Bill Lancaster

Professor

“I wasn’t even computer literate. But once I saw what they could do, I became, as they say, an evangelist.”

“An awful lot of people have phobias about computers,” says Bill Lancaster who—after 13 years teaching part-time at SMC—is enjoying his first year as a full-time member of the faculty. “There’s really no need to consider computers the enemy,” says this instructor of graphic design and computer information systems. “I show people how to become basically computer literate; how to begin using them, how to buy one, and how to become more productive and happy through their use. I’d like people to have computers in their lives without worrying about them.”

Necessity was the midwife at the birth of Bill’s computer fervor. “I was doing graphic design for a client years ago who wanted me to do a newsletter for him. But he wanted it done on a computer. I didn’t own one and I knew next to nothing about them,” he recalls. “But I told him if he lent me a machine, I’d be willing to learn.” And a beautiful team was born.

Bill enjoys being conversant with both the informational and creative applications of computers. He notes that “most of my students aren’t going into computer sciences. They’re learning to use them in language studies, history, English and the creative fields.” He says that being a good teacher demands that “you have to have a genuine enthusiasm for your field and you have to have the ability to allow students to discover for themselves. And in graphic design,” he continues, “you need a good eye, but you also need to be very articulate about what you like and why it works. Or why it doesn’t.”

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