Oral History

Dr. Hobbs' Address at OACJC

 (tape begins in middle of introduction)

 . . . he then served in numerous capacities including vice chancellor for academic affairs, 1971 to 1979, and senior vice chancellor for planning and policy research, 1980 to 1987. He served as interim and acting chancellor prior to his retirement in 1988. Dr. Hobbs provided the staff leadership for research leading to many major publications of the State Regents for Higher Education. He’s held many positions on boards and committees, including a member of the Corporation of the American College Testing Program, member and chairman of the board of trustees for Oklahoma Baptist University. His professional memberships and activities are also numerous including the American Association of Higher Education, American Association of University Professors, Phi Delta Kappa, Council of North Central Community Junior Colleges, examiner for the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. It would take pages to list his publications and speeches, but the speeches that I’ve heard him give have been well prepared and well presented, as well as accented with enjoyable elements of humor and sophistication. It is my pleasure to introduce to you our colleague and true friend and supporter of Oklahoma higher education, Dr. Dan Hobbs. 

Dr. Hobbs: That kind of an introduction makes one realize how long he’s been here. I noticed in your newsletter that I was “time-honored with decades of experience.” In horse language, that’s getting a little long in the tooth. I’m reminded of an introduction by a young faculty member who introduced his boss one time, and he got a little flustered and referred to him as “our veneered and renovated dean.” I resemble that remark!

Thirty years ago this year I went to work for E. B. Dunlap in the state regent’s office as a young research assistant. In that year – 1961 – 8,198 students were enrolled in the public institutions that were two-year colleges of the state system. And that number comprised 16.7 percent of the market. There were another 400 over at Bacon and at St. Gregory’s, but we’re still talking about (garbled) 8,500 two-year college students. Thirty years later this spring, I am told that there are 63,570 students enrolled in public institutions alone, comprising 41.7 percent of the market, and making up more than 60 percent of the colleges’ freshman and sophomores of the state system.

During these three decades enrollment in the state system as a whole went up by three-fold. Two-year college enrollment went up by eight-fold. For those of us who are students of history or merely interested in the past, we cannot help but wonder what happened? There are now state-owned  junior colleges scattered more or less systematically across the state, serving both rural and urban constituencies. About 75% of the state’s population is within easy commute distance of a two-year college. At first glance, it would appear that we had an unusual convergence of legislative wisdom and foresight, and good strategic planning, but that may not be good history. Let me tell you how it really happened.

There are two competing theories as to how the junior college system came into being. The first theory is the product of political fundamentalism, and holds that the system was created by then-Chancellor E. T. Dunlap back in 1967 in six days, after which he rested. This theory is called scientific creationism. The completing theory is put forward by a group of political science gradualists who maintain that it took the system some 8 billion years to develop. This is called the theory of evolution. Although both of these groups have some bases in fact for their opinion, the truth probably lies somewhere in between them. Scientists have been able to find very little evidence of artifacts or fossils during the first 7 billion years of the 8 billion year era. This does not thoroughly rule out the theory of evolution, but it does cast some doubt as to its creditability.

As the to the theory the system was created in six days by Chancellor Dunlap, evidence has now come to light that there was political and social activity for about, ah, 50 years prior to the time when the era – evolution, ah, non-evolutionists point to. I can say to you one thing categorically about Oklahoma’s present two-year college system: it was not planned. It was never the intent of the Oklahoma legislators to create a system of two-year colleges in Oklahoma. Of the 16 state institutions and lower-division branches of other institutions now enrolling in public junior colleges in Oklahoma, only one was created by the Oklahoma legislature as a two-year college. And they didn’t intend to do that. Something happened legislatively at the last moment, and, ah, most legislators back in 1968 weren’t even aware that they had created Tulsa Junior College as a fully state supported college until the next morning when they read about it in the papers. (laughter)

Just a bit of early history, and we will entitle this chapter one. Incidentally, I was counseled not to show up today unless I brought Snoopy with me. Please let me allow Snoopy to help me, would you please? A few years ago, Snoopy – the comic strip – sitting on top of his doghouse with his typewriter composed a novel. It was entitled “It Was A Dark and Stormy Night.” May I read a portion of that novel to you? “It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out. A door slammed. The maid screamed. Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon. While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.” (garbled) the last panel, Snoopy turns to us from the top of his doghouse and says “In the last chapter, I bring all this together. . . Chapter 2. A light snow was falling and the little girl in the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day. At that very moment, a young intern at city hospital was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly. Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?” And again, Snoopy turns to us from the last panel and says, “See how neatly all this fits together? Chapter 3,” and we’re moving toward the close now. “The young intern sat by himself in one corner of the coffee shop. He had learned about medicine, but more importantly he had learned something about life.” Snoopy turns again and I can see him as he says, “Now to look for a publisher.” (laugher)

Chapter 1. It was just one year after the run of 1889 when the territorial assembly got together in Guthrie and created three brand new institutions for the Oklahoma district – the six counties that made up the run, plus Beaver County and a few other constituent parts. That territorial assembly about Christmastime created one institution at Norman for culture, one institution at Stillwater for agriculture, and one at Edmond for pedagogy. In their excitement and exuberance, the territorial legislature of Oklahoma had created universal higher education access without worrying about any secondary education access. They remedied that in 1901 when the created a university preparatory school in Tonkawa to serve as a prep school to send people to the University of Oklahoma. You now have one of your two-year colleges identified and unless I am mistaken, the legislature did not intend for it to be a junior college. I teach junior college education occasionally at the University of Oklahoma, and I see a couple of my students – former students here today. One of things we study is that the – supposedly the first and longest lasting public junior college in the nation was at Joliet, Illinois, created in 1901 or 1902. May I point you to Northern Oklahoma College, which is equally distinguished and equally long lasting.

The next portion of my story is so fantastic that I’m even going to give it to you. I’m just going to tell you that you wouldn’t believe it if I told you! We know we are coming up now toward statehood. Oklahoma, as you know, is the Gemini State. That means it’s composed of two different territories – it was twins. And so one of the roadblocks of bringing these twin territories together after Teddy Roosevelt told them that they could not come in as two separate states, the leadership got together and the people from Indian Territory said, “You fellows have seven institutions of higher education in the west, we have none.” To which the people on the west said, “Not to worry. We simply will go over in eastern Oklahoma and provide you a mirror image of what we have in the west after statehood.” And, would you believe, they did it! So that, ah, in 1908 we not only created 3 normal schools to parallel those in the west, we created a university to offset the one in Norman. We created a university preparatory school at Claremore to offset the one in Tonkawa. And, ah, not to be outdone, the legislature said – at least the rural part of the legislature said – and this marks, as far as I know, the first real complication in Oklahoma higher education between OU and OSU – it is not the last. But the supporters of the land grant college said to themselves and to others, “You fellows at the University of Oklahoma have two preparatory schools. We have none.” So, lo and behold, they created six agricultural preparatory schools. One in each supreme court district. And now we have eight preparatory schools – six for agriculture and two for culture. And still, the legislature has not created a single junior college.

We come on down to the time of World War I when governor Robert L. Williams line-item vetoed the appropriation bill for several of our colleges, including I believe Northern Oklahoma College and Claremore and some of the agricultural district schools, including the ones, I think, at Broken Arrow and at Helena. After World War I was over and the legislature came back in 1919, they allowed two of these to stay closed. But just to show the legislature they were still around – ah, the governor they were still around, they created a new institution at Miami, Oklahoma, and called it the Miami School of Mines. Now, with the two that had closed in 1919, we now had 18 state supported institutions. We had still not created a single two-year college. And that marks the end, my friends, of chapter 1.

Chapter 2 will be very, very short, although it is very, very important. It would be 50 years before the Oklahoma legislature builds a new institution. But that doesn’t mean we’re through with two-year college education. Between 1920 and 1940, which is chapter 2, local school boards and local high school districts created 33 junior colleges containing either the 13th and 14th grade or simply in some cases the 13th grade of what would be a public junior college. Most of those went out of existence by the time of World War II, but five still remained. Four of them are now state system junior colleges, and one is a state system branch. So in the first space of creative space back before 1920, we had six residual two-year colleges. Out of the second space, we have five residual two-year colleges and branches.

And now, if you will, lets segue past World War II. Let’s go all the way to 1965. I just dropped 25 years of history. By now it has become conventional wisdom that Oklahoma has more public institutions of higher education in relation to population per square mile – per square molecule or any other measurement that you want to use – than any other state in the nation. There’s one thing wrong with that – it wasn’t true. By now, Oklahoma has grown from two million people to three million people. And it’s population has begun to move around. Coming to 1965, who had predicted – certainly not I – that within a period of three or four short years the Oklahoma legislature would not only continue to maintain the number of state-owned institutions in existence, it grandfathered much more and allowed the creation of three brand new institutions.

I needn’t rehearse with you all the reasons why the junior college program in America began. Suffice it to say there were demographic reasons which increased the number of 18 year olds by one-third. There were democratic reasons turning higher education from an elite activity into mass higher education. And there was what one might call the demonic movement, which got us into a contest with Russia after Sputnik and caused our virtuous forces of light to contest with the forces of darkness and capitalism with communism. But that’s another story.

We had the same thing going on here in Oklahoma as they did nationally. And, ah, I take you now to 1965. I can testify to this because I was a part of it. I was, ah, I was rather young and I was certainly naive when I did this, but I conducted a research study and published it under the state regents’ imprimatur in 1965. It was entitled “Oklahoma Higher Education Opportunities and Needs.” And, would you believe, one of the recommendations in it was that, ah, the state regents recommend the creation of comprehensive new community colleges in the Oklahoma City and Tulsa metropolitan area. But friends, I did not know what I was letting myself into and neither did Chancellor Dunlap at that point. He found out later.

The reaction was fairly quick and fairly intemperate, both politically and from other institutions of higher education. The other children in the state system were not enthralled at sharing their milk and their bread with new little brothers and sisters. Newspaper editorialists and publishers were not enthusiastic either. Nevertheless, the state regents pushed forward, sub rosa to be sure, but they pushed forward. And now comes an episode in Oklahoma higher education history which has two parallels. Students of Oklahoma history know that there has been three rebellions in the state since its beginning. We had, in 1917 or thereabouts, the Green Corn Rebellion, and that was when the Socialist movement in Oklahoma was finally quashed down by a green corn field down by Wewoka, Oklahoma, or close to it. And, ah, before that we had 14 percent Socialist voting pattern in Oklahoma and Socialists held ah,  the balance of power between Democrats and Republicans. After the Green Corn Rebellion when armed troops went in and dispersed the Socialists who were pacifists and who were against World War I and who were promoting seditious things such as equity for labor and for mine workers and the like. Never again would Oklahoma vote more than 2 or 3 percent in the Socialist Party. The Green Corn Rebellion.

Later on their was another rebellion called the ­Ewe Lamb Rebellion, in which a governor whose residence was in Perry, Oklahoma, was impeached and removed from office. I think there were about seven charges and the only one they could make stick was general incompetence. That was not true, but the senate wanted it to be true, and so it was. Ah, that was the Ewe Lamb Rebellion.

Now let me tell you about another one. After the state regents were so indiscreet as to recommend the recreation of new public colleges and universities in 1965, there began to be a rumble among some of the college presidents and at least one of the boards of regents. Ah, that resulted in 19 – October of 1966 in which a group of college presidents signed a petition asking the state regents to remove that rascal E. T. Dunlap. The reasons were not that he tried to build some new two-year colleges so we’d have to share the resources. The accusation was that he has a very rough personal style and personality and runs over people. And secondly, he is building a bureaucratic empire down there in the state capital. That’s what’s known as the October Rebellion of 1966. Now you can put those three together in your history books. The third one is not written. Bear in mind friends, it will be as soon as Snoopy and I can collaborate at the end of this session.

As a result of that there was a split in the council of presidents and many members of the council of presidents for several months met outside the state regents’ office. Surely that does not sound familiar to anybody in this room. But history, in Greek fashion, has a tendency sometimes to repeat itself. Eventually, the council of presidents came back in and made up with the chancellor, and eventually that storm blew over. Might I suggest to you that the October Rebellion of ’66 might never have happened had the state regents not recommended the creation of new community junior colleges in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

After the storm, we move into chapter 3. This is a five-minute chapter and you will be out by 2:30. Tulsa in particular was feeling put-upon. Tulsa historically has a reason to feel put-upon. Historically, there has been a conspiracy usually between the rural element and the Oklahoma City leadership to cut Tulsa off from the world, which was not very hard because Tulsa already prefers itself to most of the rest of the world anyway. (laughter) And they probably are using pretty good judgment! Tulsa historically is very private, very independent, very entrepreneurial, very sophisticated, and very parochial. So Oklahoma City and the rural block was only doing them a favor when they made sure that nobody from Tulsa would ever travel anywhere unless pays a toll to get there. If one wants to travel from Oklahoma City to the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean, to Canada, to Mexico, one does it on a free road. If one wishes to travel anyplace from Tulsa, accept to Bartlesville, which is a kindred group, one pays a toll. So Tulsa, if not paranoid in ’65, at least was feeling put-upon. (laughter) And they came to the legislature in 1967 in the person of Senator Beau Selman. Senate Bill #2, proposed, enabling legislation to allow municipalities or combinations of municipalities to petition the state regents for the creation of new community junior colleges.

That was passed, and, ah, many thought nothing would come of it. But Tulsa began immediately, as did folks here in the Mid-Del School District and municipalities, to work assiduously toward the creation of a junior college. Well, you know why Tulsa wanted public higher education – they billed themselves at that time as the largest metropolitan area in the United States without access to any public higher education. And it was true. They had been neglectful. They had nothing over there until they put – built some children’s center outside of there in Sandy Springs, but in Tulsa, nothing. So they worked to provide education for their people.

Oklahoma City was another story. Oklahoma City had access already to the OSU-Oklahoma City Technical Institute, at least for vocational-technical courses. And they – many of the citizens were within commuting distance of OU or Central State. And so they weren’t as bad off. Nevertheless, there was interest in Senator – by Senator Bryce Baggett and some others in creating an el centro, or a downtown campus, such as Tulsa’s original city service campus in the Galleria section of the urban renewal area downtown. But they weren’t serious enough to want to pay taxes to help finance it. Here in the Mid-Del region, in Tulsa, and in the Capitol Hill region of Oklahoma City, there was great enthusiasm for that. There is, ah, there is a classic political work in this library, ah, entitled “War as an Instrument of National Policy.” And one of the theses in it – this is Machiavellian – is that if you can’t pull a country together any other way, pull them together against a common enemy. And we had, here in the Mid-Del region and in the Capitol Hill region a unified force calculated to do precisely that. Go back to the gubernatorial election of 1962 in which Democrats Bill Atkinson and Raymond Gary wrapped against each other in the final primary. That was such a bitter campaign that when Bill Atkinson finally defeated Raymond Gary in the primary, ah, Raymond Gary bolted the Democratic Party temporarily, and, ah, supported Henry Bellmon. So did the publisher of the Daily Oklahoman and the Oklahoma City Times. I forget his name, but he has a son who is still a publisher. (laughter) As a result – as a result things were very bitter between Bill Atkinson and Mr. Gaylord’s father, and between Midwest-Del area and downtown Oklahoma City. But, ah, Mid-Del decided – it’s leadership decided to secede from downtown Oklahoma City. We don’t need you guys anymore. We’ll have our own newspaper. We will call the Oklahoma Journal. We’ll also work for our own institution to become self-sufficient. This institution – whatever the motives of the people who built it – is one of America’s great, great junior colleges. But it may very well have been had it not been for antipathy between individuals and between neighbors, ah, people might not have been willing to pay the local taxes to start this institution.

Now I come back now to 1967. The bill was passed through the legislature. It allowed municipalities or combinations of municipalities to petition the state regents. Mid-Del area had come with a combination of municipalities – of cities and school districts. Tulsa had come with the signatures of the county commissioners. So we had two viable community college applicants, who had petitioned the state regents between ’67 and ’68 for a study and the state regents had given temporary go-ahead for those two institutions.

Ah, Capitol Hill, which had its own reasons for feeling some antipathy against the guys north of the Canadian River – you’ll recall that Capitol Hill was a blue-collar, oil patch, brawling kind of a community. And the blue bloods north of the river were included to look down their noses at the oil patch blue collar fellows down south. They wanted an institution to upgrade themselves socially, to upgrade themselves economically, and to become self-sufficient in education, led by ex-football coach from OSU named Jim Lookabaugh, Harold Stansbury, young Marvin York, Senator (garbled) and others, they desperately wanted to petition for a junior college. They could not. They were not a separate municipality. So in 1968 there was an amendment to the ’67 junior college bill allowing a portion of a municipality that had at least 50,000 population or so and had at least 75 to 100 million assessed valuation to come and petition. That passed.

While that was going through the legislature, the legislative people from Tulsa went to the leadership of the Oklahoma legislature and said “We’ve never had anything. Rather than have a community college, why don’t you give us a fully state-supported junior college. And in conference committee, the legislative leadership agreed to do that. And that bill passed, ah, both houses I would guess as in most conference committees without a reading. Created a brand new state two-year college. Here in the Mid-Del region, Oscar Rose and A.C. Atkinson and others said, “We want to help finance our own. We want to pay,” although they didn’t have any legal way to pay at the time. And so, this remained a community junior college, whereas Tulsa was a fully state supported junior college. Two years later this institution opened in a brand new campus. Tulsa Junior College opened in a rented oil company building. And it wasn’t until corrective legislation a couple of years later allowed Tulsa citizens to vote the money they wanted to vote in the first place, did Tulsa Junior College really begin to get on a high trajectory. And to move ahead with its three-campus scheme. Meanwhile this institution opened and expecting 1000 students or 500 students and just ran over. It has continued until now.

So far, ah, we are up to about 1970, but come on up to about 1972’73. South Oklahoma City Junior College has begun. This institution is flourishing. Tulsa Junior College is about to take off. And now then comes the coup. Ah, the state regents began to get tough about standards. And they went out to these school district-created district colleges and said, “You fellows better shape up or, or you’ll have to go out of existence. You must meet certain standards.” As a result of that in 1973, ah, the Oklahoma legislature grandfathered in about five former district junior colleges – Poteau, El Reno, and Seminole – you know who you are – eventually Sayre. We wind up as today. We have a junior college system. Sixteen units. One was created with functions of a two-year state college. And yet we have 16.

Let me go back and review one or two theories with you. We have the theory of evolution. Since no institution accept Tulsa Junior College was created as a functional two-year state institution, one has to give some credence to those who are evolutionists. Since this probably could not have happened without the intervention of someone who is divine, or at least omnipotent, creation of a state system of two-year colleges probably could not have happened without Chancellor E. T. Dunlap. So, I am able to eat my cake and have it, too, and say, “You’re both right.” And I say to you, along with Snoopy, it is finished, now let us go look for a publisher. Thank you. (applause)