KVII Editorial, ca. 1968

A few weeks ago, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) announced —for the first tme in thirty years — that no colleges or universities had been placed on the AAUP Censure List this year. In addition, 4 institutions — including a community college — had been removed from the Censure List this year. At one of the 4 institutions — the University of Central Arkasas — the newly installed president made getting the Censure List the first priority of his administration. As he put it, Any thinking person would ask themselves why is a university being censured? His correct conclusion was to gain the removal of censure of the University of Central Arkasas. I concluded my rant about the sorry fact that Amarillo College has been on the Censure List since 1968. I have been told by an Amarillo College administrator that the AAUP made outrageous demands upon Amarillo College. My thinking is that if the University of Central Arkansas can do, why can't Amarillo College? Toeay, I received — from an anonymous (but reliable) source — an historical artifact: the editorial comment of KVII-TV (ABC affiliate in Amarillo) in 1968 after the AAUP censured Amarillo College. Those words of nearly 40 years ago are as true about Amarillo College today as they were then. Perhaps, the administrators of Amarillo College are slightly more circumspect in choosing words, but they remain contemptuous of academic freedom and the obligations of academic leadership. If this be treason, make the most of it.

KVII Editorial

It has been a year since the heavy-handed boss of Amarillo College succeeded in giving the school a nationwide black eye. And from the looks of things, President A. B. Martin (Albert B. Martin was president of Amarillo College from 1960 to 1974.) is determined to follow up with still another exercise in clumsiness, this time on a regional basis.

The original administrative flub came when Dr. Martin high-handedly and somewhat airily dismissed a member of the College faculty, Miss Mary Miesse, a porfessor of business and secretarial subjects, that resulted in the blacklisting of Amarillo College by the American Association of University Professors, a blacklisting which stands to this day. It wasn't the dismissal of Miss Miesse that ired the academic group — but, rather the fact that she was fired without benefit of academic due process, without, in short, a full airing of her differences with the College administration. The result was that not only Miss Miesse's reputation suffered — but, eventually, so did Amarillo College.

Everyone enjoys the respect of his professional colleagues, but that, apparently, does not include Dr. Martin, who in his singularly breezy fashion dismisses the American Association of University Professors as not much more than a labor union. As he put it to this reporter: They have as much to do with us as we have to do with the Los Angeles Association of Topless Go-Go Dancers.

Nor is that the only bon mot coming from Dr. Martin's non-ivy tower this week. For no obvious reason, he took it upon himself to issue a public statement that may go some distance in sabotaging a much wanted and much needed technical facility for Amarillo. That would be the technical training center planned for Amarillo Air Force Base. And what incensed the academic world's Nervous Nellie was the possibility that the tech center might include a school for dental technicians. He hoped, said Dr. Martin, that the tech school would not offer the facility, which would duplicate a dental tech school for Amarillo College, which is patently ironic since Amarillo College now has no dental school for dental technicians (Amarillo College added a Department of Dental Hygiene in 1971 after an unsuccessful earlier attempt to offer dental assisting only.) and the one they once had was generally unaccredited by the dental profession.

Instead of trying to win back the approval of the American Association of University Professors, Dr. Martin apparently prefers the ostrich theory — if he sticks his head in the sand and keeps it there long enough — the legitimate academic world will go away.

Well, it won't, and neither will the troubles of Amarillo College, which, in a year of record college enrollments, is barely holding its enrollment to last year's totals. On the other hand, the ostrich theory may have some value. If we all adopt it, maybe Dr. Martin'll go away.

That's the KVII editorial — for now.

That's 30.

I was struck by the irony of the editorial. AC administrators in 2003 are as prone to the ostrich strategy as they were 40 years ago. Dr. Martin was overthrown in a palace revolt and replaced by the man (Charles D. Lutz, Jr.) that Martin had brought on board to repair relations between the College and the community. Martin, in retirement, committed suicide a few years after leaving the College. The tech center at the closed Amarillo Air Force Base became the Texas State Technical College (TSTC)-Amarillo. After more than 20 years of duplicating vocational-technical programs offered by Amarillo College, State Senator Teel Bivins (R-Amarillo) grew tired of the waste of tax dollars and engineered the merger of TSTC-Amarillo with Amarillo College. So, instead of two institutions wasting tax dollars on quickly outdated vocational-technical education, Amarillo now has just one. When Amarillo College had an athletic program, its teams were the Badgers. They should have been the Ostriches.