INTERVIEWEE: James WattenbargerTUF PR075OFU : OR O -TX iT AioN 3 E blF r TCTZOOt I o
INTERVIEWER: Arthur White Con> 6b iT COLLE S II'-
PLACE:
DATE: July 19, 1977



A: Question number one: What junior college system or systems served as models for the

 Florida system when you were developing the 1957 master plan?

J: One of the first things we did when we began the study for Florida's community college

 program was to look around the country to see what other states had done in this

 regard. This was in 1955 and of course there were only a few states that do taking

 a leadership role in that early period, although there had been community colleges

 around since the early 1900s, they had not developed very far in most states. Some

 had grown by, sort of topsy like IS a of new institutions, a few had had

 some planning and there were a several instances of study that had been conducted up

 to that point. Naturally California was the major state that provided a model with

 its 75)or so community colleges at that period of time and its earliest one being

 established in 1900. We also looked at Michigan and Maryland and the state of Wash-

 ington which had done a pretty good job of basic planning for community college

 development. Of course Mississippi had a total state plan even in 1957 and was one

 of few states in the Union that had really actually gone ahead with a plan that was

 on an organized basis.

A: What consultants most influenced the ideas that shaped the master plan report in

 Florida?

J: Of course here again there were not too many people in the field that had done much

 writing as of 195b,41'when we looked around the country to see those that we thought

 could be the most help to us the foremost individual was Leonard B. Kuse, who as of

 that time had retired from in the University of Chicago and was professor emeritus

 from that institution. He also had determined that the University of Florida was

 gone of the places that he wanted to spend the winter P he looked around several

 places and decided that Florida was the place he wanted to spend his tim-4 LeMl R e

 was active in research activities, especially library research, even up to a time

 when he died just last year in 1977, 1976. Anyway we asked him to serve as a consul-

 tant and we also asked one of his major students who's name was WC S.V. Martarana