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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 1985)
\l :cKtaon; 'Quality begets quality' By mary McWhorter Staff Writer Dean C. Corrigan's office on the eighth floor of Harrington Tower is a good example of his commitment to his work as dean of the College of Education. First of all, Corrigan s message holder is stuffed full of little pink please-return-my-call slips. His in box is over-flowing with Manila en velopes. His bookcase is packed full of books and studies on education. And his leather briefcase is crammed with booklets and papers. And yet, one suspects that all the strewn paper is not due to any lack of organization or activity on Corri gan's part. He loves his work. There is no distinction between Corrigan s work time and his leisure time. They are one in the same. "I have a hard time separating my work from my play,'' Corrigan says. "You spend all your time as a dean learning enough to make the con nection... (between departments and their ideas and goals) to get groups together to help each other. It's very people oriented." In fact, it's very hard to listen to Corrigan's enthusiasm on the role of education in society, without becom ing interested yourself. Corrigan says his motto is "quality begets quality." "Almost everyone can remember their first grade teacher," the 55- year-old dean says as he leans for ward on the edge of his chair. "Teaching is the most important job in the world. You wouldn't have good engineers, lawyers or even musicians without good teachers." Corrigan received his bachelor's degree from Keene State College in New Hampshire and his masters and doctorate degrees from Colum bia University. Corrigan began his career with a teacher internship at Keene Public Schools, where he taught grades seven through nine. He then taught ninth and 12th grade at Parsippany High School in New Jersy. He was also the principal at William C. Overfelt High School in San Jose, Calif. Since then, Corrigan has held mostly administrative positions. He still teaches one graduate course at Texas A&M, but most of his time is spent on projects and trips across the country organizing programs and speaking on education. "No two days are the same," Cor rigan says. "That is what is exciting about this job." Right now, Corrigan is helping to organize a principals training center for the 5,792 principals in Texas. The center will sponsor seminars to help principals exchange ideas with one another. Corrigan is trying to find funding for the project although he has trouble with that particular as pect of his work. "I'm not good at asking people for money," Corrigan says. Corrigan has been setting and achieving goals since becoming dean in 1980. "Our (College of Education's) en rollment has increased faster than any other in the nation," he says. The college has increased enroll ment 34 percent in the last three years. He also says that the college has $400,000 in scholarships and loans, eight national merit scholars and seven valedictorians enrolled. Corrigan says some programs like the bilingual, math and science pro grams are expanding and receiving emphasis due to the shortage of tea chers in those areas. Corrigan also says he likes to keep in touch with the students and share ideas with them. "I go into a lot of classes and make presentations," Corrigan says. "I also use the office as an internship. I like to have students coming through here." However, when Corrigan isn't traveling or organizing new pro jects, he is fishing, swimming or en joying a walk around the neighbor hood after dinner. He also enjoys snow skiing. He and his wife Jane have three children and three grandchildren. Inevitably, Corrigan says he finds himself taking his work home and writing papers or studying until mid night, when he finally goes to bed. Undoubtedly, it would please many students to learn that even adminis trators have homework too. □ Geosciences dean uses research to teach By TRICIA PARKER Staff Writer Dean Melvin Friedman's office tucked high in the O&M Building looks just as a geologist's should. The bookshelves are crammed with as many compressed rocks as books and the walls are crowded with maps and family picures. The Geosciences dean and his of fice match. With his salt-and-pepper hair and professorial glasses, Fried man looks benevolent and, well, a little crusty around the edges. Friedman, 56, was born in Orange, New Jersey. As a boy, he says he spent a great deal of time hiking, which led to an interst in ge ology as a career. "Ever since I was about 13 years old, I've been interested in rocks," he says. "I had a pen pal in a mining engineer in Borneo who taught me a little about geology. Secondly, I worked out the geology of the area I was living in and found out I'd worked it outright." As Friedman tells it, he never really considered anything else. He received both his bachelors and masters degrees in geology from Rutgers University before coming to Texas in 1954 to work for Shell Devel opment Company as a geologist. In 1961, while working for Shell, Friedman earned his Ph.D. from Rice University. In 1967 he left Shell for an academic career. "In March of '67 .there was a change in research philosophy at Shell," he says, "a change from a long range philosophy to a short term problem solving research." So he came to A&M, primarily be cause the Center for Tectonophysics was being set up here. The center, which studies the deformation of rocks, is part of a National Science Foundation sponsored program. "National Science Foundation re search facilities are all over the world," he says. "They make it pos sible to bring scientists here from all over the world to work together." But a more important reason Friedman left the professional world for the academic one was for the stu dents themselves. "Teaching is the reason I'm here, as opposed to doing strictly re search," he says. "Students are the reason for anyone to be on a college campus." To Friedman, there are two kinds of teaching. "There's the didactic style, like straight lecture," he says, "and then there's teaching through research — a personal participation with the stu dent, one-on-one." Friedman says he tries to do the latter in the one graduate level class he has time to teach. The differences between geosci ence and geophysics are fairly dis tinct. "Geology is interested in seeing the earth from the surface using seis mic techniques," he says. "Geophy sicists are the remote sensors of the earth. We study the earth using computers and instruments. The ge ologist is more a hands-on person." For relaxation, Friedman sticks to -another interest he developed at about 13, golf. Friedman, who says he just got finished losing a local tournament, was champion at a lo cal club in 1976. With a handicap of six, Friedman says he enjoys the challenge the sport offers. '1 like the competition with my wi fe," he says. "She's an 11." □ Agriculture dean here 29 years By TRICIA PARKER Staff Writer Harry KunkeTs office in 111 Sys tem Administration Building is like an oasis of clutter in the building's austere halls. More like a conferen ce/living room than an office, it is packed with memorabilia, the desk piled high with books and files, boxes and snapshots. H.O. Kunkel's had more than enough time to collect all the mem orabilia. If you count his college years, he's been at Texas A&M for 29 years, the last 17 spent as Dean of the College of Agriculture. Kunkel was born on a small farm in Olney. He came to A&M for the first time in 1939 and received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture. After receiving his degree, Kunkel served in the U.S. Army Field Artil lery in the Phillipine campaign and in the occupation of Japan, and was eventually discharged as a captain. He returned to Texas A&M and got his masters, before going to Cornell to earn his Ph. D. in biochemistry in 1950. After a stint at the University of Wisconsin, Kunkel returned to A&M again to work as a professor of bio chemistry, a reseacher for the Agri- culutal Experiment Staion, and fi nally as dean of the college. "What I'm trying to do, and I think we're getting close, is make the Col lege of Agriculture one of the pre mier colleges of its type in the coun try," he says. "What I'm trying to build is to make it a very respected institution at both the graduate and undergraduate levels." Under Kunkel's administration, the college has added many pro grams on both levels, among them the Texas Real Estate Institute, the Institue of Renewable Natural Re sources, and a master's program in Agriculture, a program of which Kunkel is particularly proud. But his main job is administration. "My job is to facilitate," he says. "Principally, I work with department heads and faculty — in terms of bud gets, trying to get facilities, trying to get curriculum changes. I'm not really with the students." Which is not to say he's never been. As well as serving two terms on the Memorial Student Center Council, Kunkel has been faculty advisor to MSC Great Issues, MSC Scona and an academic adviser to the Corps of Cadets. Kunkel, who was also a recipient of a Faculty Achievement Award, says he hopes one day to make it back to the classroom. "It was fun teaching," he says, "and I'm looking forward to the time when I can go back to it. I was hop ing to teach one in the spring but there wasn't the time so I'm hoping to teach a class next year." What spare time he does have is spent writing. Kunkel has written more than 40 papers on biochemis try, agriculture, experimental nutri tion and animal physiology. Re cently he has developed a special interest in the applications of his sci ence. "I'm playing around with the phi losophy and history of agricultural science," he says. "My favorite thing to do is to write and essentially write creatively, but not in the sense of in a novel. In an applied sense , I'm trying to see how these things fit into an agricultural program." At a rangy 6 feet 2 and a half inches tall , scholarliness sits oddly on Kunkel. But its easy to sense an interest in learning, and dedication to his science and his job. "It's a continual building process," he says. "You can't ever be static. I want us to be leaders in the aca demic world. I want us to have a reputation that our graduates can be proud of." □ Business dean maintains open door ior students ByGIGISHAMSY Staff Writer He's a smiling, all-American kind of dean. William "Bill" Mobley, dean of Texas A&M's College of Business Administration, enjoys spending quality time with his family, travel ing ("It doesn't matter where — I just enjoy traveling in general") and working with his computer. Mobley earned an Honorable Mention Award as Small College All-American Football Player dur ing his undergraduate days at Den ison University in Akron, Ohio. He was a psychology and eco nomics major, the treasurer of his fraternity, a Proctor and Gamble Scholar and even a student worker in the college cafeteria, where he washed dishes to pay for his school finances. Mobley was an undergraduate among 2,000 undergraduates. Now he's dean of a college with an esca lating enrollment of over 6,000. Times have changed for Mobley since his days as an undergraduate. Mobley graduated from Denison and landed a job as the industrial relations assistant with Pittsburgh Plate Glass Industries, Inc. He quickly climbed up the cor porate ladder at PPG Industries from professional employment and col lege relations representative to divi sional training director. After four years with PPG Indus tries in Pittsburgh, Mobley took a leave of absence, and enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Maryland. He then returned to PPG and took a managerial position. Another highlight in his long list of achievements was his rapid move from the position of professor ~md head of the management depart ment to dean of the business college in just three years. Despite his swift launch to aca demic fame and fortune, Mobley still identifies with the student. Sitting in his new and spacious office high atop Blocker Building, Mobley wel comes students. 'T have an open-door policy — lit erally, " Mobley says as he points to his open office door. Mobley advises his students to get involved — in classes and in extracurricular activ ities, like MSC committees and pre- professional societies. "If you have an academic ques tion, you should seek out your aca demic adviser as soon as possible," Mobley says. "Don't wait until you've got a problem ... or your problem is full blown. If a student has a concern he feels needs atten tion, he should not hesitate to come by my office (601 Blocker) or talk with Charlie Plum (professor of business administration and special assistant to the dean)." Mobley stressed that students new to the college cannot afford to have a bad semester in terms of GPR be cause the college has toughened its requirement. Students must now earn an overall GPR oi 2.5 in pre scribed business classes before de claring a specific major in the Col lege of Business Administration. "Seniors should register at the Placement Center early for the job interview process, one year in ad vance is not too early," Mobley warns. "You should attend job placement seminars conducted by the College of Business Administra tion and the Placement Center. Get to know the key faculty in your de partment ... job recruiters look at grades, motivation and extracurri cular involvement. You've got to sell yourself." □