongoing problem, is budget. Uh, we, uh, never been able, it appears, to convince legislature that, uh, we need appropriate funding to do things; and that’s been going on since day one, as far as I can tell. Uh, so that problem is still with us; and, uh, another thing that appears to be happening, that I’m not really fond of, is the move from a teacher-oriented – teaching-oriented institution to a research-oriented institution. I saw this coming my last year as a Dean, and I didn’t like to see that – where the recognition is not what it used to be. It’s much more emphasis on – on research. And, even in my own department, in Mathematics, I’m seeing the effects – the effects of this research with people, uh, spreading themselves much, much thinner, in order to get the research and do the teaching and, uh, and I don’t like that. I’m sorry, but, uh, that’s not the way I see a regional university, uh, going.
JP: Right. Uh, what brought, uh, the buildings – the physical – physical nature of the campus as it has changed, uh, - Has that been any influence at all on the effectiveness as an institution?
BE: Oh, I think it has. Uh, remember when I first came here, we were over in Lind Hall, uh, Mathematics, uh, Physics, Sociology, Geology, uh, I think were the Departments in Lind Hall. Uh, over the years then, this building, uh, of course, started out as a library and then was, uh, changed, and we – uh, we came over here in the early ‘80’s and been in Lind Hall prior . . .
JP: You say over here. This is in Bouillon?
BE: Bouillon. Yeah, from Lind. And, uh, this building has undergone at least two major remodelings, uh, and who knows what else is in store for it. But, uh, yeah, the new Education Building, uh, Black Hall, has, uh, been very instrumental, I think in – in, uh, promoting the education-type things. The new Science building, uh, which I think is still called the Science Building - I don’t think they’ve put another name to it yet – uh, was the state-of-the-art when it was, uh, built; and I think that has really, uh, helped the sciences – just the physical facility. The new Music Hall which I haven’t been in yet, I understand is – is also state-of-the-art and, uh, is also going to bring, I think, recognition to – to Central. Uh, of course, the new library, and, uh, even though it, uh, I think is totally inadequate for the institution, has – has also helped. The growth has been good; and, uh, I think it’s unfortunate we haven’t been able to get the growth that we need. I’m appalled that Dean Hall sits up there, still empty as far as I know, uh, because we can’t get it renovated for classroom use and, uh, I think that’s not right. But, uh, a lot of growth and buildings and – and I think we still have too many students for our facilities and I know we have too many students for our faculty. Uh, so we still need some growth in both buildings and faculty to take care of – of the number of students that we have.
JP: Well, good. Um, let’s focus a little on the university and some of the proud moments of our university. Do you recall, during your tenure, some of the things that are particularly outstanding in terms of being, uh, successful, positive, whatever they may be – that you would – that you would take some ownership in – not necessarily that you have done, but what are some of the things? Can you remember any of those things that . . .
BE: Well, some things that I was not instrumental in, of course, was the basketball program that we had which brought a lot of notoriety to Central.
JP: Okay. Mm-hmm.
BE: Uh, the Dean Nicholson era and, uh, the many championship teams that Central had and going to nationals almost every year. Uh, and I - Ithink that brought a lot of recognition to Central, uh, and regardless of what they say, if you have a program like that, you’re going to attract all kinds of students, not just athletes. And I – so I think that that program helped. Uh, their swimming program, which is now a non-existent program, I think, uh, helped Central also through the national recognition that we got. Uh, the Teacher Education Program, I think, has always been, uh, top in the state. I think that we’ve been, uh, - I’ve been instrumental in that. I still think we have the best math ed program, uh, in the state. We’ve been, uh, probably more innovative, uh, have done more things to prepare math teachers, uh, been a leader in the state, uh, much more than our sister institutions have and I still think we – we can put our math teachers up against any other math teachers from any other institution, I think, in the country. I think we have, uh, a very top program there and our sciences now are, uh, becoming much more known, uh, a lot through the research that’s going on, uh, which, like I said, I – I’m not really fond of, but it is bringing us some recognition that is helping to bring students in. The, uh, REM Program, as an example . . .
JP: REM?
BE: Uh, yeah. The Resource Management Program, the Master’s Program in, uh, - it’s a joint effort between geology and anthropology, sociology, I think even some geology-type people get in there. It’s brought a lot of recognition. The Native American Program in there has brought us some recognition through the Native American Program. The Geology Program, uh, is, uh, nationally known, uh, at least, the faculty are; and I think the, uh, - we have a very good program there, but I – it’s also seeing the effects of research versus teaching. Uh, research is very dominant, uh, thing there and I – the Undergraduate Program, I think, is hurting because of not having the teachers that they need.
JP: Yeah. Good. Uh, what is your perception of the student capabilities from the time . . .
BE: Can I - Can I go back just a minute?
JP: Oh, yes.
BE: Another program that has been unique at Central was their Actuarial Science Program, which is a joint program between the Mathematics Department and the Business School. Uh, actuaries throughout the country are primarily business oriented people, but Central had a math business program that was very unique. In fact, it was the only, uh, actuarial program west of at least Colorado, for a long time. And I had a son that went through it, so I’m personally – know about it, and one of the things that has been in his favor which he has mentioned many times, is the mathematical background in statistics and other areas that the other actuarial people that he worked with didn’t have. And, uh, - so that has been unique and has been a very favorable, uh, program – one of the first inter-disciplined programs that really worked here on Central – on Central’s campus. So, I had to bring that up because the mathematics program . . .
JP: Right. Well, I’m glad that we have that and we’ve got to defend that. Let’s go on then to some of your perceptions of students over the years as you started out – their capabilities, uh, as they might have changed from the time you started and as you retired.
BE: I think student abilities, in my opinion, have been almost like a roller coaster. Uh, one year you’ll have a good crop of students – outstanding students, and the next year you wonder where they came from. Uh, so I – I don’t think there’s been any steady movement on paper, but there’s been a steady improvement, you know, in terms of, uh, the students with better GPA’s and ACT scores and so on; but I don’t think the students, overall, have improved that much. It’s been up and down like I said, so, uh, even I teach a couple of classes as an Adjunct Professor now, and, uh, I still see the same problems that I saw thirty years ago, with the lack of preparednesses, as these kids come out of high school and into college, even though their scores are better and grades are better, but there’s still a – I don’t that the student, themselves, has changed very much. We do have a lot more older students. I think the mean age of the students at Central has increased dramatically, in the last few years. And that’s been good, to get the influence of more stable, uh, students into our college and we’ve had a lot of those in the mathematics program, and some of them have contributed very greatly to our program and to the institution. But, overall, I don’t see that there’s been that much change in actual student ability. Maybe we expect more as we go down the road and don’t get it. I’m not sure what the situation is there.
JP: Well, you mentioned, uh, that we’ve always had some problems with, uh, students coming in. What are some of the weaknesses that you saw – you see in the students as they come out of high schools?
BE: Well, I, I – from day one, coming here, I’ve – two major weaknesses I’ve seen is in English skills and mathematics skills. Uh, and they’re still there. I’m amazed at how many students, uh, come in that, uh, supposedly had three or four years of English and three or four years of mathematics and they can’t use the English language and they can’t do mathematics (laugh).
JP: (chuckle)
BE: I mean, it’s – it’s not good.
JP: Right.
BE: And, even as we move down the road toward this, uh, program that the State is trying to administer for graduation requirements, I – I’m not seeing a whole lot of changes taking place.
JP: The WASL?
BE: The WASL.
JP: Right. Well, do you feel that, uh, Central, in terms of the students has provided the cultural enrichment or the background for the students here on campus, in addition to the actual classes?
BE: I think one of Central’s big weaknesses over all the years, has been cultural, both for faculty and for students. Uh, I think that’s why we don’t have students staying weekends. It’s because there’s no cultural types of things, even for me, uh, you know, to go to a cultural event. Not very much happens here on campus. Yeah, they have their plays and they have their music recitals, uh, but, uh, that’s about it. Uh, they, uh, - I think that we’ve really hurt. Now maybe with the new, uh, Student Union Building coming about and the facilities that will be in that will change things a little bit. I hope it will. But Ellensburg, both the community and the college, I don’t think have really put a lot of emphasis on cultural type things.
JP: Mm-hmm. Uh, let’s, um, as we begin to wrap some things up unless we can think of other things. Uh, what are some of your personal contributions? Now, you did mention that you were responsible for the math education program as it, uh, - But can you kind of summarize that for us? What do you think, just overall, both in your department and off the department, some of the contributions that you feel, uh, proud of making to this university?
BE: Well, like I’ve said before, the mathematics education program was my baby, and, uh, as we looked at national guidelines, we were the first institution in this state to adopt a program that conformed to national guidelines. Uh, we were one of the first departments on campus to break away from the traditional education thing of twenty-five, thirty credits in a discipline and the rest of them in education, to a, uh, forty-five hour math ed program, now is sixty – sixty credits or more. Uh, and I think I was very instrumental in moving that. I’ve mentioned the DMAT, which is, uh, - was also one of, uh, the things that I developed here on campus. Uh, I think that, uh, there for awhile, we were, uh, able to be more involved in selecting uh, supervising teachers for our student teachers. Uh, that seems to have gone by the wayside a little bit now, too. But there for awhile, we were able to identify teachers that we felt were better teachers and make the recommendations to the Education Department, and use those teachers for our student teachers’ supervisors. And I think we need more of that. I think we need to, uh, - the disciplines need to be much more involved in the student teaching placement than they are. It’s something I would hope will happen yet (inaudible). Uh, I think, uh, another innovative thing Central has been instrumental in is the, uh, math/science middle school endorsement, uh, that has been approved by the State Board of Education in the last couple of years, uh, trying to get better quality middle school teachers, uh, in mathematics and science than we’ve had in past. The certification situation in the state – the K-8, 9-12 has allowed a lot of elementary prepared people to be in the middle school and they’re not prepared to do the math and science. Hopefully, this little school endorsement will – will help that out, considerably and the math department – not myself ‘cause I wasn’t involved in it – people in the Math Department were instrumental in pushing that through, as well. So . . .
JP: Any other contributions we haven’t talked about?
BE: I can’t really think of any, right off hand.
JP: Okay. Well, why don’t we, uh, end our interview here – first of all, is there anything that we might not have covered that you’d like to say regarding Central before we kind of summarize . . .
BE: I think I’ve probably said too much as it is (laugh).
JP: You’ve pretty well said . . .No (chuckle). But anyway, I want to give you the opportunity to really, uh, summarize your – your, uh, your experience at Central. And how do you feel about that whole thirty-two years with Central?
BE: Well, I never felt a real desire to go someplace else. I was always happy here, most of the time. Uh, I felt that budget considerations, uh, through the ‘70’s and ‘80’s were very detrimental to the institution. Uh, I remember many, many times of paying my own way to national conferences and even local conferences because the institution didn’t have any money to, uh, provide us with to support that type of thing. I think from 1976 to 1992 or 3, I didn’t miss a national conference and about eighty percent of those I funded myself. Uh, this is one of the things that the Summer School has done and the – getting the funds from that is been to allow a lot more people to go to, uh, different things, uh, uh, and enhance their professional development, that we didn’t have in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s and even the early ’90’s. And that’s still a sore spot with me. Uh, I did it because I felt professionally, I needed it. Uh, I didn’t see any of the people in my department, anybody else attending any meetings. Uh, (inaudible) since research was not an issue, why people just – just didn’t go. I felt I had to go to keep abreast of what was going on nationally to keep our math ed program going and, uh, that was good. Other than that, and that was a real sore point with me, I enjoyed my years here. I think, uh, you know, in my later years, as we saw faculty retiring and new people coming in, it was – it was neat before that because you walked down through campus and you knew almost everybody there, call ‘em a first name. And then the last two or three years, didn’t hardly know anybody (chuckle).
JP: (chuckle)
BE: But maybe, uh, Central got hurt during those years by not having new blood, new faculty. I know from 1971 to 1987, the Mathematics Department had one new faculty member. Uh, and that person was here three years and left. So, you know, we were too stable and our department wasn’t the only one. I think that was throughout the university. And that was, I think, because of budgets and the fact that we couldn’t get new money to bring in more students to bring in more faculty and so on. But, uh, in another way it was good because we got to know each other and we knew what each other was doing and we developed some good friendships, uh, professionally, as well as personally.
JP: Well, good. Well, we thank you very much, Barney, for sharing with us your life at Central and we wish you well in the future.
BE: Thank you, Jean. Appreciate it.
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