Tulsa Junior College, OETA's Candid Campus Interview with Dr. Alfred Philips, 1976, No. 1
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A recording of the 1976 OETA Candid Campus interview with Dr. Alfred Philips and reporter Carter Bradley as a "profile into higher education." The session's topic was community outreach. Other topics included Tulsa Junior College's rapid enrollment and growth. Dr. Philips was Tulsa Junior College's first president.
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This is Candid campus, profiles in higher education. Presented jointly by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association. The discussion today is on Tulsa Junior Colleges community outreach, your host is Carter Bradley. Executive Director, Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma.
Carter Bradley: Welcome to Candid Campus. Welcome to Tulsa Junior College. Today we are continuing our visits to a number of campuses within the states system of higher education. Using the facilities of the Oklahoma educational television authority.
Carter Bradley: Tulsa Junior College is one of the fastest growing institutions of higher learning in the southwest. It was established in 1970. It has had such a rapid increase in enrollment that the administrators of Tulsa Junior college have had to constantly look for temporary locations in which to hold classes for their students due to the lack of space at their main campus, now called the Metro Campus. Because TJC has recently been designated as a multi-campus junior college, the first such junior college in the state of Oklahoma and because of its rapidly increasing enrollment it has recently opened some classrooms in the state office complex near downtown Tulsa. We have hear with us today the president of Tulsa Junior College
Dr. Al Philips. Al I am glad to have this opportunity to come by and see you sir.
Dr. Al Philips: Well Carter it is a pleasure for us today we are highly honored that you would be here and to take the time. We are very proud of the operation that has developed that you may know is made us the 5th largest among all the colleges and universities in Oklahoma this fall.
Carter Bradley: That’s unbelievable. The 5th largest in seven years.
Dr. Al Philips: That’s right.
Carter Bradley: Now we are here at this state office complex right across from the assembly center at downtown Tulsa and I understand you now have classrooms in this building.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes we began operation in this facility. This past August and we have oh at the present not nearly at maximum capacity here yet. We have perhaps 600 students here and in the day time and then we have approximately 30 to 35 classes in the evening. One reason for this the renovation of the facility was not entirely complete when school began so we were scheduled so we moved right on in and we have been building our program ever since and we expect to continue building it here. This is a very excellent interim adjunct facility and as you know TJC has a variety of facilities that it utilizes around the community other than its principle Metro Campus at 10th and Boston.
Carter Bradley: I’d like to see how you make use of this kind of facility Al.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, I think that it might be a very appropriate Carter if we maybe took a little tour inside. Let’s just do that. Go on in.
Carter Bradley: Al you certainly get a great view of the Tulsa skyline from these windows.
Dr. Al Philips: We will go right down here to part of the Metro area. Carter I would like to introduce you to Phil Wright who is our coordinator in the day time here at the State Office Complex. Mr. Wright is the man who is primarily responsible for seeing to it that this place runs and runs well.
Carter Bradley: Well I feel fortunate to be able to talk to you a little bit here Phil and
Dr. Phillips about this operation. You know Tulsa Junior College has grown so rapidly. In fact what is your enrollment now Al?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, our enrollment in credit programs Carter at the current time 7,138 and in the special or non-credit programs it is about another 2800 students. So we are serving well in excess of 9,500 students totally.
Carter Bradley: close to 10,000?
Dr. Al Philips: Yes close to 10,000 students in day and evening in credit and non-credit programs.
Carter Bradley: You know for an institution to develop that kind of participation in a 7 year period obviously means you have a great community involvement participation. How do you go about getting that kind of involvement in such a short time?
Dr. Al Philips: Well I think it’s very much like in a business Carter. For example you have to offer a quality product and if you offer a quality product and people. At a fair price then you are going to have people come. You also have to have a broad line of merchandise and with the kinds of programs that we have here at TJC which literally offers something for I would say almost everyone. We have this board line. We have this very reasonable price and we have a very quality kind of program. You put this combination together with a need here in Tulsa for this kind of thing and you really have a winner.
Carter Bradley: Yea. Phil you really have a great facility here. Dr. Philips has shown me some of it. Just how did you get to this place the State Office Complex in downtown Tulsa? I know it’s a temporary thing, but how did you reach this place as a means to help serve your students?
Phil Wright: Well I think Dr. Philips can bring you up a little on the history and I’ll take over from there.
Dr. Al Philips: Well just very briefly Carter this came about following a request of some of our legislators about a year ago as to whether or not parts of this facility could be helpful to TJC. We did a very careful study of this matter and concluded and our board concluded that it was entirely feasible for us to do this. The state has provided us the funding to make this go and we are very pleased with the opportunity to be able to expand our facility.
Carter Bradley: And this would be about the first time this quarter when you can really handle all the students that want to attend Tulsa Junior College. Not have to turn people away.
Dr. Al Philips: Well the history of our operation has been that we have had to turn a great many people away and I would say yes. We have come to a point where with the exception of certain programs which always fill that we should be able to serve the majority of the people that would like to attend our Metro Campus.
Carter Bradley: Well we want to get down to your main campus, Metro Campus and that new building that you just finished down there remodeled and renovated. And Phil we are really pleased to have this chance to meet you and to see this facility and we will go on now to the building in Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: We have now moved to the Metro Campus of TJC and as Al Philips said Tulsa Junior College relates very closely with the entire community of Tulsa. One of the people who serves on the staff of TJC and makes these relationships work is Mr. Bill Wells, Director of Technical Occupational Programs here at TJC. Bill welcome to Candid Campus.
Bill Wells: Thank you I appreciate you coming to our campus today.
Carter Bradley: We are glad to be here. I understand that 50% of the educational programs at TJC are Technical Occupational Programs. How do they differ from other normal what we would call the usual academic programs Bill?
Bill Wells: These programs vary in length maybe one semester to up to four semesters and they primarily train people to go out and get a job at the end of a period of time. It might be a 2 year or 3 year program because many of our people go to school and work at the same time. So at the end of a training program they have a saleable skill and can get a job and are employable. Where by a bachelorette program a student leaves here and has 2 more years to get his degree then get a job. It speeds the process up a little bit.
Carter Bradley: How many programs of this kind do you have here at TJC? And give us a description of generally of what they are.
Bill Wells: We have 43 Technical Occupational Programs. You can see there is quiet a wealth of types of programs. We have many programs in the area health, in fact many people in Oklahoma do not know that Tulsa Junior College is the 2nd largest medical school in Tulsa and the Oklahoma area in that we have 12 medical programs. The largest one is our nursing program in which we have an excess of 250 students. In some of the other areas industrial technologies we have machinist technologies, welding technology and electronics technology. In the business area we have a wealth from accounting to management to marketing. Transportation, traffic and real estate. In the public service area we have police science program as well as fire protection and safety technology program. Another program we have here is called labor leadership which trains people to improve their skills who work in a union for instance. The probably the largest program at Tulsa Junior College is our computer science program which we have 3 options in this. The computer operator, computer programmer and the programmer analyst program.
Carter Bradley: How do you know Bill which technical occupational programs are needed? Which programs to start?
Bill Wells: These programs are primarily developed based on the man power needs in the community and we start these programs and phase them out based on man power needs. After we locate through various surveys and working with people from the community about the types of man power problems companies are having when the compose an advisory committee made up say 10-15 people which are actual practitioners in the field that do this every day on the job. As well as personal directors in related areas. These people come in and talk to us about the type of training and skills they want the finish product that we produce to have. Then we put together the curriculum and start a program. So we really develop a team for these programs with people from the community. We look at TJC as a manufacturing plant. Manufacturing a product that the business community will buy at the end of a period of time.
Carter Bradley: How many such advisory groups do you have Bill?
Bill Wells: We have one for each one of our programs. That would be 43 advisory committees and that composes of about 350 people. They change from year to year.
Carter Bradley: And what kind of people enroll in these…give us some idea of just what kind of students do you get in the programs.
Bill Wells: In the technical occupational programs we usually have about 3 types of people. We have the person that has no saleable skill that has selected one of these programs and has decided this is their major area. We have a person for instance that has just been promoted to a particular area and has no skill and comes in and maybe takes selective specialized courses and then we have the person that is already employed in the field. For instance like in our banking and finance program here where by 90% of them are already employed coming down here for upgrade training in order to advance for instance in the financial area.
Carter Bradley: Most of these people who are in technical occupational programs are either now employed in that general field but some of them are probably going to have to go out and find jobs. About how many of them go into the field for what you have provided training?
Bill Wells: We do provide placement for students and I would say by the end of 45 hours of the training program majority of them already have job offers but at the end of the training program at least 85% of them do get jobs in that particular area. About 5% to 10% are either employed in related areas or continue their education.
Carter Bradley: Fine Bill. One final question. What do you think of the future of Technical Occupational Education? We don’t have much time. I’m sure you could talk on this for hours real briefly.
Bill Wells: Well in the Tulsa area as you it’s one of the growing metropolitan areas in this part of the country and as Tulsa grows there will be continuing man power needs for additional programs and we will continue to develop these. This coming year we plan to develop 9 additional programs and each year as are outlying campuses are developed we will develop more and more of these types of programs.
Carter Bradley: Thank you Bill for this capsule summary of the technical occupational programs here at TJC
Carter Bradley: Another phase of the community outreach at TJC is in the area of special programs. They differ somewhat from the technical occupational programs that we just heard discussed. The person who heads up the special programs at TJC is Sue Wilson. Sue it is good to have you on Candid Campus.
Sue Wilson: Thank you Carter. Welcome to TJC.
Carter Bradley: Why don’t you tell us just how do Special Programs differ from the TO programs and give us a little bit of information on your online here.
Sue Wilson: Your Special Programs are all of your programs short courses, seminars that are offered without college credit. And your Technical Occupational programs all carry college credit. Now this may mean we are doing programs in photography and art in business and management, manufacturing operations. Just a little bit of everything that the community needs and that we can meet through non-credit offerings.
Carter Bradley: Where are these classes held Sue?
Sue Wilson: All over Tulsa County Carter. We have programs here at 909 S. Boston. Over at 404 S. Hudson and we are working in corporation with 5 independent school districts in Tulsa County. Jenks, Sand Springs, Owasso, Broken Arrow. We are all over the place.
Carter Bradley: And you operate these courses in these classes right in these public school buildings do you?
Sue Wilson: Yes sir. Or places like Oklahoma Natural Gas and Stained Glass Studios. The Williams Company has quiet of a few of our programs. We do a lot of in house training Carter for company personal that cannot come to the campus for our programs. We are doing a lot of mid-management, short hand, accounting. Anything the company needs to supplement their own training programs.
Carter Bradley: How do you deal with the companies? How do you know what say Williams Brothers or Oklahoma Natural needs in this way of this kind of educational program?
Sue Wilson: Well about 90% of my time is spent off campus and we have 2 other coordinators that work out of my area and we spend a lot of time talking with both of our advisory committees. See we use the same advisory committees to the great extent that the credit programs do. And we visit with the companies and we are in close contact with all the professional training organizations
Carter Bradley: Now how often do these advisory groups meet Sue?
Sue Wilson: As often as we need them. Usually once a year sometimes twice a year depending upon how many programs we are looking at
Carter Bradley: Let’s just take the Williams Companies for instance as an example. Now they cover so many different fields as we know will there be probably several advisory groups to take care of their needs.
Sue Wilson: Well, primarily with the Williams Companies we are working a great deal with the Agrico Chemical Corporation which is a part of the Williams Companies. And their training person there called and said they were looking at some developmental reading and they were needing some accounting and we have an interesting program going there. The company I think is very far sided.
Carter Bradley: They sure are.
Sue Wilson: The students give an half hour of their lunch hour the company gives them a half hour of their time and we teach them right there in the building. And we have an amazing record of completion
Carter Bradley: I see. Let’s talk a little about your non-business programs. I understand you have quite a few of those. In fact I’m sure you do.
Sue Wilson: Yes of course. And they are always more visible. I like to tell the tale about the young man. We think of the non-business the leisure time related classes as not being related to your occupation but we had one young man who took basket weaving. Liked it so well he quit his job and he is now making and selling baskets for a living.
Carter Bradley: What was a hobby as become a vocation.
Sue Wilson: That is exactly right. And we have a lot of oil painting, drawing and painting, sketching, photography. In the photography area that can also be quite business related because you are talking about commercial, wedding photography, taking pictures of babies.
Carter Bradley: How many such courses non-business or these so called hobby type you might call them courses would you offer in a year?
Sue Wilson: We offer between 200 and 250 each Fall and each Spring and then about 100 in the Summer. Since we started we have had about 22,000 people go through our special programs.
Carter Bradley: That’s in seven years?
Sue Wilson: yes
Carter Bradley: Now we are about out of time Sue and you knew so many things here. Tell me a little about what you see is the future for this special program for TJC?
Sue Wilson: Well if I can believe what I am seeing here in Tulsa and what we are reading in the national magaiznes this is where the future of education is because people are coming back to school and we will be going to school throughout our lives. As many times we are going to be changing jobs and taking new jobs after retirement. Carter I think this is the way of the future. I really do.
Carter Bradley: You think we are here to stay then with this kind of program?
Sue Wilson: I sure do.
Carter Bradley: Sue thank you very much for this quick special inside to the Special Programs here at TJC.
Carter Bradley: There’s no question about what the president of TJC, Dr. Al Philips has good and sufficient reason to be proud of the great progress made by this institution since its establishment seven years ago. We are now standing in front of a very unusual piece of architecture in terms of higher education in Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s so called only vertical campus. The building was once a corporate headquarters for an oil company which has now been totally converted to Oklahoma’s only multi-campus junior college is Tulsa Junior College. Al tell us how this came about and how you got to the point of full occupancy out of this building behind us?
Dr. Al Philips: Well Carter sometimes this building has been truly referred to as higher education because it is a multi-story campus. It’s our Metro Campus, the center the heartthrob of Tulsa Junior College. It has a very interesting history. Going back to the origination back to the 1970 of not being simply financially able to build a new campus. Faced with the necessity to being offering an educational opportunity as a junior college to people in Tulsa area. So we looked around for a building to lease and after looking at perhaps 20 different structures here in town. For this one seeming fairly ideal for 3 years we leased it and operated on 3 floors. Then it was possible to purchase the building through state funds and also through some assistance from the City of Tulsa. From that point on we laid plans for the remodeling totally of this building into what you see it to be today.
Carter Bradley: And you maintained classes here during that remodeling process?
Dr. Al Philips: Yes very much so we worked under some considerable difficulties but during this time our enrollment continued to grow. It would take a long time to go into all the logistic matters that were necessary to carry on 5.5 million dollars’ worth of remodeling and operate at an average enrollment level of nearly 6000 students while we were doing it. It’s a great tribute to the people who work here and to the students who have gone here that this has all worked out in a very successful manner.
Carter Bradley: What is the total state investment at this time, in this Metro Campus location, Al?
Dr. Al Philips: Well the total investment which would be a pretty close estimated figure at this time including building, land, remodeling, equipment is, I would say, about ten and a half million dollars.
Carter Bradley: Would it have been cheaper to have gone out here somewhere, hopefully near downtown Tulsa, found another square block or two of land and developed it as a brand new campus?
Dr. Al Philips: Carter there’s no way in my mind that it was have been possible to build the kind of structure we have, acquire the land, build a structure, equip it as this building stands today for anywhere near that figure.
Carter Bradley: Not only that but you’ve had use of the facility all along, even the years when you were leasing it.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes very much so.
Carter Bradley: Now I understand that very recently you have, well not to recently, you have now made some further developments at your Northeast Campus, the other campus of TJC. I want to know a little bit more about the Northeast Campus and where it is, Al.
Dr. Al Philips: Well part of our masterplan for the overall development of TJC is ultimately 3 campuses by 1985 with a projected enrollment of about 22,000 students.
Carter Bradley: 22,000 students?
Dr. Al Philips: 22,000 students. You have to understand that the kind of clientele that we work with here in Tulsa have an average age of 26 and a half years old, many, many part-time people. It’s a tremendous opportunity when you run 16 hours a day to work and go to school and combine it all in one kind of an experience.
Carter Bradley: You say 16 hours, what time do you start in the morning, what time do you end at night?
Dr. Al Philips: We start at approximately 7 o’clock every morning and we wind it up approximately 11 o’clock every evening.
Carter Bradley: How about the Northeast campus, what’s going on over there now?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, we acquired 80 acres of land approximately two years ago. We’ve established a nursery horticulture, a nursery management program there now in its second year. The legislature provided the planning money, equipment money for us to initiate the actual planning and development of our second campus. This is going on right now and we look forward to development of capital funds through the state so we can get that building going just as rapidly as possible because it needs to be done.
Carter Bradley: Will that also be a one building campus or do you visualize a more conventional type of college campus at that location?
Dr. Al Philips: I would visualize a more conventional type of campus although it’s hard to define what conventional means. I would not anticipate a multi-story type of building because there we have land to spread out on. Here, we are confined to a much more limited area.
Carter Bradley: How much land over there Al?
Dr. Al Philips: We have a total of 80 acres.
Carter Bradley: 80 acres, well that would be the equivalent of several city blocks.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, I don’t recall exactly the number of acres in a city block, but it certainly would be.
Carter Bradley: At this campus here behind us is actually just one city block, and as a matter of fact you don’t actually occupy the whole city block, do you?
Dr. Al Philips: Not the total block, we have a building immediately behind this building that’s not visible in this picture that we are about to begin remodeling as a student center with revenue bonds, but we in essence occupy and use the majority of the city block you see across this street.
Carter Bradley: And how will this student center function, will that be a recreation center, will it have meeting halls in it?
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, TJC does not have a traditional student center or student union building. This would be our counterpart to that. It will greatly enlarge the scope of our student activities, will give us a greatly improved food service area, book store area, meeting rooms, and this kind of thing.
Carter Bradley: Will you have a gymnasium or any kind of athletic facilities on this campus, Al?
Dr. Al Philips: No, we will not. The facilities do not lend themselves to this. We do involve ourselves rather heavily in intramural programs and use facilities around the city for this particular purpose.
Carter Bradley: And you plan to continue those kind of intramural programs, do you have any plans to go out into intercollegiate type athletics for TJC?
Dr. Al Philips: At this present time I would say no. I don’t believe that its part of the particular mission or function of this college at this particular time to do this. We concentrate on those kinds of activities that people are going to carry on throughout their lives and they are of an intramural nature.
Carter Bradley: Al I know exactly what you mean because we’ve had great conversations a short while ago with Sue Wilson and Bill Wells, two of the people that have helped you develop these outreach programs at Tulsa Junior College. It has been an amazing and unique development in our education in Oklahoma, and in this last minute of this Candid Campus program I wish you’d, real fast, give me a rundown on what you see as the future of TJC. Where are you going from here?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, where we’re going from here of course is to the completion of the development of the facility, the block that you see across the street. We look next towards the development and completion of our Northeast Campus. We hope one day to have a campus in the Southeast sector of Tulsa, and perhaps one day in the western part of Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: So you’re shooting for 22,000 by 1985.
Dr. Al Philips: That’s right, that’s right.
Carter Bradley: Well this concludes our visit to TJC. Be sure and toon in next week when Candid Campus will visit the Animal Diagnostic Center at Oklahoma State University. Thank you.
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Candid Campus is presented as a joint sponsorship by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association.
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This is the Oklahoma State University Television Services
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This is Candid Campus, profiles in higher education. Presented jointly sponsorship by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association. The discussion today is on Tulsa Junior College’s community outreach. Your host is Carter Bradley. Executive Director Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma.
Carter Bradley: Welcome to Candid Campus, and welcome to Tulsa Junior College. Today we are continuing our visits to a number of campuses within the state system of higher education, using the facilities of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority. Tulsa Junior College is one of the fastest growing institutions of higher learning in the Southwest. It was established in 1970. It has had such a rapid increase in enrollment that the administrators of Tulsa Junior College have had to constantly look for temporary locations in which to hold classes for their students due to the lack of space at their main campus now called the Metro Campus. Because TJC has recently been designated as a multi-campus Junior College. The first such Junior College in the State of Oklahoma. And because of its rapidly increasing enrollments it has, recently, opened some classrooms in the State Office Complex near downtown Tulsa. We have with us here today the president of Tulsa Junior College, Dr. Al Phillips. Al, I’m glad to have this opportunity to come by and see you sir.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, Carter, it’s a pleasure for us today. We’re highly honored that you would be here and take the time. We’re very proud of the operation that has developed that you may know has made us the fifth largest among all the colleges and universities in Oklahoma this fall.
Carter Bradley: That’s unbelievable. The fifth largest in seven years.
Dr. Al Philips: That’s right.
Carter Bradley: Now we’re here at this State Office Complex right across from the assembly center at downtown Tulsa and I understand you now have classrooms in this building.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, we began operations in this facility this past August, and we have, oh, at present we’re not nearly at maximum capacity here yet. We have perhaps six hundred students here and in the daytime and then we have approximately thirty to thirty-five classes in the evening. One reason for this, the renovation of the facility was not entirely complete when school began. So, we were scheduled and so we moved right on in and we’ve been building our program ever since and we expect to continue building it here. This is a very excellent interim adjunct facility. And as you know TJC has a variety of facilities that it utilizes around the community other than its principle or Metro Campus over at 10th and Boston.
Carter Bradley: I’d like to see how you make use of this kind of facility, Al.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, I think that it might be very appropriate Carter if we maybe took a little tour inside. Let’s just do that. Let’s go on in.
Carter Bradley: Al, you certainly get a great view of the Tulsa skyline from these windows.
Dr. Al Philips: We’ll we’re right down here in the heart of the Metro area, Carter. Carter I’d like to introduce you to Phil Wright who’s our Coordinator in the daytime here at the State Office Complex. Mr. Wright is the man who is primarily responsible for seeing to it that this place runs and runs well.
Carter Bradley: Thank you, thank you. Well I feel fortunate to be able to talk to you a little bit Phil, here. To talk to Dr. Phil about this operation. You know Tulsa Community College has grown so rapidly. In fact, what is your enrollment at now, Al?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, our enrollment in credit programs, Carter, at the present time is 7138. In the special and non-credit programs is about another 2800 students. So we are serving, well, an excessive 9000 students totally.
Carter Bradley: Close to 10,000.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, close to 10,000 students in day and evening, credit and non-credit programs.
Carter Bradley: You know for an institution to develop that kind of participation within a seven year period, obviously means you’ve got great community involvement participation. How do you go about getting that sort of thing going in such a short amount of time?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, I think it is very much like in a business, Carter. For example, you have to offer quality product. And if you offer a quality product then people – at a fair price – then you’re going to have people come. You also have to have a broad line of merchandise. And with the kinds of programs that we have here at TJC which literally offer something for, I would say, almost everyone. We have this broad line, we have the very reasonable price, and we have a very quality kind of programming. Put this combination together, with a need here in Tulsa for this kind of thing, and you really have a winner.
Carter Bradley: Phil, you’ve got a great facility here. Dr. Philips was showing me some of it. Just how did you get to this place, to the State Office Complex in Downtown Tulsa? I know this is a temporary thing, but how did you reach this place as a means to help serve your students?
Dr. Phil Wright: Well, I think Dr. Philips can bring up a little bit of the history and I’ll take over from there.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, just very briefly, Carter, this came about following a request of some of our legislators about a year ago, as to whether or not parts of this facility could be helpful to TJC. We did a very careful study of this matter and our board concluded that it was entirely feasible for us to do this. The state has provided us the funding to make this go, and we’re very pleased with the opportunity to expand our facilities.
Carter Bradley: And this will be about the first time when you can really handle all the students who want to attend Tulsa Junior College, and not have to turn people away.
Dr. Al Philips: Well the history of our operation has been that we have to turn a great many people away, and I would say yes. We have come to a point where, with the exception of certain programs which always fill, that we should be able to serve the majority of the people who would like to attend our Metro Campus.
Carter Bradley: Well fine. We want to get down to your main campus, the Metro Campus, and that new building you just finished down there. Remodeled and renovated. And Phil we’re really pleased to meet you and to see this facility, and we’ll go on down now to the building in Downtown Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: We have now moved to the metro campus of TJC. And as Al Philips said, Tulsa Junior College relates very closely to the entire community of Tulsa. One of the people who serves on the staff of TJC and makes these relationships work, is Mr. Bill Wells, the Director of Technical Occupational Programs here at TJC. Bill, welcome to Candid Campus.
Bill Wells: Thank you, I appreciate you coming to our campus today.
Carter Bradley: Well we’re glad to be here. I understand that 50% of the programs, the educational programs at TJC, are Technical Occupational Programs. How would they differ from normal, or what we would call “the usual”, Academic Programs, Bill?
Bill Wells: These programs vary in length from a semester to up to four semester, and they primarily train people to go out and get a job at the end of a period of time. It might be a two year, three year program, because many of our people go to school and work at the same time. At the end of a training program they have a saleable skill, and they can get a job and are employable. Whereby a bachelor degree program a student leaves here, he has to take two more years to get his degree and then get a job. So it speeds the process up a little bit.
Carter Bradley: How many programs of this kind do you have here at TJC and give us a description of genuinely what they are.
Bill Wells: We have 43 Technical Occupation Programs, and you can see there is quite a wealth of different types of programs. We have many programs in the area of Health. In fact many people in Oklahoma didn’t know that Tulsa Junior College is the second largest medical school in Tulsa, and the Oklahoma area, and that we have twelve medical programs. The largest one is our nursing program which we have an excessive 250 students. In some of the other areas, in the Industrial Technologies, we have Machinist Technology, Welding Technology, Electronics Technology. In the Business area we have a wealth from Accounting, to Management, Marketing, Transportation and Traffic, Real Estate. In the Public Service area we have the Police Science program as well as the Fire Protection and Safety Technologies program. And then another program that we have here is called Labor Leadership, which trains people to improve their skills who work in a Union for instance. Probably the largest program in Tulsa Junior College is our Computer Science program, which we have three options in this: The Computer Operator, Computer Programmer, and the Programmer Analyst Programs.
Carter Bradly: How do you know, Bill, which Technical Occupation Programs are needed? Which Programs to start?
Bill Wells: These programs are based primarily on the manpower needs in the community. We start these programs and phase them out based on manpower needs. After we locate, through various surveys and working with the people in the community about the types of manpower problems companies are having. We then compose an advisory committee made up of, say, 10-15 people which are actually practitioners in the field that do this every day on the job, as well as personnel directors in related areas. These people come in and talk to us about the types of training and skills that they want the finished product that we produce to have. Then together with them we put together the curriculum, and start the program. So we really team the development of these programs with people from the community. We look at TJC as a manufacturing plant, manufacturing a product that the business community will buy at the end of a period of time.
Carter Bradley: How many such advisory groups do you have Bill?
Bill Wells: We have one for each one of our programs, that would be 43 advisory committees, I suppose about 350 people. And they change from year to year.
Carter Bradley: And what kind of people enroll in these, give us some idea of what kind of student do you get enrolled in TO programs?
Bill Wells: In our Technical Occupation Programs we usually have about three types of people. We have the person that has no saleable skill, has selected one of these programs and has decided this would be a major area. We have a person, for instance, has just been promoted to a major area, has no skill and comes in and takes maybe only selected specialized courses. And then we have the person that’s already employed in the field, for instance like in the Banking and Finance program here, whereby 90% of them are already employed, they’re coming down here for upgrade training in order to advance, for instance, in the financial area.
Carter Bradley: Most of these people that are in Technical Occupation Programs are either now employed in that general field, but some of them are going to have to go on out and find jobs. About how many of them are employed in the field for which you trained them?
Bill Wells: We do provide placement for our students, and I would say that by the end of 45 hours of the training program the majority of them already have job offers. But at the end of the training program at least 85% of them do get jobs in that particular area. About 5-10% are either employed in related areas or continue their education.
Carter Bradley: Fine, Bill. One final question. What do you think of the future of Technical Occupation Education? We don’t have much time, I’m sure you could talk on this for hours, but real briefly.
Bill Wells: Well in the Tulsa area, as you know, it’s probably one of the growingest metropolitan areas in this part of the country. And as Tulsa grows there will be continued manpower needs for additional programs, and we will continue to develop. This coming year we plan to develop about 9 additional programs, and each year as our outlying campuses are developed, we will develop more and more of these types of programs.
Carter Bradley: Fine. Thank you, Bill, for this capsule summary of the Technical Occupational Programs here at TJC.
Carter Bradley: Another phase in the community outreach of TJC is in the area of Special Programs, they differ somewhat from the Technical Occupation Programs that we just heard discussed. And the person who heads up the Special Programs here at TJC is Sue Wilson. Sue it’s good to have you here on Candid Campus.
Sue Wilson: Thank you Carter, welcome to TJC.
Carter Bradley: Thank you. And why don’t you tell us, and just how do Special Programs differ from so called TO Programs? And give us a little bit of information on your own line here.
Sue Wilson: All right. Your Special Programs are all of your programs, short courses, seminars, that are offered without college credit. And your Technical Occupation programs all carry college credit. Now, this may mean that we’re doing programs in photography and art, in business and management, manufacturing and operations, just a little bit of everything. Whatever it is that the community needs, we can meet through non-credit offerings.
Carter Bradley: Where are these classes held Sue?
Sue Wilson: All over Tulsa County, Carter. We have programs here at 909 South Boston, over at 404 South Hudson, and we are working in cooperation with five of the independent school districts in Tulsa County: Jenks, Sand Springs, Owasso, Broken Arrow – we’re all over the place.
Carter Bradley: And you operate these courses, these classes, right in these public school buildings?
Sue Wilson: Yes sir, or places like Oklahoma Natural Gas, Stained Glass Studios, the Williams Companies has quite a few of our programs going. We do a lot of in-house training, Carter, for company personnel who cannot come to the campus for our programs. We’re doing a lot of mid-management, short hand, accounting. Anything the company needs to supplement their own training programs.
Carter Bradley: How do you deal with the companies? How do you know what, say, Williams Brothers or Oklahoma Natural need in way of this kind of educational program?
Sue Wilson: Well, about 90% of my time is spent on campus, and we have two other coordinators who work out of my area, and we spend a lot of time with both our advisory committees. You see, we use the same advisory committees to a great extent that the credit programs do. And we visit with the companies, we are in close contact with all the professional training organizations.
Carter Bradley: How often do these advisory committees meet, Sue?
Sue Wilson: Well, as often as we need them. Usually once a year, sometimes twice a year, depending on how many programs we are looking at.
Carter Bradley: Well let’s just take the Williams Company for instance, as an example, now they cover so many different fields as we know. Will there be probably several groups - advisory groups needed in order to take care of their needs?
Sue Wilson: Well, primarily at the Williams Company we’re working a great deal with the agrochemical corporation, which is a part of the Williams Companies. And their training person there called and said they were looking at some developmental reading, and they were needing some accounting, and we have an interesting program going there. The company, I think, is very far sighted -
Carter Bradley: Yes they certainly are.
Sue Wilson: The students give them a half hour of their lunch hour, the company gives them a half hour of their time, and we teach right there in the building.
Carter Bradley: It’s like 50/50 isn’t it?
Sue Wilson: That’s right. And we have an amazing record of completion there.
Carter Bradley: Let’s talk a little bit about your non-business programs. I understand you have quite a few of those, as a matter of fact, I’m sure you do.
Sue Wilson: Yes, and of course they’re always more visible. I like to tell the tale about the young man. We tend to think of the non-business, the leisure type related classes as not related to your occupation. But we had one young man who took basket weaving, liked it so well he quit his job, and he is now making and selling baskets for a living. But we teach –
Carter Bradley: Once a hobby, now a vocation.
Sue Wilson: That is exactly right, and we have a lot of oil painting, drawing and sketching, photography. And the photography area that can also be quite business related, because you’re talking about commercial, wedding photography, taking pictures of babies.
Carter Bradley: How many such courses, non-business, or these so called “hobby” type, you might call them, courses do you offer in a year?
Sue Wilson: Oh we offer between 200 and 250 each fall and spring, and about 100 in the summer. Since we started we’ve had about 22,000 people go through out Special Programs.
Carter Bradley: That’s in seven years?
Sue Wilson: Yes.
Carter Bradley: Now, what – we’re about out of time, Sue – you do so many things here. Tell me what you see as kind of the future of this program here at TJC?
Sue Wilson: Well, if I can believe what I’m seeing here in Tulsa and what we’re reading in the national magazines, this is where the future of education is. Because people are coming back to school, and we will be going to school throughout our lives. As many times as we are going to be changing jobs, and taking new jobs after retirement. Carter, I think this is the wave of the future, I really do.
Carter Bradley: You think we’re here to stay then, this kind of program here in Tulsa?
Sue Wilson: I sure do.
Carter Bradley: Well Sue, thank you very much for this quick insight into the Special Programs here at TJC.
New clip
Carter Bradley: There’s no question of what the president of TJC, Dr. Al Phillips, has good and sufficient reason to be proud of the great progress made by this institution since its establishment 7 years ago. We’re now standing in front of a very unusual piece of architecture in terms of higher education in Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s only so-called vertical urban campus. A building that was once a corporate headquarters for an oil company which has now been totally converted to Oklahoma’s only multi campus junior college, Tulsa Junior College. Al, tell us how this came about how you got to the point of having full occupancy now of this building behind us.
Dr. Al Phillips: Well Carter, sometimes this building has been referred to as truly higher education because it is a multi-story campus, our metro campus. The center of the heartthrob of Tulsa Junior College. It has a very interesting history. Going back to the origination in 1970 simply a matter of not being able, financially able to build a new campus. Faced with the necessity to begin offering an educational opportunity as a junior college to people in the Tulsa area. So we looked around for a building to lease and after looking perhaps 20 different structures around town we found this one to be seemingly very ideal and for 3 years we leased it and operated on 3 floors. Then it was possible to purchase the building through state funds and also through some assistance through from the city of Tulsa. From that point on we laid plans for the remodeling totally of this building into what you see it to be today and so…
Carter Bradley: And you maintained classes here during that remodeling process?
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, very much so. We worked under some considerable difficulties but during this time our enrollment continued to grow. It would take a long time to go into all the logistic matters that were necessary in order to carry on 5.5 million dollars worth of remodeling and operate at an average enrollment level of nearly 6,000 students while we were doing it. It’s a great tribute to the people who work here and students that have gone here that this has all worked out in a very successful manner.
Carter Bradley: What is the total state investment at this time at this metro campus location, Al?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well the total investment which would be a pretty close estimated figure at this time including building, land. Remodeling, and equipment would is I would say about 10 and a half million dollars.
Carter Bradley: Would it have been cheaper to have gone out here somewhere, hopefully near downtown Tulsa, found another square lot or two of land and developed it as a brand new campus?
Dr. Al Phillips: Carter there is no way in my mind that it would have been possible to build the kind of structure we have, acquire the land, build the structure, equip it as this building stands today for anywhere near that figure.
Carter Bradley: Not only that but you’ve had use of the facility all along. Even the years when you were leasing it.
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, very much so.
Carter Bradley: Now I understand that very recently you have, not too recently, but you have now made some further developments at your Northeast campus. The other campus of TJC. I want to know a little bit more about the Northeast campus and where it is Al.
Dr. Al Phillips: Well part of our master plan for the overall development of TJC is ultimately 3 campuses by 1985 with a projected enrollment of about 22,000 students.
Carter Bradley: 22,000 students?
Dr. Al Phillips: 22, 000 students. You have to remember that the kind of clientele that we work with here in Tulsa have an average age of 26 and a half years old. Many, many part-time people, it’s a tremendous opportunity when you run 16 hours a day to work and go to school and combine it all in one kind of an experience.
Carter Bradley: You say 16 hours. What time do you start in the morning and what time do you end at night?
Dr. Al Phillips: We start approximately 7 o’clock every morning and wind it up about approximately 11 o’clock every evening.
Carter Bradley: How about the Northeast campus? What’s going on over there now?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well we acquired 80 acres of land approximately 2 years ago. We’ve established a nursery/horticulture, nursery/management program there now in its 2nd year. The legislature provided the planning money, development money for us to initiate the actual planning and development of our second campus. This is going on right now and we look forward to the development of capital funds through the state so that we can get that building going just as rapidly as possible because it needs to be done.
Carter Bradley: Will that be…also be a one building campus or do you visualize a more conventional type of college campus at that location?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well I would visualize a more conventional type of campus, though it’s hard to define exactly what conventional means. I would not anticipate a multi-story kind of building because there we have land to spread out on. Here we are confined to a much more limited area.
Carter Bradley: How much land over there, Al?
Dr. Al Phillips: We have a total of 80 acres.
Carter Bradley: 80 acres? Well that would be then several…the equivalent of several city blocks.
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, I don’t recall exactly the number of acres in a city block but it certainly would be.
Carter Bradley: But this campus here behind us is actually just one city block. As a matter of fact you don’t actually occupy the whole city block do you?
Dr. Al Phillips: Not the total block. We have a building immediately behind this building that’s not visible here in this picture that we are about to begin remodeling as a student center under revenue bonds. And we in essence though we occupy and use the majority of this block that you see here across the street.
Carter Bradley: And how will the student center function. Will that be a recreation center will it have meeting halls in it?
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, TJC does not have a traditional student center or student union building. This would be our counterpart to that. It will greatly enlarge the scope of our student activities, will give us a greatly improved food service area, bookstore area, meeting rooms and this kind of thing.
Carter Bradley: Do you, will you have a gymnasium or any kind of athletic facilities on this campus, Al?
Dr. Al Phillips: No we will not. The facilities do not lend themselves to this. We do involve ourselves rather heavily in intramural programs and use facilities around the city for this particular purpose.
Carter Bradley: And you plan to continue those kinds of intramural programs, do you have any plans to go out into any of the inter-collegiate type athletics for TJC?
Dr. Al Phillips: At this present time I would say no. I don’t believe that it’s part of the particular mission or function of this college at this particular time to do this. We concentrate on those kinds of activities that people are going to carry on throughout their lives and they are of an intramural nature.
Carter Bradley: Al, I know exactly what you mean because we’ve had great conversations a short while ago with Sue Wilson and Bill Wells, two of the people who have helped you develop these outreach programs at Tulsa Junior College. It has been an amazing and unique in higher education in Oklahoma and in this last minute of this Candid Campus program I wish you’d real fast give me a rundown on what you see in the future of TJC. Where are you going from here?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well where we’re going from here of course is to the completion of the development of the facility the block that you see across the street. We look next towards the development and completion of our Northeast campus. We hope one day to have a campus in the southeast sector of Tulsa and perhaps also one day in the western part of Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: So you’re shooting for 22,000 by 1985
Dr. Al Phillips: That’s right
Carter Bradley: Well this concludes our visit to TJC. Be sure and tune in next week when Candid Campus will visit the animal diagnostic center at Oklahoma State University. Thank you.
[Narrator] Candid Campus is presented under joint sponsorship by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma and by the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association.
This is the Oklahoma State University Educational Television Services.
Carter Bradley: Welcome to Candid Campus. Welcome to Tulsa Junior College. Today we are continuing our visits to a number of campuses within the states system of higher education. Using the facilities of the Oklahoma educational television authority.
Carter Bradley: Tulsa Junior College is one of the fastest growing institutions of higher learning in the southwest. It was established in 1970. It has had such a rapid increase in enrollment that the administrators of Tulsa Junior college have had to constantly look for temporary locations in which to hold classes for their students due to the lack of space at their main campus, now called the Metro Campus. Because TJC has recently been designated as a multi-campus junior college, the first such junior college in the state of Oklahoma and because of its rapidly increasing enrollment it has recently opened some classrooms in the state office complex near downtown Tulsa. We have hear with us today the president of Tulsa Junior College
Dr. Al Philips. Al I am glad to have this opportunity to come by and see you sir.
Dr. Al Philips: Well Carter it is a pleasure for us today we are highly honored that you would be here and to take the time. We are very proud of the operation that has developed that you may know is made us the 5th largest among all the colleges and universities in Oklahoma this fall.
Carter Bradley: That’s unbelievable. The 5th largest in seven years.
Dr. Al Philips: That’s right.
Carter Bradley: Now we are here at this state office complex right across from the assembly center at downtown Tulsa and I understand you now have classrooms in this building.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes we began operation in this facility. This past August and we have oh at the present not nearly at maximum capacity here yet. We have perhaps 600 students here and in the day time and then we have approximately 30 to 35 classes in the evening. One reason for this the renovation of the facility was not entirely complete when school began so we were scheduled so we moved right on in and we have been building our program ever since and we expect to continue building it here. This is a very excellent interim adjunct facility and as you know TJC has a variety of facilities that it utilizes around the community other than its principle Metro Campus at 10th and Boston.
Carter Bradley: I’d like to see how you make use of this kind of facility Al.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, I think that it might be a very appropriate Carter if we maybe took a little tour inside. Let’s just do that. Go on in.
Carter Bradley: Al you certainly get a great view of the Tulsa skyline from these windows.
Dr. Al Philips: We will go right down here to part of the Metro area. Carter I would like to introduce you to Phil Wright who is our coordinator in the day time here at the State Office Complex. Mr. Wright is the man who is primarily responsible for seeing to it that this place runs and runs well.
Carter Bradley: Well I feel fortunate to be able to talk to you a little bit here Phil and
Dr. Phillips about this operation. You know Tulsa Junior College has grown so rapidly. In fact what is your enrollment now Al?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, our enrollment in credit programs Carter at the current time 7,138 and in the special or non-credit programs it is about another 2800 students. So we are serving well in excess of 9,500 students totally.
Carter Bradley: close to 10,000?
Dr. Al Philips: Yes close to 10,000 students in day and evening in credit and non-credit programs.
Carter Bradley: You know for an institution to develop that kind of participation in a 7 year period obviously means you have a great community involvement participation. How do you go about getting that kind of involvement in such a short time?
Dr. Al Philips: Well I think it’s very much like in a business Carter. For example you have to offer a quality product and if you offer a quality product and people. At a fair price then you are going to have people come. You also have to have a broad line of merchandise and with the kinds of programs that we have here at TJC which literally offers something for I would say almost everyone. We have this board line. We have this very reasonable price and we have a very quality kind of program. You put this combination together with a need here in Tulsa for this kind of thing and you really have a winner.
Carter Bradley: Yea. Phil you really have a great facility here. Dr. Philips has shown me some of it. Just how did you get to this place the State Office Complex in downtown Tulsa? I know it’s a temporary thing, but how did you reach this place as a means to help serve your students?
Phil Wright: Well I think Dr. Philips can bring you up a little on the history and I’ll take over from there.
Dr. Al Philips: Well just very briefly Carter this came about following a request of some of our legislators about a year ago as to whether or not parts of this facility could be helpful to TJC. We did a very careful study of this matter and concluded and our board concluded that it was entirely feasible for us to do this. The state has provided us the funding to make this go and we are very pleased with the opportunity to be able to expand our facility.
Carter Bradley: And this would be about the first time this quarter when you can really handle all the students that want to attend Tulsa Junior College. Not have to turn people away.
Dr. Al Philips: Well the history of our operation has been that we have had to turn a great many people away and I would say yes. We have come to a point where with the exception of certain programs which always fill that we should be able to serve the majority of the people that would like to attend our Metro Campus.
Carter Bradley: Well we want to get down to your main campus, Metro Campus and that new building that you just finished down there remodeled and renovated. And Phil we are really pleased to have this chance to meet you and to see this facility and we will go on now to the building in Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: We have now moved to the Metro Campus of TJC and as Al Philips said Tulsa Junior College relates very closely with the entire community of Tulsa. One of the people who serves on the staff of TJC and makes these relationships work is Mr. Bill Wells, Director of Technical Occupational Programs here at TJC. Bill welcome to Candid Campus.
Bill Wells: Thank you I appreciate you coming to our campus today.
Carter Bradley: We are glad to be here. I understand that 50% of the educational programs at TJC are Technical Occupational Programs. How do they differ from other normal what we would call the usual academic programs Bill?
Bill Wells: These programs vary in length maybe one semester to up to four semesters and they primarily train people to go out and get a job at the end of a period of time. It might be a 2 year or 3 year program because many of our people go to school and work at the same time. So at the end of a training program they have a saleable skill and can get a job and are employable. Where by a bachelorette program a student leaves here and has 2 more years to get his degree then get a job. It speeds the process up a little bit.
Carter Bradley: How many programs of this kind do you have here at TJC? And give us a description of generally of what they are.
Bill Wells: We have 43 Technical Occupational Programs. You can see there is quiet a wealth of types of programs. We have many programs in the area health, in fact many people in Oklahoma do not know that Tulsa Junior College is the 2nd largest medical school in Tulsa and the Oklahoma area in that we have 12 medical programs. The largest one is our nursing program in which we have an excess of 250 students. In some of the other areas industrial technologies we have machinist technologies, welding technology and electronics technology. In the business area we have a wealth from accounting to management to marketing. Transportation, traffic and real estate. In the public service area we have police science program as well as fire protection and safety technology program. Another program we have here is called labor leadership which trains people to improve their skills who work in a union for instance. The probably the largest program at Tulsa Junior College is our computer science program which we have 3 options in this. The computer operator, computer programmer and the programmer analyst program.
Carter Bradley: How do you know Bill which technical occupational programs are needed? Which programs to start?
Bill Wells: These programs are primarily developed based on the man power needs in the community and we start these programs and phase them out based on man power needs. After we locate through various surveys and working with people from the community about the types of man power problems companies are having when the compose an advisory committee made up say 10-15 people which are actual practitioners in the field that do this every day on the job. As well as personal directors in related areas. These people come in and talk to us about the type of training and skills they want the finish product that we produce to have. Then we put together the curriculum and start a program. So we really develop a team for these programs with people from the community. We look at TJC as a manufacturing plant. Manufacturing a product that the business community will buy at the end of a period of time.
Carter Bradley: How many such advisory groups do you have Bill?
Bill Wells: We have one for each one of our programs. That would be 43 advisory committees and that composes of about 350 people. They change from year to year.
Carter Bradley: And what kind of people enroll in these…give us some idea of just what kind of students do you get in the programs.
Bill Wells: In the technical occupational programs we usually have about 3 types of people. We have the person that has no saleable skill that has selected one of these programs and has decided this is their major area. We have a person for instance that has just been promoted to a particular area and has no skill and comes in and maybe takes selective specialized courses and then we have the person that is already employed in the field. For instance like in our banking and finance program here where by 90% of them are already employed coming down here for upgrade training in order to advance for instance in the financial area.
Carter Bradley: Most of these people who are in technical occupational programs are either now employed in that general field but some of them are probably going to have to go out and find jobs. About how many of them go into the field for what you have provided training?
Bill Wells: We do provide placement for students and I would say by the end of 45 hours of the training program majority of them already have job offers but at the end of the training program at least 85% of them do get jobs in that particular area. About 5% to 10% are either employed in related areas or continue their education.
Carter Bradley: Fine Bill. One final question. What do you think of the future of Technical Occupational Education? We don’t have much time. I’m sure you could talk on this for hours real briefly.
Bill Wells: Well in the Tulsa area as you it’s one of the growing metropolitan areas in this part of the country and as Tulsa grows there will be continuing man power needs for additional programs and we will continue to develop these. This coming year we plan to develop 9 additional programs and each year as are outlying campuses are developed we will develop more and more of these types of programs.
Carter Bradley: Thank you Bill for this capsule summary of the technical occupational programs here at TJC
Carter Bradley: Another phase of the community outreach at TJC is in the area of special programs. They differ somewhat from the technical occupational programs that we just heard discussed. The person who heads up the special programs at TJC is Sue Wilson. Sue it is good to have you on Candid Campus.
Sue Wilson: Thank you Carter. Welcome to TJC.
Carter Bradley: Why don’t you tell us just how do Special Programs differ from the TO programs and give us a little bit of information on your online here.
Sue Wilson: Your Special Programs are all of your programs short courses, seminars that are offered without college credit. And your Technical Occupational programs all carry college credit. Now this may mean we are doing programs in photography and art in business and management, manufacturing operations. Just a little bit of everything that the community needs and that we can meet through non-credit offerings.
Carter Bradley: Where are these classes held Sue?
Sue Wilson: All over Tulsa County Carter. We have programs here at 909 S. Boston. Over at 404 S. Hudson and we are working in corporation with 5 independent school districts in Tulsa County. Jenks, Sand Springs, Owasso, Broken Arrow. We are all over the place.
Carter Bradley: And you operate these courses in these classes right in these public school buildings do you?
Sue Wilson: Yes sir. Or places like Oklahoma Natural Gas and Stained Glass Studios. The Williams Company has quiet of a few of our programs. We do a lot of in house training Carter for company personal that cannot come to the campus for our programs. We are doing a lot of mid-management, short hand, accounting. Anything the company needs to supplement their own training programs.
Carter Bradley: How do you deal with the companies? How do you know what say Williams Brothers or Oklahoma Natural needs in this way of this kind of educational program?
Sue Wilson: Well about 90% of my time is spent off campus and we have 2 other coordinators that work out of my area and we spend a lot of time talking with both of our advisory committees. See we use the same advisory committees to the great extent that the credit programs do. And we visit with the companies and we are in close contact with all the professional training organizations
Carter Bradley: Now how often do these advisory groups meet Sue?
Sue Wilson: As often as we need them. Usually once a year sometimes twice a year depending upon how many programs we are looking at
Carter Bradley: Let’s just take the Williams Companies for instance as an example. Now they cover so many different fields as we know will there be probably several advisory groups to take care of their needs.
Sue Wilson: Well, primarily with the Williams Companies we are working a great deal with the Agrico Chemical Corporation which is a part of the Williams Companies. And their training person there called and said they were looking at some developmental reading and they were needing some accounting and we have an interesting program going there. The company I think is very far sided.
Carter Bradley: They sure are.
Sue Wilson: The students give an half hour of their lunch hour the company gives them a half hour of their time and we teach them right there in the building. And we have an amazing record of completion
Carter Bradley: I see. Let’s talk a little about your non-business programs. I understand you have quite a few of those. In fact I’m sure you do.
Sue Wilson: Yes of course. And they are always more visible. I like to tell the tale about the young man. We think of the non-business the leisure time related classes as not being related to your occupation but we had one young man who took basket weaving. Liked it so well he quit his job and he is now making and selling baskets for a living.
Carter Bradley: What was a hobby as become a vocation.
Sue Wilson: That is exactly right. And we have a lot of oil painting, drawing and painting, sketching, photography. In the photography area that can also be quite business related because you are talking about commercial, wedding photography, taking pictures of babies.
Carter Bradley: How many such courses non-business or these so called hobby type you might call them courses would you offer in a year?
Sue Wilson: We offer between 200 and 250 each Fall and each Spring and then about 100 in the Summer. Since we started we have had about 22,000 people go through our special programs.
Carter Bradley: That’s in seven years?
Sue Wilson: yes
Carter Bradley: Now we are about out of time Sue and you knew so many things here. Tell me a little about what you see is the future for this special program for TJC?
Sue Wilson: Well if I can believe what I am seeing here in Tulsa and what we are reading in the national magaiznes this is where the future of education is because people are coming back to school and we will be going to school throughout our lives. As many times we are going to be changing jobs and taking new jobs after retirement. Carter I think this is the way of the future. I really do.
Carter Bradley: You think we are here to stay then with this kind of program?
Sue Wilson: I sure do.
Carter Bradley: Sue thank you very much for this quick special inside to the Special Programs here at TJC.
Carter Bradley: There’s no question about what the president of TJC, Dr. Al Philips has good and sufficient reason to be proud of the great progress made by this institution since its establishment seven years ago. We are now standing in front of a very unusual piece of architecture in terms of higher education in Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s so called only vertical campus. The building was once a corporate headquarters for an oil company which has now been totally converted to Oklahoma’s only multi-campus junior college is Tulsa Junior College. Al tell us how this came about and how you got to the point of full occupancy out of this building behind us?
Dr. Al Philips: Well Carter sometimes this building has been truly referred to as higher education because it is a multi-story campus. It’s our Metro Campus, the center the heartthrob of Tulsa Junior College. It has a very interesting history. Going back to the origination back to the 1970 of not being simply financially able to build a new campus. Faced with the necessity to being offering an educational opportunity as a junior college to people in Tulsa area. So we looked around for a building to lease and after looking at perhaps 20 different structures here in town. For this one seeming fairly ideal for 3 years we leased it and operated on 3 floors. Then it was possible to purchase the building through state funds and also through some assistance from the City of Tulsa. From that point on we laid plans for the remodeling totally of this building into what you see it to be today.
Carter Bradley: And you maintained classes here during that remodeling process?
Dr. Al Philips: Yes very much so we worked under some considerable difficulties but during this time our enrollment continued to grow. It would take a long time to go into all the logistic matters that were necessary to carry on 5.5 million dollars’ worth of remodeling and operate at an average enrollment level of nearly 6000 students while we were doing it. It’s a great tribute to the people who work here and to the students who have gone here that this has all worked out in a very successful manner.
Carter Bradley: What is the total state investment at this time, in this Metro Campus location, Al?
Dr. Al Philips: Well the total investment which would be a pretty close estimated figure at this time including building, land, remodeling, equipment is, I would say, about ten and a half million dollars.
Carter Bradley: Would it have been cheaper to have gone out here somewhere, hopefully near downtown Tulsa, found another square block or two of land and developed it as a brand new campus?
Dr. Al Philips: Carter there’s no way in my mind that it was have been possible to build the kind of structure we have, acquire the land, build a structure, equip it as this building stands today for anywhere near that figure.
Carter Bradley: Not only that but you’ve had use of the facility all along, even the years when you were leasing it.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes very much so.
Carter Bradley: Now I understand that very recently you have, well not to recently, you have now made some further developments at your Northeast Campus, the other campus of TJC. I want to know a little bit more about the Northeast Campus and where it is, Al.
Dr. Al Philips: Well part of our masterplan for the overall development of TJC is ultimately 3 campuses by 1985 with a projected enrollment of about 22,000 students.
Carter Bradley: 22,000 students?
Dr. Al Philips: 22,000 students. You have to understand that the kind of clientele that we work with here in Tulsa have an average age of 26 and a half years old, many, many part-time people. It’s a tremendous opportunity when you run 16 hours a day to work and go to school and combine it all in one kind of an experience.
Carter Bradley: You say 16 hours, what time do you start in the morning, what time do you end at night?
Dr. Al Philips: We start at approximately 7 o’clock every morning and we wind it up approximately 11 o’clock every evening.
Carter Bradley: How about the Northeast campus, what’s going on over there now?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, we acquired 80 acres of land approximately two years ago. We’ve established a nursery horticulture, a nursery management program there now in its second year. The legislature provided the planning money, equipment money for us to initiate the actual planning and development of our second campus. This is going on right now and we look forward to development of capital funds through the state so we can get that building going just as rapidly as possible because it needs to be done.
Carter Bradley: Will that also be a one building campus or do you visualize a more conventional type of college campus at that location?
Dr. Al Philips: I would visualize a more conventional type of campus although it’s hard to define what conventional means. I would not anticipate a multi-story type of building because there we have land to spread out on. Here, we are confined to a much more limited area.
Carter Bradley: How much land over there Al?
Dr. Al Philips: We have a total of 80 acres.
Carter Bradley: 80 acres, well that would be the equivalent of several city blocks.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, I don’t recall exactly the number of acres in a city block, but it certainly would be.
Carter Bradley: At this campus here behind us is actually just one city block, and as a matter of fact you don’t actually occupy the whole city block, do you?
Dr. Al Philips: Not the total block, we have a building immediately behind this building that’s not visible in this picture that we are about to begin remodeling as a student center with revenue bonds, but we in essence occupy and use the majority of the city block you see across this street.
Carter Bradley: And how will this student center function, will that be a recreation center, will it have meeting halls in it?
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, TJC does not have a traditional student center or student union building. This would be our counterpart to that. It will greatly enlarge the scope of our student activities, will give us a greatly improved food service area, book store area, meeting rooms, and this kind of thing.
Carter Bradley: Will you have a gymnasium or any kind of athletic facilities on this campus, Al?
Dr. Al Philips: No, we will not. The facilities do not lend themselves to this. We do involve ourselves rather heavily in intramural programs and use facilities around the city for this particular purpose.
Carter Bradley: And you plan to continue those kind of intramural programs, do you have any plans to go out into intercollegiate type athletics for TJC?
Dr. Al Philips: At this present time I would say no. I don’t believe that its part of the particular mission or function of this college at this particular time to do this. We concentrate on those kinds of activities that people are going to carry on throughout their lives and they are of an intramural nature.
Carter Bradley: Al I know exactly what you mean because we’ve had great conversations a short while ago with Sue Wilson and Bill Wells, two of the people that have helped you develop these outreach programs at Tulsa Junior College. It has been an amazing and unique development in our education in Oklahoma, and in this last minute of this Candid Campus program I wish you’d, real fast, give me a rundown on what you see as the future of TJC. Where are you going from here?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, where we’re going from here of course is to the completion of the development of the facility, the block that you see across the street. We look next towards the development and completion of our Northeast Campus. We hope one day to have a campus in the Southeast sector of Tulsa, and perhaps one day in the western part of Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: So you’re shooting for 22,000 by 1985.
Dr. Al Philips: That’s right, that’s right.
Carter Bradley: Well this concludes our visit to TJC. Be sure and toon in next week when Candid Campus will visit the Animal Diagnostic Center at Oklahoma State University. Thank you.
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Candid Campus is presented as a joint sponsorship by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association.
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This is the Oklahoma State University Television Services
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This is Candid Campus, profiles in higher education. Presented jointly sponsorship by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma and the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association. The discussion today is on Tulsa Junior College’s community outreach. Your host is Carter Bradley. Executive Director Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma.
Carter Bradley: Welcome to Candid Campus, and welcome to Tulsa Junior College. Today we are continuing our visits to a number of campuses within the state system of higher education, using the facilities of the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority. Tulsa Junior College is one of the fastest growing institutions of higher learning in the Southwest. It was established in 1970. It has had such a rapid increase in enrollment that the administrators of Tulsa Junior College have had to constantly look for temporary locations in which to hold classes for their students due to the lack of space at their main campus now called the Metro Campus. Because TJC has recently been designated as a multi-campus Junior College. The first such Junior College in the State of Oklahoma. And because of its rapidly increasing enrollments it has, recently, opened some classrooms in the State Office Complex near downtown Tulsa. We have with us here today the president of Tulsa Junior College, Dr. Al Phillips. Al, I’m glad to have this opportunity to come by and see you sir.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, Carter, it’s a pleasure for us today. We’re highly honored that you would be here and take the time. We’re very proud of the operation that has developed that you may know has made us the fifth largest among all the colleges and universities in Oklahoma this fall.
Carter Bradley: That’s unbelievable. The fifth largest in seven years.
Dr. Al Philips: That’s right.
Carter Bradley: Now we’re here at this State Office Complex right across from the assembly center at downtown Tulsa and I understand you now have classrooms in this building.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, we began operations in this facility this past August, and we have, oh, at present we’re not nearly at maximum capacity here yet. We have perhaps six hundred students here and in the daytime and then we have approximately thirty to thirty-five classes in the evening. One reason for this, the renovation of the facility was not entirely complete when school began. So, we were scheduled and so we moved right on in and we’ve been building our program ever since and we expect to continue building it here. This is a very excellent interim adjunct facility. And as you know TJC has a variety of facilities that it utilizes around the community other than its principle or Metro Campus over at 10th and Boston.
Carter Bradley: I’d like to see how you make use of this kind of facility, Al.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, I think that it might be very appropriate Carter if we maybe took a little tour inside. Let’s just do that. Let’s go on in.
Carter Bradley: Al, you certainly get a great view of the Tulsa skyline from these windows.
Dr. Al Philips: We’ll we’re right down here in the heart of the Metro area, Carter. Carter I’d like to introduce you to Phil Wright who’s our Coordinator in the daytime here at the State Office Complex. Mr. Wright is the man who is primarily responsible for seeing to it that this place runs and runs well.
Carter Bradley: Thank you, thank you. Well I feel fortunate to be able to talk to you a little bit Phil, here. To talk to Dr. Phil about this operation. You know Tulsa Community College has grown so rapidly. In fact, what is your enrollment at now, Al?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, our enrollment in credit programs, Carter, at the present time is 7138. In the special and non-credit programs is about another 2800 students. So we are serving, well, an excessive 9000 students totally.
Carter Bradley: Close to 10,000.
Dr. Al Philips: Yes, close to 10,000 students in day and evening, credit and non-credit programs.
Carter Bradley: You know for an institution to develop that kind of participation within a seven year period, obviously means you’ve got great community involvement participation. How do you go about getting that sort of thing going in such a short amount of time?
Dr. Al Philips: Well, I think it is very much like in a business, Carter. For example, you have to offer quality product. And if you offer a quality product then people – at a fair price – then you’re going to have people come. You also have to have a broad line of merchandise. And with the kinds of programs that we have here at TJC which literally offer something for, I would say, almost everyone. We have this broad line, we have the very reasonable price, and we have a very quality kind of programming. Put this combination together, with a need here in Tulsa for this kind of thing, and you really have a winner.
Carter Bradley: Phil, you’ve got a great facility here. Dr. Philips was showing me some of it. Just how did you get to this place, to the State Office Complex in Downtown Tulsa? I know this is a temporary thing, but how did you reach this place as a means to help serve your students?
Dr. Phil Wright: Well, I think Dr. Philips can bring up a little bit of the history and I’ll take over from there.
Dr. Al Philips: Well, just very briefly, Carter, this came about following a request of some of our legislators about a year ago, as to whether or not parts of this facility could be helpful to TJC. We did a very careful study of this matter and our board concluded that it was entirely feasible for us to do this. The state has provided us the funding to make this go, and we’re very pleased with the opportunity to expand our facilities.
Carter Bradley: And this will be about the first time when you can really handle all the students who want to attend Tulsa Junior College, and not have to turn people away.
Dr. Al Philips: Well the history of our operation has been that we have to turn a great many people away, and I would say yes. We have come to a point where, with the exception of certain programs which always fill, that we should be able to serve the majority of the people who would like to attend our Metro Campus.
Carter Bradley: Well fine. We want to get down to your main campus, the Metro Campus, and that new building you just finished down there. Remodeled and renovated. And Phil we’re really pleased to meet you and to see this facility, and we’ll go on down now to the building in Downtown Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: We have now moved to the metro campus of TJC. And as Al Philips said, Tulsa Junior College relates very closely to the entire community of Tulsa. One of the people who serves on the staff of TJC and makes these relationships work, is Mr. Bill Wells, the Director of Technical Occupational Programs here at TJC. Bill, welcome to Candid Campus.
Bill Wells: Thank you, I appreciate you coming to our campus today.
Carter Bradley: Well we’re glad to be here. I understand that 50% of the programs, the educational programs at TJC, are Technical Occupational Programs. How would they differ from normal, or what we would call “the usual”, Academic Programs, Bill?
Bill Wells: These programs vary in length from a semester to up to four semester, and they primarily train people to go out and get a job at the end of a period of time. It might be a two year, three year program, because many of our people go to school and work at the same time. At the end of a training program they have a saleable skill, and they can get a job and are employable. Whereby a bachelor degree program a student leaves here, he has to take two more years to get his degree and then get a job. So it speeds the process up a little bit.
Carter Bradley: How many programs of this kind do you have here at TJC and give us a description of genuinely what they are.
Bill Wells: We have 43 Technical Occupation Programs, and you can see there is quite a wealth of different types of programs. We have many programs in the area of Health. In fact many people in Oklahoma didn’t know that Tulsa Junior College is the second largest medical school in Tulsa, and the Oklahoma area, and that we have twelve medical programs. The largest one is our nursing program which we have an excessive 250 students. In some of the other areas, in the Industrial Technologies, we have Machinist Technology, Welding Technology, Electronics Technology. In the Business area we have a wealth from Accounting, to Management, Marketing, Transportation and Traffic, Real Estate. In the Public Service area we have the Police Science program as well as the Fire Protection and Safety Technologies program. And then another program that we have here is called Labor Leadership, which trains people to improve their skills who work in a Union for instance. Probably the largest program in Tulsa Junior College is our Computer Science program, which we have three options in this: The Computer Operator, Computer Programmer, and the Programmer Analyst Programs.
Carter Bradly: How do you know, Bill, which Technical Occupation Programs are needed? Which Programs to start?
Bill Wells: These programs are based primarily on the manpower needs in the community. We start these programs and phase them out based on manpower needs. After we locate, through various surveys and working with the people in the community about the types of manpower problems companies are having. We then compose an advisory committee made up of, say, 10-15 people which are actually practitioners in the field that do this every day on the job, as well as personnel directors in related areas. These people come in and talk to us about the types of training and skills that they want the finished product that we produce to have. Then together with them we put together the curriculum, and start the program. So we really team the development of these programs with people from the community. We look at TJC as a manufacturing plant, manufacturing a product that the business community will buy at the end of a period of time.
Carter Bradley: How many such advisory groups do you have Bill?
Bill Wells: We have one for each one of our programs, that would be 43 advisory committees, I suppose about 350 people. And they change from year to year.
Carter Bradley: And what kind of people enroll in these, give us some idea of what kind of student do you get enrolled in TO programs?
Bill Wells: In our Technical Occupation Programs we usually have about three types of people. We have the person that has no saleable skill, has selected one of these programs and has decided this would be a major area. We have a person, for instance, has just been promoted to a major area, has no skill and comes in and takes maybe only selected specialized courses. And then we have the person that’s already employed in the field, for instance like in the Banking and Finance program here, whereby 90% of them are already employed, they’re coming down here for upgrade training in order to advance, for instance, in the financial area.
Carter Bradley: Most of these people that are in Technical Occupation Programs are either now employed in that general field, but some of them are going to have to go on out and find jobs. About how many of them are employed in the field for which you trained them?
Bill Wells: We do provide placement for our students, and I would say that by the end of 45 hours of the training program the majority of them already have job offers. But at the end of the training program at least 85% of them do get jobs in that particular area. About 5-10% are either employed in related areas or continue their education.
Carter Bradley: Fine, Bill. One final question. What do you think of the future of Technical Occupation Education? We don’t have much time, I’m sure you could talk on this for hours, but real briefly.
Bill Wells: Well in the Tulsa area, as you know, it’s probably one of the growingest metropolitan areas in this part of the country. And as Tulsa grows there will be continued manpower needs for additional programs, and we will continue to develop. This coming year we plan to develop about 9 additional programs, and each year as our outlying campuses are developed, we will develop more and more of these types of programs.
Carter Bradley: Fine. Thank you, Bill, for this capsule summary of the Technical Occupational Programs here at TJC.
Carter Bradley: Another phase in the community outreach of TJC is in the area of Special Programs, they differ somewhat from the Technical Occupation Programs that we just heard discussed. And the person who heads up the Special Programs here at TJC is Sue Wilson. Sue it’s good to have you here on Candid Campus.
Sue Wilson: Thank you Carter, welcome to TJC.
Carter Bradley: Thank you. And why don’t you tell us, and just how do Special Programs differ from so called TO Programs? And give us a little bit of information on your own line here.
Sue Wilson: All right. Your Special Programs are all of your programs, short courses, seminars, that are offered without college credit. And your Technical Occupation programs all carry college credit. Now, this may mean that we’re doing programs in photography and art, in business and management, manufacturing and operations, just a little bit of everything. Whatever it is that the community needs, we can meet through non-credit offerings.
Carter Bradley: Where are these classes held Sue?
Sue Wilson: All over Tulsa County, Carter. We have programs here at 909 South Boston, over at 404 South Hudson, and we are working in cooperation with five of the independent school districts in Tulsa County: Jenks, Sand Springs, Owasso, Broken Arrow – we’re all over the place.
Carter Bradley: And you operate these courses, these classes, right in these public school buildings?
Sue Wilson: Yes sir, or places like Oklahoma Natural Gas, Stained Glass Studios, the Williams Companies has quite a few of our programs going. We do a lot of in-house training, Carter, for company personnel who cannot come to the campus for our programs. We’re doing a lot of mid-management, short hand, accounting. Anything the company needs to supplement their own training programs.
Carter Bradley: How do you deal with the companies? How do you know what, say, Williams Brothers or Oklahoma Natural need in way of this kind of educational program?
Sue Wilson: Well, about 90% of my time is spent on campus, and we have two other coordinators who work out of my area, and we spend a lot of time with both our advisory committees. You see, we use the same advisory committees to a great extent that the credit programs do. And we visit with the companies, we are in close contact with all the professional training organizations.
Carter Bradley: How often do these advisory committees meet, Sue?
Sue Wilson: Well, as often as we need them. Usually once a year, sometimes twice a year, depending on how many programs we are looking at.
Carter Bradley: Well let’s just take the Williams Company for instance, as an example, now they cover so many different fields as we know. Will there be probably several groups - advisory groups needed in order to take care of their needs?
Sue Wilson: Well, primarily at the Williams Company we’re working a great deal with the agrochemical corporation, which is a part of the Williams Companies. And their training person there called and said they were looking at some developmental reading, and they were needing some accounting, and we have an interesting program going there. The company, I think, is very far sighted -
Carter Bradley: Yes they certainly are.
Sue Wilson: The students give them a half hour of their lunch hour, the company gives them a half hour of their time, and we teach right there in the building.
Carter Bradley: It’s like 50/50 isn’t it?
Sue Wilson: That’s right. And we have an amazing record of completion there.
Carter Bradley: Let’s talk a little bit about your non-business programs. I understand you have quite a few of those, as a matter of fact, I’m sure you do.
Sue Wilson: Yes, and of course they’re always more visible. I like to tell the tale about the young man. We tend to think of the non-business, the leisure type related classes as not related to your occupation. But we had one young man who took basket weaving, liked it so well he quit his job, and he is now making and selling baskets for a living. But we teach –
Carter Bradley: Once a hobby, now a vocation.
Sue Wilson: That is exactly right, and we have a lot of oil painting, drawing and sketching, photography. And the photography area that can also be quite business related, because you’re talking about commercial, wedding photography, taking pictures of babies.
Carter Bradley: How many such courses, non-business, or these so called “hobby” type, you might call them, courses do you offer in a year?
Sue Wilson: Oh we offer between 200 and 250 each fall and spring, and about 100 in the summer. Since we started we’ve had about 22,000 people go through out Special Programs.
Carter Bradley: That’s in seven years?
Sue Wilson: Yes.
Carter Bradley: Now, what – we’re about out of time, Sue – you do so many things here. Tell me what you see as kind of the future of this program here at TJC?
Sue Wilson: Well, if I can believe what I’m seeing here in Tulsa and what we’re reading in the national magazines, this is where the future of education is. Because people are coming back to school, and we will be going to school throughout our lives. As many times as we are going to be changing jobs, and taking new jobs after retirement. Carter, I think this is the wave of the future, I really do.
Carter Bradley: You think we’re here to stay then, this kind of program here in Tulsa?
Sue Wilson: I sure do.
Carter Bradley: Well Sue, thank you very much for this quick insight into the Special Programs here at TJC.
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Carter Bradley: There’s no question of what the president of TJC, Dr. Al Phillips, has good and sufficient reason to be proud of the great progress made by this institution since its establishment 7 years ago. We’re now standing in front of a very unusual piece of architecture in terms of higher education in Oklahoma. Oklahoma’s only so-called vertical urban campus. A building that was once a corporate headquarters for an oil company which has now been totally converted to Oklahoma’s only multi campus junior college, Tulsa Junior College. Al, tell us how this came about how you got to the point of having full occupancy now of this building behind us.
Dr. Al Phillips: Well Carter, sometimes this building has been referred to as truly higher education because it is a multi-story campus, our metro campus. The center of the heartthrob of Tulsa Junior College. It has a very interesting history. Going back to the origination in 1970 simply a matter of not being able, financially able to build a new campus. Faced with the necessity to begin offering an educational opportunity as a junior college to people in the Tulsa area. So we looked around for a building to lease and after looking perhaps 20 different structures around town we found this one to be seemingly very ideal and for 3 years we leased it and operated on 3 floors. Then it was possible to purchase the building through state funds and also through some assistance through from the city of Tulsa. From that point on we laid plans for the remodeling totally of this building into what you see it to be today and so…
Carter Bradley: And you maintained classes here during that remodeling process?
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, very much so. We worked under some considerable difficulties but during this time our enrollment continued to grow. It would take a long time to go into all the logistic matters that were necessary in order to carry on 5.5 million dollars worth of remodeling and operate at an average enrollment level of nearly 6,000 students while we were doing it. It’s a great tribute to the people who work here and students that have gone here that this has all worked out in a very successful manner.
Carter Bradley: What is the total state investment at this time at this metro campus location, Al?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well the total investment which would be a pretty close estimated figure at this time including building, land. Remodeling, and equipment would is I would say about 10 and a half million dollars.
Carter Bradley: Would it have been cheaper to have gone out here somewhere, hopefully near downtown Tulsa, found another square lot or two of land and developed it as a brand new campus?
Dr. Al Phillips: Carter there is no way in my mind that it would have been possible to build the kind of structure we have, acquire the land, build the structure, equip it as this building stands today for anywhere near that figure.
Carter Bradley: Not only that but you’ve had use of the facility all along. Even the years when you were leasing it.
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, very much so.
Carter Bradley: Now I understand that very recently you have, not too recently, but you have now made some further developments at your Northeast campus. The other campus of TJC. I want to know a little bit more about the Northeast campus and where it is Al.
Dr. Al Phillips: Well part of our master plan for the overall development of TJC is ultimately 3 campuses by 1985 with a projected enrollment of about 22,000 students.
Carter Bradley: 22,000 students?
Dr. Al Phillips: 22, 000 students. You have to remember that the kind of clientele that we work with here in Tulsa have an average age of 26 and a half years old. Many, many part-time people, it’s a tremendous opportunity when you run 16 hours a day to work and go to school and combine it all in one kind of an experience.
Carter Bradley: You say 16 hours. What time do you start in the morning and what time do you end at night?
Dr. Al Phillips: We start approximately 7 o’clock every morning and wind it up about approximately 11 o’clock every evening.
Carter Bradley: How about the Northeast campus? What’s going on over there now?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well we acquired 80 acres of land approximately 2 years ago. We’ve established a nursery/horticulture, nursery/management program there now in its 2nd year. The legislature provided the planning money, development money for us to initiate the actual planning and development of our second campus. This is going on right now and we look forward to the development of capital funds through the state so that we can get that building going just as rapidly as possible because it needs to be done.
Carter Bradley: Will that be…also be a one building campus or do you visualize a more conventional type of college campus at that location?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well I would visualize a more conventional type of campus, though it’s hard to define exactly what conventional means. I would not anticipate a multi-story kind of building because there we have land to spread out on. Here we are confined to a much more limited area.
Carter Bradley: How much land over there, Al?
Dr. Al Phillips: We have a total of 80 acres.
Carter Bradley: 80 acres? Well that would be then several…the equivalent of several city blocks.
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, I don’t recall exactly the number of acres in a city block but it certainly would be.
Carter Bradley: But this campus here behind us is actually just one city block. As a matter of fact you don’t actually occupy the whole city block do you?
Dr. Al Phillips: Not the total block. We have a building immediately behind this building that’s not visible here in this picture that we are about to begin remodeling as a student center under revenue bonds. And we in essence though we occupy and use the majority of this block that you see here across the street.
Carter Bradley: And how will the student center function. Will that be a recreation center will it have meeting halls in it?
Dr. Al Phillips: Yes, TJC does not have a traditional student center or student union building. This would be our counterpart to that. It will greatly enlarge the scope of our student activities, will give us a greatly improved food service area, bookstore area, meeting rooms and this kind of thing.
Carter Bradley: Do you, will you have a gymnasium or any kind of athletic facilities on this campus, Al?
Dr. Al Phillips: No we will not. The facilities do not lend themselves to this. We do involve ourselves rather heavily in intramural programs and use facilities around the city for this particular purpose.
Carter Bradley: And you plan to continue those kinds of intramural programs, do you have any plans to go out into any of the inter-collegiate type athletics for TJC?
Dr. Al Phillips: At this present time I would say no. I don’t believe that it’s part of the particular mission or function of this college at this particular time to do this. We concentrate on those kinds of activities that people are going to carry on throughout their lives and they are of an intramural nature.
Carter Bradley: Al, I know exactly what you mean because we’ve had great conversations a short while ago with Sue Wilson and Bill Wells, two of the people who have helped you develop these outreach programs at Tulsa Junior College. It has been an amazing and unique in higher education in Oklahoma and in this last minute of this Candid Campus program I wish you’d real fast give me a rundown on what you see in the future of TJC. Where are you going from here?
Dr. Al Phillips: Well where we’re going from here of course is to the completion of the development of the facility the block that you see across the street. We look next towards the development and completion of our Northeast campus. We hope one day to have a campus in the southeast sector of Tulsa and perhaps also one day in the western part of Tulsa.
Carter Bradley: So you’re shooting for 22,000 by 1985
Dr. Al Phillips: That’s right
Carter Bradley: Well this concludes our visit to TJC. Be sure and tune in next week when Candid Campus will visit the animal diagnostic center at Oklahoma State University. Thank you.
[Narrator] Candid Campus is presented under joint sponsorship by the Higher Education Alumni Council of Oklahoma and by the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association.
This is the Oklahoma State University Educational Television Services.
Collection
Citation
OETA and the 1976 Board of Regents for the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Colleges, “Tulsa Junior College, OETA's Candid Campus Interview with Dr. Alfred Philips, 1976, No. 1,” TulsaCC, accessed May 5, 2024, https://tulsacc.omeka.net/items/show/106.