"Sabbatical" At Platteville, Wisconsin

Fall 1979 - Onward to Platteville, WI

We are setting out to Platteville. I rent a U-Haul unit to put our household materials and towing it.

We are all excited to go to Wisconsin and enjoy our better life ahead.

Major Car Wreck - Malibu is gone. Thank God, we are all safe!

Hardly 30 minutes into the trip, I see I have missed a sharp curve and am going straight into an unpaved farm road. I hit a utility post! Within minutes a local resident who spotted us came to help. The car was completely damaged and is not drivable. The local resident perhaps also informed the police, who came to the spot. The police officer was very friendly. There was a fine of $60 to replace the utility pole which was damaged.

The local resident took us to her home, and helped us call our friend Mr. Padmanabham at W. Lafayette. The police officer had already called a towing company to get our car towed away.
Padmanabhan came to pick us up to his home. We stayed there for a day and he offerred to drive us to Platteville in his car.

We went to the wrecked cars yard of the towing company. Our car was bought by them for $60. We attached the U-Haul unit to Padmanabhan's car and head to Platteville.

New Life at Platteville

Platteville is in the south-west corner of Wisconsin. It is about 45 minutes' drive from Dubuque, Iowa.

I rented a 2-roomed duplex at 920, N. Wahsington. The landlord is living across from the duplex (twin home).

There are about 5 or 6 form India in the faculty. Dr. Bheru Lal Sukhwal in the geography department has been here since probably 1960. He helped us settle down, and took me to Dubuque to a car dealer. I bought my first brand new car. This was a 1980 model Chevy Citation. The new models are already available in 1979! It is a silver car, 4-door sedan, with red interior uphlstery.

Teaching at (The University of Wisconsin-Platteville) UWP

I am given a spacious office with good furniture in Ottensman Hall (School of Engineering) . I share the telephone with Dr. Anderson in the next office. The phone is accessible to both through a small opening in the wall.

I am assigned Transportation Engineering, Transportation Planning and Engineering Drawing.
The Civil Engineering Department consists of about 10 faculty members, 3 of whom were new hires! There are a total of 7 new hires in the School of Engineering: three from India (including me), one each from Iran and Ethiopia, 2 Americans.

Teaching here as a full-time Assistant Professor is quite interesting. My predecessor had left some lab exercises and tests that I find useful. While I have taught Town Planning during my tenure at the Central Polytechnic (1964-1969) and in the School of Architecture and Planning (1969-1976), I have never taughtto an undergraduate engineering class. I was quite comfortable with Transportation Planning (I had taken some courses at NU and PU), and Engineering Drawing. Teaching Trasnportation Engineering is different. At Guindy we had Highway Engineering (do not remember the instructor) and Railway Engineering (Prof. P.E. John, B.E.). But here the syllabus needs to cover all modes of transportation. Some of the design exercises left by De. Levy (my predecessor) are quite complex. I do not remember having done anything like that in Guindy. In one semester we need to cover Highway Engineering, Railroad Engineering and Airport Engineering!

An interesting practice at UWP is to let students rent text-books from the library, instead of having to buy them!

School for our children is within walking distance. The University itself is within 5 minutes driving to the south of our home. Platteville is a small town, not more than a square mile in area. There is nothing but the University and the shopping and other services to meet the University employees and students!

Platteville has two airports and a radio station.

Return to Purdue!

I thought I was doing a freat job of teaching. About the midddle of the semester, the Deaprtment Chairman, Dr. Richard Wetzel, informed me that they are advertising for the position, as they really want a Ph. D to teach there! Though I am done with most of my requirements for Ph. D., they thought it not feasible for me to get my Ph.D soon enough if I am working full-time. They may let me continue until the end of the year, but no guarantee beyond that! They will not sponsor my immigration (green-card) because of this development.

It appears there was some students complaint about my teaching. This being a purely undergraduate institution, the emphasis is on good teaching. My predecessor, I learn was let go because he was not popular with the students. As a matter of fact the Chairman who interviewed me was himself on his way out and Dr. Wetzel became the Chairman from Fall 79.

This was a shocker to me. I got on the phone and talked to Prof. Sinha at Purdue. He encouraged me to return to Purdue immediately (at the end of the semester) instead of wasting my time at Platteville for one more semester!

Sold My Car

I started preparing for my return to Purdue at the end of the semester.

I had acquired some furniture - an office desk, beds for all of us, etc. - which needed to be sold as it is too costly to transport them. I put an ad in the local radio station and got them sold for pennies on the dollar.

I have to sell my car as I cannot afford the monthly loan payment as a graduate assitant. The license tag for my car has to come from Madison. When it arrived somewhere in the middle of October, they had sent two license plates with two different registration numbers by mistake. I had to send them back and was waiting for my license plates. Theyhave not arrived yet. A local resident bought the car from me by assuming the payments. Thus, I ended up losing the four months payment and the down payment I had made at purchase.

Thus, the first (and only) brand new car that I ever bought was sold before I got the license tag!