First Class

The First Class at Flint Junior College

By most official accounts, the first class of the Flint Junior College included 114 students. The first classes were held on September 24 1923. There were eight faculty who taught primarily for the junior college, although some of those taught in the high school as well. By the end of 1925 there were 171 students enrolled, 50 of whom were women. For the most part they were graduates of the Flint High School – 118 were and the other 53 were from outside Flint. In 1925 the first graduating class included 35 students who had completed full work for their degrees.

At that time, six major areas of study were offered: general literary (liberal arts); pre-engineering; pre-dental; pre-medicine; pre-law and business administration. This curriculum was designed to match the U of M for those who planned to transfer and complete a four-year degree.

The junior college was located in the sought wing of the new Central High School building and shared a library, gymnasium, laboratories and other facilities with the high school. Many practices for the high school also were applied to the junior college. Textbooks were free. Funds for the junior college were drawn from high school funds. Some of the junior college instructors were high school instructors who were also qualified to teach college. Faculty meetings in the early years were not separate. Graduation exercises were combined with those of the high school, and junior college students were given a section of the Central High School yearbook. Ironically, the junior college that began in a high school building in the 1920s would later house a high school, the Mott Middle College, in the 1990s.

Financing was a major issue for the junior college and was supported with 60% local tax revenues and 40% tuition. Tuition for the first year was $20 per semester with a $3 athletic fee. Non-residents paid $67.50 per semester. Tuition increased rather quickly during this time. In 1925-26 residents paid $25 per semester; in 1926-27 it rose to $37.50 and in 1931-32, tuition was $50 per semester. Textbooks were free but students were expected to provide their own supplies. During the 1920s the budget for the whole college was never more than $50,000 per year.

Administratively the junior college was under the overall direction of the Superintendent of Schools, E.E. Lewis. He was a graduate of Stanford, earned his doctorate at Columbia and came to Flint in 1923 after serving as superintendent of the Rockford, Illinois school system. Lewis was known as a shrewd businessman. He was living in California during the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and created a business buying the bricks from the demolished buildings, cleaning them up and reselling them for the reconstruction that followed.

C. V. Courter served as both the principal of the high school and college. In 1926, he was promoted to superintendent. He was also asked to serve as acting dean of the junior college until the institution grew enough to warrant a separate director.

Margaret Maddox, one of the major forces in the development of the junior college, joined the faculty in 1923 as a history instructor and registrar. She later became assistant dean of the college under William Shattuck and served as head of the college preparatory division in 1940s. She was a strong voice defending the college preparatory aspect of the college’s programs, particularly as pressure built to develop occupational programs. In a 1926 article for the Flint Bulletin of Education, Maddox both explained and defended the role of the newly created college. Maddox spent her childhood in Otterbien, Indiana, attended college at Oxford College in Ohio (later Miami University of Ohio), Indiana University and the University of Chicago. Before joining the junior college faculty in its first year she taught history and mathematics at the old Flint High School. She left the junior college in 1943 to teach and complete her doctoral studies at the University of Chicago.

William Shattuck was appointed in the summer of 1928, often simply called “The Dean.” His 16 year tenure remains today as the longest for any top administrator at the junior college. Shattuck, from a Fenton area pioneer family, was a graduate of Albion College and Columbia University and began his teaching career in a small country school in Oakland County. He was valedictorian of his high school class and president of his college senior class. After a stint in the Navy he began teaching economics, civics and public speaking at Central High School in 1923. In the next few years, he served as summer principal for the high school and an administrator at Whittier, South, and Emerson junior high schools in Flint before being selected dean of the junior college.

When Shattuck became dean, the junior college was beginning to create a separate identity from the high school. In the first month of the junior college’s existence the student government met, elected officers and selected black and gold as the school colors. The Sportsters founded in the early 1930s, was the women’s athletic organization.

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Extracted and transcribed by Geraldine Waite from a book by Paul Rozycki, A Clearer Image The 75 Year History of Mott Community College (Paul Rozycki: Flint, MI, January 1998)
 

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