RICHARD DYER: This is a continuation of the tapes of the history of Columbia Junior College by Richard Dyer, history instructor. We are talking to Richard Rodgers, occupational education.

DYER: Dick, why did you select Columbia Junior College?

RICHARD RODGERS: Well, I didn’t really select Columbia Junior College, it selected me.  I received a telephone call in my high school classroom one day; and the man that was thewn occupational dean, Mr. Robert Deal, who asked me if I wanted to go to work at Columbia Junior College. 

DYER: You mean just like that?

RODGERS: Just like that. 

DYER: On the telephone.

RODGERS: On the telephone.

DYER: You hadn’t applied?

RODGERS: No.

DYER: Huh. You didn’t have an application on file.

RODGERS: No I didn’t (slightly laughing).

DYER: That’s highly illegal, isn’t it for people to…

RODGERS: Not in 1968. 

DYER: Okay. Go ahead Dick.

RODGERS: And, uh, we talked for some time on the telephone.  Set up a date to see the school and talk to him some more. Set up another date to come up and talk to Dusty Rhodes and Bill Haskens.  And then waited for the paperwork to come through.

DYER: Have you been in the area before, Dick—on vacation or during your travels? 

RODGERS: I had been in Sonora once.  A nice hot August day in nineteen fifty…oh, would be 1951.  We had driven down highway 49 and the only thing I remember about Sonora in that time was the fact that it was dang hot and the drinking fountain in the memorial park was cool. 

DYER: Good mountain water, huh?

RODGERS: Yeah. 

DYER: Do you think that the natural setting was an influencing factor in coming to Columbia?

RODGERS: Well, yes, because of the fact that I have spent very summer of my life—with the exception of those that I was working for the government in other positions—in the Sierra Nevada  mountains as a park ranger in Yosemite National Park.  And we were drawn to the mountain effects and the fact that it was a new school, and the fact it was a small school.  The year before I came to Columbia Junior College we had talked about moving because two other organizations had contacted me to move. 

DYER: Do you mean for another teaching position?

RODGERS: Well, one was a t… no, the were both administrative positions. And we had talked about leaving Fresno and moving, and in each instance we decided against it at that time.  So, moving was not something that just happened out of the clear blue sky.  In fact, I was sitting in the living room teaching some first aid to some boy scouts when Marge came home from her shopping, or whatever it was, and I said that I’d like to move to Sonora. And she said fine. 

DYER: (laughing) that’s the way it happened?

RODGERS: That’s the way it happened. 

DYER: What did the boy think about it?

RODGERS: Well, they were, at first, somewhat reluctant.  Doug was a senior in high school the year that we moved up here; then we had a boy who was in the ninth grade and a boy who was in the seventh grade.  And the boy who was…Doug wanted to move real well, they all have by now.  The interesting part about it was that I had an opportunity to move back to Fresno the next year in an administrative capacity and the middle boy, who really was the least anxious to come, flat said ‘no’ about going back to Fresno. 

DYER: He was made into a believer in one year.

RODGERS: Well, he really was.   Chris is the one who really…he ‘no way’ wanted to come back, or go back.  We still owned a home in Fresno so there was no problem about going back. 

DYER: Now, as I understand it Dick, you were one of the few not to have the Eagle Cottage experience.

RODGERS: No, I was the only one not to have the…

DYER: The only one! Okay, now, if you weren’t in Eagle Cottage where were you?

RODGERS: Well, I was down in the old 3A office.  The 3A office use to be on Stockton Street across the street from the O-K used car lot.  And it was the front third of a cleaning and launderette and dry-cleaning establishment.  The problem with being a typing instructor was the fact the typewriters are powered by electricity and a great deal of the time, there is not that much electricity plumbed into the rooms of the buildings of Tuolumne County.  This particular building had adequate facilities, plus it had a little place for an office and restrooms, so our only problem was parking, and they parked on the South side of Stockton Street. But, for the first year that’s where I was—in the Washington Street office by Bob Diel and Dusty and a couple of secretaries.  And then everybody else was at Eagle Cottage. 

DYER: Bill Haskens, was he uh…?

RODGERS: Bill Haskens and Dick Dodge were both the major (____) out of Eagle Cottage.

DYER: Ah, I see. Now, your place of employment had an interesting name, didn’t it?  What did they call it?

RODGERS: We called it the Washing Well because that was…

DYER: Washing Well, not the Wishing Well.

RODGERS: No, it was the Washing Well, because that was the name of the launderette that was there.

DYER: And were you the only instructor there?

RODGERS: Mhm. Eight hours a day, five days a week—at that time. 

DYER: And what were you teaching at that time?

RODGERS: I taught al of the business courses that we were teaching.  The typing and the bookkeeping , and business law…what have you.

DYER: Okay, so that’s from the fall of 1968; and when did we phase out the Washing Well?

RODGERS: It was just a one year—from the fall of ’68 to the spring of ’69—in existence. The library took over the Washing Well in the summer of ’69 because they had to move out of Eagle Cottage the real prepares. So it was used through, oh, the middle of September 1969—something like that—when everybody back up on the hill on the new campus. 

DYER: It seemed to me that when I first came aboard in the fall of ’69 that I picked up my mail down there.  Did they have some of the business operations down there too at the washing well?

RODGERS: I don’t believe so.  They were al supposed to be over on Washington Street. 

DYER: Maybe they were storing.

RODGERS: But if a lot of your stuff was books and that sort of stuff that would have come, they would have come into the library perhaps and had been stored down there.  They had more room than the Washington Street office did. 

DYER: Any unique experiences while at the Washing Well?  It sounds like less than academic institution.  Did it cleat any real problems? Power outages or noise problems?

RODGERS: No, the only real problem we had was from the smell of the dry cleaning flood.  And every now and then it would get to the point where we’d have to open the doors and just leave.  But basically it was pretty good instillation.  I’ve seen worse places where people parked.

DYER: did you have to use any special teaching techniques in order to overcome some of the physical deficiencies of the building?

RODGERS: No, uh, because with four walls are up with a heater and we had all the necessary equipment to teach with inside the building.  This was no problem than a VEA project written for business, which gave us the type writers and the chairs and the tables and some of the equipment, so that we didn’t have the…we weren’t trying to teach typing without typewriters like some friend of mine have had to do; or teach bookkeeping without adding machines—we had even some of those.  And this make it a little bit different than being in a completely raw situation, granted the room itself wasn’t great, but it was better  that a piece of black plastic hung between two trees.

DYER: For those of us who came later have heard about the closeness of the original “plank holders”—the original faculty.  Was it really a kind of family? Everyone refers to the original family, or “plank holders.” Did you sense a closeness that isn’t apparent now?

RODGERS: No. Basically because I seldom had anything to do with the others.  Friday afternoons I’d go out to Eagle cottage to see who wad there, and that was the only time that I had off to go some place.  But for all practical purposes, none of then ever came down my way.  So as far a closeness is concerned, I would tend to disagree.  As far as the entire staff is concerned—now maybe for those people who were rubbing elbows, literally and figuratively speaking out in Eagle Cottage, it was a very close, chummy situation.

DYER: Dick, did you get involved in any of the faculty senate activities at the time?  I think they were held at Eagle Cottage.

RODGERS: I attended the meeting when I knew they were having them.

DYER: Wasn’t John Hankstrum the …

RODGERS: John Hankstrum was president, the first president, yes.  He got kind of railroaded into that.  He didn’t really want it.  He took it anyway. 

DYER: by default?

RODGERS: No, no.  We convinced him up at Strawberry that he should do it.

DYER: Now, the first faculty retreat was at Strawberry then.

RODGERS: We had a…at the first one it was a two-night retreat, I think, as I recall.  With getting everybody together, meeting everybody before school started up at Strawberry. 

DYER: what was the primary purpose of the retreat?

RODGERS: Let the faculty meet each other.

DYER: So, it was more social than…

RODGERS: Oh, no.  We tried to organize what we were going to do, how we’re going to do it and this sort of thing too, very simply, the faculty came form all over the state of California and from out of state.  For all practical purposes, the faculty didn’t know a soul.  There was no school faculty organization at all, and there ha to be some start some place.  And we spent pretty nearly two-and-a-half days getting that stuff going.

DYER: Were there similar activities with the district…different district groups?

RODGERS: We had, at that meeting, Dr. Rowlen was there, the bread members were there—they slithering out so that they didn’t violate the (____) act.  But we had everybody up there and we…in those years, also when you came, they had this big annual dinner meeting in Modesto that everybody went down to.  And that, since, has been discontinued for a myriad of reasons.  Basically, I think, lack of attendance is the real reason. 

DYER: Dick, this institution has not always been the most endeared institution in the Mother Lode communities.  Did you sense that there were problems between the college and the community during the formative year?

RODGERS: Well, I would say that we’re still in our formative years, so that answer to that question is yes. Looking at it from an occupational point of view, until we can get the business men of Sonora and Tuolumne county calling us when they have an opening an need an employee on a regular routine basis, we haven’t made it.  So we’re still in the formative years.

DYER: Well, from their point of view, then, we’re not meeting a need by providing the type of employees that they need in their establishments.

RODGERS: No, they are afraid to hire one of our long-haired hippie kids.  I have a very good friend who has a business in Tuolumne county, he won’t hire anyone with long hair. And his reason is very simple, he says that the people that my employees wait on are very conservative, short-haired type people.  And I make a living from the people that my employees wait on. 

DYER: From the college’s point of view, the, it make it difficult to determine whether you lead or attempt to reflect the…add to the community.

RODGERS: I think that in 1968 the long-haired…the hippie area, as they like to call it—drug culture—is just moving into Tuolumne county.  I think it would have come whether Columbia Junior College was here or not.  But with Columbia Junior College coming, it made a very convenient scapegoat for the people of Tuolumne County; and as a result, I think as we’ve maybe suffered some form it, maybe not—I don’t know.  It’s been a interesting experience, sitting on the side sometimes, and listening to people talk without knowing that I’m connected to the college. Different framed people who know that who don’t know that now. 

DYER: You’re easily recognized in the community. Dick, what do you see, or what did you see, when you came aboard the fell ’68, as the future of the occupational education courses? Did you have a long-range plan in mind as an instructor in the staff?

RODGERS: Well, I was one instructor and, in fact, other than the nursing program in the fall of ’68, I was still tied to Modest Junior College, it wasn’t even ties to Columbia Junior College; I was only one instructor, I was the only vocational instructor that was hired—everybody else that was hired was academic, if you want to break the two of them apart.  As a result, I was just more interested in getting the courses in business moving…becoming a viable operation, and I was in the total occupational plan, which is where I am now.  At that time we only had courses in business and occupations with the exception of the LVN program.  The firehouse was a dream, the forestry lab was a dream, the heavy-equipment lab was a dream, and the LVN program was in the basement of the hospital. 

DYER: Who taught the LVN program?

RODGERS: (Thelma) Jensen has been with it pretty much the entire time.  And then there was another lady who was the director of the program before Marian Evans was hired as she is now. 

DYER: Did Bob Deil as dean of the division, did he do any teaching at all?

RODGERS: No.  Bob’s teaching was limited to filling in now and then when help was needed.  But as far as actual teaching was concerned, he did none. 

DYER: Now, you were the only person at the time that did not have any part-time staff members assisting.

RODGERS: Well, there’s a part-time occupational program in drafting at the high school, like there still is a part-time occupational drafting program; there were a couple of courses in reel estate being offered; and that’s about it.

DYER: Were they offered by local people or some of the instructors on the staff at Modesto?

RODGERS: the courses in reel estate are a combination of both.  None of the people on the staff in Modesto offered the course, but we did have a man who drove up from Modesto to teach our reel estate for us.  I don’t know much of what went on at night that first year other than what went on in my own day. 

DYER: well, Dick, given the primitive conditions during this first year, do you feel it had any lingering effect on the occupational invitation courses or the philosophy, or even the attitude of instructors at the time, or those that were to come on board in the future?

RODGERS: No, not really.  We had a large addition to the occupational program through the many buildings that have been added. We have a fair occupational program for this point in time.  It need to get better, and it will; but by the same token, there has been a lot of effort toward compiling…not compiling…there has been a lot of effort towards getting new programs going and I feel that our existing programs have not been pushed enough.

DYER: Well, dick, given the delicate condition of you health, we do appreciate the fact that you’ve consented to the interview.

RODGERS: Oh, well, that’s perfectly alright.  My health is in pretty good shape today.

DYER: You don’t sound quite a s croaky as you did a few days ago.

RODGERS: No.

DYER: Well, we thank you very much Dick and we will preserve this so that other will have an opportunity to come back and see what it was like down in the old Washington.

RODGERS: Well, maybe you shouldn’t.

DYER: (Laughing) I think it’s going to be a good thing for all of us to hear, thanks a lot.

RODGERS: You’re welcome.

END OF INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW #2

Interviewer:  Richard Dyer

Interviewee: Thelma Jensen (LVN Program)

DYER: Thelma, can you give us just a brief idea of where you were and what you did before starting at Columbia Junior College during the eagle Cottage days?

JESNSEN: You mean before I came to the college?

DYER: Right.

JESNSEN: Alright.  I was working as a podiatry nurse at Sierra Hospital and Mrs. Jean Harper is the one that asked me to come and talk to Mr. Deil. 

DYER: so bob Deil hired you for the position then?

JESNSEN: Yes he did.

DYER: Now, everyone talks about the LVN program.  What does that really mean?

JESNSEN: It means Licensed Vocational Nurse. 

DYER: Now, what is the difference between a Licensed Vocational Nurse and, say, a RN?

JESNSEN: A Licensed Vocational Nurse includes twelve months of study and a Registry Nurse, which is an RN, in two years. 

DYER: Okay, and in order to prepare for this, you must have had some special course work  to prepare for you position for an instructor in the LVN program.

JESNSEN: I didn’t have it when I began, but I accepted the position with the understanding that I would take a sixty hour teaching course at Modesto Junior College from Mr. Shrank, I believe was his name.  He taught this course down at Modesto, so I took that sixty hour teaching course.  Then I tool other requirement that were necessary at the University o California, which involved, at that time is was called, Core1 and Core2, and directive teaching for a period of the net two-and-a-half to three years.

DYER: While you were teaching.

JESNSEN: While I was working her, yes, it was while I was teaching.

DYER: you must have been busy.

JESNSEN: Well, the first…I took the sixty-hour first, and that was one semester at Modesto Junior College. Then the following summer, I went down to Berkeley and took a six-week course, it was Core 1.  It was called Core1 at the time, and I took it… it was eight hours a day on Tuesdays and Thursdays for six weeks—from one ‘till nine pm, yeah. 

DYER: And you absorbed that much?

JESNSEN: I don’t know.  It was practice teaching.  We actually did some practice teaching in Core1.  Then, in September of that year I took the compatible.  They had a compatible course that they offered, which was taught on Saturdays—every Saturday.  I took mine at Merced Junior College.  And then we went to Berkeley to take our final in the spring of the following year.  Then the following…the year after that, I took directive teaching.

DYER: That would be 1969 then?

JESNSEN: Well, in 1968 is when I started. I did the sixty hour then.  In 1969 I took the compatible course and in 1970 I took that directive teaching; and the n I think it’s the next year after that I took an AV course the following summer, and then I took counseling guidance…lets see, I took that…that was a correspondence course, I took that last fall.  And there were other…I had to write a course of instruction in order to get my credential.  I had fulfilled all of my requirements for my credential now, and as of last October I received my lifetime teaching credential—SDS it’s called—Standard Designated Subjects. 

DYER: Congratulations then.  So that means that you can rest for a while now. As I understand it, the original LVN program was not established by Columbia Junior College.

JESNSEN: That’s right.

DYER: Is that correct?

JESNSEN: the first year it was under the sponsorship of Modesto Junior College, and the first graduating class in Columbia graduated under Modesto Junior College, and they received the Modesto Junior College nursing pin.  The first year that I was with the class, which was actually the second year of class here in nursing, was the first year to graduate under Columbia Junior College. They were the first one to… actually, it was the second year of nursing up here, but the first year under Columbia Junior College.

DYER: But it did start in the fall of 1968?

JESNSEN: Yes.  That’s right.

DYER: At Eagle Cottage.

JESNSEN: Yeah, that was the first class to graduate under Columbia Junior College…in the fall of 1968.

DYER: Do you look back with fond memories on the Eagle Cottage experience?

JESNSEN: Well, it was a challenge and to me it was quite an experience, never having taught before.  I certainly have learned as much as any student has I’m sure of that.

DYER: What about the facilities? Did you find them rather primitive?

JESNSEN: Yes.  We didn’t near have facilities that we do now, as far as teaching aid and classroom. Our first classrooms were held in Tuolumne General Hospital basement.

DYER: It must have been dismal.

JESNSEN: The first year, all of our classes there, they had boarded up a section of the basement with plaster board, you know? And there was no sound proofing actually, so all of the noise of the delivery and what not that they have in the basement of the hospital was more or less an interference.  Plus, we did have some terrible leaks, even though it was a new building. When it watered or rained, the water would come through the basement wall.  And one time we had to discontinue class because there was so much leakage.  Well, I think they have corrected the problem.  It wasn’t supposed to do that.

DYER: I’ve heard the stories about the basement.

JESNSEN: Yeah, that did have a lot of difficulty getting the problem corrected.  But it has been corrected now, I’m sure.

DYER: Now, as I understand it; an LVN instructor probably has more subjects to teach that any other instructor at a community college.

JESNSEN: I think we probably do. 

DYER: Could you just give us, say from the top of you head, a list of some of the subject that you include in the LVN program?

JESNSEN: Well, first of all we had nursing procedures, which we sue to start out with, maternity nursing, pharmacology, anatomy and physiology, nutrition, safety and first aid, and medical surgical nursing.

DYER: Now, is each course taught for a quarter?

JESNSEN: Not necessarily, we usually teach two courses in the quarter, and sometimes—like medical surgical nursing—may involve more than one quarter.  That includes quite a lot.  Anatomy and Physiology includes a little more than a quarter.

DYER: Do they concentrate on one course and then move to the second course, or do they have several courses running concurrently?

JESNSEN: No, each of us teach approximately two courses at a time. Maybe I’ll teach anatomy and physiology and nutrition.  Mrs. Evans teaches maternity nursing and pharmacology.  In the beginning., however, we had nursing procedures every morning until noon, and then our afternoon we teach the other classes.  And we usually teach nursing procedures for three to four weeks when the class first begins. And then we go into the hospital and they have Ashland—this is their laboratory where they gat their practical experience.  And the we have work conference in the morning, usually before noon from eleven ‘till twelve and this includes review of some of the patience that the students are taking care of, or demonstrations of some of the new procedures or equipment that they may have in the hospital.

DYER: I understand that most of the students are actually terrorized by that though of taking the State Board Exams.  What seems to be the problem?

JESNSEN: Knowing that they have to pass, I think, before they can get their license.  They have to meet a certain deadline or a certain criteria, and it usually involves a certain number of correct responses.  There is a limit.  And there is no curve.

DYER: No curve,

JESNSEN: No curve.  No.  There is a certain umber that they have to have correct. So if they fall one bellow, they flunk the exam.

DYER: How did we do that first time around?

JESNSEN: I think we had three, if I remember correctly, that did not pass the state board.

DYER: Can they take the exam again?

JESNSEN: they can take it three times, and after that, if they have flunked it three times…

END OF TAPE

General Information:

Interviewer: Dyer, Richard L.

Interviewee of interview #1: Rodgers, Richard (Occupational Education)

Interviewee of interview #2: Jensen, Thelma (LVN Program)

Name of Tape: Continuation of the History of Columbia Junior College: Interviews by original faculty of Columbia Junior College (CC_hist_9_0)

When: Winter of 1973

Transcriber: Ariella (September 2008)

Transcriber’s Note: n/a