November 12, 2023
Dear Friends,
On the chance you might be interested, this e-mail is about how Donna and I first met.
We were both working at the university here in Commerce . . . . Texas A & M University – Commerce. Donna was teaching in the College of Business. She was nearly complete with her PhD in Higher Education and Management, and had only to finish the last stages of her dissertation.
The university was in the process of developing a competency-based on-line degree program in Organizational Leadership. For each of the courses planned for the program, one person from our university and one person from South Texas College in McAllen, Texas teamed up to develop the course. Donna and her partner were working on an upper-level course, i.e., junior or senior level course.
The development of the whole degree program was about a three-year project. Once it was completed, both A&M-Commerce and South College began implementing the program. Donna was hired into the program by A&M and became the founding director and student advisor. By then, she had finished her doctor’s degree, and became Dr. Smith.
In addition to working closely with the students in the program, part of her job was to hire adjunct faculty to become the instructors. One of the people she hired was Dr. Chip Fox to teach the science courses.
Turning the page: On day, while the program was still in development, I was visiting with another person in her office within the same building where Donna worked. This person happen to have a Keurig coffee maker in her room. In walks Donna with a jug of water in her hand and announced to me that she is the “water girl” After she filled the machine and got her own cup of coffee, she left and went back to her own office. I asked the person I was visiting who that was. I don’t go for love at first sight, but I was definitely attracted to her.
Next page: Chip Fox, yours truly, was the associate dean of the College of Science and Engineering. As such I was invited by the university to be the representative from A&M to join a South Texas fell fellow to develop the program’s two science courses. I actually had quite a jump on this, because I had recently complete a college-level integrated science text in which I was the sole author. The text covered all the sciences except biology, and the same material is what was needed for the new degree program. So my team mate and I were the fastest of the lower-lever (freshman & sophomore level) teams to complete our course development.
Once the whole degree program project was complete and the competency-based Organizational Leadership degree program was ready to be rolled out, it was time for Donna to hire the program faculty. Because I was still interested in it, I became the logical choice to be the adjunct science instructor. That’s why Donna hired me and became my boss within the program.
TO BE CONTINUED:
Chip
