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4 Toward a new University of alabama Building a Team for Excellence and Competence dean John l.blackburn turned forty-one years of age in december 1964.after serving in the China-india-burma Theater during the second World War, he earned a bachelor’s degree in science at missouri valley College and then completed a master’s in education at the University of Colorado. blackburn accepted his first job in higher education as assistant dean of men at florida state University (fsU), until 1948 the florida College for Women. blackburn ’s task was to integrate men, outnumbered four-to-one, into the fabric of student life. by 1955, with that done, blackburn decided to study for his Phd at Columbia University.Then in march 1956, he received a call from the dean of men at the University of alabama. The riots a month earlier immediately came to mind as soon as dean louis Corson identified himself. according to blackburn, when Corson asked if he might be interested in the assistant dean of men’s job at the Capstone, “i laughed. alabama was on television every day with scenes from all these riotous conditions. i asked, ‘Why in the world would i want to work at a place like alabama?’”louis Corson responded,“i thought you were concerned about the race issue in america. if so, where else would you want to work?” blackburn abandoned his Columbia plans and headed for Tuscaloosa. “When i arrived ,there were Klansmen marching at the edge of campus.i wondered,‘What have i gotten myself into?’”1 by 1965, with higher education becoming more specialized and President rose committed to increasing the academic qualifications of faculty and staff, John blackburn needed to complete the doctorate he had been working on part time at fsU. accordingly, in January, he asked for a one-year leave of absence to return to Tallahassee. The value of blackburn’s research, focused as it was on student-administration relationships at the University of California at berkeley, appealed to frank rose. blackburn suggested david mathews, then 78 / Chapter 4 finishing his Phd in the history of american higher education at Columbia University, be named acting dean of men in his absence.2 it didn’t take frank rose long to appreciate John blackburn. as soon as Corson retired in 1959, rose elevated blackburn to the dean’s post. shortly thereafter, in february 1960, david mathews, who earned his master’s degree in education the year before, found himself in the job market after completing a short tour with the army. “There was nothing available in my hometown of Grove Hill, alabama, and i was thankful when John blackburn gave me my first job at alabama.”3 His responsibilities included handling issues attendant to male students living off campus. in 1962, mathews took a leave of absence from the university to work on his doctorate.in may 1963,blackburn called him back to campus to help prepare student leaders for the arrival of vivian malone and James Hood. That done, mathews returned to new york to complete his dissertation,“The Politics of Education in the deep south.”in march 1965,frank rose offered him the position of interim dean for the coming academic year, with a follow-on job as his executive assistant in charge of legislative matters.4 it was a propitious hiring. four summers later, in June 1969, the alabama board of Trustees named david mathews to succeed frank rose as president of the university. from 1965 to the end of the decade,while frank rose was still at the helm, a consensus emerged throughout higher education as to what constituted a “model university.”first, the better universities expanded their faculties to accommodate the growing number of undergraduate and graduate students with increasingly diverse academic interests. second, they engaged in research programs attracting conspicuous federal funding. Third, model universities committed to ambitious building programs for housing, classrooms, and research facilities. by 1965,to varying degrees the University of alabama qualified in all three categories.despite President rose’s increasingly contentious relationship with George Wallace, a supportive legislature committed twenty-one million dollars to support new construction.There also was an 8.5 percent increase in the 1965–66 budget for normal appropriations allowing an across-the-board hike in faculty salaries.additionally,rose secured copious federal funding,enabling the university to embark on a ten-year, seventy-five-million-dollar building program. rose admitted to a friend, “We are...

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