G Stands for Gemmell and Growth
"G" Stands for Gemmell and Growth
 
"That which “. . . I want most for the students at Clarion. . . is an education that will liberate them from the bondage of ignorance, prejudice and passion,” said Dr. James Gemmell in his inaugural address.
 
Gemmell was born in Scotland, educated there and in the United States, held earned degrees from the University of Wyoming, the State University of New York at Albany, and New York University. Before coming to Clarion he had taught in the public schools and served as professor and department head at The Pennsylvania State University for fifteen years. An economic theorist and business consultant, Dr. Gemmell became president at a propitious time. His administration began during a period of economic prosperity and unprecedented emphasis on higher education. His leadership at Clarion coincided with a great leap forward in the support and encouragement the Commonwealth accorded public higher education.
 
To fulfill this goal in face of the ever increasing ground swell of students was a formidable task. A large measure of the success was achieved because Clarion had what Gemmell described in his inaugural address as “the basic ingredients of a good college . . . Namely able students, sufficient money, and sense of purpose plus able administrators and teachers.” Among these ingredients he continued, “The teacher undoubtedly holds the central position.” It was this faculty who laid the foundation for what the Middle States Association described as “one of the most exciting new programs to be introduced by the state colleges in the Middle Atlantic states.”
 
In the middle 1950s the state committed itself to financing the higher education of more and more college bound youth. Over the next decades the state colleges in general, and Clarion in particular, were in a ceaseless struggle to provide adequate campus facilities for all their enrollees. Part of the lag was due to the long standing but altered state policy to plan and build for what the College actually needed, not what it would need in the future. Even when the policy was altered, demands could not be met because projections of student enrollment were notoriously conservative. For example, in December 1958, State Superintendent Boehm asked Clarion to make long range plans for a maximum of 1,100 students (1,099 were enrolled the following September). In April 1960, State authorities projected an enrollment of 1,500 by 1980 (1,750 were enrolled in the fall of 1961). In 1963, the projection for 1971 was 3,000 students, a number exceeded during the centennial year. By 1966, enrollment was 2,874, an increase of 161 percent. Clarion was no longer that small rural college known only for its library science curriculum.
 
According to data provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, state college enrollment increased 176 percent during the decade 1957-1966. In this same decade Clarion's enrollment increased 280 percent. It was probably one of the fastest growing institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania.
 
Spectacular Growth and Clarion
When Dr. Gemmell arrived on campus in 1960 there were about 1,100 students and ten buildings. The institution's sole educational function had been teacher preparation. By the time he left the presidency in 1976, the student body had expanded to about 5,000 with 25 buildings completed, under construction, or on the drawing boards. The institution's mission underwent a drastic revision as it became a multipurpose institution.
 
The spectacular growth was not painless. Certainly major adjustments were necessary on the part of those affiliated with the institution. The townspeople were also called upon to make adjustments. Expansion of the institution involved acquisition of private property. Clarion State had the legal right to exercise its power of eminent domain. But the legality was not viewed sympathetically by much of the local citizenry. Not all residents of the area supported the plan. There were those who opposed it simply because of the inconveniences it may have caused. Others expressed concern over the potential amount of property removed from the tax duplicates. Yet the significance of the college as an intellectual, social, cultural, and economic stimulus to the community was typically ignored.
 
During these years, and to some extent down to the present, the institution has been diligent in its efforts to fully educate the public on the merits of an institution of higher education. The college was a distinct asset to the community and the concept was constantly being reinforced. As early as 1965, Dr. David Hilton, assistant to the president, and others stressed this point through presentations to the Borough Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and to various civic groups. These presentations included projections related to the expansion of the student body and related physical plant needs. The presentations then concluded with illustrations of the cultural impact, the talent pool of College personnel, the related spin-off from the college's presence, and the economic impact of the institution. For instance, Hilton's December 1965 presentation noted that each 1,000 college students would spend $200,000 per year in the town. At a similar meeting the following month it was noted that the college was the second largest employer in the county. It was subsequently noted that the institution spent $6 million in the community annually. This included salaries and purchases. Clarion's denizens were also reminded that some new dormitories were to be privately owned and thus the land and the facility would remain on the tax roles.
 
Recognizing the significance of the college's proposed expansion for the community, the Clarion Borough Council tied the expansion into its federally funded urban renewal proposal. In 1967, the Clarion County Commissioners and the college agreed to become partners in the development of an urban renewal plan to facilitate expansion to meet the physical plant needs of the college. The plan would result in the displacement of some 70 buildings and approximately 50 families. The land included in this particular aspect of the development plan totaled 30 acres. The total cost of the expansion plan exceeded $21 million.
 
These efforts did not silence the opposition. The headline in the Feb. 2, 1969, issue of Tshouted, “Opposition to CSC `Sprawl' Growing”. The proposed acquisition was referred to as “a land grab” and College officials were accused of “proceeding without adequate study of alternatives and in a manner that is not in keeping with the true purposes of eminent domain”. The News's June 18 issue quoted local Assemblyman G.W. “Heap” Alexander as being critical of the planning for expansion. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce continued its wholehearted support of College expansion “because of the overwhelming economic, social, and cultural benefits...” In spite of the opposition, plans were announced in the September 5 issue of The News to implement the Master Plan which projected the acquisition of yet more land to accommodate a projected student body of 6,200 by the year 1978. This was followed by what may have been the final published broadside in the war of words. The News issue of Sept. 12, 1969, reported the goals of the Clarion Borough Planning Commission. The educational goal related to Clarion State College was “To promote and support CSC as a means of providing greater post-secondary education opportunities in the County.”
 
During the late 1960s and early 1970s it seemed that the ritual associated with both Homecoming and Alumni Day included either turning over the first shovel full of dirt to signal the beginning of a building project or the dedication of a newly completed edifice. Several notes in 1969 issues of The News referred to record setting concrete pourings. Major buildings occupied during Dr. Gemmell's tenure include: Carrier, Chandler, Becker, Givan, Ralston, Nair, Campbell, Wilkinson, Carlson, Pierce, Tippin, and Marwick-Boyd.
 
Any person who has contracted for the construction of a home knows that everything does not go according to plan.
 
The Jan. 3, 1969, issue of The News reported that there had been seven power failures over the past four years. March 1972 issues of The Clarion Call reported the following problems: “Peirce Science Center is twisting as it sinks into soft ground, there are cracks in Carlson, the Chapel basement is a fire hazard, and two of the dormitories lack sufficient water.” The same articles alleged that there was undue external influence in the selection of paint and carpeting for the soon to be completed Carrier Hall. Just as with home construction, the problems were resolved.
 
Burgeoning Pupil Population
All the construction was to meet the need of the institution's burgeoning pupil population. Enrollment the year prior to the onset of Gemmell's presidency was 1,099. By the time he retired from the office in 1976 it had risen to about 5,000, close to a five fold increase. While the proportion of increase was similar to that which occurred during the Chandler presidency, caution must be exercised lest the reader become guilty of committing the sins noted in Darrell Huff's classic, How to Lie with Statistics. This increase during the Gemmell incumbency happened during a shorter span of time and involved enrollments of a significantly greater magnitude.
 
What was the nature of this new student body? There are two ways to address the question. (1) compare it with other student bodies or (2) compare it to the appropriate age cohort in the general population. Both will be undertaken. In 1969 the American Council of Education conducted a series of nationwide campus studies. The study of Clarion indicated that its students, in comparison with other campuses, were high achieving, high aspiring persons from relatively low income families. They chose Clarion because of its academic reputation and low cost. Fewer admitted smoking tobacco or consuming alcohol, while more were using tranquilizers. These students were high achievers academically and athletically, but low achievers in music and forensic activities. The low achiever descriptor seems to be erroneous, for over the years Clarion musicians and debaters have performed well in regional and national competitions. Like their peers on other campuses, the Clarion student body was socially active and generally in tune with the times. Students were involved in protests against on campus activities of military recruiters as well as American involvement in the Vietnam conflict. Streakers were also observed darting about the campus. Data collected by the college indicated that it served a higher than usual proportion of first generation college attendees.
As more student state and federal grants and loans became available, the proportion of first generation college attendees remained high. This tended to make the student body more reflective of the larger society as the number of minority students began to increase. New challenges were created for the institution and the community. Some of the challenges were recognized and met head-on by the institution, but others remained in the background until the federal courts forced action or the students themselves forced the issue. Court ordered integration resulted in a seven-fold increase of minority students, from 30 to about 200, between 1969 and 1973. Minority faculty increased by the same proportion. In 1969, the Black Student Association presented a list of ten demands dealing with minority student recruiting, admission, retention, etc. Student support systems that are common in academe today were conspicuous by their absence in these early days of minority student integration. Therefore, the students created their own. By the end of the Gemmell administration some minority student needs were being met through the creation of their own fraternities, sororities, and social clubs. It has only been since the early 1980s that Clarion and other institutions of higher education have addressed the problem.
 
The student body evidenced change in yet another dimension, student rights. The institution's paternalistic attitude toward discipline/control started to dissipate with the arrival of military veterans during the 1940s and 1950s. The dissipation continued on a gradual basis until the late 1960s. With the rise of student activism the process escalated. Students gained new freedoms and became involved in self-governance and institutional governance. For the most part these rights and responsibilities have been exercised with prudence.
 
During the 16 years of the Gemmell presidency the institution experienced growth almost beyond belief. For several years, the headline emblazoned across the front page of The Clarion News each September was “Enrollment at a Record High”, while the May equivalent was “CSC Awards a Record Number of Degrees.”
 
The expansion of the student body had a ripple effect on all aspects of college operation. Curricular changes were dramatic. In 1960s, through Act 788, Clarion and her sister state teachers colleges were assigned new missions, authorized to develop programs in the liberal arts, non-teaching professions, and on the graduate level, and rechristened state colleges. Teacher preparation would remain a staple of these institutions, but it now would be sharing the curricular menu with other programs.
 
Curricular Firsts
Pursuant to this legislative act, Clarion became the first of the former state teachers colleges to offer a bachelor of arts degree, a bachelor of science in business administration, and master's degrees in several fields. These new offerings were in the general fields of the social sciences, humanities, natural sciences and mathematics. Highly respected curricula in special education, chemistry, business administration, science education, archeology, and other fields were developed. Between 1967 and 1970, 21 new curricula were put in place. Clarion was also the first former state teachers college to qualify for American Library Association accreditation, along with approval to offer a master's degree in library science. This list, which illustrates curricular expansion, is far from complete and should be viewed in that context.
 
Exciting, innovative educational activity was not confined by geography. Leading the way in environmental education, Clarion carried out its mission to the young people of the region through sponsorship of the McKeever Environmental Center at Sandy Lake.
 
In Oil City, after several years of incubation, a vision finally became a reality. With the support of the chamber of commerce, the superintendent of schools, the mayor, local business and civic leaders, Dr. Gemmell was asked to explore the possibility of providing higher education in this Venango County community. What resulted was Clarion State's Venango Campus, the Commonwealth's first public community college. Since no state money was available for building construction, a local campaign was undertaken to raise $350,000. It is a tribute to the citizens of Oil City that the goal was exceeded by about 10 percent. Classes began in the fall of 1961 with an enrollment of 131. The venture made available a high quality, low cost higher education for many young people. An associate degree in nursing became one of the mainstays of the Venango Campus. As with the main campus, a large fraction of the enrollees were first generation college students.
 
Institutional image building occurs both in and out of the classroom. Performance of Clarion students in auditoriums, gymnasiums, and on athletic fields brought acclaim to their alma mater. Music and art students, debaters and club sport participants, as well as the student newspaper staff and student athletes won numerous championships and awards. Included in the array of successes during the Gemmell administration were Hun Judo and debating trophies, championship teams in men's sports such as football, basketball, swimming, baseball, wrestling, and golf, and a number of outstanding individual athletic accomplishments. Certainly one of the highlights of the era must be the five individual NCAA Division I wrestling championships won by Clarion athletes in the mid-1970s.
During the latter half of this administration athletic programs for women began to develop. The first teams in 1967 were on the intramural level. Within a few years women were winning more than their share of championships while competing on an intercollegiate level in swimming, gymnastics, basketball, and other sports.
 
The number of sororities, fraternities, clubs, interest groups, and other extracurricular programs increased as dramatically as did curricular ones. A Student Affairs Office was created to coordinate programs and scheduling.
 
Centennial Celebrations
In 1967 Clarion State College celebrated its centennial anniversary. Throughout the year a series of curricular and co-curricular events were scheduled in honor of the event. Noted speakers like educational sociologist Robert Havighurst and Penn State President Eric Walker made appearances.
 
Mankind seems to have an affinity for symbolism and this too came to the fore during the Gemmell years and in particular with reference to the institution's centennial observance. During the mid-1960s David Christie-Murray of Scotland was a visiting professor of English. Christie-Murray, a recognized authority on heraldry, designed a Clarion State College coat of arms. Included on this heraldic creation is the motto “Clare Clarion Clara,” meaning “Be famous, Clarion, and shed forth the light of learning.”
 
Intellectual Growth
Dr. Gemmell noted in his inaugural address that, “The physical growth of the college . . . is mainly a matter of money, masonry, and mortar. Important as these are, they have little to do with intellectual growth . . . physical growth is no guarantee of inner vitality and excellence.”
Intellectual growth depends on a strong faculty and a strong faculty depends upon its professional development. Recognizing this from the outset, Dr. Gemmell encouraged faculty professional development.
 
Gemmell likewise encouraged the drafting of a faculty senate constitution with provisions for evaluation and tenure. Clarion was the first of the state colleges to implement a tenure procedure. There is some evidence to indicate this constitution became a model for some of the personnel procedures of the first collective bargaining agreement for institutions in the current State System of Higher Education.
 
In the midst of this forward-looking administration a new creature appeared on the horizon called collective bargaining. Unionization and bargaining in the private sector go back to the previous century, to the days of Samuel Gompers and Eugene V. Debs. But bargaining in the public sector, and particularly in the domain of education, was a new concept, one as yet amorphous and non-descript. This all changed with the Legislature's passage of Act 195 in 1969. Bargaining was now a fact of life on the public college campus. Across the Commonwealth several organizations staged heated campaigns to win the bargaining rights for faculty members of the fourteen state colleges. The Association of Pennsylvania State Colleges and University Faculty (APSCUF) was the victor. The first contract came in 1972. Meanwhile, the non-professional employees selected the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) as their bargaining agent. The history of labor relations between the institutions of the State System of Higher Education and faculty has been relatively calm. Certainly, bellicose statements were made and considerable posturing occurred, especially when state mandated furloughs loomed over the horizon. However, differences have been resolved without recourse to APSCUF labor stoppages. There were brief work stoppages by AFSCME during the summer of 1975 and again in the mid-1980s.
 
According to Dr. Dana Still, provost emeritus, the transition to bargaining, at least on the Clarion campus, “was easy and completely non-traumatic.” This was largely due to Dr. Gemmell's progressive attitude toward the process. The adoption, at Dr. Gemmell's suggestion, of the faculty constitution was one step in this direction. According to Dr. Still, “the traditional adversarial nature of the relationship between labor and management was virtually non-existent during the Gemmell years. President Gemmell applied his managerial skills in a fashion that nourished good labor relations.”
 
During these years the composition of the faculty began to evolve. The proportion with terminal degrees and numbers from across the country increased, as did the numbers of females, minorities, and internationals. This broadened the exposure and experience of both faculty and students. As Dr. Still related to the author, “diversity begets diversity”. As a result both the faculty and student body became more cosmopolitan in nature. Even today the process continues.
 
For a number of reasons, clerks, secretaries, maintenance workers, and other non-professional personnel seem to be completely overlooked in college histories. This writer was guilty of such in Clarion's centennial history. It is impossible to rectify the injustice or to change the prevailing nature of college histories, but a small step in that direction may help. During Dr. Gemmell's tenure at least two staff members of long-standing service retired, Lottie Wingard and Elizabeth Doverspike. Ms. Wingard served the college for over 40 years as registrar and secretary to three presidents. Mrs. Elizabeth Doverspike brought her daughter to college in 1936 and stayed for 40 years. She worked with the maintenance and housekeeping crews.
 
Part of Clarion's mission, and indeed a song it often sang to endear itself to the community, was community service. Among Clarion's endeavors in this area were: offering summer recreation programs and clinics of many types, sponsoring arts festivals and a Junior Olympics, supporting a community orchestra, a watershed seminar, and various in-service programs for regional employers, making its first serious attempt at providing a non-credit adult education program, providing a pool of expertise from among its professional and non-professional employees, and creating a research center designed to work cooperatively with local school entities in an effort to improve educational practice. The Red Cross Bloodmobile was and continues to be a frequent visitor to the campus.
 
Meeting Challenges
As in earlier times, the financial stability of the institution was a matter of concern. Logic would seem to imply that if the Commonwealth created the state colleges and assigned each of them a particular mission that funding would follow, but logic is not always a prevailing force in political democracy, especially where monetary matters are under considerations. Fisticuffs were not unknown in the Pennsylvania legislature during budgetary debate. Funding waxed and waned, pay checks were withheld for want of funds, and the state colleges were constantly forced to seek new sources of revenue. Tuition was raised periodically and then on a regular basis, special fees were charged, and fund raising became a part of the campus scenario. By the mid-1970s retrenchment and lay-offs became part of the campus vocabulary. During the early 1970s Dr. Gemmell was frequently the financial spokesman in Harrisburg for the state colleges as a whole.
 
The Clarion State College Foundation was founded on Dec. 8, 1969, based on the premise of providing people with an opportunity to donate to Clarion State College and ensure that their contribution would be used as intended. Contributions  still fund scholarship programs, fund selected capital projects, and support other projects.
 
Since its beginnings, the Clarion University Foundation has raised approximately $7.6 million in restricted and unrestricted contributions. An additional $1.1 million was contributed in the form of Montgomery Hall at Venango Campus.
 
“The beauty of the Foundation is that it has its own board of directors,” said Still. “That board, under the articles of incorporation, are the responsible people and that enables them to control the money, as long as it falls under the umbrella of the Foundation's charter.”
 
While there were no financial scandals during the Gemmell years, problems with the State Auditor General's Office began to make headlines in The News. The problem was not so much one of illegal expenditures as it was one of alleged improper accounting procedures. The whole auditing process was relatively new and on a number of occasions there was disagreement between Auditor General Robert Casey and his people in the field as to interpretation and implementation of procedures.
 
During the Gemmell presidency the institution's student body, academic programs, physical plant, and overall reputation reached a level that would have been considered preposterous if prophesied only a few years earlier. Much of this change resulted from two decisions: (1) that of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to convert its single purpose teachers colleges to multipurpose state colleges and (2) that of the trustees to employ Dr. Gemmell as president.
 
Clarion was in the vanguard of the state colleges. Moreover, a survey reported in the May 5, 1975, issue of The News even seemed to indicate that Dr. Gemmell had turned the tide in the community. According to the survey, 91 percent of the participants were proud that Clarion State College was in their community.
 
With much already accomplished and perhaps in the face of increasing financial pressures Dr. Gemmell announced his resignation to the board of trustees in the summer of 1976. In his letter of resignation he noted that, “To everything there is a season, and there is no reason to regard the college presidency as an exception. Generally a college president is chosen to fill a particular need of the institution and when that need has been fulfilled it is time to move on.”
 
And move on he did, to become Associate Director of the Academic Collective Bargaining Service, a Washington, D.C. based consulting service. In recognition of his leadership at a Clarion, a campus park at the corner of Wood Street and Ninth Avenue and the student complex housing the bookstore, meeting rooms, and other facilities bear his name.

 

  
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