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May 1990 * UGA: An Independent Look • Page 9
State University.
McBee says the most turbulent time
during her tenure here was the trial in which
Developmental Studies professor Jan Kemp
sued the University, charging she had been
fired after complaining about preferential
treatment for athletes. The office of
Academic Affairs was besieged with
allegations of preferential treatment of
athletes, diverting attention from everyday
tasks that needed attention.
“It was a difficult time for the University.
We were wounded,” she says, “and were
trying to heal and regain our composure.”
But, McBee says, it focused attention on
an area which needed to be looked at. “What
happened to us was the catalyst for a lot of
institutions to get their houses in order.”
A former employee of McBee’s says she
was the ideal boss.
“She expects work to be done correctly and
on time, but she’s very understanding,” says
Kathy Matt, the first person one sees upon
entering the Academic Affairs office. Matt
was McBee’s secretary from 1975 to 1987,
following McBee’s career from the time she
was promoted from Dean of Women to
assistant vice president in the Office for
Instruction, then to associate vice president
for Academic Affairs (when the Instruction
office’s name was changed), to acting vice
president.
“She was an even-keel person all the time,
no matter what was going on,” Blackwell
says.
Virginia Trotter, McBee’s predecessor and
former boss as Dean of Academic Affairs,
agreed. “We were a good complement to each
other.” McBee once said of her relationship
with Trotter, “I’m not afraid to tell Dr.
Trotter what I think, and she’s not afraid to
tell me no.”
McBee’s real talent was in dealing with
students, Trotter says. “She was real
courteous with the students, but never
pandered to them.”
McBee saw the University’s attitude
toward students — especially female
students — change after the 1960s. The
student body she faced in the ’80s was much
more independent than in the ’60s, when the
University once asked Ray Charles to speed
up a performance so the women could make
curfew. “We just reacted to changes in
society. Today’s female students are much
more confident and independent.”
She misses the daily access she had to
students, but still finds time to help out once
in a while. Earlier in the day of one
interview, she helped an applicant for
transfer admissions with the University
bureaucracy. That’s how she mostly helped
students during her tenure in the ’80s. “I just
try to point them in the right direction or
refer them to the right person.”
It’s easy to give black-and-white advice to
students, but McBee tries to avoid it, instead
helping students think through their
problems. “I try to point out alternatives and
their consequences, then leave the decision
to them.” A big change from “in loco
parentis,” the attitude of the University
toward student affairs in the ’60s and early
’70s. Then, many choices were made for
students.
She says retiring forced her to allocate her
time carefully, and she has to turn down
many requests from people. “I get asked to do
a lot of things, and your time can be
completely taken if you let it,” she says, “I
think it’s my privilege now to say no.”
McBee uses the time she saves by saying
'1 was just bom to boogie, I guess.
no to indulge her love of traveling, a part of
her life that didn’t start with retirement. In
1956-57, she taught at a secondary school for
girls in Rotterdam, Holland as a Fulbright
fellow. In 1968, she taught on a boat as part
of the Chapman College Floating School, a
semester-at-sea program. She spent last
summer building a First Methodist mission
church in Costa Rica.
In July, she will lead a tour from the
University to the Soviet Union. In early
1991, she expects to tour Egypt. But Mount
Everest? For the second time?
“I don’t know,” she says, “I was just born to
boogie, I guess.”
McBee made it to the 18,000-foot elevation
base camp known as K1 in 1988 with a
group, which included Stanford, that made
an assault on the mountain. When she
returns again in June 1991, she intends to
make it to K2, the next highest point on the
mountain.
It would seem that such frequent
international travel would become
pedestrian, but not to McBee. “You’re never
the same person after you go to a different
part of the world. You see different things,
read different papers.,” she says. “The life
there becomes a part of your life.”
Politics may someday become a part of her
life. If she ever runs for public office, she says
it’ll be local, such as a city council or county
commission seat.
“Td enjoy it and I think I could be of
service, but it’s very demanding on your
time,” she says. “For what they get paid and
the amount of flak they take, you wouldn’t
think it’s such an important job.”
Kathy Hoard, who’d be McBee’s
incumbent opponent in a Ward 3 city council
race, says McBee should run.
“Her sphere of interest and influence goes
far beyond the University,” Hoard says, “and
she devotes her time unselfishly.”
Hoard also says McBee’s level of activism
isn’t just casual. She does not get involved
just to “be in the group picture. She shows up
to work.”
June Blackwell, a University
administrative secretary who worked for
McBee from 1986 to 1988 when McBee was
acting vice president, says she’d like to see
her go for a higher office. “I think she has
what it takes to serve on the state level,” she
says, “maybe even in Congress.”
Hoard says McBee would probably have to
slow down a bit if she became a public
servant. If she was up on Everest and had a
council seat, “She’d just have to come down
on first and third Tuesdays,” when the
council meets.
Money for education would be a campaign
issue with McBee. She says she’s
disappointed with the education allocations
all over the nation, and particularly in
Georgia, adding that the legislative budget-
makers have their priorities backwards.
“My dad said that if you’re going to build
jails instead of schools, you’d better build big
ones,” she said, referring to the state
Legislature’s tendency to fund jails and
roads instead of education.
She says that eventually something will
have to be done. “Or it may come to an
Oklahoma situation, with striking teachers,”
she says, “I hope not, but those who have the
ability to fund education aren’t doing it.”
She must know business matters as well
as any, for she serves on the board of
directors at the new Georgia National Bank.
“I just try to use my good name and
reputation to get good customers into the
bank,” says McBee, who also owns some
rental properties around Athens.
Awards during her 25-year career at the
University include being selected as Athens
Woman of the Year in Education for 1975.
But perhaps the most unique and telling
tribute to McBee came at an ice cream party
honoring her retirement in 1988. Students
presented her with a life-size cardboard
figure with her picture pasted over its face.
It was a stand-up image of Wonder
Woman.
Chris Clonts is a former staff writer for The
Red and Black.