M.J. Lantis

• Associate Professor of Computer & Information Technology

In his own words...

"There is not a day that goes by that I don't thank God for the privilege of being a professor at Purdue North Central and being associated with Purdue University. When I think back over the last twenty years and all the students who have allowed me to be part of their lives and have wanted me to help them learn, it's a little overwhelming. I didn't start with career plans to be a professor—the career found me and I found it.

I went to a community college (similar to what PNC was in its early days) for a couple of years unsure of what exactly I was doing—not unlike what some PNC students experience today. I took a few different paths but finally graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a degree in Information Systems. I can relate to my students who are working while taking classes. I didn't know your parents are supposed to pay for your education, so I worked my way through college as a package sorter at UPS, a welder and crane operator making railroad cars, and as a computer operator on the third shift for a ball bearing manufacturer. I was working at Chrysler Corporation's Proving Grounds as an Applications Programmer when the high school I graduated from needed someone to teach a class in computer programming. I volunteered, and found that I really liked teaching. I began working on a master's degree in Information Systems while teaching at a college in the evenings. It was the mid-1980's, the personal computer revolution brought computers en masse to the world of business, and people were anxious to learn how to use them. Although I enjoyed working at Chrysler, it was invigorating to be in a classroom where people actually wanted me to teach them what I knew.

As I was finishing my master's degree I asked one of my professors if he thought I could teach at the college level without a Ph.D. “No way,” he said. “Maybe at a community college, but there is a long line waiting for those jobs and the only way you get one if someone dies.” Somehow I came across a list of job openings that had been sent to the university and there was a request for an Instructor of Management Information Systems at a small community college—in a town in rural Virginia. I had lived in the same town my whole life, I just had my first child, and I built a house for my family on some land that my dad had given me. As much as I wanted to teach, I for sure didn't want to join the French Foreign Legion to do it. As I was sitting in church that Sunday the minister used the passage where Christ told his followers that if they loved their father and mother more than they loved Him then they could not be his disciple. I don't know what the point of the message was, but the point to me was that I needed to apply for the position in Virginia. I was hired and spent two years having the time of my life teaching at the college and at some local corporations and businesses. But with another child and being far from home, I applied for a new position as Professor of Computer Programming Technology at Purdue North Central. Since my wife was originally from New Buffalo, MI, we settled in Three Oaks, MI, and my third child was born.

PNC only had two buildings when I came in 1989, and most of the classes were in the evening for older students. The computer lab consisted of a couple dozen machines that had dual floppy disk drives. Students had to leave their driver's licenses or their car keys at the window and were given one floppy disk to boot the computer up and one to run a program. The screens were green characters on a black background with no graphics. Dot matrix printers sounded like machine guns as they slowly printed. But as the technology matured our course offerings did too. Students from all disciplines wanted to learn how to use personal computers, so I designed and began teaching several courses that have high student enrollment: Spreadsheet Applications, Database Applications, and Advanced Word Processing. We added a course in Data Communications and Networking to our curriculum, but there were several problems—we didn't have a lab, the equipment, or a faculty member with expertise to teach the course. So my boss and I found a scary-looking room in the basement that wasn't being used, we furnished it with obsolete drafting tables, and scrounged up a dozen old PCs that were sitting around mainly for parts. The old adage of, “The best way to learn something is to teach it,” proved to be true, and the students and I learned how to install computer networks. Some of the best learning took place when things didn't work the way they were supposed to. It was fun. During this time I completed a second master's degree at Purdue in Education, Curriculum and Instructional Design. I have taken 129 courses for 378 credit hours in a wide range of subjects.

When the Internet boom hit in the late 1990's, it was time to retool once more. I began teaching a course in Web Design and Internet Technologies. This is still a main staple of our curriculum today. Not wanting to leave out non-Computer Technology majors, I also designed and began teaching a course in Web Design at a little less technical level. One day several female students came to me and said, “You know, we live a long way from campus and we have to hire someone to watch our kids while we come to school. The books you've selected are geared towards self-learning, so what would you think if we did what we could from home and then emailed you our assignments?” I discussed with the vice chancellor what is now known as “Distance Learning” and two of us began offering the first Distance Learning courses at PNC. Right away we knew we hit a special need as these types of courses would fill up within hours of registration.

Jefferson and Thoreau have always been two of my heroes and I like the “Renaissance Man” concept of life. This works out well teaching in a discipline that is constantly changing and in a program where we don't have the luxury of having an instructor who specializes in just one area. There are ten distinct courses that I have taught over the years in such varied areas as: Application Programs, Personal and Enterprise-wide Database Management Systems, Internet Technologies, Data Communications, Advanced Programming, etc. There's never a dull moment and never a time when I can relax and think that I have the technology mastered. This has carried over into my personal life and my hobbies as well. Over the years I have had a summer “hobby” of building houses—five of them almost entirely by myself. My two boys helped me on the last one when they were teenagers and we did it all, from digging the basement out with a backhoe and pouring concrete for the basement in forms we made ourselves, to installing a radiant floor heating system fueled by an old incinerator that was headed for the scrap yard. The boiler needed some welding and engineering, but my kids said that I did it so I could feel like a real Boilermaker. Some professors spend June and July with cerebral pursuits, but I like to spend mine in the hot sun shooting nails.

Speaking of my kids, they are the biggest accomplishment in my life. They were always active in school, the community, sports programs, and all selected PNC to begin their college career. My boys are studying Economics and Sports Management in West Lafayette , and my daughter is studying Sociology and playing Middle Hitter on the Panther volleyball team. She and her teammates had a breakout year last fall. There was never any question “if” they would go to college or “where” they would go to college. From the time they could walk they could be seen hanging around PNC, and of all the choices available to them for higher education, they really wanted to receive a Purdue education. Not just a degree and not just a career, but an education. That's what makes me the most proud of them. It's something I never thought too much of when I began at PNC twenty years ago. Back then my goal was to help my students to receive an education, and little did I know that my career at Purdue would give so much more back to me and my family. I hope to be here at least another twenty years."