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- Dr. Jane Applegate
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Jane Applegate
JA: Yes, a good first day. That money allowed us to begin really a redesign of the teacher education agenda for West Virginia University, aligning it with some of the national propositions that had been drawn from the work of John Goodlad and the Holmes Group. And during my time at West Virginia we indeed re-created the teacher education program for the University and created a five-year curriculum and developed professional development schools for that institution. And again, that work is still under way there today.
I’m pleasantly surprised to see that it lasted, because so many innovations in education are tried under the auspices of private funding or public funding grants, and they’re great experiments, but it takes extra effort for projects that began as projects to really become an integral part of an organization. So in 1996-1997, I thought that I pretty much completed what I started at WVU, and thought it might be time for me to move to another university. And I started looking at position openings and here was this wonderful, wonderful opportunity at the University of South Florida. And I remember coming here for the initial interview and where the Education Building now stands there was a big hole in the ground and piles of sand and all of my conversations during that two-day period took place in the Stavros Center conference room, because I think it was the nicest room in the College at that time.
I just remember during that interview a feeling that this was a large complex and grand college of education in the making. And that there was a short history here and there were a lot of energetic new faculty. The interview process was so daunting that when I flew back to West Virginia that evening, I was so tired and I thought, “Oh my goodness, I’m not sure I can do that job. It’s such a huge job and so many challenges and so many people. It really is one of the largest colleges of education in the country.” I was quite surprised when I received the phone call to offer me the position. I had to sit down. I thought there is a potential here for greatness, and I see that today. I see not only the potential, but I see the potential becoming a reality.
LB: And that call came from Betty Castor, the USF President then?
JA: It did. It came from Betty Castor, who was President then, and Tom Tighe, who was then the Provost, and of course all those people are gone, and there is an all new administration now. And that’s the way universities are. They grow and change, and I think all of that’s the way it should be. I think that growth and change is an important part of a university. It stretches us and makes us stronger and our horizons become broader through change. I spent some good years here in the Dean’s Office, and I have some very fond memories of that time. And yet, today I feel like I have the best job in the University, being a former dean and a professor in a great department like Secondary Education.
LB: Now that building, the new College of Education Building and the Anchin Center, were they complete when you arrived?
JA: No, they weren’t quite complete, the University was just putting the final touches on them and in fact, one of my fond memories of my first year of being the dean here was the opportunity for the building dedication. We had a whole week of celebration involving all the departments in the College, and it was a grand time because this faculty had waited a long time for a fine facility. The planning that had gone on for the facility went on before my time here, and the people, like you, who envisioned a building that would accommodate not just a present educational environment, but a future educational environment filled with technology and innovations is creating a reality that’s extraordinary for our students today. So, that the building and the building dedication were just great fun.
LB: We actually have a videotape produced for that by Ann Barron.
JA: Yes, I remember that.
LB: We hope to include that in the College’s history.
JA: Good. It belongs in this document.
LB: There were some international projects, such as the Jamaica Project. Would you tell us about those?
JA: We had at that time under Betty Castor’s leadership, the development of the Caribbean Exchange Program that involved the whole University. Connie Hines, who was Associate Dean in the College, did some investigating of partnership in Jamaica, and we started an elementary education exchange program in Jamaica, and that’s still going on down there. That was a really a fine experience for our faculty to go to Jamaica, and for the Jamaican students to come here.
LB: To become teachers?
JA: To become teachers and we worked long and hard on some nice grants. We had a great spirit of entrepreneurship in our college and some people who were wonderful grant writers and grant getters. Over that period of time in my deanship I think we more than doubled the grant income for the College. That has since turned out to serve the College quite well. We deans can take pride in those things, but it’s really the faculty who do the work, and they’re the ones who deserve all the credit for that kind of effort.
When I think about my years here and I think now what I would say my contributions to this College have been, I would mention among other things the development of a governance system for the College. We hadn’t had any form of faculty governance, and it was really time for the faculty to recognize their role in making the College strong and their role also in shaping policy and oversight, both for our curricular programs and for the policies that operate the College in general. I was happy to have the opportunity to nurture that project along and now the College’s governance structure and all the committees are in place and functioning.
I also think if I had a mark on the teacher education agenda, it would be the development of the Master of Arts in Teaching programs, our MAT programs that really are now quite robust. Because of these programs which bring in students who had careers in other fields, we are able to provide advanced degrees in teaching for those older adult students. I’m really happy now in my role as a professor teaching those people. I thoroughly enjoy it. They’re motivated, they’re intelligent adults, and they’re bringing a new energy to the teaching community that our school districts certainly appreciate.