Education: Spinner at Rollins

When 33-year-old Paul A. Wagner took over as president of Rollins College (enrollment 630) in 1949, faculty men noted the cut of his jut jaw, decided he would make things spin on the experiment-minded campus at Winter Park, Fla. A recent executive of Chicago’s camera-building Bell & Howell Co., Wagner (University of Chicago, ’38) was full of ideas about using the new audio-visual teaching devices developed by the armed forces in World War II. Said he: “If our teachers intend to compete with movies, television and comic books, they will have to use the tools of our times.”

This week Rollins was spinning over a presidential announcement: 17 members of the 53-man faculty were being fired. Wagner’s reason: an anticipated 30% drop in enrollments next fall. The Rollins campus was not completely convinced; pointing to the fact that Wagner had sacked several senior teachers, some decided that the new president was getting rid of some who did not fit into the audiovisual future.