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News
Trinitonian April 20, 2012
Three professors say goodbye to Trinity n After 71 combined years at the university, instructors are set to move on to new lives by Aly Mithani
educator’s life is to watch students make progress from wide-eyed first years to well-educated, confident young professionals every single semester,” Hubbard said.
Reporter
At the conclusion of this semester, three of the professors in the department of business administration will be leaving Trinity University. Carl Hubbard, Phil Cooley and Kate Lopez will all be leaving Trinity after a combined 71 years at the university. Hubbard, the longest tenured of the three, has been at Trinity for 37 years, joining the faculty after receiving his Ph.D from Texas Tech University. He detailed his arrival at Trinity as happenstance of an academic convention he attended in the San Antonio area to present his Ph.D dissertation. However, upon his arrival, Hubbard became engrained into the Trinity and San Antonio communities. Hubbard started off teaching courses in Trinity’s MBA program, which had classes on campus during the day and night classes at Randolph Air Force Base and the Southwest Research Institute. Over the years, Hubbard has also taught classes for the health care administration Master’s program and many undergraduate courses. “What is really important in an
photo by Moira Allen
Business professor Carl Hubbard will leave Trinity after 37 years.
Whereas he arrived at Trinity with a wife and child, he departs with a second child, a SAFD firefighter and paramedic, and two grandchildren. Hubbard will now spend a majority of his time running a consulting practice he started a year after his arrival at Trinity. This practice, which is solely operated by Hubbard, works with many firms in the state of Texas and the San Antonio area, in particular.
Cooley, like Hubbard, has spent most of his academic career at Trinity, arriving 27 years ago from the University of South Carolina. “The president at the time of my arrival, Dr. Ron Calgaard, was the reason I came to Trinity. His assertiveness and his vision sold me. I was coming 1,275 miles west from Columbia, South Carolina to San Antonio with a wife and two daughters. You’ve got to be pretty well persuaded, and he sealed the deal,” Cooley said. After growing up in Michigan, attending Ohio State University, and teaching in South Carolina, Cooley became part of the program and culture at Trinity and has been here ever since. One of the main fixtures of the Trinity business department has been the student-managed fund class, which Cooley started in the spring of 1998 and has taught every year since. Originally, Cooley along with three students proposed the class to the Board of Trustees and received $500,000 to invest. The class gives students the opportunity to invest Trinity’s money into the stock market and learn critical investment strategies in the process. Since 1998, the Trinity Board of Trustees has given $2.4 million toward the class. However, the studentmanaged fund stands at $3.25 million, a testament to Cooley’s vision and teaching ability, especially considering the tough economic times during which the
class invested. Both Cooley and Hubbard are taking advantage of a one-time severance offer from the school for professors above the age of 63 with 10 years at Trinity, which is being offered in an attempt to lower the average age of the school’s faculty.
photo by Moira Allen
Business professor Phil Cooley will depart after 27 years at the university.
Cooley now plans to be a full-time grandfather, with grandchildren in Philadelphia, Atlanta and another coming soon in Tokyo, while still serving on the board of directors of two publicly held companies and a consumer credit counseling non-profit. Cooley will continue to live in the San Antonio area. Lopez’s time as a Trinity faculty member began in 2005.
She is a Trinity alumnus, having received an undergraduate degree in 2000 and a master’s degree in accounting in 2001 from the university. Lopez regards the opportunity to teach at her alma mater as a unique, rare and wonderful opportunity. “I have absolutely enjoyed getting to interact with my colleagues and my students. I have learned so much from all the committees I have been on and all the colleagues in my department, and my students have been an absolute pleasure to teach as well,” Lopez said. When looking back on her time at the school, Lopez has enjoyed seeing the face of Trinity change through the years from renovations on Northrup Hall to the newest CSI additions. Lopez will join the faculty of St. Edward’s University in Austin in the fall. For the fall semester, the business department has already hired three new professors to replace Hubbard, Cooley and Lopez. Page Fields and Mike Wilkins, a husband-wife duo from Texas A&M University, will arrive next semester to take over the positions left by Hubbard and Lopez. Fields will assume Cooley’s position as the Prassel Distinguished Professor of Business and will take over the student-managed fund class as well. Shage Zhang will arrive to take over Hubbard’s position from a graduate program.
University announces graduation speaker by Kenneth Caruthers
Joe Armstrong has been selected as the keynote speaker at Trinity University’s undergraduate spring commencement on Saturday, May 12. Armstrong graduated from Trinity in 1965 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, and he went on to earn a juris doctor degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
photo courtesy of University Communications
Joe Armstrong will speak at this year’s commencement ceremony on May 12.
Immediately after arriving at Trinity in 1961, Armstrong made an impact on campus. He was president of the student body, and he worked to bring great entertainment and lecturers to the campus. In 1976, Armstrong received Trinity’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. While at UT, he was editor-inchief of The Texas Law Forum. In
addition, he received the highest honor a student could be given by the faculty, the Dean Hildebrand Award. Armstrong has worked at ten magazines, including Rolling Stone, where he was the publisher and the president. He has also been a media advisor to publications such as Time and USA Today. Besides engaging in numerous publishing ventures, Armstrong has been actively involved in volunteer efforts. Over the years, Armstrong served in the Peace Corps, Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children with life-threatening illnesses, the Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders in Austin, the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong Foundation, and Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans. He has also made several trips to Cuba to assist in orphanages and in the building of a chapel. Shannon Leigh Baldwin, a graduating senior from Houston double majoring in political science and human communication, will also speak at the undergraduate commencement ceremony as a representative of the class of 2012. The undergraduate ceremony will begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 12, in Laurie Auditorium. Tickets are required for entry to the event.