MSFAA Memory Part II - Shared by L. Glenn O’Kray

Monday, December 04, 2017 1:56 PM | Anonymous


First Row - left to right: Sister Xaveria Barton, Consultant, Marygrove College, Judy Florian, Center for Creative Studies, Jean Calvert, Kellogg CC, one woman unknown

Back Row - left to right: Glenn Lowe, Aquinas College, Anne Watson, U of Detroit, Karen Pasquier, Oakland University, one woman unknown, Spencer Johnson, OCC and Jim Moored, Proprietary School consultant

Later I chaired the communication committee. For probably 20 years I drove to Lansing with others on the executive committee including Karen Stepien, Sr. Xaveria Barton, John Tomey, Donna Ryktarsyk, Judy Florian, Lee Anderson, Julie Tobin, George Emery, Howard Thomas, and the now-deceased Judy Johnstone and Spencer Johnson. (I hope I’m not forgetting anyone.) Not only would we solve the world’s problems but also our individual problems. The 90-minute discussions ranged from grousing about our bosses to monitoring proposed new legislation to how to raise kids.


Left to Right (those facing camera only): blonde lower left (unknown), Judy Florian, Center for Creative Studies, Tom Scarlett, MSU, Mary Jane Bond, WCCCD, Cliff Denay, North Central Michigan College, Howard Thomas, Albion College, Henry Wise, U of M Flint

When Howard Thomas was president, he suggested that we come up with a poster featuring Bo Schembechler and George Perles, football coaches at U of M and MSU. We came up with such a neat poster that high school counselors would take them home rather than hang them!

Another fun poster was one of a bull terrier wearing a graduation gown. We included this verbiage, “Apply early for college. Apply early for financial aid. Don’t drink.” Some counselors refused to hang the posters. They said we were encouraging drinking!

We used to have community college sector meetings at my cottage in Brighton. When someone new came to the meetings, we would have a formal induction ceremony. All wrote their names on a wooden sword. Inductees had to repeat, “What you see here, what you hear here, leave it here!”

One day in a coffee line in Washington DC I met an official who had relatives in Detroit. We went through the ritual of defining the people that we both knew. She mentioned a guy by the name of Steve Wall from the University of Detroit. I told her that I knew him, but there was a nun at the meeting who was related to him. That nun, Sr. Xaveria Barton of Marygrove, and the federal official had already met, but in Afghanistan and had had dinner together in Kabul!

In probably the early eighties a group of MSFAAites were to escort Washington muckety mucks to reauthorization hearings at Wayne State. On the prior night, we took the biggies to the Hyatt Hotel for a little libation. We closed the place. The next day I was really dragging. It didn’t feel like I was even walking right. When it came time to pick up NASFAA staffers and Congressional aids, I looked at my feet and discovered that I had an earth shoe on one foot and a loafer on the other!

The MSFAAites with whom I dealt were closer to me than were my colleagues at my own college. I shall always remember them. They were like family to me.

Hum, “Those were the days my friend. I thought they’d never end. Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days.”


Left to right: George Emery (standing), Wayne State University, Jean Maday, State of Michigan Scholarships and Grants, man next to Jean unknown

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