{"id":881,"date":"2009-03-12T12:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-12T17:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=881"},"modified":"2009-03-12T12:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-12T17:08:00","slug":"still-here-after-all-these-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2009\/03\/12\/still-here-after-all-these-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Still here after all these years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Michael<\/a><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

Austin man attends ACC, then and now<\/em><\/p>\n

In autumn of 1973, Michael Beu made local history when he and a buddy enrolled in college. They became part of the inaugural class of Austin Community College, which is celebrating its 35th anniversary this academic year.<\/p>\n

Beu was 17 when he drove from north Austin, where he lived with his mom, to the old Austin High School on Rio Grande Street so he could register for a Texas Government class. Fortunately, registration was easy for a guy whose last name falls at the start of the alphabet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were maybe 200 people there when I registered,\u201d he says. \u201cI heard later that lots more people kept coming.\u201d Eventually 1,726 students would enroll that semester, including Beu.<\/p>\n

Today, Beu lives in Oak Hill and works near the Arboretum. He is an electronics engineer with AT&T, managing the company\u2019s wireless communications lab. He stopped by the old Austin High School \u2013 today\u2019s Rio Grande Campus \u2013 in December to talk about his experiences at ACC.<\/p>\n

It is midday during finals time. \u201cWhen I first came here at 17, I was a hare-brained kid,\u201d Beu recalls, speaking over the din of a cafeteria packed with students relaxing and studying together. \u201cIt was the early \u201870s, a pretty wild time in Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he looks around him, Beu talks about his special connection with the Rio Grande Campus. \u201cI love it here,\u201d he says. \u201cMy grandmother went to this as a high school in the 1920s. My mother graduated from here in 1950. This building has character.\u201d<\/p>\n

An open-door college was a long time coming to Austin, so by the time classes started on September 17, 1973, most of the students had a pent-up thirst for a college education. Not Beu, unfortunately. \u201cI didn\u2019t get the credit,\u201d he shrugs. \u201cI made it halfway, but let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n

In higher education, that normally closes the door on a college career. Not at ACC.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came back,\u201d he says. \u201cTo me this is major. ACC gave me a second chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beu returned in 1979. He was employed full time in an entry-level job with White Instruments in Oak Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to advance in the electronics industry but needed a college education,\u201d Beu says. \u201cI started taking ACC courses in Electronics Technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

His classes led to new discoveries \u2013 an aptitude for math and engineering and a new appreciation for his opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you had to work full time, where did you go to college?\u201d Beu says. \u201cYou could try UT, but UT was not very friendly to the students who worked full time. ACC was open to full-time working students.\u201d
\nBeu\u2019s college education took off, and he remembers the instructors who helped him along the way. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for ACC, I wouldn\u2019t have a degree,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many good instructors,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI remember Math Professors Mary Parker, Greg Foley, Steve Rhode. Physics Professor David Potter. That\u2019s the thing about ACC compared with other institutions,\u201d Beu adds, \u201cYou have professors who teach. They\u2019re more accessible than some other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also remembers Physics Professor John Cise and his famed demonstration of angular momentum using a bowling ball. \u201cI kept waiting for people to duck,\u201d Beu laughs.<\/p>\n

Today, Beu is 53 years old. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in engineering from the University of Texas at San Antonio and lives in the Oak Hill area. He enjoys Austin\u2019s live music scene, plays with his amateur radio on weekends, takes ACC classes to maintain his professional skills, and intends to keep taking classes when he eventually retires.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my motto about ACC: It\u2019s a great way to fight Alzheimer\u2019s. I\u2019m going to keep going because I enjoy learning new things,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I\u2019m trying to work for a degree, but I am trying to stay current. From here on out, I\u2019ll take one course a semester.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beu unwittingly became a part of ACC history in 1973, but it was his choice in 1986. Unlike other Texas community colleges, ACC was established without a local tax base and depended on two funding sources \u2013 students and the state. That was to change when voters considered a proposal to establish a local tax district to support college operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when ACC was created they didn\u2019t have a tax base, and that made things fairly difficult initially,\u201d Beu recalls. \u201cWhen they got that vote, I did vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI voted \u2018For.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew the value of ACC,\u201d Beu says. \u201cIt has given a lot more people a chance to get an education. It\u2019s created a lot of opportunities; it\u2019s trained a lot of people for the industries here that need graduates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 100 percent worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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