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Chapter 6

THE NEW BUILDING; THE $100 MILLION GIFT
1970 – 1983

Peace returned to the American campus in 1971, but schools and colleges were caught in a squeeze between the recession and inflation. Practically all colleges ran deficits as research funds were cut back and gifts from foundations and private individuals declined. An oversupply of students with doctoral degrees resulted from cutbacks in research grants and a slowdown in hiring by universities, government and industry.

At Emory the University treasurer reported a probable deficit of $700,000 for the 1969-70 academic year. But in December Mr. Robert Woodruff gave the University $1 million to cover the deficit and to give students a $50 refund on their fall tuition. Salaries were frozen for the 1971-72 fiscal year.

Student unrest virtually dropped from the news in 1971. Some college observers reported a new mood ranging from apathy to serious nonviolent concern about national issues. Others thought that economic pressures and concern over jobs may have turned students away from confrontation politics.

As the fall quarter opened at Emory the Wheel published the statement on dissent that the Trustees had issued during the summer. The statement said that "officially accepted dissent at Emory this year will be restricted to more limited forms that in the past.” The Trustees banned "demonstrations, marches, sit-ins or noisy protests which are disruptive to class activity,” and called for "prompt and appropriate” action against the offenders.

President Atwood received from Richard Nixon a statement on campus violence written by Sidney Hook, the founder of the University Centers for Rational Alternatives. Nixon called it "among the most cogent and compelling documents I have ever read on campus violence.” The Emory Chapter of UCRA sent a letter to all entering freshmen urging them to avoid disruption and violence.

There were scattered criticisms of the Trustees' statement in the Wheel. The September 17 issue carried a front page comic strip by Steve Abbott called "A Sporting Allegory - the Old Ball Game at Emory.” It was critical of the fact that strikes had been declared illegal at Emory. The strip was criticized by some as being "vulgar.” By November some estimates said that there were no more than thirty or forty activists at Emory, with no mass involvement of students like last spring.

There was an outcry from disgruntled students in 1971 when it was announced that funds would not be budgeted in the 1972-73 fiscal year for the Director of Emory Theater, a position held by Kelly Morris. In May, 1972 Morris was fired and Fergus G. Currie was named Director of Theater Activities. Morris was quite popular with student activists and his firing led to numerous protests in the Wheel.

The Board of Trustees also established the Air Force ROTC as a new division of the University. As a separate division it was not subject to control of the College faculty. However, students were no longer given college credit for the ROTC courses they took. Interest in the program did decline and enrollment dropped from 100 in 1969-70 (Atlanta and Oxford campuses) to 62 in the 1970-71 academic year.
The New Building

In the fall of 1970 the Chemistry Department received a Departmental Development Grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant was for $562,000 over a three-year period to expand the departmental faculty, graduate enrollment and to purchase new equipment. Only two chemistry departments in the nation received these grants. A foundation official said that grants were made to universities with departments "which are good and have the potential to become very good.” Emory was the only private institution to receive such a grant.

An article in the Emory Magazine quoted Dr. Mandell as saying that the department would initially add three faculty members for a total of fifteen and another fifteen graduate students. The grant would also pay for visiting lecturers, more undergraduate research and three postdoctoral positions. In the application for the grant the University had made a commitment to seek funds for the new building. By this time the architects were hard at work on the working drawings. A representative from Earl Walls Associates spent several weeks on the campus discussing plans with individual faculty members and with Mr. Ed Moulthrop of Robert and Company. In April Norman Smith, the Director of Development, was quoted in the Wheel as saying that a new Fine Arts Building in the near future was doubtful. He added that the first priority for the College was a new Chemistry Building.

By the fall of 1971 the working drawings were completed, but still no funds were in sight and the Development Office essentially "put the plans on the shelf.” The department decided it was time to try to break through the Development Office and go directly to the top. Leon Mandell went to President Atwood and asked permission to speak to the Board of Trustees at their next meeting. He made a presentation to the Board about the urgency of the department's needs, and after the meeting several members came over to the building and were much impressed by the poor condition of our facilities. The president then sent three of us, Mandell, Goldstein and the writer, to talk to the Chairman of the Board, Mr. Henry Bowden. Mr. Bowden was most receptive and made an appointment for us with the Director of the Woodruff Foundation, Mr. Boisfeuillet Jones. Mr. Jones wanted something in writing about the impact of a new Chemistry Building on the rest of the College. Dr. Mandell wrote him, emphasizing how a new building would not only benefit the Chemistry Department but also provide much needed space for other disciplines, such as English and Foreign Languages, when the old building was remodeled. Mr. Jones was also interested in our experience with the Olin Foundation and I wrote him the details of that proposal.

In the meantime the February 29, 1972 issue of the Wheel ran a front-page article entitled "Chemistry Building a Hazard.” It pointed out numerous safety hazards in the building, including the single staircase, air intakes for air conditioners near exhaust vents of hoods, and tanks of compressed gases in the halls, there being no storage facility for such tanks. There was also a picture of a metal platform in the men's room used to support the air conditioner for a lab next door that contained over $75,000 worth of spectroscopic equipment. The next issue reviewed the Chemistry Department at Georgia Tech where a new building had been built in 1970. The department not only had modern facilities, but also a fully equipped machine shop and two full-time glass blowers and a full-time machinist. There was also a picture of Drury Caine, an Emory Ph.D., who was then a member of the faculty at Tech.

In the early summer of 1972 Dr. Mandell received a postcard from Mr. Bowden who was traveling in Europe. He sent the good news that we would soon receive the money needed for the building. In July President Atwood called us to a meeting in his office and announced that the Woodruff Foundation was making a substantial grant to the University for Medical School projects and $8 million for a new Chemistry Building. At that time Mr. Woodruff preferred that his gifts be anonymous and it was announced that "a friend of the University” had made the gift. This was the first grant the Foundation had made for a departmental building in the College. The Foundation had given money for the Graduate Library, but essentially all previous support had been for the Medical School.

Since the working drawings were complete, things then moved rather quickly. Bids were sent out in August and were ready by early October. The McDevitt and Street Company won the construction contract with a low bid of $7.1 million. At this time there was a slow down in construction in the Atlanta area because of the recession, and the bid was $900,000 under the amount of available funds. However, the final cost of the equipped building was much more than the construction cost. The structure was referred to in the Wheel and Emory Magazine sometimes as the $8 million and sometimes as the $8.5 million building. In its report on the dedication of the building the Emory Magazine said that the actual cost was $8,557,600 and that the final square footage was 135,081 instead of the 118,290 in the original plans. The increase in square footage may have resulted from the construction of the Mechanical Equipment Building adjacent to the main structure.

Even while construction was going on the University received several grants toward the building. In April, 1973 the Kresge Foundation made a grant of $125,000 toward construction costs. The grant was contingent on Emory's raising all the funds needed by November 1973. Later in the year four more gifts were reported: $30,000 over a three-year period from the Eastman Kodak Company, $100,000 from the Amoco Oil Foundation over a five-year period, $5,000 from the Gulf Oil Foundation, and $10,000 from the Merck Company Foundation. It was never clear how much money was given by chemistry alumni. They had been solicited during the period when no prospects were in sight. The final cost figure undoubtedly includes the funds made available to faculty members for much needed modern equipment. Dr. Mandell had been able to convince administrators to use some of the funds for this purpose.
The Groundbreaking.

Groundbreaking, October 1972 - Photos by Professor Harvey Young

At podium, Henry Bowden; seated left to right,
Leon Mandell, representative of the architect, Bill Jones
Seated, left to right: R.A. Day, Dean Jack Stephens,
Jake Goldstein, Leon Mandell, Sandy Atwood,
Jim Laney. Mr. Bowden at podium

At podium, Leon Mandell

At podium, President Atwood

The September 21, 1972 issue of the Wheel carried the headline "Groundbreaking for New Chemistry Building Soon.” It quoted Dr. Mandell as saying, "On this rock I will build a new Chemistry Building and it will be good and adequate for our needs. It will provide sustenance to all undergraduates, graduates and doctors, thereof. And lo, we will progress."

The December issue of the Emory Magazine had a long article on the groundbreaking. It said, "A concrete step toward the realization of a long-awaited dream was taken at noon on October 19 when ground was broken for a new $8 million Chemistry Building at Emory.

"The seven-story structure is the first unit in a proposed long-range science center for the Emory campus and will be located in a triangle northwest of the Administration Building bounded by Arkwright, Pierce and Dickey Drives. Because of the slope of the hill the main entrance will be at the third floor or plaza level.

"Undergraduate teaching areas will be located at the plaza level, or one floor below, with ample interconnection by stairs. This is to reduce traffic on the elevators serving the graduate, research and office areas on the upper floors.

"The first level on Pierce Drive will have a service entrance, receiving, shops, storage and special heavy-loading and high pressure laboratories.

"The second level is to be occupied by undergraduate laboratories and classrooms. The plaza level (third floor) will contain classrooms, administrative offices, conference rooms and a large demonstration lecture hall. The lecture hall will have a separate entrance lobby so that it may be used for night or weekend functions when the rest of the building is locked off.

"A chemistry library, laboratories and faculty offices will occupy the fourth floor. The fifth, sixth and seventh levels will contain offices and laboratories for graduate and research functions.

"The building will contain 119,601 square feet in its total area. The planning of all areas is based on a uniform 11 feet by 30 feet lab module. Laboratories will be divided from each other by use of hollow metal partition walls, with piped services running within the walls.

"The structure will be of reinforced concrete with precase architectural concrete facing panels on the exterior. There will be two elevators. Lecture halls will be carpeted."

The projected completion date was September 1974.

Left to right: Jake Goldstein, Sandy Atwood, Mrs. J. Sam Guy

Left to right: Mrs. Blitch, Mrs. Guy, Dr. Blitch, Miriam Jones, Marjorie Day,
Sara Mandell, Lee Thorn, Joel Driscoll. Standing, Patty Day

Marjorie Day, Model of new building

Patty Day, Model of new building
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
The 1970-74 Academic Years
Faculty and Staff

There were a number of changes in the faculty and staff in the early 70's. In the fall of 1970 Dr. Stanley Norris Deming joined the faculty as assistant professor of analytical chemistry. Stan's degrees were: B.A. Carleton College, 1966; Ph.D. Purdue University, 1971. His research interests were in instrumentation and applications of computers to analytical problems.

Dr. John R. Dodd joined the faculty in 1971 as assistant professor of organic chemistry. John received his BA degree from the University of Colorado in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1970. He then held an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Iowa State University. His research interests were in esr spectroscopy, photochemistry and molecular orbital theory.

In the fall of 1972 Dr. Myron Kaufman became associate professor of physical chemistry. Mike received the B.S. degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1958, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard in 1963 and 1965. Before coming to Emory he was assistant professor of chemistry at Princeton. His research interests were in molecular beams, chemical kinetics, plasma chemistry and chemiluminescence. Mr. Wilbur Baker had resigned and Dr. Judy Sophianopoulos was appointed lecturer in charge of the general chemistry laboratory. Judy's degrees were: BA Rockford College, 1953, MS and Ph.D. Purdue, 1957 and 1960.

As the fall quarter opened in 1973 Drs. Louis Centofanti and Jon Engstrom had resigned. Dr. Walter K. Dean joined the faculty as assistant professor of inorganic chemistry. Walter received the BA degree from Carleton College in 1967, the MS and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin in 1969 and 1972. He spent the 1972-73 academic year doing postdoctoral research at the University of Alberta. His research interests were in the area of organometallic chemistry. In 1972 Dr. Edward P. Kirven took over supervision of the undergraduate organic labs. His BA degree was from the University of the South and his Ph.D. was from the University of Minnesota.

In 1971 the two veteran secretaries, Mrs. Lee Thorn and Mrs. Joel Driscoll, were joined by Mrs. Charlotte Counts. Mrs. Thorn had been with the department since 1957 and served until her death in the 80's. Mrs. Driscoll came a few years later and stayed until her retirement in the 80's. The work and loyalty of these two women was unsurpassed and everyone in the department had nothing but praise for their contributions.

Mrs. Melba Wages took over as stockroom manager in 1971 and Mr. Thomas Carl Moore accepted the newly created position as administrative assistant to the chairman in 1973. Carl was a Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps before his retirement. He took charge of all the details of the move into the new building when it was completed. He was most valuable in overseeing all the operations in the new building.
Retirement of Dr. Jones

In June, 1972 Dr. William H. Jones retired after 46 years of service. He joined the faculty in 1926 after Dr. Lee Blitch developed tuberculosis and had to enter a sanitarium. Bill had graduated from Emory in 1924 and received his MS from Princeton in 1926. He had started work on his research at Princeton, later finishing it and receiving the Ph.D. in 1929. At Princeton he did research with Professor Hugh Taylor, a leader at that time in the area of gas phase kinetics and catalysis.

At Emory Bill took over the undergraduate and master's level courses in physical chemistry. He also assisted in the freshman chemistry lectures and laboratories. He spent the 1941-42 academic year at Cal Tech where he worked in Professor Linus Pauling's laboratory. In late 1944 he went to Oak Ridge as director of the chemistry lab of the new S-50 plant where U-235 was separated by the thermal diffusion process. He spent several summers at Oak Ridge after the war as a summer research participant.

As the Ph.D. program got underway Dr. Jones directed the research of two Ph.D. candidates, Charles Vail and Harvey Hobson. In 1958 he was named the first director of the Emory Summer School. He continued to teach a section of general chemistry in the fall and winter quarters. He also served, along with Marion Clark, as director of the very successful Summer Institute for College Teachers. In 1962 he added on the job as director of the Career Scholars program.

Dr. Jones was in much demand as a speaker on college campuses. He delivered the commencement address at Emory's summer exercises in 1972.

After the department moved into the new building in 1974, Bill took on the job of purchasing supplies and equipment for the stockroom. A glass blowing shop was set up and he made and repaired glass apparatus for members of the department. Bill was an excellent glassblower. In earlier years he had taught students to blow glass in a course called "Techniques of Physical Chemistry.” One day when he was blowing glass, he suffered a stroke and his head slumped into the flame. He was badly burned, but it was the stroke that killed him. He died on June 20, 1987 at the age of 83.
Departmental News

1970-71

Dr. Fred Menger received a career development award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, a division of NIH. The 5-year award was to support research on biologically relevant chemical processes. Dr. Menger was studying the mechanism of digestive enzymes, chemical reactions at interfaces, bile salts and the chemical effects of crowding stress.

Dr. Charles Lester, currently Dean of the Graduate School, was named Vice President for Graduate Studies.

The January-February issue of the Emory Magazine had an article on the NSF-sponsored undergraduate research program in the Chemistry Department. It pointed out that of the 80 participants in the last 10 years 47 had gone on to graduate school and 11 had enrolled in professional schools. Seven had received the M.D. degree. One former participant, Bill Moncrief, was now on the chemistry faculty at Emory. Another participant, Phil Certain, was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin where he obtained his Ph.D.

1971-72

The Chemistry Department received a $74,000 grant from the Research Corporation for support of a research and teaching program using a PDP-10 computer. The program was under the direction of Dr. Goldstein.

Dr. Mandell reported that grants to the department during the past year had totaled more than $1 million.

Drs. Mandell and Day received plaques given by the Reserve Officers Association at a luncheon on October 6 for "those who in civilian capacities have supported the work of the ROTC and recognized the value of it."

Dr. Louis Centofanti received a three year grant of $7500 from the Petroleum Research Fund to study forces between certain molecules known as phosphines and fluorophosphines.

1972-73

The University again received a grant of $11,880 from NSF to support a summer research program for ten students from Emory and nearby colleges.

The department received a check for $1000 from a Florida physician who attended a class last fall and was impressed with what he found there. "You have an outstanding department of chemistry,” Dr. Robert E. Raborn of Delray Beach wrote in a letter addressed to the "Chairman of the Chemistry Department.” The class was taught by Dr. Leon Mandell and the son of Dr. Raborn was a member of the class.

Dr. Stan Deming received a two year grant of $33,000 from NSF to investigate ways to automate analytical methods.

Dr. William Jones delivered the commencement address at the graduation in August.

It was announced that the University had awarded 703 Ph.D. degrees in the 24 years since the first in 1948. The Chemistry Department had awarded the most, 94. The Basic Health Sciences had given 76.

1973-74

Dr. Charles Lester was named Vice President for Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Myron Kaufman received a grant of $40,874 from the US Navy Office of Naval Research to study chemical reactions similar to those in flames and explosives.

Dr. William Moncrief received a grant of $14,300 from the Research Corporation to determine the structure of a liquid crystal which had potential industrial and medicinal uses.

The department received a $5000 grant from the DuPont Company to support a graduate fellowship and to buy special equipment.

Three professorships were created in memory of William P. Timmie, longtime manager of the Capital City Club. Professorships in medicine, basic health sciences and chemistry were named for Mr. Timmie. They were funded by a $2,386,251 bequest Mr. Timmie made to Emory at his death in December, 1972.

Dr. Fred Menger received a $60,000 grant from NSF to study fast biologically important reactions by dynamic NMR techniques, and one of $49,700 from NIH to study the behavior of compounds at interfaces.

Dr. Walter Dean received a $7500 grant from the Research Corporation to develop a method for making thiocarbonyl metal complexes.

A new text, "General Chemistry,” by R.A. Day and Ronald C. Johnson was published by the Prentice-Hall Company.

The department received an unrestricted gift of $5000 from the Union Carbide Company to support graduate and undergraduate research.

The third edition of "Quantitative Analysis” by Day and Underwood was published by the Prentice-Hall Company.

Dr. John R. Dodd received a grant of $37,299 from NIH to investigate the binding of cortisol and other corticosteroid molecules present in blood serum.

Dr. William Murray, Jr., '32-'33G, president of Southern Research Institute in Birmingham, retired June 30, 1974. Bill joined SRI in August 1945 as an analytical chemist and became director in 1948.

Dr. Myron Kaufman received a two year, $20,000 grant from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund for the study of basic procedures in plasma chemistry.
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
Student and Alumni News

1970-71

Decatur Campbell, '42-'47G, was named Director of Marketing for the Coating Division of Eastman Chemical Products, effective July 1.

Dr. Fritz McDuffie, '38-'39, was appointed director of a newly-formed information division at Oak Ridge National Laboratories. He returned to Oak Ridge after two years as the US A.E.C. scientific representative in Bombay, India.

Dr. William D. Morrison, '44, was named president of Hooker Chemistry and Plastics Group, a major segment of Hooker Chemical Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Company.

1972-73

In January the Emory Magazine reported that chemistry graduate student Clark Still was developing a new computer program that might some day allow a chemist or pharmacologist to synthesize a complex compound without touching a test tube. At that time the program could be used to determine the structure of any organic molecule of up to 100 atoms that the researcher could draw on a computer graphics terminal. Mr. Still and his adviser, Dr. David Goldsmith, have made animated stereoscopic movies of molecules being rotated in order to give students a better idea of the shapes of organic molecules.

Emory senior chemistry major Steven L. Baughcum received a NSF graduate fellowship for the 1972-73 academic year. Steve planned to do graduate work at Harvard.

Dr. Kent C. Brannock, '54Ph.D., received the annual Herty Medal from the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. Kent was a senior research associate at the Tennessee Eastman Company in Kingsport.

Dr. A. Ray Tarpley, Jr., '70G-'71Ph.D., joined the Tennessee Eastman Company as a research chemist and technical manager in the organic chemicals division.

Dr. James L. Chitwood, '65, has been appointed a research associate for the Tennessee Eastman Company. Jim received his Ph.D. from the University of California in Berkeley.

Dr. Robert W. Kennedy, '53-'54G-'56Ph.D., has been named assistant superintendent of the polymer division of the Tennessee Eastman Company.

1973-74

Dr. Harold S. Johnston, '41-'65H, won the 1974 ACS award of $3000 for Pollution Control. The award was sponsored by the Monsanto Chemical Company.

Dr. W. Keith Hall, '40, senior research scientist at Gulf Research and Development in Pittsburgh, won the 1974 ACS award of $2000 in Colloid and Surface Chemistry. The award was sponsored by the Kendall Company.

Dr. J. Jack Kirkland, '48-'49G, won the Delaware Section Award for his paper "High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Porous Silica Microspheres.” He was recently appointed to the Evaluation Panel for the Analytical Division of the National Bureau of Standards. Jack recently completed a book on modern liquid chromatogaphy and is associate professor of the ACS short course on modern liquid chromatography.

Dr. Samuel E. Horne, '47-'48G-'50Ph.D., senior research associate at B.F. Goodrich Research Development Center in Brecksville, Ohio received the American Institute of Chemists' Pioneer Award on May 16 in Washington, D.C. Sam was cited for developing and patenting the first commercially successful process for the manufacture of synthetic rubber.
Degrees

December, 1970-August, 1971

Doctor's
December, Emily Johnson East, BA Winthrop College, 1965, MS Emory, 1970
Charles T. Helmes, BA Duke, 1965
June, Anderson Ray Tarpley, BS Georgia Tech, 1966, MS Emory, 1970
August, Chi-Hsin Jen Chou, BS National Taiwan University, 1964
December, 1971-August. 1972

Doctor's
December, Nantelle Smith Pantaleo, BS Emory, 1969
March, John A. Donahue, BS St. Vincent College, 1967
June, Robert C. Long, Jr., BS University of Georgia, 1966
W. Clark Still, Jr., BS Emory, 1969
December, 1972-August, 1973

Master's
March, Lee Hyman Altmayer

Doctor's
December, Robert Scott Butler, BS Emory, 1967
W. Lawrence Dickinson, BS Birmingham-Southern, 1963, MS Emory, 1965
March, William James Woodford, BS East Carolina, 1968, MS Emory, 1972
June, Michael J. McCreery, BS Washington & Lee, 1968
August, Lee Hyman Altmayer, BS Emory, 1968, MS 1973
John C. DuBose, BS Virginia Military Institute, 1969, MS Emory, 1972
Edward LeRoy Lines, Jr., BS Emory, 1970
Robert F. Williams, III, BA Gettysburg College, 1968
Simeon M. Wren, Jr., BS Florida Atlantic University, 1967, MS Emory, 1973

December, 1973-August, 1974

Bachelor's
June, David Allen Hafler, High Honors

Master's
December, Susan Patricia Sims Ament
Joseph B. Wetherington
March, Robert G. Campbell
Hu Soon Kim Rhee
June, David Allen Hafler

Doctor's
December, Aaron A. Fried, BS Mississippi State, 1967, MS Emory, 1972
Joseph B. Wetherington, BS Emory, 1971, MS 1973
June, Kuei-Yen Hsu, BS National Taiwan University, 1958, M.ChE., University of Louisville, 1964
August, Keith D. Holmes, Jr., BS East Carolina, 1968, MS Emory, 1974
Sam C. West, Jr., BS Emory, 1969
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
The 1974-75 Academic Year

As the fall quarter opened in September classes and laboratories were being held in the new Chemistry Building. On Sunday, October 13, the building was open to the public. The magazine "Architecture in Atlanta,” sponsored by the Atlanta Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, selected the building for free tours. Buildings selected for such tours were considered "meaningful to Atlanta."

The Graduate School catalogue of 1975 had a picture of the plaza of the new building and the statement "A new Chemistry Building was completed for use in September, 1974. This air-conditioned building provides attractive and efficiently designed facilities for all teaching and research programs of the department. The building houses an excellent variety of modern instruments including nuclear magnetic resonance, ultraviolet, infrared and mass spectrometers, an automated x-ray diffractometer, several computers, chromatographs and special laboratories."

Dr. Stanley Deming had resigned to take a position at the University of Houston. Dr. Edward Kirven joined the staff as a lecturer and took over the supervision of the organic laboratories. At the opening convocation Dr. R.A. Day received the Thomas Jefferson Award. Tuition in the College was now $900 per quarter.

Plans for renovation of the old Chemistry Building had been approved in the spring of 1974 and working drawings were completed early in the fall. The renovation began very soon after the building was vacated and was ready for use in December 1975.
Dedication of the New Building

Dedication ceremonies began at noon on November 6, 1974 with the presentation of the building by Mr. Henry Bowden, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. President Sanford Atwood, College Dean John Palms and Student Government Association President George Freeman all made acceptance speeches. The architects were recognized, followed by the presentation of three honorary Doctor of Science degrees. The degree recipients were all alumni of the department, William Frank Gresham, who was hooded by Dr. Mandell; W. Keith Hall, who was hooded by Dr. Jones; and Joseph Jack Kirkland, who was hooded by Dr. Day. A luncheon in the AMB Center Auditorium followed at which Dean Charles Lester spoke on "Education at Emory, 1919-1974."

The citations for the three degree recipients were as follows:

Dr. William Frank Gresham received his BS degree from Emory in 1929, his MS in 1930, and his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1936. He joined the DuPont Company in 1937 and rose to the position of research manager of the Plastics Department. His work in the field of synthetic organic chemistry has involved the discovery of new and more useful organic molecules and polymers. By retirement his work resulted in a total of 153 patents and publications in scientific journals. He holds more patents than any other DuPont chemist in the history of the company.

Dr. W. Keith Hall received his A.B. degree from Emory in 1940, his MS from the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1949 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1956. He assumed direction of the catalysis group at the Mellon Institute in 1956, building it into one of the leading centers for catalytic research in the country. Now Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Dr. Hall received the ACS Award in Catalysis in 1973. A researcher in surface chemistry, he has published more that 100 papers and holds patents covering many aspects of the surface chemistry of catalysts.

Dr. Joseph Jack Kirkland received his BA degree from Emory in 1948, his MS in 1949 and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1953. He is a research fellow in analytical chemistry in the Central Research Department of the DuPont Company and is noted for his research in the field of chromatography. The author of two books in chromatography, he has published widely in scientific journals. He received the ACS Award in Chromatography in 1973 for his outstanding work in developing a series of controlled surface porosity column packing for use in high-speed liquid chromatography, as well as his editorship of a technical treatise on "Modern Practice of Liquid Chromatography."
Degrees

December, 1974 - August, 1975

Bachelor's:
June, Mark J. Abramson, Highest Honors
Jack A. Ziffer, Highest Honors

Master's:
June, Mark J. Abramson
Jack A. Ziffer

Doctor's:
December, Robert G. Campbell, BS Washington and Lee, 1969, MS Emory, 1974
Paul G. King, BA Vanderbilt, 1967, MS Emory, 1969
Hee Soon Kim Rhee, BS Seoul National University, 1969, MS Emory, 1974]
March, Mathew T. Barnhill, Jr., BS Emory, 1966, MS 1968
June, Isao Sakano, B.A.E. Osaka University, 1965, M.A. 1967
August, James D. Faulkner, BS Columbus College, 1970, MS Emory, 1974
Benjamin C. Garrett, BS Davidson, 1971, MS Emory, 1975
Tien-Ming Ko, B.Ch.E. Chung Yuan College, 1969, MS Emory, 1974
Stanley L. Morgan, BS Duke, 1971, MS Emory, 1974
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
The 1975-80 Academic Years

As the fall quarter started in 1975 the remodeled former Chemistry Building opened as the Humanities Building. It housed the departments of Music, English, Romance Languages, Russian and German. The Wheel described the old "fifth floor” as having "a landscaped garden with skylights and exterior corridors.” The building now has stairwells at each end and the central stairs stop at the third floor. The elevator now runs from the basement to the fifth floor.

Dr. Joseph B. Justice, Jr., BA Rutgers University, 1968, Ph.D. University of North Carolina, 1974, joined the faculty as assistant professor of analytical chemistry. Jay's research interests were in biological applications of computers, gas chromatography and mass spectrometry.

The first issue of the Wheel predicted a College enrollment of 2600-2800 and around 6800 for the University.

Alumnus Robert M. Powers, '52-'53G-'58Ph.D., was named group vice president for agriproducts at A.E. Staley Manufacturing Company. He had been vice president for research since 1971. In December Bob was elected to the Board of Directors of the Staley Company.

The April, 1976 issue of the Wheel reported that Professor William A. Moncrief had been named Dean of Oxford College, effective in September. The same issue had an article on grade inflation in the College. It reported that the GPA requirement for admission to the Honors Program was now 3.50. The mean GPA for the College had risen from 2.90 in 1972 to 3.20 in 1975.

In the fall of 1976 construction began on the new Learning Center, to be named White Hall in honor of former President Goodrich C. White. The Wheel reported that the anticipated freshman enrollment was 730, 430 men and 300 women. The presidential campaign was underway with Jimmy Carter running against Gerald Ford.

Dr. John Dodd had resigned and Dr. Dennis Liotta joined the faculty as assistant professor of organic chemistry. Dennis' degrees were, BA Queens College, 1970, MA, 1970, Ph.D. City College of New York, 1974. He was a visiting research associate at Ohio State from 1974 to 1976. His research interests were in the synthesis of neutral homoaromatic compounds and the di-pi-methane rearrangement.

The Chemistry Department had in operation a new $130,000 gas chromatography-mass spectrometer-data system. A grant of $67,000 had been obtained from the National Science Foundation and Emory College had provided $40,000 toward the purchase. The Medical School had also contributed $50,000 and the system would be used by clinical pharmacologists as well as by members of the Chemistry Department. Dr. David Goldsmith was in charge of the instrument.

Drs. Myron Kaufman and Walter Dean received a grant of $19,962 from the Manufacturing Chemists Association to study sulfur compounds as a sink for atmospheric chlorine. The study was to determine if these compounds would lessen atmospheric damage from aerosol propellants, refrigerants and foaming agents.

In early 1977 a new textbook, "Elements of Physical Chemistry,” by J. William Moncrief and William H. Jones was published by the Addison-Wesley Company. The text was designed for the one-quarter course, Chemistry 203, "Physical Chemistry for Premedical Students.” At this time a large number of students were taking this course which was required for the BA degree.

Early in the winter President Sanford B. Atwood announced that he would retire August 31. An intensive search was launched for a new president and in April it was announced that Dr. James T. Laney, Dean of the Theology School, had been selected.

In April the Wheel carried a story about Robert Rollings, a junior chemistry major, who held a one-man photography exhibit in the Chemistry Building. Rollings' talent had been recognized and he had 14 photographs on display at the Dallas World Convention Center. At Emory he had been unable to find a place for his one-man exhibit until Dr. Mandell let him use space in the Chemistry Library.

White Hall opened in the fall of 1977, giving the College badly needed classroom space. The University enrollment was the largest ever, 7572, with 2687 in the College. Tuition in the College was now $3450 for the academic year. Dr. Charles Lester won the Thomas Jefferson Award and Dr. James Laney took over the duties as president of the University. His inauguration would take place in April, 1978.

Dr. Byron Herbert Rubin joined the faculty as assistant professor of physical chemistry. Byron's AB degree was from Reed College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from Duke in 1971. His research interests were in crystallographic studies of naturally occurring macromolecules and in the structure of proteins.

Three recent undergraduates were now enrolled in graduate schools to work on their doctoral degrees. John W. Dubendorff, '77, was a graduate student at Emory; Trina D. Kittredge.'77-'77G, began graduate work at UCLA; and Jessica Dee Posey, '77-'77G, was a graduate student in physical chemistry at Purdue.

In May the Wheel reported that termites had been found in the main lecture hall of the new Chemistry Building. Carl Moore theorized that the contractors had dumped wood into a fill under that part of the building. Exterminators took care of the problem. It was also reported that the baseball team of the Chemistry Department beat the Oral Legion in competitive league action. George King drove in the winning run in the eighth inning, leading the team to a 7-5 win.

Dr. Leon Mandell was given the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award at the June, 1978 commencement.

At the August, 1978 commencement it was announced that a $25,000 memorial fund had been created in honor of the late Dr. J. Sam Guy. The funds came from a bequest of Mrs. Guy who died in September 1974. The income from the fund was to be used to purchase materials to assist in the teaching of general chemistry.

In the fall of 1978 Dean Charles Lester gave the address at the opening convocation.

Dr. Leon Mandell gave the address at the opening convocation in the fall of 1979.
Appointment of Dr. Padwa

The search for a person to fill the William P. Timmie chair had been going on since 1974. Outstanding candidates from all over the country had visited the campus for interviews. In April, 1979 Dr. Albert Padwa accepted Emory's offer to fill the chair. Dr. Padwa, who at the time was Professor of Chemistry at the State University of New York in Buffalo, agreed to join the faculty in August.

Dr. Padwa, a native of New York City, received the BA and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University and was a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin. He was a member of the faculty of Ohio State University from 1963-1966, and then joined the faculty at Buffalo in 1966. He had been an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow and a NATO senior postdoctoral fellow in Zurich, Switzerland.

At this time Dr. Padwa was the author of more than 180 research articles in scientific journals and since 1963 he had supervised the programs of 6 MS students and 21 doctoral students, as well as the research of 22 postdoctoral students.

Twelve graduate students and two postdoctoral students came with Dr. Padwa to continue their studies.
Dr. Lester Promoted

In June 1979 Dr. Charles Lester was promoted to the position of vice president and dean of the faculties.
The Woodruff Gift

The highlight of the 1979-80 academic year was the $100 million gift to Emory from the Woodruff Foundation. On November 8 President Laney announced that the Emily and Ernest Woodruff Foundation would transfer all of its net assets to the University in early 1980. The assets would be retained as a separate endowment fund to be used as directed by the Board of Trustees. At this time this was the largest single gift ever made to a university.
Departmental News

In June 1980 Dr. Dennis Liotta won a Sloan Foundation Fellowship for Basic Research. These fellowships were awarded to outstanding young scientists who showed exceptional potential to contribute to scientific knowledge early in their careers. Dr. Liotta's research involved the uses of compounds of selenium to improve methods of producing other compounds such as potential drugs for the treatment of cancer and hypertension.

At the June, 1980 commencement Dr. R.A. Day received the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award.
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
Degrees

1975-1980

December, 1975-August, 1976

Bachelor's
June, Robert John Bradshaw, Highest Honors
Robert S. Charles, Highest Honors
Darrell J. Gilbert, Honors
Douglas Craig Murdock, Honors

Doctor's
December, Charlotte M. Dickinson, BS Birmingham-Southern, 1964; MS Emory, 1966
Thomas D. Harrigan, BS Manhattan College, 1970
Theologos Thanos, BA Ripon College, 1972; MS Emory, 1975
June, Forrest L. Bayer, BA Murray State University, 1970
Richard F. Daley, BS Southern Missionary College, 1970, MS University of Tennessee, 1973
Diana M. Faulkner, BA Agnes Scott College, 197,0 MS Emory, 1972
Robert W. Smithwick, BS Hampden-Sydney College, 1971; MS Emory, 1974 December, 1976-August, 1977

Bachelor's
June, Kathleen Joan Hartney, High Honors
Trina Dianne Kittredge, High Honors
Joel Morris, Highest Honors
Jessica Dee Posey, High Honors
Gwendolyn Susan Powell, High Honors
Hector Luis Santiesteban, Highest Honors
Timothy Robert Silvis, High Honors
Charles Glenn Widmer, High Honors

Doctor's
December, Larry E. Glass, BS Emory, 1971, MS 1974
March, Judy C. Johnston, BA Northwestern, 1967, M.A.T. Emory, 1969, MS 1976
June, James D. Henderson, BS Spring Hill College, 1973
Stephen A. Spearman, BS University of Florida, 1972; MS Emory, 1976
August, George R. Painter, III, BA Emory, 1972, MS 1973
December, 1977-August, 1978

Bachelor's
June, Stuart R. Chipkin, High Honors
Sue Carol Heffelfinger, Highest Honors
Janis Margaret Kenney, Highest Honors

Master's
June, Sue Carol Heffelfinger

Doctor's
December, Maria Perinis, BS Eckerd College, 1973; MS Emory, 1976
George Sanzero, BS Rollins College, 1967, MS University of Tennessee, 1973
June, Judith M. Bonicamp, B.A., University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, 1969 , MS Tennessee Technical University, 1972
Gabriel H. Srouji, BS Ouachita University, 1972, MS University of Tennessee, 1975
August, George A. King, BS Brown University, 1970
James L. Pirkle, BS Emory, 1973, MS 1974
December. 1978-August, 1979

Bachelor's
June, Sharon Kaye Davis, High Honors
David Hansekk Paine, High Honors
Richard Augustin Roberts, High Honors

Master's
December, Stephen Michael Cooper
June, David Hansell Paine

Doctor's
June, Stephen M. Cooper, BA Culver-Stockton College, 1975
Cecil D. Kwong, BS Birmingham-Southern College, 1973
December, 1979-August, 1980

Bachelor's
June, Steven Scott Ginsburg, High Honors
Bradford Lee Kizzort, Highest Honors
Mark Alan Stevens, High Honors
Anthony Wayne Thornton, Honors
Martin Edward Weinard, High Honors

Doctor's
December, Chuan Lee, BS National-Chung-Hsing University, 1971
June, Russell E. Eibling, BS Georgia Tech, 1976
George C. Zima, BS Georgia Tech, 1976
August, Frederick J. Heldrich, III, BS Washington & Lee University, 1976
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
The 1980-83 Academic Years

In the decade of the 80's the Chemistry Department underwent significant changes in faculty, research instrumentation and the diversity and size of the graduate program. The faculty grew from 15 to 20, the number of graduate students from about 40 to over 100, and the number of postdoctoral students from about 11 to 40. Research publications increased from 45 to 100 and grant support grew to over $3 million per year.

Expansion and development of the graduate program had been planned since Emory received the Departmental Development Grant from the National Science Foundation in 1970. Obviously a new building was first needed before a major expansion could take place, and the building was finally realized in the fall of 1974. The University then took the next significant step in endowing the Timmie Chair for the department and this position was filled by Dr. Albert Padwa in 1979.

In the fall of 1980 Dr. Luigi Marzilli joined the staff as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. Dr. Marzilli received the BS degree from Brown University in 1965 and the Ph.D. from the Australian National University in 1969. At John Hopkins he had developed a nationally recognized research program in the inorganic area, with special interest in organometallic and transition metal coordination compounds, and metal species in biology and medicine.

In the fall of 1982 Dr. Isaiah Warner joined the faculty as Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry. He received the BS degree from Southern University in 1968 and the Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1977. He had a well-established research program in molecular spectroscopy, chemical instrumentation, analysis and interpretation of multicomponent systems, and environmental analysis.

In the fall of 1980 Dr. Leon Mandell was named Charles Howard Candler Professor of Organic Chemistry. He was cited for his contribution to the field of synthetic organic chemistry. During the 1982-83 academic year Leon was offered the position of Dean of the College of Science and Mathematics at the University of South Florida. He accepted this position and left Emory after 28 years on the faculty, 14 years as chairman of the department. Dr. David Goldsmith, who had joined the faculty in 1963, assumed the position as chairman in the fall of 1983.

Dr. R.A. Day retired in June 1981 after 41 years on the faculty. He served as chairman from 1957 to 1968.

In the spring of 1981 Dr. J.H. Goldstein received the Herty Medal given by the Georgia Section of the American Chemical Society. He joined Drs. Guy, Quayle and Lester as members of the department to receive this award.

In 1981 alumnus Robert M. Powers was elected president of the A.E. Staley Company. Bob was the fifth president in the 74-year history of the company. He had joined the company in 1958 as a research chemist after receiving the first degree the department awarded in the analytical area.

At the June 1982 commencement Dr. David Goldsmith received the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award.
Change to the Semester System

Shortly after Dr. Laney assumed the presidency he endorsed a change from the quarter to the early semester system and in the fall of 1982 the change took place. On the early semester system the first semester starts in late August rather than September and ends before the Christmas vacation. The second semester then begins in January and ends by the middle of May. On the quarter system the spring quarter normally did not end until about the second week in June. This meant that students on the semester system had an advantage in getting summer jobs over those on the quarter system.

At the time the change was implemented many universities were using what is called the 4-4 semester system. An advantage cited by proponents of this system is that students take fewer courses and have fewer classes per week than they would on the traditional semester system. On the traditional system a lecture course meeting three times per week carried three hours credit, and the normal load for a student taking only lecture courses was five courses with fifteen classes per week and fifteen hours credit. On the 4-4 system a course which meets for three lectures per week carries four hours credit and the normal load is four courses with twelve hours of classes per week and sixteen hours credit. For graduation 120 hours were required on the traditional system whereas 128 are required on the 4-4 system.

The Chemistry Department had to make some variations in the system for courses with laboratory. General Chemistry courses have three hours of lecture and one three-hour laboratory per week but carry only four hours credit. The organic and physical courses have separate lecture and laboratory components. For example, the first organic course, Chemistry 221 has three lectures per week for three hours credit, not four. Chemistry 221L, the course normally taken by premeds, has one three-hour laboratory per week for one hour credit. Chemistry majors take 226L, a six-hour lab course, for two hours credit. The physical chemistry courses for majors also have six hours of laboratory per week. The chemistry major thus ends up with more than 128 hours at graduation.

Medical schools and the American Chemical Society have traditionally stated their requirements for admission or accreditation in semester hours. Both require eight semester hours in each general and organic chemistry, or a total of sixteen hours. Over the years Emory students normally exceeded these requirements in both areas. On the quarter system two five-hour courses in general and organic carried ten quarter hours or six and two-thirds semester hours credit. Our students normally took a third course in each area, Chemistry 113 and 223, giving them ten semester hours credit in each area, or a total of twenty hours.

The College also adopted the plus-minus grading system about this time. Grades and quality points were as follows: A, 4.0; A-, 3.7; B+, 3.3; B, 3.0; B-, 2.7; C+, 2.3; C, 2.0; C-, 1.7; D+, 1.3, D, 1.0. S for satisfactory, U for unsatisfactory, IF and IU for incomplete failure were also used.
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
Degrees

December, 1980-August, 1981

Bachelor's
June, Seth J. Cohen, Highest Honors
Theodore Danoff, Highest Honors
James C. Dozier, Highest Honors
Victoria Stevens, Highest Honors
Theresa Sullivan, Highest Honors
Mark Batson, High Honors
Steven L. Brown, High Honors
Susie Lau, High Honors
W. Morris Brown, Honors
G. Brock Magruder, Honors
Gary Shapira, Honors

Doctor's
December, William E. Bechtold, BS Emory, 1975
Harriet W. Hamilton, BS Emory, 1975
Jessica D. Posey, BS/MS Emory, 1977
March, Charlene W. Bayer, BS Baylor University, 1972; MS Emory, 1974, MS Georgia State University, 1978
Mark R. Holdiness, BS Northeast Louisiana University, 1976, MS Northeast Louisiana University, 1977
Wayne S. Lindsay, BS Erskine College, 1967
Fu-Pao Tsao, BS Tam Kang College, 1967, MS National Taiwan University, 1969, MS University of Arizona, 1975
August, Hollis S. Kezar, III, BA Emory, 1975

December, 1981-August, 1982

Bachelor's
June, Kun Zoo Kim, High Honors
Keith R. Runyan, High Honors
Charles N. Singman, High Honors

Honorary Doctor of Science
June, Samuel Emmett Horne, Jr., BA Emory, 1947, MS 1948, Ph.D. 1950

Citation

Recipient of one of the earliest doctoral degrees granted by Emory University, Samuel Horne has subsequently received international recognition for his major research in the field of polymer and rubber chemistry.

From 1950 to 1982 Dr. Horne was associated with the B.F. Goodrich Company, rising to the position of senior research associate while doing fundamental research that has led to over 60 patents and patent applications. Recently he left that company to become science adviser to Polysar, Inc., a polymer firm in Stow, Ohio. For his research he received the Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists in 1974 and the Midgeley Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1978. In 1980 the American Chemical Society gave him the Goodyear Award for his discovery of the method for synthesizing rubber identical with Hevea rubber - a synthesis that had been the goal of hundreds of the world's most outstanding organic chemists for the past half century.

With his wife and four children, he is a resident of Brecksville, Ohio where he is an active lecturer, teacher, youth leader and churchman.

Doctor's
December, Christopher S. Barnum, BS Emory, 1977
Lawrence F. Courtney, BA Rollins College, 1977
Lakshmi D. Saraswat, BS Agra College, 1973, MS Roorkee University, 1975
March, Leslie A. Cohen, BA State University of New York/Buffalo, 1977; MA 1979
Hancel G. Lyon, BA Wesleyan University, 1976
Gloria M. Sieloff, BS Wayne State University, 1975, MS Georgia Tech, 1978
Pedro C. Vasquez, BS University of Panama, 1974, B.S.Ed.,1975
June, David L. Ashley, BS Emory, 1978
Jeffrey B. Jones, BS Emory, 1974
Mary M. Kimberly, BS University of Central Florida, 1976
Robert J. Rosenthal, BS University of Maryland, 1978, MA State University of N.Y./Buffalo, 1977
Frank L. Van Middlesworth, BA Vanderbilt University, 1977
August, Steven I. Goldstein, BS Long Island University, 1977, MS State University of N.Y./Buffalo, 1977

December, 1982-August, 1983

Bachelor's
May, Russell Austin Flint, Highest Honors
Charles L. Nix, II, Highest Honors
Frederick Paul Walters, Highest Honors
John Eugene Reiner, High Honors

Doctor's
December, Evelyn E. Babcock, BA Agnes Scott College, 1977
Jane F. Chow, BS Mercer University, 1978
August, Richard M. Lim, BS University of California Los Angeles, 1977, MS State University of N.Y./Buffalo, 1979
Mahrokh Tohidi, BS Pahlavi University, 1973
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
End Notes to Chapter 6
The Clicking Calculators

In the early 70's pocket calculators became popular, quickly replacing slide rules. Students started asking if they could use them when taking a test. At first we said no since they cost around $50 and not all students could afford them. But in a short time a simple calculator could be bought for around $10 and practically all students owned one. We then approved their use on tests.

At that time we held our tests on Thursday evenings in three large lecture rooms with over 100 students in each room. Calculators made a clicking noise at that time and a young woman in the class came to me with a unique problem. She said that she became distracted and could not think clearly during a test because of the clicking noise of the hundred or so calculators. She asked if it would be possible for her to take the tests in a room by herself. We were able to find a small classroom nearby and from then on she took the tests undisturbed.

One Thursday night I was in charge of the group taking the test in the large Biology lecture hall. About ten minutes into the test everything was quiet except for the clicking calculators, when suddenly a student in the back of the room jumped up, let out a scream, smashed his calculator against the wall and ran out of the room. The calculators stopped clicking, everyone looked around, but no one said a word. In a few moments the calculators resumed their clicking.

The next day I learned that the event was a prank - the student who screamed was not a member of the class. He had slipped in and taken a seat without anyone noticing.
Thursday Night Tests

Competition for grades was very intense in the General Chemistry courses, particularly among preprofessional students. Sections of the courses were taught by different professors at different times and in order to grade uniformly and fairly we started holding all tests on Thursday evenings instead of during the regular class periods. No classes were held on Friday after a test on Thursday night.

Three large classrooms were used and students were assigned alternate seats to minimize the problem of seeing a neighbor's paper. Sixty minutes were allowed rather than fifty, the normal class time. The tests were prepared by all the participating professors and each professor graded one question on all the tests.

No make-up tests were given. Five tests were given during the quarter and if the student took all five his or her lowest grade was dropped. If one test was missed this counted as the test dropped. If more than one test was missed the final exam was counted in its place.

At that time all fraternities had files of old tests which were made available to members. To help non-fraternity students we posted the previous year's test on a bulletin board, including answers to all the questions.

We had a minimum number of complaints about the fairness of our grading system.
Some Experiments in Giving Tests

Time

There were always some students who complained because the test was too long and they did not have enough time. I decided to experiment one time when I was teaching a small class of about 30 students in the special section of General Chemistry. I told the students they could take all the time they needed if they were willing to be late to their next class. The experiment worked pretty well - at least it did away with complaints. Most students who did take extra time took about 5 to 10 minutes. However, there was one girl who would keep working for an hour, sometimes two, if she got stuck on a problem. She just refused to give up. I never tried the experiment again.

Speed

Should how fast a student is able to finish a test be a factor in the grade he or she receives? I wondered about this when I would see some students turn in their tests in 30 to 35 minutes while others worked the full 50 minutes. In those days standardized tests, such as the SAT's, always had more questions than a student was expected to be able to answer.

I decided to experiment one summer when I had a small class in quantitative analysis. I made out a test that had more questions and problems than anyone would be expected to answer in 50 minutes. Each question was worth so many points, depending on its difficulty. There were enough points so that a fast student would score well over 100 points.

I recall that the first time I tried this one young lady in the class scored around 150 points. The next highest score was about 70 and the class average was in the 50's. It was obvious that this girl deserved an A!

Grade Inflation

Much has been said and written about grade inflation over the years. I recall that in the 60's, when the quality of students, as well as their high school training, increased significantly, we did feel that we should grade somewhat more leniently. At the same time we knew that the nature of the subject matter had continued to increase in difficulty and complexity over the years.

I found a grade book of mine from 1957 that included grades for a section of Chemistry 101. I also found records for a section of the same course in the fall of 1979. The distribution of grades was as follows:

Date

No. Students

%A

%B

%C

%D

%F

1957

52

3.8

17.3

44.2

25.0

9.6

1979

106

15.1

26.4

41.5

14.1

2.8

The average grade had increased from 1.81 to 2.37, or roughly from C- to C+.

The April 1, 1980 issue of the Wheel reported that the grade of A was given to 45% of Emory College students in the fall of 1979. Grades ranged from 18% A in the 100 level Biology courses to 100% A in the 200 level Black Studies courses. The table below gives the percentage A in the 100 level courses of several departments.
Department %A Enrollment
Chemistry 22.1 738
Biology 18.5 421
Physics 27.6 196
Mathematics 33.9 925
English 41.6 635
Music 67.4 89
Liberal Studies 92.3 65
Black Studies 83.3 12

When I was a student at Emory in the 1930's the minimum grade point average required for election to Phi Beta Kappa was 3.25. Usually about 10% of the senior class were elected, never over 15%. By the 1960's, although the 3.25 average was still required, the average actually needed had risen to about 3.50 because of the 15% limit. By 1980 this number had risen to about 3.70.

Cheating

Emory College has had an honor code through the years. It has always been administered by students with the help of faculty advisers. On the whole I think most students and faculty would say that it has reasonably successful in handling violations of the code.

My first encounter with attempted cheating was during the time the V-12 program was at Emory. I was teaching a large section of Chemistry 3, the quant course taken by many premeds in the V-12 program. I also had four civilian majors taking Chemistry 212, the gravimetric course. One week I had a test scheduled in both courses. I had mimeographed the test for the Chemistry 3 class and locked them, along with the used stencils, in the safe in Dr. Guy's office. This was standard practice at that time since the janitor's keys had been stolen and used stencils had been taken from the trash in the room where the mimeograph machine was located. I was working on the test for Chemistry 212 and had left it on my desk. The morning of the test in Chemistry 3, some students came to me and said that a copy of the test had circulated in one of the dormitories the previous night. I was puzzled by this until I went to my office and found the test for Chemistry 212 missing. I often wondered how confused the perpetrators must have been trying to understand how those questions related to their course!

Incidentally, the set of janitor's keys was found in a dormitory after the V-12 program ended.

Multiple Sections

One of the problems in courses with multiple sections was insuring fairness in the testing process. We preferred to give the same test to all sections to avoid complaints about one test being harder than another. We then faced a problem in scheduling. If sections were scheduled at, say, 8 and 11 o'clock, students in the 8 o'clock section might pass along information about the test to friends in the 11 o'clock section. To minimize this occurrence, we scheduled all sections at 8, 9 and 10 o'clock, reasoning that it would be difficult for a student in an 8 o'clock section to consult with one in a 10 o'clock class, since one or both would likely have a 9 o'clock class.

This seemed to work fairly well until two ingenious students found a way around it. One morning Dr. Blitch was distributing tests to the 8 o'clock section in Chemistry 401. He started on the first row and was going up the aisle to the other rows. He was about the fourth row when a student in the first row suddenly jumped up and dashed out of the room, down the stairs and out of the building, carrying his copy of the test. He was not in the 8 o'clock section, but had simply come in and taken a seat. After this instructors started distributing tests first to the back row, then down to the lower rows.

Another time a test was being held in Chemistry 203, the lecture room on the first floor. It was springtime and the windows were open. Instructors usually left the room during a test, coming in occasionally to answer questions. After the test was over, the instructor learned that a student in the back row had tossed a copy of the test out the window to a friend who was waiting on the path outside the building!

The Xerox Machine

When tests were returned to students we always told them to check for possible mistakes in grading. Anyone who had a complaint returned his or her paper to the instructor who checked for a possible error. The problem we encountered was that some students would change their answers and turn in their tests for additional credit. In many cases it was difficult to tell if an answer had been changed. Dr. Jones occasionally used a magnifying glass or even a microscope to see if the black pencil mark was over or under the red wax mark made by the grader.

We were mainly concerned with students who repeatedly turned in their tests claiming an error in grading. When the Xerox machine came along we were able to solve this problem. When we suspected a student of doing this we Xeroxed his or her paper before returning it. Then if the paper was returned for correction, we could compare it with the original and easily spot a changed answer. As word spread that this was being done, the number of such incidents greatly decreased.

True-False Tests

In the 30's at Emory some professors gave true-false tests by reading out the questions in class and then having the students grade each others' tests. We never did this in chemistry classes. Dr. Harris Purks, Physics Professor and later Dean of the College, told a story about a very bright graduate student in physics who was blind. His name was Witcher and he had done his undergraduate work at Georgia Tech. One teacher at Tech gave oral true-false tests and Witcher took them on his typewriter, usually making very high grades. After the first or second test the teacher found that practically all students were making high grades. He realized what was happening and asked Witcher to put a period after a true answer, but not after false. He then found that the grades returned to their normal distribution.

True-false questions were graded right minus wrong since one has a 50-50 chance of guessing the right answer. I once told a class that if one missed all the answers, he or she would get full credit. Several students looked very pleased at this prospect, apparently not realizing that it was just as hard to miss all the answers as to get them all correct.

We did count minus scores as plus, but this rarely occurred. Normally, if a student were just guessing, his or her score would be very close to zero.

The Honor Pledge

Students in the College were required to sign the honor pledge on each test. The pledge stated that the student had not given or received help on the test. We never had students write this out, but under the line where they signed their names, it said, "You signature is your honor pledge.”

One time when I was a faculty adviser to the Council one student reported another for writing on his paper after time had been called. The accused student was sitting on the back row of a large classroom, and when time was called he got up and started down the aisle. About the second or third row, according to the accuser, he stopped, sat down and wrote something on his paper.

When asked about this the accused thought for a few moments, and then said, "Oh, I remember. I had forgotten to write the honor pledge, so I sat down and wrote it on my paper."

Needless to say, he was found not guilty.
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6
The New Building

Construction of new building, February 1973

March 1973

Offices

When we moved into the new building in the fall of 1974, we found that there were many more offices than we had anticipated. For a while anyone who wished could have two offices. We began to wonder why the offices were not larger and then the reason dawned on me. The original plans were drawn with the intention of submitting them to the National Science Foundation for funding. The Chemistry Department at Duke had just built a new building and it had been partially funded by NSF. I had a friend at Duke who sent me a set of their plans that had been approved by NSF. I noted the size of their offices and assumed that this was the size specified by NSF. Had we known that the building would be funded by the Woodruff Foundation, not NSF, the offices could have been much larger.

The Library

Space in the library in the old Chemistry Building was rapidly running out. It had also become a burden on the secretaries to do their regular work and keep up with checking out books. A regular librarian had never been assigned to us.

At the time Dr. Quayle persuaded the administration to approve our departmental library, Miss Margaret Jemison, the head librarian, was not very happy about it. We thought that it might help our effort in getting approval of our plans for a new building if we returned the books and journals to the main library. The new Graduate Library was now open and there was still talk of a new science center, which would contain a science library.

I proposed this to Mr. Guy Lyle, the new director of libraries, and to my surprise he did not want the books returned. He said they did not have space for them and also promised that the library would take over operation of the facility when we got a new building.

The space that the architects provided for the new library was much more than we hoped for. It will be converted to research laboratories to house programs which lack space to grow when a new Physical Science Library is constructed in the still planned Science Center.

The Seminar Room

Anyone who has negotiated with administrators over desired facilities knows that you always ask for more than you expect to get. This gives both sides room to maneuver.

When I was at Princeton the Chemistry Department's weekly seminars were held in a small room, furnished with couches and easy chairs. There was also a small space for preparing refreshments, usually tea and cookies. It was a pleasant room, much more inviting for seminars than a regular classroom.

When we were planning the central office space, I asked the architects to include such a seminar room and a small kitchen adjacent to the main office. I fully expected it to be cut out in the final negotiation process. I knew that if we obtained a grant from NSF the University would have to raise matching funds and costs would most likely have to be cut.

As it turned out the Woodruff Foundation financed the entire cost of the building and nothing had to be cut. So the seminar room was not only left in, but turned out to be much larger than we expected, with paneled walls and large blackboards. Carl Moore supervised the furnishing of the room, which has been widely used, both for seminars and social functions.

The Fountain

We were somewhat surprised when the architects proposed that we have a large fountain on the plaza in front of the building. Knowing college students, we could foresee detergents, dyes and what not being placed in the fountain. It did not take long for us to veto this idea.

One thing we did not realize until it was too late to make a change was the location of safety showers. We had expected them to be located in the laboratories, but they are located in the hallways. We were worried that students walking down the halls might turn them on just for fun, but so far as I know this has never been a problem.

November 1973

November 1973

November 1973

December 1973
Return to the beginning of Chapter 6