Challenges in Education

Being president for fifteen years, Shively faced challenges throughout his presidency. A primary issue throughout his tenure was student parking. Initially, Bunker Hill opened with no student parking, but they were able to get a state parking lot in 1975 which was quickly closed due to pavement issues. Issues are further compounded with the state owning the lots and constant repairs being needed for the lots, similar issues with the parking lots continued throughout his tenure. The late 70s were also a difficult time for the college as state appropriated funds were cut back. This caused issues within the faculty and student body due to the lack of funding for payroll. One of these issues was the resignation of a professor due to a contract dispute causing sixty students from the class to protest the resignation in front of Shively’s office. A follow-up meeting was scheduled with Shively for the following day; however, he was not present and sent another administrative Dean in his place.  

In the same timeframe, the construction of the E building faced controversy as it was being constructed while the budget cuts and lack of funding occurred. The articles from BHCC’s student newspaper, The Third Rail, featured a running theme discussing that the state appropriated funds for the E building could have gone to paying faculty and assisting in the repairs for the parking lots. We are including images from some of these articles, if you would like to examine them in greater detail the Third Rail newspaper has been digitized up until the year 2001 and is available through the following link https://bunkerhill.advantage-preservation.com/. 

Additionally, a strange incident occurred in October 1980 when a travel agency dispute involving BHCC was escalated when the travel agent dropped around 5,000 ping-pong balls from a helicopter. The reasoning given was that the agent was barred from advertising their company due to an incident involving BHCC students in a Montreal hotel the previous fall.