Independence Junior College - Inkanquil Yearbook (Independence, KS)

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2 1 in Q s . S i l BOARD OF TRUSTEES - This fresh and relaxed group of men include Bill Shaw, chairman, Don Aitken, loyce Miller, Ben Boys, President Neil Edds, john Vermillion, Kenneth Baden, vice chairman, and Ross Clark, secretary and business manager. After a typically long session lasting well into the night, much of the freshness has faded and no one is relaxed. Trustees play a major role in operating the college Independence Community junior College first opened its doors to young people in the area in the fall of 1925. The organization of the college was brought about by the community, the members of the Independence Board of Education and Superintendent C.S. Risdon, who resigned at the end of the year. The college was founded as an upward extension of the high school to provide some college education for those young people who could not afford to leave home. There were six members of the faculty in addi- tion to the librarian. These members were Fran- cis Myers, chemistry, Miss Alice May Austin, mathematics, Clayton L. Montgomery, social science and education, George Sudermann, his- 6 tory, Mrs. Majel Wood, romance language, and Theodore C. Owen, English. Miss Pearl Russell was the librarian. All faculty members taught split assignments having some high school class- es as a part of their teaching. Students who had had a year of college else- where made up the first sophomore class total- ing 12 members. The freshman class totaled 49 members. ln comparison to those figures this past fall semester found over 500 students enrolled with 29 full time faculty members, three more split assignments with high school responsibilities and two were part time all college. In addition there are several people teaching one class each in the evening sessions.

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intellectually

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li f. i 1 22 BUSY MAN - President Neil Edds has been a busy man since he became president of Independence Community junior Col- lege. He has exhibited a strong leadership in helping to establish the college as a separate entity from the city school system, in encouraging the faculty members to use progressive and effective means and in carrying out a building program to provide a new campus. In 1965 the Kansas Legislature made it possible for community junior colleges to become inde- pendent of city school systems or unified dis- tricts. Immediately voters in the northern half of Montgomery County voted to form the Inde- pendence Community Iunior College district. In 1967 the newly elected Board of Trustees as their first act employed Mr. Edds as president, and for the first time since its founding the college had an administrator whose whole responsibility was for operation of the college. In an unprecedented meeting of the new trus- tees with the faculty, the trustees asked the fac- ulty members to voice their preferance for a president. After some discussion a trustee asked for a vote to determine the concensus of opin- ion. They were surprised to find the faculty agreed 1000f0 in asking that Mr. Edds, then serv- ing as dean, be named the new president. 7