Mother's gift
honors soldier and helps FSU

By Carl Voelcker
Special to the Florida State Times


Mary Meginniss Harris had just one child, Joe, who graduated from the FSU criminology school in 1969 and joined the U.S. Army the next day.
In training at Fort Benning, Joe Harris - who had wanted to be a soldier since he was a Cub Scout in the 1950s - saved the life of a fellow officer in a gasoline explosion. As a helicopter pilot in Vietnam, he saved lives again, then lost his own.
Just before his helicopter was shot down, Joe talked to his mother briefly on the phone, expressing some apprehension about his mission, but reassuring her, "I think I'll be all right."
Now, 24 years after he died and five years after she retired from the same school where he had studied, Mary Harris has settled on his memorial: the Joseph Richard Harris Jr. Memorial Endowment for Excellence in FSU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
In 1965, while Joe was away at military school, Mary Harris went to work at the criminology school, as its first full-time staff employee, and two years later Joe enrolled as a junior. She worked as dean's secretary, administrative coordinator, student advisor, and office manager until she retired in 1990.
Now she has given the school $600,000, to honor her son and create, with state matching money, a $1 million academic endowment.
"Mrs. Harris's generosity will have a tremendous effect on our academic programs," said Criminology Dean Daniel Maier-Katkin. "This significant gift will greatly enhance excellence in our undergraduate program."
Maier-Katkin recalls his first meeting with Mrs. Harris: "She walked up to me and said 'So you're the new dean of my school.' That's the way she feels about it, and her long association with the school makes this gift very exciting for all of us."
The daughter of a law partner of Claude Pepper, Mary Harris grew up in Tallahassee. Her childhood home was downtown on the site of what is now City Hall. She graduated from Florida State College for Women in 1937.
She raised her son in St. John's Episcopal Church and sent him to Marion Institute, an Alabama military school, for high school and junior college. At Marion, Joe Harris was a leader in sports, student government and military studies.
Mrs. Harris says Florida State has always been a special place to her.
"The students were always our first job," she says. "At Florida State we always made sure that everything we did was in the best interest of the students. I hope this endowment will enable the School of Criminology to continue to provide excellent instruction and personal attention to its students."

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Her job is to teach
athletes about life outside the limelight

By John S. Cole
FSU Communications Group

For 12 years, Pam Overton has helped college athletes improve their skills. She's trained them, pushed them and challenged them to do their best.
But the skills she helps hone don't make the athletes throw farther or run faster or jump higher. As the FSU athletic department's new director of life-skills/development, Overton teaches student athletes how to survive in the post-college world.
"The transition is enormous," she said. "Particularly at a high-profile university such as FSU."
Some players find themselves propelled into stardom only to come crashing back into obscurity after a few years.
And while athletes enjoy a celebrity that eludes the average student, they also face a lot of scrutiny. That, coupled with intense training schedules and rigid rules of conduct, prevents many athletes from learning about life the old-fashioned way - by living it.
"They don't have time to explore, experiment or to make their own choices," Overton said. "Decisions are made for them."
At FSU, that is changing.
"We're now putting money in the athletes' hands and asking them to take care of their rent, asking them to balance their checkbook," said FSU Athletic Director Dave Hart. "To be candid, we have some kids who don't have any idea how to do that. We have some who fully understand it and do a great job."
The program is designed to give athletes knowledge to deal with the responsibilities they will face after college. "For example, we will take the teams periodically to restaurants, within NCAA parameters, Hart said. "How do you tip? Why are there four forks in front of me? Do I order for my date ?"
"There'll be some things of this nature that are very simplistic and some that are very complex such as career planning," he said. It boils down to looking at athletes in a new light, said Overton.
"My job is to look at them as individuals," she said. "They're somebody's child. Sometimes, they're somebody's parent. They're somebody's friend, somebody's sibling. We have to help them maximize those roles as well as the role of student-athlete."
The task isn't easy. Athletes encounter intense pressure and scrutiny, worrying about everything from what gifts to accept and from whom, to what to say or do in public. Overton is a natural for the job, said Hart, who supervised her when he was athletic director at East Carolina University.
"She is a genuinely caring person," he said. "Pam does a good job of getting to know the athletes on a personal level."

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FSU and TCC
celebrate 30 years of symbiosis

By John S. Cole
FSU Communications Group

Today, no one would think to refer to Tallahassee Community College as "Tee-hee-hee."
The adopted little sister of Florida State and Florida A&M universities has blossomed from near obscurity 15 years ago to become one of the state's largest community colleges, with more than 10,000 students at two sites.
This year, TCC turns 30 and boasts new programs, more degrees and a unique working relationship to both state universities.
"It's like comparing a space shuttle to a Model T," said TCC President T.K. Wetherell. "We had almost strictly a junior college mentality then. We are now community based with associate in science degrees and certificate programs."
"A lot of people who want to go to FSU can't get in (for lack of finances or space), and they want to come to Tallahassee anyway so they come here," Wetherell said. "It's a way for them to get their foot in the door at FSU."
Students at TCC have more than just their foot in FSU's door. The schools have numerous articulation agreements allowing TCC students many of the same privileges granted FSU students.
"It's a good mutual relationship," Wetherell said. "Sixty-five percent of the transfer students at FSU come through TCC. So when that much business is generated by a single entity, if you were in the business world, you'd be taking care of the relationship. I think FSU does a good job.
"Every time we have tried to do something, FSU has been very congenial. They let us ride their coat tails and it really helps us. We are in the bid for the new FSU Card and TCC students will be able to use the (FSU) library and all the things that go along with that. We just created a TCC Visa card which is piggy-backed on the FSU Booster Visa card.
"We couldn't bring that much to the table without someone like FSU as a partner."
Meanwhile, FSU enjoys the benefits of having a top-notch feeder school nearby.
"We get more than 400 students a year from Tallahassee Community College," said FSU Provost Larry Abele. "The quality of students they send us is


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