Time flies when you’re having fun

In the past 35 years, Georgia College & State University has seen three name changes and four presidents, so has Dr. John Sallstrom.

Dr. Sallstrom came to Georgia College in Milledgeville in the spring of 1967, one semester after the school welcomed male students to the campus and just a couple of years after integration in the school occurred.

“There were only 20 men on campus at the time I arrived,” said Sallstrom, current associate president of Academic Services and professor of Philosophy and Religion said. “There were only a few minority students and only one international student.”

In his first years at GC&SU Sallstrom said, “I was the Department of Philosophy and Religion,” noting that he was the chair of and only professor in the department.

He recalled that when he arrived, he was the “young man” on campus and worked with many “veteran” faculty members who retired shortly after his arrival.

“It does seem funny when you come as the young one and stay long enough to be the old one,” he said.

A photograph in the 1968 edition of The Spectrum, GC&SU’s former yearbook publication, is of the Ina D. Russell Memorial Library. At the time he arrived, the library was under construction, and students and faculty had to visit the old Terrell Hall Annex to access books. Now, in Sallstrom’s 35th year at GC&SU, the view through his office window is that of the library undergoing construction again.

“I think every institution changes,” Sallstrom said. “In some ways it is very much the same university. In other ways, it is very different.”

In his first years at GC&SU, Sallstrom said Golden Slipper was still going strong and weekly “Chapel” in Russell Auditorium was a requirement. Students all gathered at the same time for breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday to “family style” in the basement of Atkinson Hall, and freshman were required to wear beanie hats for the first several weeks of school.

Sallstrom started at GC&SU as a professor in and chair of the department of philosophy and religion, and said he achieved higher levels of administration as his department merged first with that of sociology and then with the department of political science.

Currently, Sallstrom said his title as associate President of academic services gives him the responsibility of overseeing student programs such as the honor’s program, the international program, student success, the Learning Center and the Department of Academic Assistance; however, Sallstrom said he still finds it important to maintain a presence in the classroom by continuing to teach philosophy and religion courses.

“I think it’s important to maintain contact with students in the classroom,” he said. “You get a different perspective and you can identify with the faculty and see how they feel.”

Sallstrom said he lists the implementation of the honors program at GC&SU as his most proud accomplishment. Sallstrom said the program, which still remains strong today, was brought to GC&SU in 1970.

“With the current mission and caliber of students, the honors program has real potential to develop here,” Sallstrom said.

Sallstrom is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, the American Philosophical Association, the American Association of Religion, the National Collegiate Honors Council, the Southern Regional Honors Council and the Georgia College Honor Council, for which he served as state administration coordinator for 10 years.

He said the two things that have always impressed him about GC&SU is the number of students and faculty that are involved in activities in the Milledgeville community and the involvement of the community with the university.

“When I first got here, the faculty was real involved in the community. They have continued that,” he said.

When asked why he has spent the past 35 years at GC&SU Sallstom said, “I remember Dr. Bonner, chair of the history department…told me, ‘This is a good school, and Milledgeville is a good place to raise a family.’ He encouraged me to stay here and make a career of it like he had. I don’t regret doing that.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 31 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry