DEDICATED TO EDUCATION
HVCC professor has been teaching at college for more than 50 years
TROY, N.Y. » English professor James Slattery has been teaching at Hudson Valley Community College for more than 50 years.
This week, Slattery began yet another semester at the community college, a very familiar process for him.
For spring 2018, he will lead two courses: A Creative Writing Workshop and The Short Story.
In the half- century prior, Slattery has taught hundreds of courses, and thousands of students, at Hudson Valley Community College.
“I am who I am because of that school,” he said.
At an annual Meritorious Service Awards ceremony in December, the college recognized Slattery and his milestone, which no faculty member before him can claim.
Slattery, a North Greenbush resident, said he truly loves Hudson Valley. Since 1967, Slattery has worked under every president the college has had except the first, and in that time, he’s watched the school and its campus grow tremendously.
Though he technically retired from his full-time teaching position in December 2000, it was hardly a break — he returned as a part-time faculty member in January 2001. He still teaches a couple of courses each semester, including sum-
mers and intersessions, and has no plans of stopping.
Over the decades, Slattery has taught public speaking, technical writing, contemporary novels, introduction to theater, acting and even a course on science fiction. From one perspective, Slattery said, his favorite course to teach is public speaking because there are no papers to correct, but on the other hand, he loves the Creative Writing Workshop because he has the opportunity to help writers develop their own creativity.
While fashion and slang among his students have changed, a consistent trait in Slattery’s classroom over the years is they’re young and idealistic.
“If it weren’t for them, I’d just be some old guy up at Alexis Diner, 50 pounds heavier, eating lunch and wondering howlong my nap is going to be,” he said. “I’m 76 years old, I am alive and feeling young and vital because of the people I teach.
“I get more from them than they ever get from me.”
Some of Slattery’s students might disagree.
“He was a great teacher,” said former student David Mulinio, who took an English class with Slattery 35 years ago. “He made school fun.”
In some recent online reviews of Slattery, students called him phenomenal, inspirational, boisterous, helpful, down to earth, hysterical and a great person.
“The students love him. He’s always been a popular teacher and clearly he continues to have the same effect on students as he did when he first started 50 years ago,” said department chair Maria Palmara, who has known Slattery for 25 years. “He always goes above and beyond for his students, and he’s just been a gem in the department.”
During his earlier days as a teacher, Slattery was an adviser to the school’s theater club, which even produced some plays he wrote. Along with teaching and writing, Slattery is co- editor for a local company, Slate Run Publishing, through which some of his works are published, along with other area authors.
In Slattery’s first year at HVCC, he recalled, a dean told the faculty to put aside its academic pretensions because Hudson Valley is about teaching. Those words have stuck with him over the past half-century.
“I swear you get a better education and better teachers at Hudson Valley than you would at Harvard, Columbia,” Slattery said. “It’s because the teachers who teach here know it’s their job to teach these kids.”
Slattery takes the commitment one step — or, more accurately, one generation — further: Each of his four children have attended HVCC, with the youngest to graduate in May.