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| S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
textile industry wanted something, they got it. If they sneezed,
the whole state caught a cold. And that’s not the way it is today.”
Morris realized the textile industry leaders were against
technical training in the early days. “They wanted their work-
ers standing on the street corner waiting to be re-called back
to work,” said Morris. “They didn’t want them to be trained for
something that they would leave. So they resisted us heavily in
the beginning. And then they finally came to understand, you
know, if we’re going to survive, we’ve got to embrace technology.
We can’t keep doing this the old fashioned way.”
Current board chair Nick Odom detected a change in the tex-
tile leaders’ stance against technical training. “When you run a
manufacturing operation, you only have two assets. You’ve got
machinery, and you’ve got people. Do you go to your machine
and change the oil? Do you put new bushings on it? Do you
check the bearings and make sure they are running good? Do
you change the filters and all that? Sure you do. Well, what have
you done for your people lately? How have you trained them?
How have you made them better? How have you changed their
mindset, not their oil? That’s why the technical college system
is here. We can teach you how to change the oil at the technical
college system, easy. But we want to be able to change your mind.
To give you that opportunity so that door stays open for you.”
Textile leaders changed their mind. “We even got Roger Mil-
liken to take a training program from us,” said Morris. “And
when we sent him the reimbursement check for supervisory
training, he sent it back.”
“You all take care of all that other stuff, but I’m not accepting
money from anybody.”
It’s tempting to think those captains of industry did indeed
recognize what a good thing technical training was. Surely, they
were the kind of people who appreciated high-tech tires. The
truth, however, is that South Carolina would not be making tires
had not workforce training lured their manufacturers here. High-
tech and high-tech training made a winning team. Soon every-
one realized it. You could say it was designed to be that way.
The 1980s
A D E S I G N F O R T E C H N O L O G I C A L C H A N G E
