When Linda Stowe first became a secretary at Sinclair Community College in 1972, her office was on the fifth floor of the YMCA and she had to go across the street to the Blacklidge Building to make copies.
“It was a little cumbersome,” Stowe said about making copies. “We didn’t take it lightly.”
Stowe left the YMCA office in the fall of 1972 when the first seven buildings of the main campus opened. Stowe said her most memorable main campus moment was the flood of 1983.
“(The flood) was such a shock because we were all set for classes to start, and out of the blue this water main breaks in the Library,” she said. “At that point, books were the heart of the education, so we had to get the books out that we could.”
Up to their knees in water, Stowe said staff and students filled plastic boxes with books, passed them up bucket lines to the mezzanine floor where a forklift then transported them to the University of Dayton to be freeze dried.
“The flood wasn’t cool, but it was kind of neat,” Stowe said.” It was neat because of the way it brought people together.”
Stowe said another memorable thing she did at Sinclair was take classes.
“Employees can register for classes at a reduced rate, so I took whatever I was interested in,” she said.
Stowe took classes in history, English, psychology, writing and journalism, among others. She never planned on getting a degree until an academic advisor suggested it to her.
Stowe took advantage of Sinclair’s tuition reimbursement program – offered only to employees – and got her bachelor’s degree in Human Development from the McGregor School of Antioch University and her Masters degree in Higher Education from Ohio University.
“I’m so glad I did (what the advisor suggested),” she said. “Antioch was a great experience.”
Stowe has also experienced changes in communication over her years at Sinclair.
“We were much smaller (when I first started), so we were a closer family. We used to have TGI Fridays and go over to each other’s houses because people knew each other,” Stowe said. “But, because we’ve grown from just one building to over 20, it’s not like that anymore. There are people that I interact with by name that I’ve never seen.”
Because of these changes, Stowe said she will forgo her retirement reception at the end of the school year.
Even with all the changes, Stowe said there is one thing that has stayed the same.
“Sinclair is still a happy, friendly environment where the faculty wants students to succeed,” she said. “Community is still our middle name.”