Anita Howard says goodbye after 37 years

The Austin Community College that Anita Howard started at 37 years ago looked a lot different from the one she is retiring from today.  Working as a public information officer, Howard was one of the original staff members employed at ACC when it first opened its doors. Back then, the campuses were mainly old high schools, the tuition was $8 per credit hour for Texas residents, and Austin wasn't too sure this whole community college idea would work out.

"The idea that Austin needed another college was kind of foreign to people. And especially foreign to them was the idea of having a tax," Howard said.

Before working at ACC, first as public information officer and then later as a journalism professor, Howard wrote for the Austin-American Statesman. Under her maiden name, Anita Brewer, Howard wrote features, columns, and covered education for the paper.

When ACC was still just an idea being tossed around, Howard argued in its favor. She recalls writing in one of her columns, "Austin is like the chorus girl who told her boyfriend that she had a book when he attempted to give her a book. Austin was like that chorus girl because Austin said, ‘We have a college.'" People couldn't understand why they'd need another one.

Not so long ago, attending college was a much rarer thing, especially for women and minorities.

"We had so many students who were the first in their families to go to school." Howard said, "At the beginning, we had a lot of middle-aged women who came to the college. It was almost as if this was their first opportunity. They had gotten married young or had children and missed out on going to school."

In 1981, Howard took a leave of absence from ACC and moved to Washington, D.C. to work for Rep. Bill Patman. When she returned to Austin, she began teaching journalism, using her first-hand experiences in the newspaper business and politics to inform her curriculum.

Texas Government professor Mike Harris met Howard through his father Buck Harris who worked with her at the Statesman and considered her one of his favorite people at the paper. Mike Harris calls Howard the "Helen Thomas of Austin."

"She's an icon. She asks all the wrong right questions." Harris said, "I tell all of my students taking journalism, take one class with Anita Howard. She teaches as an example and a role model. She is what journalism is and should be."

In the years that Howard has been teaching it, the world of journalism has undergone profound changes.  Howard recalls when a journalism class taught students how to write a news story, gather information, and focus on the who, what, where, when, why and how. 

Now, journalists have to think about more than a single daily print edition.  Websites and other media require constant updating throughout the day.

"Before, you could write a story, and it was written. Now it doesn't stay written," Howard said.

Though she was reluctant to take too much credit for herself, Howard passed along a compliment that a student had told her several years ago.  The student told her, "I've taken a lot of writing classes, but you were the one who really taught me how to write." Howard said she told the student she was just teaching them the basics, but the student insisted, "You taught us not to say ‘The man was tall,' but to say ‘The man was 6 feet 2.' That's writing."

Though she partially retired in 1993, Howard has continued to teach part-time at ACC for almost two decades. Now 86, Howard is going into full retirement at the end of this semester.

Though the ACC she helped usher in was different from the one opening campuses in Round Rock today, Howard is incredibly proud of how the school has grown.

"I'm thrilled that it's become such a great insitution. It really has. 40,000 students and so many campuses. It's better than we ever dreamed it could be."