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:: History Site
Index :: USF Site
& Name :: 1st Student :: USF
Sarasota/Manatee
:: Traditions
Overview :: Rocky the
Bull :: Homecoming
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First professor recalls USF in the '50s and
'60s Jack Fernandez was here when USF opened its doors in 1960. According to personnel records, he was the first faculty member hired who is still on campus. "I never dreamed we'd live in Florida or that I'd teach at a university," says Fernandez. At that time there weren't many jobs in chemistry (in the state)." A Tampa native, Fernandez is a graduate of Hillsborough High School and a 1954 alumnus of the University of Florida. Back in the '50s, colleges were still segregated by race and gender and the only state universities were the all male UF, the all-female Florida State University and the all black Florida A&M University. Between his tenure at UF and USF, he served in Washington during the Korean War and worked for Tennessee Eastman. But his heart belonged to Florida. "As soon as I heard someone had been named president (of USF) I started writing letters." When Fernandez arrived at USF there were three buildings on campus: the Administration Building, the University Center (now the Phyllis P. Marshall Center, USF's student union) and the Chemistry Building. Fowler Avenue was a dirt road. "The most exciting thing about the place was that it was the most intellectually charged atmosphere I'd ever been in," he says. The 100 combined faculty and administrators were all young - in their 20s and 30s - he explains, and faculty from all disciplines operated out of the same building, eating lunch together at the top of the SVC, attending each other's seminars and engaging in lively cross-disciplinary dialogues. "John Allen (USF's first president) wanted to create a community of scholars - to have professors involved in teaching other fields. The greatest virtue was to be a renaissance person. Now it's all compartmentalized." Allen's focus on learning extended into the classroom. Fernandez's first semester teaching load included two sections of general chemistry and a two hour lab, and two sections of physical science for a total of 14 contact hours. "The emphasis was on teaching, not on research. The feeling was that if you had time for research, maybe you're not teaching enough." This official mindset was revised by the third year, he explains, when USF realized it needed research in order to stay competitive. Fernandez appears to be most proud of his students. He shows snapshots of past chemistry graduates with the pride of a parent. He has watched his classes grow from rooms of 24 students to lecture halls of more than 200 and has seen the change in student expectations - everything from bigger and better dorm rooms to higher GPAs. "One of the things that changed during the Vietnam War was the grading. There was a lot of pressure to give students a passing grade to avoid the draft. That was the beginning of grade inflation," he says. He recalls some ugly memories of the Johns Committee and the bad old days when colleges would threaten incoming freshman with the now anecdotal warning: "Look to the right of you, look to the left of you, in the next four years one of you will be gone." "Today they brag about a 95 percent graduation rate. That's one of the good changes." After 35 years, Fernandez - researcher, Fulbright Scholar, department chair, professor - retired. He's giving up his students and his lab space. He plans on keeping his office and retaining his emeritus status. "To think and to write," he says. And maybe just to keep an
eye on the place.
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