TransformingSCsDestinyOnline - page 37

S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
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3 5
The 1970s
A
M O D E L F O R T H E N A T I O N E M E R G E S
Wade Martin was a champion, and he was missed. He was
most responsible for molding the state’s TEC program into a
model for the nation.
Stan Smith, board chair from 1961 to 1973, recalls, “Oh, what
a tremendous loss. We had nobody, in my opinion and the opin-
ion of the board, who was capable of managing that emerging
enterprise’s great strengths.”
Who then would or more truthfully could lead the system?
Stan Smith interviewed forty candidates and came up dry. Per-
haps the answer lay on theWest Coast. Smith and GovernorWest
had twice gone to California to look at community colleges. The
college of San Mateo, by far, was the most successful and the best
managed.
The manager of San Mateo was one Julio Bortolazzo. Smith
and West flew to San Francisco ... right into a brick wall. “I’m not
going to leave California,” said Bortolazzo. Unwavering, Smith
andWest flew back and pitched Bortolazzo again, who acting a bit
like a celebrity said, “I’ll come, but I want a Bortolazzo blue Buick
automobile, and I want my condo carpeted in Bortolazzo blue.”
“To satisfy his ego, we did everything just so,” said Smith.
Governor West named Bortolazzo, 55, as the system’s new di-
rector April 14, 1971. Bortolazzo’s biography described him as
“a builder of colleges.” Bortolazzo—“I don’t need any help; I’ve
been there”—assumed command May 25 and quickly stirred
up trouble. Earlier in March, South Carolina’s Commission on
Higher Education worked on a proposal to establish a communi-
ty college system, a topic dear to Bortolazzo. He started a firefight
with the University of South Carolina demanding it relinquish its
branch campuses and let them merge with the technical college
system to form a community college network.
T. Eston Marchant, chairman of the USC board fired back.
“Bortolazzo’s plan would destroy a university system which has
been built up and proven.”
The media had welcomed Julio Bortolazzo. Editorials had
gushed ink all over the man. One editorial whimsically wished
his middle initial were an O, thus “fitting his initials to his mis-
sion.” Now the editorials criticized him. One editorial stated, “Dr.
Bortolazzo apparently is intent on stampeding the state into fun-
damental alteration of its post-high school programs.” Another
editorial complained, “Someone in a position of authority and
responsibility needs now to define the mission of Dr. Julio Bor-
tolazzo.”
Meanwhile, Bortolazzo turned to television and radio to
pound his ideas into the populace. He made disturbing refer-
ences to a two-class system in which “blacks and poor whites
attend tech centers and upper- and middle-class whites attend
the universities ... I’m going to call the shots as I see them. I have
no political axe to grind.”
Bortolazzo accused the USC system of branch campuses as
being political, not educational. “What has USC and its political
satellites done to move South Carolina from the dismal 50th po-
sition in the number of students who go on to college?”
Things came to a head while Smith was in Bangor, Maine.
When Stan Smith got home Friday night, his wife had newspa-
pers lined up fromMonday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday. Said Smith, “The headlines blew us out of the water.”
Smith called Bortolazzo, who erupted. “Where the hell have
you been?”
“Dr. Bortolazzo, they don’t print
The State
newspaper in Ban-
gor, Maine. I didn’t know a damn thing about this. Your secretary
had my itinerary, why didn’t you call me?”
“You didn’t support me. This board didn’t support me. No-
body supported me. I had to stand out there by myself.”
“I want to meet with you,” demanded Bortolazzo.
“When,” asked Smith.
“Six o’clock Saturday morning.”
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