Struggle, Fight, Accomplish
The late 1950s and early 1960s represented the realization of Gertrude Shapiro’s goal of maintain the New Hampshire College of Accounting and Commerce for her children. The assembled family unit would pursue a decade of significant development for the college including accreditation, degree granting authority, non-profit status, and the dream of a new campus.
The struggling school of the early 1950s employed just three full time and three part time instructors. By 1960, the faculty had grown to eight: Ernest N. Seavey, accounting instructor; Mary Dionne, secretarial instructor; George McElroy, guidance director and psychology instructor; Edward Shapiro, administrative dean and typewriter and business machine instructor; Jean F. Silver, business English and secretarial instructor; Dorothy Rogers, retail merchandising instructor; Robert St. Pierre, business law instructor; and Bernard L. Ekman, accounting and business administration instructor. The number of day students had increased from 25 in 1952 to 96 by 1961.
With the success of the Speedwriting course, the college added similar franchised offerings including the Weaver School of Real Estate, IBM clerical course, Program for Achievement in Reading, and the Nancy Taylor Finishing School. These offerings continued to grow the school’s night and summer programming and expand its demographic reach (the real estate program, for example, attracted working-age adults and PAR was aimed at a teen audience). These were among the more commonly offered franchised courses nationally, with a 1962 study finding that the most popular franchised courses were Programs for Achievement in Reading, Speedwriting, and the Nancy Taylor Charm Course. Others reported by five or more schools included Weaver Real Estate, Automation Institute of America, American Accountants Training Association, Dale Carnegie, and McDonald Management.
In 1960, in a recognition of her children’s increasing role with the College and its prospects for continuing to provide for the Shapiro family, Gertrude Shapiro took the steps necessary to incorporate the New Hampshire College of Accounting and Commerce. From January 15, 1933 to August 29, 1960 the institution had been operated as a sole proprietorship, owned and overseen by one individual. Incorporation would provide an ownership stake in the institution for all members of the Shapiro family. By 1962, two out of three private business schools were organized as corporations, a drastic shift from the 1930s where most were organized as sole proprietorships. Organizing as a corporation made it easier to obtain capital, limited the liability of the stockholders, and provided evidence of stability as the corporation would continue to exist even if key members were to die, a problem the Shapiros were all too familliar with. The format did have some drawbacks, including increased taxation, supervision by and reporting to state agencies, and the potential for slower action as the institution was controlled by a board and not an individual.
At 2:00 PM on August 29, 1960 the Shapiros and William S. Green held a meeting at the Manchester law offices of Sheehan, Phinney, Bass, and Green to approve articles of agreement for their new corporation. 60 shares of stock were issued to Gertrude Shapiro in return for all of the assets and liabilities of the college and 20 shares each were issued to Edward and Ann Shapiro in return for their services in the formation of the corporation. The bylaws adopted provided for a Board of Directors and the following officers: President, Vice President, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, Clerk and Secretary. The Board of Directors, which was to number from three to seven, the Treasurer and Clerk were elected by the stockholders. The President and other officers would be elected by the institution. Gertrude Shapiro was elected President, Edward Shapiro: Treasurer, Ann Shapiro: Assistant Treasurer, and William S. Green: Clerk. The corporation held annual meetings through 1967 with the only business being the re-election of the officers.
During the early years of the schools operation accreditation was not a significant issue. The curriculum was short term in nature and geared towards specific workplace skills. The school tended to emphasize its graduates’ records of employment rather than any outside measure of its quality. The National Council of Business Schools accreditation of the 1940s, though it had significant impacts on the School’s curriculum, was not generally noted in the school’s promotional material outside of a quick line on the subject appearing in the school’s catalog.
In 1952 the same accreditor, which had merged with another group and become the National Association and Council of Business Schools, created an accrediting commission (The Accrediting Commission for Business Schools) which set stronger standards around entrance requirements, catalogs, degree requirements, and other practices in an effort to enhance the significance of private commercial school accreditation at a time when such schools were being accused of questionable practices surrounding G.I. Bill funds. In 1956 the ACBS was designated as a “nationally recognized accrediting agency” by the U.S. Office of Education, in association with the requirements of the G.I. Bill, boosting its prestige as an accrediting body.
The New Hampshire College of Accounting and Commerce first went out for ACBS Junior College accreditation in 1960. Mrs. Shapiro described the impetus for pursuing accreditation:
“My son decided that we should become accredited as a Junior College of Business. We attended a United Business School Association convention in Washington. After meeting people from other business schools and hearing about their programs I told my son and daughter than we were running a better school than most business schools in the country and let us go out for anything we feel we should have such as the Junior College of Business accreditation.”
There were several aspects of the accreditation standards that required changes to the college and its curriculum. The College would need to create a Council of Advisors, have a library, and 25% of the curriculum would need to be in the liberal arts. The curricular issue had already been addressed, with two courses each semester being given over to electives: Business Organization and Management, Business Psychology, Economics, Merchandising, Public Speaking, Salesmanship, Investments, Credit and Collections, Filing and Indexing, and Penmanship. It was, perhaps, as stretch to call those subjects all “liberal arts” but by the middle of the decade more traditional literature, history, math and science, and even Spanish classes would be added to the “General Education” electives mix.
The creation of a library took a bit more work. In the early days of the institution students were directed to the Manchester City Library, a short five minute walk from 88 Hanover Street. The subjects taught did not generally require research, and the school had books on practical topics like accounting practices and the tax code on hand in a bookcase in the Headmaster’s office. Harry A. B. Shapiro had collected around 200 books on accounting and secretarial subjects, and after his death Gertrude Shapiro continued to amass materials with a goal of ultimately creating a library, including a complete run of the Journal of Accountancy.
With the need to develop a library accessible to students, a stock room that had previously been the office of the New Hampshire Shoeworkers Union was given over as space. Ann Shapiro, with the advice of a friend who was a trained librarian, cataloged the existing collection and developed a ten year plan for the library. She recalled the early days of the library and developing the collections:
“We felt that it was critical that we get our library in shape, for what turned out to be our first of many accreditation visits. I had two major sources of books. One of course was the books that my Mother had saved over the years - there were several hundred of those. The other major source was the second-hand bookstores in Boston. Scollay Square was being demolished and Government Center was being developed. As many may remember, it was an area composed of sleaze and second-hand bookstores. The square was a real contradiction. As a consequence, the bookstores had better than usual book values. Most of the stores were closing permanently and they were anxious to sell their stock at whatever price they could. And, it is costly to move books, so even the stores that were planning to move were not averse to depleting their inventory.”
Ann also recalled the rush to complete work on the library when the accreditors were scheduled to arrive:
“…the night before the visiting team was due, I spilled the shellac which in turn knocked over the white ink. Mrs. Shapiro, Ed and I worked for hours repairing the damage.
I was very proud of the care which we had taken with the book selection and its appropriateness to a business college. The only comment we received from the visitors was that one of them told us how nice and clean the library was.”
The development of a Council of Advisors was also something new. The Shapiro family owned all the stock in the school, and had full authority to develop policies and curriculum without outside approval. The Shapiros had, however, long relied on the advice of attorney William S. Green, Mrs. Shapiro’s brother-in-law Maurice Katz, and the academic know-how of the heads of the accounting and secretarial divisions of the College to guide them. Now, for the first time, they would look outside of this circle for advice and oversight.
The Council of Advisors was first listed in the 1964-65 catalog and consisted of:
Dr. Nathan Brody: Ph.D. University of Michigan; Instructor at Princeton University.
Mr. Maurice Katz: M.B.A. Harvard University; Board of Directors, Associated Grocers of New Hampshire; Retailer and Brother in Law of Gertrude C. Shapiro,
Dr. Gordon Klopf, Ph.D. University of Wisconsin; Associate Professor of Education, Columbia University, Teachers College.
Dr. Walter St. Clair, M.A., Ed.D., Temple University, Diplomate in Clinical Psychology, American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology; Psychologist, Veterans Hospital, Manchester.
Mr. Virgil Smith, A.B. Chico State College; N. H. College of Accounting and Commerce, Manchester, N. H.; Certified Public Accountant, Concord, N. H., a graduate of the class of 1953 and instructor during the 1960-61 and 1961-62 school years.
William S. Green would eventually replace Walter St. Claire on the council and the group advised the College until the creation of a Board of Trustees in 1968.
According to Gertrude Shapiro, The ACBS accreditors repot contained only two negative items: That more recreation space was needed for students and that they did not know how the school could operate without more students in the second year of the two year program. "They claimed we couldn't do what we were doing" recalled Mrs. Shapiro. Ann Shapiro noted the oddness of needing to respond to that criticism: “the administration had to reply to the commission explaining that they were doing what they were doing.”
Accreditation as a Junior College of Business by the Accrediting Commission for Business Schools was received in July of 1960. As soon as accreditation was received, the school began adding the tagline “Accredited by ACBS” to its advertisements. This status was a differentiator, as local competitor Hesser Business College advertised its membership in the National Association and Council of Business Schools, but could not yet boast of accreditation.
Even though she had a long history of involvement with the College, was now one of its part owners, and had worked extensively on the College’s library, Ann Shapiro’s formal employment by the institution began only in August of 1961. Having completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration at Simmons College (1960) and a Master of Arts degree in Guidance and Personnel Administration at Columbia University (1961) she now joined the staff as Director of Student Personnel Services. This position oversaw guidance, student activities, and the library, as well as the teaching of one course each semester in either shorthand or a social science topic.
The developments of the New Hampshire College of Accounting and Commerce that took place in the late 1950s and early 1960s positioned the institution to apply to the State of New Hampshire for degree granting authority. The College enlisted Robert E. Plourde, a graduate of the school’s 2 year accounting program who had been elected to the State House of Representatives in 1960 representing Pembroke to introduce the necessary legislation. This took the form of House Bill 594, Introduced on May 16, 1963, authorizing the college to grant: “the degrees of Bachelor of Business Science, Bachelor of Science and Associate in Science, as well as other degrees and diplomas as are conferred by institutions of like character.” In preparation, Gertrude Shapiro had reached out to area businesses for letters of support and William S. Green, acting as the College’s attorney, prepared a packet of material to be presented to the members of the New Hampshire House’s Joint Education Committee, to whom the bill was referred.
When speaking before the committee, Attorney Green argued that the changing nature of white collar jobs created a climate in which two year vocational training was no longer sufficient for those seeking advancement. He argued that a broader education, including liberal arts subjects, was a requirement of local employers, and that those employers were now looking out-of-state for graduates with those credentials.
The expectation was that Attorney Green would do all of the talking during the hearing, but Gertrude was called upon by the committee to defend the bill:
“We went up there with the idea that only Bill Green was going to talk, and lo and behold they asked me questions. And, uh, I answered them and I said that it was, I remember distinctly saying, shivering in my boots, that the college was established on the basis of the CPA, accounting program, that it was high quality, and we… that we were not going to lower our standards, it was going to be continued on the same basis that the college was originally started, and whatever I said, and I remember saying it, and Bill Green will tell you the day, that I was the turning point in getting the degree granting.”
The College’s strategy for the bill, adopted at the suggestion of Attorney Green, was to ask for an expansive ability to grant degrees at the bachelor’s and associate’s level, with the expectation that the committee would recommend amending the language to cover only associate’s degrees. On June 19th the Education Committee did recommend the bill be passed with amendment, but the amendments were largely clarifying language, leaving intact the Bachelor of Business Science and Associate of Business Science degrees.
That same day the bill was passed, and referred to the Senate. The Senate added language indicating that the Bachelor’s degree was the equivalent of a four year degree and required that 30% of credits be in general education subjects. The bill was engrossed on Friday, June 21st, becoming Chapter 428 of the Laws of 1963. It was signed by Governor John W. King to be effective June 24, 1963:
“CHAPTER 428.
AN ACT AUTHORIZING N.H. COLLEGE OF ACCOUNTING & COMMERCE TO GRANT DEGREES.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
428:1 Authority Granted. The college conducted by the N.H. College of Accounting & Commerce, Inc., an educational institution, is hereby authorized to confer upon the graduates therefrom the degrees of Bachelor of Business Science and Associate in Business Science. The degree of Bachelor of Business Science as awarded by the aforesaid institution shall represent the equivalent of a four-year course and at least thirty percent of the total credits required for said degree shall be in general education.”
Ann Shapiro recalled the passage of the bill:
“I think receiving the authority to grant the baccalaureate degree was one of the few times that we were caught totally unprepared. We were in a situation of having a four year degree with no program to go with it. We had to delay a whole year to develop the program, recruit students and hire a staff. That was a wonderful problem.”
The college developed three Bachelor’s Degree programs by building upon the existing two year diploma programs that had long been the college’s flagship offerings: Accounting and Business Administration, Business Management, and Secretarial Science. The existing two year courses in Accounting, Business Management, Executive, Medical, Legal, and Administrative Secretarial were also offered in their previous form, now leading to an Associate’s Degree rather than a Diploma. Diplomas were still offered for certain one-year programs in Secretarial, Bookkeeping, Stenographic, and IBM Clerical subjects up through the 1966-67 academic year. Instructors and courses were added over the next few years to meet the needs of the new B.S. programs, moving from 7 instructors in 1960 to 17 in 1962, 20 in 1964, and 24 in 1965.
The Senior Accounting and Business Administration program was expanded into the Bachelor of Business Science program in Accounting largely by adding depth to the existing accounting subjects. For example, Intermediate Accounting became Accounting 3&4 rather than just Accounting III, boosting the subject to 8 total credits over two semesters rather than 4 credits in one semester.
Moving the Business Management program to a Bachelor’s degree, however, included the development of a number of additional courses. Sales Management, Industrial Management, Personnel Management, Insurance, Marketing, Corporate Finance, Money and Banking, and Small Business Management were all added.
The Executive Secretarial program was expanded to the Secretarial Science bachelor’s degree by adding more Business Management and General Education courses to the existing requirements.
There was also an expansion of General Education courses. While ACBS accreditation had required general education courses, Economics, Public Speaking, Introduction to Psychology, Growth and Development, and Introduction to Social Science were the only non-business related electives before the approval of the Bachelor’s Degrees. To this roster were added English courses, including courses that focused on literature and theater and not just the mechanics of writing, history, statistics, music, logic, two science survey courses, sociology, and Spanish courses. The addition of these subjects, which did not necessarily have direct utility in a business environment, strengthened the College’s shift from business training to a more rounded, collegiate education.
Because the newly created programs mirrored or were extensions of the existing curriculum, students who were already enrolled in the College could apply their completed work towards one of the newly approved degrees. In 1964 the College awarded 18 Associates Degrees and 19 Diplomas, a drop from the 62 graduates the previous year as many students were now staying on to pursue the new four year degree.