MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1972 - Missouri Years I

Northwest Missouri State University (continued)

I was named head of a committee to develop the curriculum for a Major in Computer Science for the University. It was complicated by the fact that the Statistics and Computer Science Department was absorbed into the Math Department. The new curriculum was to have a common first two years for Math, Statistics, and Computer Science. It was an okay idea with me because I saw this as the only way in this situation to get an approved Major in Computer Science. It worked.

About this time I discovered that to be teaching at the University with only a Masters degree was going to make me a second class citizen in an institution filled with PhD’s. I might still eventually get tenure but promotion was going to be difficult. So after the new house was built and the Computer Science Major approved, I embarked on a summer program at Iowa State University to get a PhD degree in Higher Education with emphasis in Computer Science Education. So I continued to teach Computer Sciences classes during the academic year and started taking weekly commutes to Ames, Iowa to take summer classes at Iowa State University.