Roy Exum
One week from tomorrow the most important educator in the future of our community will start work as the new president of Chattanooga State. While I am normally cynical of beard-strokers and foundation-hungry dreamers who have little or no concept of the real world, I am convinced Flora Tydings will become the best thing to happen in our community in years.
A grandmother with four grown children, Dr. Tydings will inherit the most crucial job in modern-day education that I can ever remember and, according to an impeccable source, the selection committee could have traveled the world over and not found her match. I believe Chattanooga State, not UTC or any others, holds the key to the vitality of our tri-state region and I’ve got it solid that Dr. Tydings is absolutely phenomenal.
Ray Brooks, who many will remember forged thousands of successful careers as the president of Georgia Northwestern Technical College in Rome in the 22 years he established the school as one of the best in the country, just informed me that Flora Tydings has been the most dynamic educator in the state of Georgia for the past 10 years. Nobody can match her, according to Ray, and our Dr. Brooks, you’ll recall, is an educator “who gets it” - every part of it.
Try this. When he retired in 2008 after working 33 years in education, it was less than a month before Piedmont Technical College in Greenwood, S.C., made him an offer that not even his darling wife Pam could argue. Ray will step down there late next year, after he makes sure Piedmont earns reaffirmation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, as well as the Commission on Colleges.
“But then I am coming home,” he promised. “We’ve already bought a home in Ringgold but about 20 months ago (son) Ben and his beautiful wife Rachel brought Greyson into the world and now nothing can keep us away.”
Tell me about Flora. “During my career in the Georgia system I worked with her as she moved up in the ranks to eventually become the president of Athens Technical College,” Ray explained. “In my estimation, when I left the system in 2008 she was, by far, the most capable president in the system.
“The best way I can describe Flora Tydings is that with my retirement pretty well set for next December, she was my No. 1 pick to follow me at Piedmont. Hers was the only name on my list. That’s how great she is,” Ray said.
Admittedly, I was a great fan of the guy who “built” Chattanooga State, Jim Catanzaro, and, while I resent the way his great run ended, I believe life must go on. I’d hate to try to fill Catanzaro’s shoes – I believed in him – I also agree the landscape has shifted dramatically with Volkswagen and Wacker. The key to Dr. Tydings’ success is that she walk in her own shoes, making the needed steps as seen by her proven vision, because our community is already clamoring for Chattanooga State graduates.
I can prove it. If you’ll take the classified section of the newspaper or look at a myriad of local employment websites, the demand for well-trained and articulate manufacturing technicians has never been higher. Between Volkswagen, Wacker, Amazon and the growing number of companies that supply them and are coming here, Chattanooga State is the primary source and the “feeder” for – quite literally – thousands of new jobs.
As one who detests every moment of the college experience, I am an expert in the belief a degree in higher education has never been as important. People are screaming for more nurses – Chattanooga State can supply them. The other growth area – where all you must seemingly have is a pulse – is over-the-road truck drivers.
Many large trucking outfits have their own schools, lasting between eight and 12 weeks, but before you start hauling 80,000 pounds of sweet potatoes, your chances of being successful demand a better understanding of math, science and safety. Hello Chattanooga State.
People’s lives depend on keen laboratory techs, X-ray technicians, and trained medical staff. Hello again to Chattanooga State.
I knew Chattanooga State was an ace in the deck when Volkswagen, Wacker, Amazon and the other big employers flocked here. A high school education, no matter who tells you, isn’t enough and, through the Governor’s exciting enrollment programs, our next generation has plenty of traction to go wherever its graduates want to go.
Flora Tydings is coming here with the future in mind. She did it in Athens with the Caterpillar plant and knows that with an abundance of demand, it’s plowing time on the field of opportunity. If Ray Brooks endorses her, you don’t have to worry a bit and, because of Ray, I’m every bit as excited as he and our new “Lady Flo” are this July.
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As I noted, I have a jaundiced view of college presidents. I believe that any top educator who forces students to spend a national average of $1,200 a year on textbooks alone does not have that child’s best interest at heart. We have some courses requiring students to pay upwards of $200 for one textbook, so – get this – over 40 percent of today’s kids are literally dodging courses rather than be gouged by some professor who insists they buy a book written by his old college roommate. Is that producing the best education? Of course not. It’s a farce.
All of the nation’s top educators are in on the scam. The cost of college textbooks, between 2002 and 2013, rose 82 percent - nearly three times the rate of inflation, this according to the Government Accountability Office.
So as one who yearns for good and decent leadership in higher education, which I strongly believe is paramount in the future of our tomorrow, I believe this fraud could be cut dramatically if just one college president had the common sense to take a stand and teach out of well-written books at one-tenth the price. This book monopoly is ludicrous.
Incidentally, the Hamilton County Board of Education wants to spend $4 million for math books. That’s $93 per student, or per book. Brother, somebody’s stealing. Think about this: there are just 10 numbers, 0 through 9, and it all comes down to adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying them.
Our World War II soldiers knew more math than the kids today. Why? The numbers haven’t changed, nor have the multiplication tables, but the discipline and expectations are hardly the same as 60 years ago and the “the dumbing down of America” continues at a record clip.
Wow. If you aren’t part of the solution you are part of the problem.
royexum@aol.com