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.

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