O.C.C.
Onondaga Community College
Syracuse, New York
(1976 - 1980)
Teaching Computer Science as Adjunct
Instructor at OCC
Course Taught: |
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OCC staff at my farewell
lunch
Jack
Milligan - Computer Center Director
My Experience Teaching at O.C.C. |
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When I realized that community colleges do not require PhD, I checked with a couple junior colleges near Kalamazoo and found they had no openings. When I returned to Oswego, a friend told me of a teaching opening at Onondaga Community College (OCC) in nearby Syracuse. Their only Computer Science instructor was taking a one-year sabbatical and needed a substitute. I visited him and we agreed that I would take his place in September. At the last minute, he called me to say that he had changed his mind and would not be leaving. But he suggested I talk to the head of the College's computer center where there was an opening for a programmer. The Director, Jack Milligan, challenged me to do some work in the "real world" to help my perspective in future teaching, and I accepted the job. His Computer Center had an IBM 1130 that I was experienced in programming. It was used mostly for administrative data processing for the registrar and bursar, and for some student training laboratory classes. The biggest project was scheduling student's classes at the beginning of each semester. I found programming the 1130 to help administrators and students quite enjoyable. But the hour-long drive from Oswego was tedious, especially during the lake effect snowstorms. I occassionally stayed in my office all night due to bad driving weather or to an urgent programming need. But the processing power of the 1130 soon became inadequate as needs of administration increased, and a team was formed to find a new more powerful computer system with networking capabilities. A new Burroughs "minicomputer" was purchased as the least expensive alternative. The 1130 programming was in the FORTRAN language, but Burroughs programming was mostly in COBOL. We faced a huge project of writing new COBOL programs to replace our Registrar and Bursar systems. I was the leader of three other Computer Center programmers assigned to that project. Some Burroughs programmers assisted us.  After learning the COBOL programming language to create the new system, I began to teach a COBOL night class as an adjunct faculty member. I insisted that the students use the new (then) "Structured Programming" style that avoids using the common GOTO statement. |
