Bill Seay visits Honors College

Bill Seay, Southern State College ('60) in Nelson Hall

The Honors College was graced by a visit by SSC (now SAU) grad Bill Seay: he graduated in 1960. He came to Magnolia from Lake Hamilton High School. He earned his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Harry Harlow. From Wisconsin he went to LSU where he worked 40 years until his retirement.

I first crossed paths with him at LSU where I graduated with my PhD in 1978. Interestingly, from there I too went to Wisconsin but to Milwaukee, not Madison. From Milwaukee I came to SAU in 1980 and have been here since. I still have a few years to go before I make my 40 years here, God willing.

Another similarity between us is that Seay was the first Dean of the LSU Honors College. Here I am the second director of the SAU Honors College.

Seay was in town on family business and we arranged for a short visit. We ate at the Caf and then walked over to the Honors Office and Lounge in Nelson Hall. We spent a lot of time talking about how much had changed at SAU while how much had remained the same.

Seay's high school graduation class numbered 27 students. He speculated that had he attended LSU or Arkansas back then he would not have had the same career. He spoke of the hours he had spent in Calvin Wetzig's office trying to conquer the mysteries of calculus. There is a similarity between then and now. SAU faculty still spend much time face-to-face with their students. At another school (both then and now) students might be lucky to see a grad assistant instead.

Seay said SSC prepared him for the rigors of the University of Wisconsin. The time he spent here polished him sufficiently enough to succeed at one of the top (then and now) psychology graduate programs in the world.

I noted that SAU was still fulfilling the same role but that time had taken us from high school classes of 27 to classes of 600. It has also taken us from students who knew little beyond their immediate environment to students who were now world wide travelers, on the virtual web at least. Still, SAU and the Honors College continue to serve as a gentle incubator to our students preparing them for the wider world beyond.

I showed Seay the PhotoShopped picture of last year's graduating class (we had to resort to such trickery because of rain; students graduated in two separate ceremonies). He asked what those graduates were doing now. All of them, I told him, were either in graduate school, professional school, or taking the first steps in their chosen careers.

We had had a good visit. I was nice to connect again. I'm sure the same kind of meetings will be taking place between Honors College graduates in the future. I hope they remember how they were when they first showed up at our gates and how much being at SAU helped them become what they became.