As far as George Racette knows, he has been the only professor to ever occupy room 396C of Gilbert Hall.
Located in the basement of the building’s east wing, the office is long and narrow with a high ceiling. Books line shelves that creep high on the walls, and the room has all of the clutter of a well-settled bedroom.
Since 1974 when Racette started teaching finance at the University, the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business has undergone many changes.
His office once stored mechanical arithmetic devices, each of them weighing close to 40 pounds. They were about the size of a bread box, and like any mechanical machine they often jammed. When the school replaced them with calculators, the storage room was converted to an office, and Racette moved in.
That was in the mid-1970s.
Since then, the business school has grown by leaps and bounds.
The latest jump takes place today with the opening of the Lillis Business Complex.
But Racette doesn’t really dwell on those things. He’s not much of “an edifice man,” he said. What he really cares about are the students he has taught, some of whom he still keeps in contact with nearly 30 years later. Racette retired in spring 2002 and now teaches only two classes per year.
“There’s a great deal of pleasure looking back at the various people, knowing what they’ve gone on to do,” he said. “If you think about all of the things that change, students have been a constant.”
Finance Professor Larry Dann, a close colleague and friend of Racette’s for the past 26 years, said students have changed right along with the school.
“Students were much more willing to let the professor come in and lecture and write on the blackboard,” he said. “It was much more passive in the classroom. I think the change is a real improvement in education.”
Also, he pointed out that the size of the school has grown tremendously. When he first started teaching at the University in 1977, the Chiles Center wasn’t there, he said.
After the Chiles Center was built in 1986 the capacity of the school was estimated at 942 students, according to the business school Web site. In the 2001-2002 school year enrollment topped 2,500 students.
Racette said he is happy to see the addition of Lillis to the business school.
“I think it provides a wonderful facility in which to learn, and with the technology there, there are simply a lot of things they’re able to do,” Racette said. “I think they’ve done a pretty good job of trying to make this building one in which students will feel welcome. I don’t think you can ask for much more than that. I think from that standpoint, it’s great.”
He acknowledged that the technology in the building, including wireless Internet access and laptop computer plug-ins, will help professors and students communicate better.
“Certainly we have a lot more technology,” he said. “The ability to get information to students wasn’t as easy before. We used to have a group that would go into a classroom and take notes and sell the notes to students, for the ones who couldn’t take notes. If you had a change in office hours or you’d like to get an assignment or reading out to people, you couldn’t do that.”
Racette also said students today are fortunate because they have access to resources that didn’t exist when he started teaching. Specifically, he mentioned tutoring centers, peer advising and programs that help students find jobs during and after school.
One thing that will not change with the opening of Lillis is Racette’s office. Retired teachers will not be allowed to move in, but Racette said he accepts the decision because retired teachers don’t use their offices as much as full-time faculty.
He added that he doesn’t want a new office. He’s satisfied in the aging basement office, which has been his professional home for the last 29 years. For him, the main thing is “remaining enthusiastic and looking forward to the next class,” something that hasn’t changed, he said.
“He really cares about the students,” Dann said. “He and I used to sit for hours and talk about better ways to present materials, better ways to get concepts across. George gets really animated when you start talking about that stuff. He’s really a lover of learning.”
Twenty-nine years is a long time to spend teaching, but Racette said he plans to continue doing it as long as he is able.
“George is one of the two best teachers I’ve seen here,” Dann said. “For better or for worse, George Racette is one of the reasons I chose to come to Oregon.”
A picture of the old Commonwealth classroom bridge hangs on the wall in Racette’s office, but even though it was razed and Lillis was erected in its place, he has yet to set foot inside. He said he realized the construction crews had a job to do, and the last thing they needed was for him to be wandering around gawking.
Besides, he’ll get to see the complex when it’s completed, he explained.
Today will definitely be that day, he said.