Professor speaks about history of college

By: Quang Do

Posted: 4/26/07

The City of San Jose used to be an agricultural area when it joined the union in 1850 as a part of the state of California, but "hygiene was a problem," sanitation wasn't developed - there were epidemic outbreaks and the sewage system needed treatment, according to a presentation by the San Jose State University College of Science, on Tuesday in the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library.

"The state of California started with the gold rush," said Jean Beard, "which gave us diversity upfront."

Beard, an emeritus professor of natural science and science education, presented a lecture on the history of the SJSU College of Science on April 24 to an audience of about 50 people including four students.

Jayasree Pindivenkat, a graduate student studying chemistry, described the overall presentation as interesting - Weiling Hsieh, an associate of Pindivenkat and also graduate student, studying chemistry, agreed.

Anderson Yeh, a senior majoring in microbiology, said he was there because it was required for his Writing Workshop class.

The presentation lasted one hour and was followed by an onslaught of food and drinks for the attendees, several of which were SJSU alumni there to attend a chemistry reception later that evening.

The Dean of the College of Science, Michael Parrish, welcomed the audience and introduced Beard as the speaker after he mentioned that the presentation was a tribute to the sesquicentennial celebration that the university is doing.

Beard said as the population of California in the 1800s began to grow, it needed schools - one reason was to explain why some people were getting sick, she said.

"Urban conditions require education on diseases," Beard said. "Science has been playing an important role at the get-go," she said about the diversity of the state and the geological nature and its biosphere, including money and resources that continue to attract people to California.

Beard talked about several past faculty members including Thomas William MacQuarrie, whom one of which the SJSU buildings was named after.

The SJSU campus used to include San Jose City College along with San Jose High School for a number of years, Beard said; between 1922 to 1935.

The school had title changes from normal school to common school and then university, she said. "The change was significant but the task was still for training teachers," Beard said.

There was a picture slideshow that made the audience laugh after a comment was made about the laboratory equipments, from the 1800sthat were probably still used today.

Beard said the College of Science started off in San Francisco but the city "didn't want to deal with providing a facility for the school," so it was moved six times until 1875 when San Jose offered 27 acres of swampy land, today known as Washington Square, which became permanent for the school then adopted the name San Jose State University, for the last time, in 1976.

Beard talked about the College of Science through a timeline when other events took place such as earthquakes, wars and presidential elections, while the school changed and added new programs such as summer school classes, had field trips and developed a graduation process, which didn't exist until the early 1900s.

Gerald Selter, former dean of the College of Science and current executive assistant to the university president, said that Beard came to SJSU as a professor in 1969 and she was the director of many science programs.

Selter said Beard has a long history with science at SJSU and that he encouraged the emeritus professor to give the presentation.

"Who else could be better for the job?" Selter said.