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Title: Sandra Watson
Description: Sandra Watson Director of Family Staff (at time of interview) talks about her experience in the Division of Adult and Continuing Education and as a counselor in the Veterans Program (00:46) Sandra Watson spoke about the founding of LaGCC in the early 1970s -- a period when people struggled during the Civil Rights movement and CUNY was in position to respond – at a time for women and people of color wanted to come into the institution -- it was a time after the Vietnam War. (2:23) Goes on to describe the student body (2:47) Talks about her coming to LaGuardia Community college as a vocational counselor for the Veterans Programs. (4:05) Came to LaGCC in 1974 and said it was a very exciting place. Talks about the Great Hall, Leonard Saremsky who would drive up in his motorcycle right up to the door; tennis courts in the back; partitions separating the space, no offices – a feeling of oneness. (4:47) Talks about Joseph Shenker’s age and the overall young staff. (5:43) The Division of Adult and Continuing Education was written in the Governance Plan – the arm to reach out to the community – a community that was very diverse. (6:53) Speaks about Adult and Continuing Education creating programs which would later be turned into degree programs – The Dean of Adult and Continuing Education was Ann Marcus, Sandra spoke about different faculty lines in Adult and Continuing Education and support for President Shenker. (8:18) Sandra said, most of the people in the division ran program areas and knew how to write grants. (8:47) Mentions the Single College Concept (9:38) “We were told we could fail, we could try, we could experiment” (11:22) Discusses the Veteran’s Program and says it was one of the most challenging programs she ever worked in. Talks about how the counseling and workshops were organized (14:14) Mentions that the Veteran’s program was not funded for the first time in 24 years (1996), in her opinion due to the sharp conservative political turn in government (15:11) Talks about how ACE programs were funded, developed and community involvement in the process. Discusses the Deaf Program (17:55) Speaks about Fern Kahn (18:19) Speaks about collaborating with funding agencies and city agencies (19:19) Goes in depth about the Deaf Program and its diversity (22:31) Discusses the continual need for space in the college, the Great Hall, moving offices (25:44) Speaks about changes in the college now and before, and innovation and LaGCC. (30:11) She also discussed changes and development of programs for changes and the community. Sandra spoke about Queens and the development of programs and going to the community – Children’s College was built. (30:11) Mentions the change of the ESL program – credit and non-credit programs. (36:11) She discussed the college and its growing older. (37:04) Sandra says she comes to a place where she works with social problems and social change – happy to be here. The institution is for the students.
Subjects: , 25th Anniversary, Oral History, Watson, Sandra, Veterans Affairs, Adult and Continuing Education, Program for Deaf Adults
Publisher: LaGuardia Community College (New York, N.Y)

Title: Roy McLeod
Description: Dr. Roy McLeod is a “founding” faculty member of the college and Professor of Mathematics. He currently [2019] still teaches in the Mathematics, Engineering & Computer Sciences (MEC) department. (00:55) Talks about the need for a community college for the Long Island City area to help develop economic growth, similar to why Hostos Community College, York College and Medgar Evers College were created. (3:00) Speaks about his earlier career at Hunter College and Nassau Community College and how he came to LaGCC and his excitement about coming to a brand new college and the challenge it would be. (8:20) Faculty did not have an office they just had a desk and a chair and were just excited about starting the college (9:26) The first floor was The Great Hall. Registration and everything was done there in The Great Hall. (10:21) Dr. McLeod said in July, the college had an orientation to get the college ready - that was handled by Dr. Janet Lieberman. (10:53) Dr. McLeod also said they were able to be as innovative as they could. The structure was not rigid, there was creativity. (11:25) The name of the first mathematics course was Symbolic Communication, Dr. McLeod said. He said, we were doing things differently. Dr. McLeod spoke about the grading system he said they call non-cumulative grades and he said they had – E (Excellent) G (Good) P (Pass) and NC (No Credit). (13:05) Shows his first gradebook. (Archivist Note: Dr. McLeod’s gave his first grading book to the Institutional Archives and it is kept with his collection in Division Institutional Advancement) (14:19) The students that attended LaGCC were from around the area, Dr. McLeod said, Astoria, Long Island City. There were about 540 students in the first class. They were excited about coming here. Student were very much on our minds – trying to encourage them. (15:42) During that time there were teams of faculty for advisement, students would talk to them about their classes, Coop, or whatever they needed to address. (16:17) Students felt they could talk to us, Dr. McLeod said, he said it was small so it worked very well. Class size during that time was small from 16-20 students and there was individual attention you couldn’t dream about today – that made a difference, Dr. McLeod said. (21:11) Discusses the split of the Division of Natural Environment into the Mathematics Department and the Division of Natural and Applied Science Department. He had been elected the first Chairperson of the Mathematics Department. Served as Chairperson from 1976 – 1988. (25:48) Talks about the Math Lab and its functions. (26:25) Talks about the Mathematics Department moving around to different locations on campus, Main Building, Sony Building and later the C building. In 1988 became Acting Dean of Faculty (27:37) Dr. McLeod discussed Basic Skills development and assessment tests in reference to remedial courses and the Math Lab. (29:02) Describes the computer courses and the Math Express course (an intensive one week course) and its relation to remedial courses. (31:29) Talks about English Express course that was developed by Professor Daniel Aulicino. (32:29) Discusses the physical growth of the college and challenges the limited space provided such as crowded offices and classrooms. (36:18) “[The college] grew so large so quickly” talks about the attractiveness of the Coop Program and the opportunity to earn income while earning college credit. (38:17) Dr. McLeod also spoke about students coming to LaGCC from many countries and “many come in with extraordinary skills, especially in Math and Science.” (38:57) Dr. McLeod discussed his teaching experiences with students in his classes. (42:12) “What makes LaGuardia special? the way the college started makes the college special – we emphasized on students and focused to be innovative and to have freedom.” He also discussed being a department Chairperson.
Subjects: , 25th Anniversary, Oral History, McLeod, Roy, Math, Engineering and Computer Science
Publisher: LaGuardia Community College (New York, N.Y)