Some Community Service Non-Credit Cources at the Takoma Park Campus (1969-1973)
Some Community Service Non-Credit Courses at the Takoma Park Campus 1969–1973
by James R. Mock
At dinner one spring evening in 1969, with Washington attorney Edgar A. Wren and his wife, we were discussing a newspaper item about the plight of some Montgomery County families. They were about to lose their homes because of a clause in the fine print of their contracts that they had failed to read.
We remarked that there was great need in the community for a law course that would inform laymen about legal procedures and about their rights as citizens, particularly on such subjects as tenants and landlords, domestic relations, employment contracts, and the federal estate tax. Ed agreed and said that he had taught such a course.
From that conversation grew the idea of community service: non-credit courses in law, health, consumer affairs, and taxation. The idea was presented to the Montgomery College Administration, and we were told to proceed. Edgar Wren became the first volunteer instructor in our program, and he fashioned and taught “Law for Laymen,” holding his first class on October 29, 1969. Pressure of his own extensive law practice caused him to decline to offer the course again, but he was convinced that it was needed; and he prevailed upon his associate, Lorraine English Torek, to succeed him.
This law course and the other offerings were in keeping with the College’s increasing number of programs and services designed to provide practical non-credit community services courses for the residents of the area, their expressed needs and interests.
Other subjects were being offered in 1970. “Consumer Protection” was initiated by Miss Sara Beck, Consumer Specialist of the United States Department of Agriculture. Several specialists discussed “Taxpayer Protection.” They included then Congressman Larry Hogan, Mrs. Rita Davidson, Norman Christeller, Neal Potter, and Ernest Fitzgerald (who had “blown the whistle” on federal government spending, particularly in the Pentagon).
The community responded to two health courses also in 1970. The first was “Your Good Health,” presented by Clinton R. Miller, Director of the National Health Federation Washington Office. He was followed by Miss Catharyn Elwood, nutrition consultant and author of a best-selling book on foods and diet titled Feel Like a Million; she taught the course “Total Nutrition.”
Area residents enthusiastically received these non-credit courses, and especially popular were “Law for Laymen” and the health courses. Enrollment reached at least 300 each time they were offered. A fee of $3.00 was charged for each course.
Attendance was no problem despite weather conditions. For example, one January day a very heavy snowstorm caused the other area colleges and universities to cancel their evening classes. We were informed that Montgomery College, Takoma Park, would be open for classes. When we reached the lecture room in the Science Building, we found more than 200 persons calmly waiting to register and for Mrs. Torek to get underway with the course.
These specific community service non-credit offerings would not have been so well attended had it not been for the public relations effort we put forth, as well as for the cooperation of some two hundred churches, civic organizations, service groups, radio, and television stations WTTG. The publicity material was mainly in the form of fliers, posters, and public service announcements.
From the favorable responses and reports we received from the residents who took these subjects, we were assured that these non-credit, community service, low-cost courses had rendered a real service to the community.
Footnote:
Takoma Park Campus: Department of Sociology, 1963–1973; Professor Emeritus.