In certain ways we are an easy school to get into and a hard school to stay in. In 1973, when we were first fully accredited, we had a good team of examiners, but they couldn t understand why we had mushroomed. They went out into the community. They talked to hundreds of people and later mentioned in their report, every kid in town knows about Columbia, but no parents do. We were never arrayed against your people.
Many colleges feel they are elite places.
But our idea is that you serve your community. We were interested in educating people to earn reasonable income for doing work they like. Father left about 1950. I became business manger in 1955, but the place was essentially leaderless. I became president, in 1963, by utter default, having nothing else to do.