Wood's Words: Help Wanted
Jim F. Wood ‘64
If you attended Reunion this year, you might be excused for missing the sign. The Clarkson University Office of Alumni Relations does an extraordinary job of preparing the campus for reunion and there seems to be no end to the back-to-back activities that keep people moving from one venue to another over the long weekend. Even so, there it was, at the bottom of the Hill Campus, at the intersection of Clarkson Avenue and the confluence of US Route 11 and Maple Street, next to the path trodden since the 1950’s by thousands of students on their way down town. A path that begins as a strip of concrete at the front of Hamlin-Powers, crosses Clarkson Avenue to Maple, over the Raquette, then at the corner of Market and Main, the path splits: Students looking for beer, burgers or books, might take the path to the left- along Market Streetto reach their destination. In years past, students seeking Greek life, science classrooms, a laboratory, or a “State-Date” might have chosen the path to the right and trod up Main Street.
The sign usually is unrecognizable by visitors never before on campus, or visitors returning to campus after a generation’s absence. The expanse of the campus has a way of diminishing the effect of the sign too. Perhaps it is the majesty of those mighty oaks, the light blue-gray outline of the Adirondacks in the distant south, the view of the Raquette River where it opens onto the flood plain just upstream of the falls, the fresh Canadian breeze that cools a summer afternoon, or, maybe the tones in the Potsdam Sandstone relax you, immunize you and invest you with a sense of permanence. A visit to this campus converts 64% of interested high school students into students who apply to Clarkson; a visit converts 35% of students admitted to Clarkson into students who enroll at Clarkson. Of interested high school students who do not visit the campus, only 1% apply and of those who are admitted and don’t visit, only 9% enroll. Clearly, the land purchased by David Clarkson in 1802 has an effect on those who walk it today.
But the sign is there for all to see. So much of campus life today is-- well-- on campus, that the numbers of students who trod by the sign must have declined from perhaps 1500 round trips per day in the 1960’s, to perhaps 100 round trips per day in the 2000’s. And many just drive past, skipping the walk, and missing the sign all together. And maybe, because it’s been there for a while, people are used to it. Like a scratch on a piece of your office furniture; I wonder how that got there? Well, who knows, it’s part of the piece now.
Clarkson is a collegial, close-knit academic environment: Very unpretentious. The sign is not large; it is not illuminated; it has never been painted or even repaired. So you might be excused for missing it because no one took the time to point it out to you. Allow me, please, to point it out to you now.
We know that Clarkson University came to be located in Potsdam, New York, because the Clarkson family owned land and businesses in upstate New York. We know the university was named by three Clarkson sisters who grieved terribly when their brother died an untimely death trying to save one of his employees. We know the brother’s favorite biblical passage was “A workman that needeth not to be ashamed.” And we know the sisters adapted their family crest, including that motto, for the crest of the Thomas S. Clarkson Memorial School of Technology. The Clarkson motto is not amorphous, not like “Lux et Veritas”, or worse, “Ve▪ri▪tas”, which seems to have whatever meaning suits its reader. The motto is as apt today, as it was in 1896, when Clarkson’s doors opened to men and women seeking advanced education. The Clarkson motto says it all.
Not by chance, the 38,500 faculty, student and alumni bodies that are today’s Clarkson University in fact represent a unique distinctly middle class cohort of scholars from almost every country in the world, who are often the first or second in their extended families to seek the opportunity, privilege and security a college education provides. For many years, the industrial engines in Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Corning and Schenectady attracted first and second generation blue collar labor and those families worked hard and saved so their kids could have a Clarkson opportunity. For many years, the parents of these kids also saw the tangible results of bright engineers in their own work environments as products were invented in xerography, photography, bauxite, potash and silica conversion, the Kraft paper process, synthetic rubber, iron ore and oil refining, and chemical synthesis of hydrocarbons; all helping to reduce the labor component, the backbreaking work, and improved business productivity and living standards for these parents and their families… and their families.
With the decline of the manufacturing base in upstate New York, a slow but steady change in demographics has taken place- a drain, really. Clarkson now must attract qualified students from elsewhere, from everywhere. During Commencement, you still can hear names like Zeznick, Petroccione, Orologio, Zolin, Mravak, Wilczek, Szilagyi, D’Angelo, Kieta, Cosentino, Schult, Klaphen, and Reilly, but sprinkled among those ethnicities, you also will hear Ramakrishnan, Xei, Chien, Wang, and Ahmadi. Names your word processor immediately underlines in red as not recognized. Names, non-the-less, that have concluded there is value in higher education and, particularly in higher education at Clarkson University. I do not know if they have seen the sign, but I am certain many of those students are part of the 1%-9% group who never visited campus before matriculating. I am one of that group too. And I have seen the sign.
The move to the Hill Campus actually may never be “over”. Even though nearly all courses are taught there and nearly all students live there, and all instructors have offices there, the campus is not complete:
Missing: a Student Union, a year round turf field, additional lab space, a new Old Main, meeting areas, a Greek Row;
Needed: deferred repair and maintenance of many buildings, including some dormitories, a refurbished library, a larger endowment, and many more applications from eager high school students seeking advanced education in arts, sciences, business and engineering;
Wanted: Help.
Every year, you watch them cross the platform, tassel left, receive their diploma, a slight grin turns into a wide smile, the step becomes a strut, family in an upper corner of the rink, father wearing a new suit coat and matching tie- thick hands folded on barrel chest, brother blowing hard into a long red plastic horn, sister screaming a name, mother applauding, tears streaming down her cheeks, while their student walks off the platform and into the rest of their life, surely enriched and prepared for the future by their experience at Clarkson.. What you cannot see, what is hidden and must be inferred, is another important legacy: The pride and joy of graduation often comes with the sometimes oppressive debt the student, and perhaps the family, has takenon to achieve that moment. It is a sacrifice.
You know, and I know, what has taken place over the last four years of their life. Only 7 months earlier they sat outside the closed door, maybe in a cold sweat, waiting for their name to be called, waiting for a 30-45 minute interview that might just determine if it all was worthwhile. More than 95% of them will find out it all was worthwhile, and as they walk across that Commencement platform they hold their diploma case tightly, sometimes pressed close to their breast, not daring to sneak a peek inside until they are finally alone and seated anonymously again among 600 fellow graduates. It represents their past. It represents their future. Where they came fromwhere they are going. They have truly defied convention.
Soon, by 2009, the huge wave of students now graduating high school will begin to ebb. It is inevitable. You can see it already in Cleveland, Kansas City, Salem, Baltimore, Roanoke, Hartford, Casper, Lewiston, Tulsa, Boston and Sioux City. In the last five years, the populations of Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo each have declined by 6% or more. Institutions of higher learning will scramble to compete for the diminishing supply of all students- let alone engineering and science students. Engineering and engineering technologies saw a 4% decline between 1990 and 1995, and a further 7% decline between 1995 and 2000. Two years ago, some of the Ivy Schools had to take students from their waiting lists in order to fill engineering programs. How can it be that a country which depends so heavily on technical innovation will allow its standard of living to decline because it does not graduate enough engineering and science majors to replenish those leaving the workforce? Today India and China each graduate more students in the sciences than the US graduates in all study areas combined.
Our lives are complicated; we’re very busy; we’re scheduled into the next decade; there’s no time anymore- even for just fun stuff. What can we do? Here’s a start: Get involved with a local Clarkson Alumni chapter- Clarkson needs more chapters and more active chapters. If there isn’t a local chapter- start one. Talk up Clarkson to every high school student and the parents of every high school student you meet: Talk about the incredible beauty and history of the North Country, why you went to Clarkson, how it changed your life. Hire a Clarkson student- even if only a summer intern- then write a letter of recommendation. Buy a Clarkson hat- and wear it to your son’s Little League baseball game and your daughter’s soccer game. One in 7 Clarkson alumni is a business owner or senior executive in their firm: It’s one in five if you’re over 40-years old. Throw some research Clarkson’s way. Lobby your local politicians for more Federal need-based money so more students can afford to go to college. Lobby them for more research money too, while you’re at it. Get active on your local school board and push science and math programs. Come to your Reunion every five years: No, come more often. Come for a weekend of top-ten Division I hockey this fall. The countryside is full of color. Fly to Ogdensburg and they’ll pick you up. The Clarkson Inn is comfortable, it’s economical, and it’s on the path; you already know the way; bring some friends. Volunteer your time and your experience on an advisory board; engineering, arts & sciences and business each has one. Establish an endowed scholarship. Establish an endowed professorship. Establish an endowed chair. If you can’t do it alone, partner with other alumni. Send some employees to take the incredible summer seminar on supply chain management: Clarkson ranks number ten in the United States in this important management discipline. Add Clarkson to your Google Alerts. Right now – get on www.clarkson.edu. Spend 30 minutes; take the virtual tour and see what’s changed since you were last on campus. Update your Alumni Directory profile. Read of the many awards by Clarkson students and faculty. Read about Clarkson’s newest Fulbright Scholar. Feel your pride build inside.
Sometimes, if you are not asked, you don’t act. I am asking… YOU. Help Wanted. Call 315-268- 6467. They are in the office from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday, all year. Tell them you saw the sign and you’re applying for the job.