Although no campus buildings, stadiums, or halls bear his name today, John Sephus McGhee, Southeast’s relatively obscure sixth president nevertheless shaped our school in familiar and recognizable ways.
Like Willard Vandiver before him, John McGhee taught on the faculty before assuming the presidency in 1897, the last professor to do so. A mathematics instructor by trade, McGhee also served simultaneously as the institution’s vice-president for a time, until the regents appointed him president after Vandiver’s resignation.
Within two brief years, McGhee implemented a “practice school” for “student teaching.” This practice school operated like a regular public school, with Southeast students teaching first through eighth grades under the supervision of a cooperating teacher. What we call “student teachers,” these “pupil teachers” assumed responsibility for the curriculum, instruction, and classroom management of a real class before earning their certificate.
President McGhee likewise initiated “summer school” in 1897 with 26 overachieving students taking advantage that first session.
Prior to this time, students grade levels were designated as D, C, B and A. The McGhee administration replaced these with the modern terms freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior.
And although unable to see the projects to fruition, President McGhee envisioned a college role in student housing. His plans – that eventually involved land purchases – indirectly led to Albert Hall and Leming Hall dormitories almost a decade later.
Despite such a promising start, McGhee’s tenure ended somewhat abruptly in 1899 when the Board of Regents voted not to rehire him, in favor of his replacement Washington Dearmont.
