Home- College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
- Dr. Connie Hines and Dr. Jeff Kromrey
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Connie Hines and Dr. Jeff Kromrey
LB: Now from what I remember as a faculty member in the College of Education, every dissertation committee had a representative from the Department of Research and Measurement. That was a tremendous workload from each of the faculty members in your department. Do you have any idea how many dissertations each of you have served on?
CH: I haven’t kept count, but I remember when I left to go into the Dean’s Office, I was serving on about 65. I remember at one time the dean of the Graduate school said to me, “Connie do you know you can say no to serving on all those dissertation committees?” I told her, “yes, it was a tremendous workload, but I enjoyed doing it.” I would never go back to those numbers now, however.
LB: What was that number again?
CH: I was on 65 committees at the time. Now, there were some students who were more actively working on their dissertations than others, but it was still 65 committees.
LB: I served on some of those with you and you did them all very well.
CH: Thank you.
JK: Yes, my numbers were certainly up there as well, upper double digits. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to triple digits that I can recall, but it would be interesting just to sum up across the years how many we’ve done because I now have bookshelves in my office with completed dissertations which have filled multiple shelves.
LB: Now along the way, Connie, someone recognized your leadership potential and administrative ability in the Dean’s Office and you were lured from your department. ‘ Acting’ I think the word was for the first year, right?
CH: Well, the first year I was actually surprised. Bill called me and asked if I had a second. I came right down to his office and he said, “Now I want you to think about this. I want to ask if you’d be willing to serve as Associate Dean for Programs.” He told me that he had spoken with the Associate Deans and he’d spoken with the chairs and he wanted me to know I had the full support of these people. He also wanted me to know that Evelyn Searles who was the Associate Dean at the time was retiring. When he asked me if I’d be willing to serve as Associate Dean, I thought, “Associate Dean?” I told Bill no. He said, “Now think about it.” Eventually I said, “Well, I would try for a year and I asked that I not be named Associate Dean, but “Acting” or something, just so that everybody would understand that I was just trying it out for a year. I was in the dean’s office for nine years and I actually enjoyed it. Toward the end it became a little frustrating, but my approach was “if there’s any way I can help the College, I’m willing to do that.” I saw myself as sort of helping my colleagues move forward in terms of what they wanted to accomplish, so I enjoyed it. It was time to get back to faculty. And I am glad to be back home in the department.
LB: If I remember correctly, you were part of the stabilizing influence along with Ed Steiner over maybe several deans?
CH: Yes, there were three deans. I served under Bill Katzenmeyer, Steve Permuth, and Jane Applegate. During that period of time, it was good to have some kind of stability there with Ed Steiner and myself. LB: Jeff, I know about your outstanding teaching, your research, and dissertation work, but you, too, have served more recently as?
JK: As department chair.
CH: And he’s doing an excellent, excellent job.
JK: Thank you.
LB: What were some of the challenges along the way for either you or the department in the College and University?
CH: Well, I think we have always had a unique group of individuals in the department. We’re a service department and each person who came into the department really took that seriously. The major challenge was the work on dissertation committees. I think in teaching our regular courses that was fine, but there just were not sufficient number of us. The number of faculty needed to serve on all the committees that we were asked to serve on. I think, is above and beyond what ordinary faculty members would do. Coming back into the department, I remember the first year I did annual reviews and just looked at the tremendous work load that other members of the department had now in service on dissertation committees. I thought nothing has changed, you know, we’re still working very hard. That’s a challenge just in terms of that volume that we have. The other thing is to have students think about research and think about statistics and not to fear it. They need to know that it is a regular part of their professional life and things that they are going to need. I think for the most part we’re quite successful in getting students to become comfortable with the content area, but it’s not something that they sort of flock to and really love at the beginning. I think they get to love it after awhile, but at the beginning it can be a challenge.
LB: The undergraduate measurement course, at one time every student in the College took it. That course was their introduction to measurement and evaluation for teachers. Has that changed any?