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16 The Evening Division
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105 areas of the curriculum, and (according to Watson) the increased number of adults and war babies who came to St. Philip’s to upgrade their skills so that they could qualify for promotions and better jobs. So influential was this growth that by the s, the catalog listing of courses offered had grown to more than two hundred. Watson spent more than twenty-seven years in service to the college as director of the evening division and as associate dean of the college. When he retired in February Leonidas Watson: The Evening Division For many students, the college experience consisted of working during the day and attending college in the evening . In fact, the St. Philip’s College bulletin for – described an evening school division of the college “organized to provide educational opportunities for Negro youth and adults unable to attend school during the day.” The Tiger newspaper mentions an evening division of St. Philip’s College as having come into existence in , shortly after the merger of San Antonio and St. Philip ’s Colleges into the San Antonio Union Junior College District. There is an even earlier mention of an evening school established in , with an enrollment of five students ; however, it was not until Leonidas Watson began as evening school dean that the division expanded. Norris also mentioned a summer school operation in ; however , these sessions were limited to teachers who needed to renew their teaching certificates or to complete additional college work. Dean Leonidas Watson Watson, who came to St. Philip’s in as director of the evening division, led the division to its highest enrollment peak in the history of the school to that point. Certain factors influenced the growth in student population: World War II, the Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation , the expansion of the technical and vocational The Evening Division By the 1960s, the evening division, under Leonidas Watson, had become a very important component of the school. During Norris’s tenure as dean, evening classes were especially welcomed because of their convenience for workers pursuing vocational or preprofessional training.Many instructors began in the evening division of the college before moving into the day section; however,other instructors elected to remain in the evening division of the college throughout their career. Leonidas Watson 106 • Chapter 16 schools that had academic freedom, they expected the same at St. Philip’s, but Dean Watson said, “I don’t care. If you’re supposed to be teaching a class from : to :, I want the class there from : to :.” “Faculty that dismissed their classes at : and : didn’t last long at St. Philip’s,” said Hill. Patricia WrightWilliams , who at the time was a work-study student for Dean Watson, echoed that she also recalled being told by Watson to run over to a specific classroom and see who was there. She recalled that sometimes instructors might take their class to a nearby restaurant and sometimes they failed to return, but woe to that instructor if Watson learned that the classroom was unoccupied. Browning McKinney Samples, Faculty Coordinator, Higher Education Achievement Program (HEAP) Browning McKinney Samples, a former student who later became a faculty member, also began her tenure at St. Philip’s in the evening division before transferring to the day faculty. Hired by Watson, Samples asked him, “What am I going to do over there?” “You’re going to teach,” he said. “Teach what?” she asked. He replied, “You’re going to teach reading. You’d be surprised at the people who really don’t know how to read.” Samples replied, “Well, if they don’t know how to read, they didn’t come from my school, because when I taught them, I taught them the basics.” In its infancy, hiring practices at St. Philip’s were informal . Mr. Watson spoke with Mrs. Samples one day and he invited her to “Just come on over here with me.” “That was one of the best things that could have happened to me, because I met a lot of good people at St. Philip’s and that’s why I still pray for St. Philip’s; I think it’s most important. I want us to always have St. Philip’s College because it was bought and paid for by people who really, really, made sacrifices to do so, to pay for it. We’ve had good leadership at St. Philip’s.” Samples went on to describe some of the faculty who taught her as well...