Editor’s Note: This is a regular Reflections article series, and this issue features longtime Siena Heights business faculty member Bill Blackerby, who retired as a full-time instructor after more than 30 years and still teaches part-time. Reflections recently sat down with Bill to reflect on his time at Siena Heights.

1. First impressions of Siena Heights?

When I first came to Siena Heights, it was interesting for me because on the one hand I had attended private colleges as an undergraduate, so I wasn’t really shocked by the size of the place. But it was a very interesting experience because we were clearly a school that was in transition. We hadn’t really been coed that long, and the post-Vatican II Adrian Dominican faculty members were also interesting. I remember Jen Horninga asking me, ‘How do you tell which ones are Adrian Dominicans?’ I said, ‘Why don’t you just treat all of them well and you don’t have to worry about it.’ When asked by my sister when she came down to walk (she was a graduate of Southfield), she asked me, ‘What is the biggest change at Siena since you started?’ I said right away, ‘The students’ cars are much nicer now than when I came to Siena.’ We were really resource-poor. The school was what I would call a ‘bumblebee.’ On paper, it wasn’t supposed to fly, when you just looked at the financial resources. Yet it worked. And it worked well.

2. Explain your background in business, and how you eventually started teaching in higher education.

I started off working for General Motors as an engineering co-op student. I waited a couple of years to see if I could flunk out. And I didn’t. So I had to make a decision and I left General Motors Institute, now Kettering. They had a program at Lawrence Tech that I really thought was a program for me. It was called industrial management. It was a bachelor of science (degree) with a number of industrial ad-ministration courses and it also had a business degree, too. I went there and I did pretty well. In the meantime I continued to work on the assembly line full-time while I was finishing up at Lawrence Tech. I became a production supervisor at GM, and left to go work for National Bank of Detroit. While I was at National Bank of Detroit, I was an operational auditor. Towards the end of that stint, I was being groomed to become an international auditor. But with my family, it just wasn’t appealing. My rule was, if you are on the same continent, you can go home on the weekends. Not so much if you’re on a different continent. So I became a community banker up in the thumb region, and I was doing that job for about three years.

It was at that time that Siena Heights decided it was going to start a banking and finance program. What I didn’t know at the time was that it was unusual in this regard: the area banks pooled together and decided to fund the post for two years. And they were given final say in the selection process, which I think faculty now would just be outraged. So I came to interview, and they told me I was the number one choice for the insiders, but the bankers liked the other guy. So they hired the other guy and I just went back to work. And lo and behold, they had another opening up here within the business program, and they asked me if I would do it. And I said yes. The reason I was interested in teaching was I always found mentoring to be the most satisfying part of my job. I said to myself, I could do that full-time if I were a teacher. I think that’s probably why I really gravitated well to academic advising, too, because of that mentoring role. Manufacturing and finance, and that’s what I teach.

3. How has business world changed during your time at Siena Heights?
What principles remain the same?

I think the biggest change in business is a fundamental renegotiation of the social contract. I was coming in at the end of an era where if you worked hard and were loyal, your employer was committed to keeping you. Perhaps even helping you finance your retirement and your family’s retirement. And that’s a whole new concept to today’s students. They just can’t imagine how anyone could ever enter into an employment agreement on that basis. I’d say that might be, perhaps more than anything else, the biggest fundamental change. There’s no mistaking now that you are the person who has to be the career manager. You are the ultimate benefits administrator when it comes to your retirement. Perhaps soon with your health care as well. What more and more organizations used to do on behalf of their employers is being pushed back on to the workers themselves. Principles that remain the same, in terms of professional careers, (is) competence is still a given. You better be capable of doing the work, otherwise you’ll soon be discovered. Trust means a great deal professionally. In the area of finance, it’s everything. Your reputation for honesty and integrity and fair dealing is everything. People don’t need to do business with you if there’s even a question. I also believe that people really want to be empowered. That they’re not really willing to maybe become temps, hired hands or similar occupations that I think some other people believe is going to be the trend. I really think they want to belong.

4. What do your students, past and present, mean to you?

It’s true what they say: as a teacher your students should do better than you. They should perform in their careers very well and capably and move as far as they want to. I think for me the biggest joy of teaching is seeing the development of students. Whether they are 18-year-olds that transform themselves into young adults or the learners who come to us through the College for Professional Studies or our evening students here in Adrian. You see a lot of growth and maturity there, too.

5. If you were starting a business today, what would it be and why?

I would probably provide some essential service. Whether it was home improvement or landscaping, because the world just screams for people who will come out on time, give you an estimate, stick to that estimate, do a good job and clean up. I just think that that’s a great opportunity right now. Low-tech, and there’s a lot of good people out there who I could hire who would do very well, and I could just sort of fill in and organize the process.

6. If you could describe Siena Heights to someone in business management terms, what words would you use?

Siena Heights is and has been by far the most mission-driven organization I’ve ever come across. That’s been the constant. A lot of people can tell you that it’s competent, purposeful and ethical, and can back that up. I think that’s unusual, especially when the founders of the institution, who traditionally embody the mission, are no longer with us. The other thing is that it’s an organization that’s capable of a tremendous amount of self-sacrifice. We’re all thinking today about contributions. How much of the contribution should come from students and the parents? How much of the contribution should come from the government and its aid? How much of it should come from the institution itself? While some people could argue about whether we have the right financial aid contributions, I don’t think many people can question the amount of personal contributions. The other thing is the tremendous amount of interest in the students on the part of the non-teaching professionals here and the staff. I mean they really are interested and they want to help the students. They’re not customers. They get it. This is why we’re here. So when we fight, and we like to fight from time to time, we can always bring people back to a more civil tone by saying ‘what’s best for the student?

7. What is your best Siena Heights experience outside the classroom?

Perhaps the best moment I ever had was when (the 1994-95 national runner-up men’s basketball team) came off the airplane and drove back to campus. I remember it was in the evening and (coach Fred Smith) and the players were received by quite a few people at the Fieldhouse. And in typical Fred Smith fashion, he made sure all the athletes were out front and they got to do the talking.

8. What is the one thing most people don’t know about you?

I think one thing that most people don’t know about me is that I taught Siena Heights classes both at the Lourdes campus and in Baltimore, Maryland. Those would probably be good trivia questions. That gives you an idea of how many things we were trying and how humble our beginnings were when we were pioneering off-campus adult education.

9. Give us your best Fred Smith story.

I’ve thought about this a lot. A lot of people are curious as to how Fred and I actually became friends. It was really a friendship of necessity. Fred had a cell phone but he would never get a debit card. I had a debit card but I was reluctant to get a cell phone. So we used to work together and we coped with this modern society (laughing). I got the cell phone, but I don’t think he has the debit card yet. But the most impressive story I can think of was the year he almost won the national championship, when the driving layup hung tantalizingly on the rim as the buzzer went off and did not go into the hole. Siena Heights was having a very difficult time financially that year. We were trying to find a new president, who ultimately became Rick Artman. And (Fred) was battling cancer. And this probably was the story, was about a guy who was doing two jobs (coaching and battling cancer) in the midst of all this. A lot of people at the University were looking for leaders, and they rallied around him.

10. What do you want to be remembered for at Siena Heights?

If I could advise your son or daughter, and you could feel comfortable doing that. On a typical day I send you an article maybe worth reading. On a good day, I could make you laugh. And on my best days I helped you help another student. That would sum it up.