Southeastern Massachusetts University - Scrimshaw Yearbook (North Dartmouth, MA)

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Scrimshaw: I think one of the things that impresses the students is that you really don't seem to be afraid to do anything up there. Scionti: Part of this job is being a ham. It really is. You have to enjoy showing off a little bit, to teach at all. People don 't have that kind of personality have trouble with this. Probably all their teaching career, they have to fight themselves as much as the material they're dealing with. Everybody's run into teachers like that who are shy in front of crowds and have a lot of trouble, and they 're really in the wrong business. They should be doing something maybe teacher-related. They should do a lot more research, maybe. And publish a lot, because a lot of the people who are very good as publishers and really contribute a lot that way, are really bad in front of a class. I 've had that experience a lot in my own career as a student. I've run into guys who are famous as scholars who just couldn't zeach their way out of a paper bag because they couldn't get in front of a class and confidently state what they thought and give an orderly kind of lecture. Scrimshaw: How have you been following the Celtics.? Scionti: Gee, since the founding of the league in 1946. I hate to admit that. In fact, it wasn't the NBA then, it was called the Basketball Association of America or something like that. The Celtics were a rather weak team in a rather weak league then. But, since then, things have changed a lot. I've had a season ticket since... I came back from the service in 1957... 1959 I guess. I like basketball. They used to have games when they 'd score 40 points 40-35 would be a normal score. I like the sport more than hockey. I don 't like hockey at all. I like football, but I don't go the games .... For one thing, it's a matter of practicality and money. If you're a season ticket holder for one sport, it costs you a bundle anyway. If you try and do it for more than one., not only the money, but then I'd be away from home too much. My wife would kill me. She'd be right. Scrimshaw: Anything particularly memorable happen to you these fen years here? Scionti: Often. When I got my degree, my PhD in '67, I had a class, a Freshman class, and they surprised me with a cake, and all kinds of stuff right in class. And, that kind of thing is valuable, because you know you're getting across when students will go to the trouble to do something like that because it doesn't frequently happen. Scrzmshaw: What is the biggest difference, in your opinion, between SMU and a larger college? Scionti: Well, we're a state school, which means that most of the kids have to work, at least part-time, to foot the bills. We don't get a rich student body, like the ivy-league schools, for instance, where kids have grown up in families who have already got a good deal of money, or have had college experience before. Whereas, a lot of our students are the children of immigrants, as I was myself so you can get into the same wavelength with students like this because if you've got the same kind of background yourself you understand them very well. Scrimshaw: Do you think the economics of our present situation here will sway the legislature from the logic of funding SMU equally but leaving it autonomous? Scionti: I hope not. Geez, who knows what those guys will do?I don't have a lot of faith. in the legislature. But, I think they should be smart enough to recognize that that's a bad idea ltotal state reorginizationl. I think we need an independent board of trustees, we need to have our own financial apparatus. In other words, they should give us the money, the way they have, and let us handle it, or let our people deal with it, and not control it from a central position. If they centralize too much, I think they 're going to stifle us. This part of the state 's been ignored, anyway, it seems to me, over the years... until this place came along, we didn 't have anything... We've been sort of the poor relations of the state for years. This school's really the hope of the area. I hope the legislature has enough sense to see that. elif . lfq

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Joseph N. Scionti Cpronounced shawn-teej is the Chairman of the SMU History department. The more literal-minded among you might derive some satisfaction from this dedication of a 'Bicentennial' yearbook to an historian. That actually had nothing to do with the decision, but far be it from us to destroy an illusion. tActually, we liked his limericksj Scionti is a warm, engaging, intelligent man who knows his stuff and communicates it effectively to his students. He spices his lectures with such commentary as How to get a good seat in a restaurant, The importance of learning Italian, How to meet members of the opposite sex, and visual sight gags. When the mood strikes him, he brings forth serious poetry from what seems a formidable stock he has committed to memory. tThe women, it seems, especially enjoy this. He could be perhaps considered a 'male-liberated' romantic. The womenls basketball team made him their mascotj His wide and varied interests and knowledge certainly qualify him as a modern Renaissance man of sorts. A Scionti class begins with a pronouncement of the current fates of the Boston Red Sox andlor Celtics, whichever happen to be playing at the time. One such, after the memorable sixth game between the Red Sox and the Reds Went as follows: I hope there's nobody in the room who was unfortunate enough not to see that game last night, because that was a classic ifl ever saw one. It was one of the best World Series games-or games ofany kind-I've ever seen in my life...and I've seen a lot of baseball. When you get to the eighth inning, and it's six to three like that, you just don't believe in miracles any more. The guy fDon Gullet-ed.l had complete control of the situation, Dwight--who he had just struck out--Evans, who had been hitting well in this series, he got Burleson on a short fly or something...I've forgotten already. And here comes Carbo, he's got two strikes on him, he fouls offa pitch--he got it by about an eighth of an inch-that pitch on the inside, and that previous pitch--he just barely got a piece of that-- and you've got the back view from behind the umpire, so it 's hard to tell exactly what the last pitch was, it looked like a straight fast ball, maybe a little under the waist, and towards the outside part of the plate possibly, I dunno, but he really slugged it. You could see that bat hit the ball, and it really came off there hard, and watch out to center field and there it is, a tie ball game. Itls like you read in fiction, right?You don't expect it. And then, in the ninth inning, when they had the bases loaded, nobody out, and here comes that short fly to left. Now, most of the time, I agree with Zimmer, the thing to do on that is take the risk most of the time, because it is a difficult throw. But, with nobody out in that situation, and a fly as short as that one, I think it was a mistake. He would probably acknowledge it himself afterwards. Another ten feet back, maybe. But with nobody out and Petrocelli on deck, a guy who usually gets enough wood on the ball to hit it someplace you want him to have a chance to get to bat. I was calm, I took it very calmly--I ate a little of my carpet, right in front of the telly, but it's all rightmchewed it a little, but my wife doesn't mind, the carpet's all torn up there anyway...and then, after the homer in the twelfth inning, I was doing the same thing Fisk was, except you know the old umpiring instinct took over...I'm down in front of the television like this fassumes an umpire-assessing-home-run stance-ed.l and Fisk--did you see the picture of him afterwards?Here he is, standing at home plate, doing this, you know, trying to get the English on the ball, to get it over there. He wasn't moving 'cause he knew he didn 't have to run, it was either going to be a foul ball or a home run. So he stood there and watched--waved at it, y'know. It hit the foul pole, inside. It was a sensational game.

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