WCC instructer Russell Ferguson stands next to a Chevy Volt while on a Car and Driver road test. (Russel Ferguson courtesy photo)
Instructor’s sabbatical helps to ‘recharge’ college’s auto program
Managing Editor
Have you heard the one about the doctor who complained about the high cost of his automotive repair bill?
If you’ve taken a class taught by Washtenaw Community College automotive technology instructor Russell Ferguson, chances are, you surely have.
“It’s not a joke, it really happened,” Ferguson said. “Back in the mid-’80s I was working in a shop, Palmer Ford, and a doctor came in to get something fixed. I was standing by the counter, heard his complaint, and said, ‘Doc, the human body hasn’t changed in a million years, look at all the new cars that came out this year. You get to bury your mistakes. Mine come back on a tow truck.’”
While that anecdote is a staple of Ferguson’s instruction, it is also the philosophical justification for his newly approved paid sabbatical.
“The college offers a sabbatical for instructors after six years of service,” Ferguson said. “I’ve been teaching full time for over 12 years now, and my industry changes every single year.”
In his 14 years of instructing at WCC, Ferguson has had little opportunity to go back into the field and “recharge his batteries,” in terms of relearning his craft. His goal this winter semester is to work hands-on as a line mechanic, while focusing on emerging sustainable technologies in the automotive industry.
“Hopefully, the idea is that you bring back some teaching techniques that will help out in the curriculum,” Ferguson said. “In order to do that, we need to keep up to date.”
One of many photos documenting the road trips taken by Russell Ferguson to test cars for Car and Driver magazine. (Russel Ferguson courtesy photo)
During this period, Ferguson will take on a few different roles with General Motors, Chrysler, Car and Driver magazine and various secondary schools to reassess his knowledge base.
In the vein of reacquainting himself with newer vehicles, Ferguson will shadow two part-time WCC instructors, Matt Kelley and John Sykes, at their day jobs as mechanics in dealerships.
“We have very talented part-timers, but it’s hard to get them in the classrooms during the day because they are licensed mechanics at dealerships,” Ferguson said. “Two of them (Kelley and Sykes), I consider my good friends. I asked them if I could shadow them and they thought it was a great idea.”
Ferguson will split this portion of his time working with Sykes at Zubor Buick GMC and with Kelley at Village Automotive in Chelsea.
“My pitch to students when I tell them to take classes with our part-timers is that at 5 p.m., they close their toolboxes and start teaching,” Ferguson said, highlighting Sykes’ and Kelley’s expertise. “I set five or six cars a semester; they do five or six cars a day.”
For Sykes, 47, from Belleville, the opportunity goes beyond just helping out a friend.
“It makes it exciting having him there to do it,” Sykes said. “I fix newer cars every day, from bumper to bumper. We don’t see that at the college every day.”
Kelley, 41, from Clinton, agrees that Ferguson’s need to re-immerse himself in the field will make his sabbatical that much more successful.
“You can sit in class every day and teach and learn from a textbook, but you don’t get to go out and see what you will actually work on in the real world,” Kelley said. “The book is beneficial, but can be generic in the processes that it’s teaching. In the real world, we have to focus on what the main concern is and what the common failure is.”
Real world problems are exactly the kind that WCC Trustee Mark Freeman ran into some years ago, prompting him to take automotive repair classes with Ferguson in the Fall of 2006.
“At the time, I was still working my delivery job, and I found that I was taking my car in for repairs constantly,” Freeman said. “I looked at the course catalog and looked up (Ferguson’s) name and gave him a call.”
Encouraged by Ferguson to enroll in his classes, Freeman went on to complete all 12 of the repair classes offered by the college.
“He develops relationships with his students,” Freeman said about his former teacher. “He does a lot of neat things with his classes and gets the community involved. I think this will be good for him to get more experience because, he’s right – it is different in the real world.”
Ferguson and will also continue his work for Car and Driver magazine as a contributing road-tester, a role that he has held with for 10 years.
Intermittently, the magazine has asked Ferguson and his brother to put miles on new cars and log any successes or difficulties with the vehicles that they may have along the way. Ferguson’s road trips have taken him up and down the East and West Coast a number of times, putting anywhere from 40,000 miles on each car they allow him to.
“It’s a win-win for them and us,” he said. “We don’t write the articles, but we write up a report for them in their log book and take photos along the way. A year ago, I was on the Santa Monica Pier with a new car.”
Mike Sutton, road test editor for Car and Driver, said that not only is Ferguson dependable and available when they need him, but his keen eye for technical subtleties has made him a valuable contributor.
Yet of all the different roles he will be filling in his pursuit of hands-on mechanical knowledge, Ferguson’s position as an instructor will still act as his guiding light.
The last and most crucial part of his sabbatical will be to visit various post-secondary schools throughout the state to see which hybrid courses have been successful and why. Using surveys and his own observation, Ferguson aims to tailor the marketing and instruction around the data that he gathers. He will present his findings to the school at the end of his time out of the classroom.
For nearly two years, Ferguson and other WCC auto instructors have been pushing for an alternative fuel technologies course, to no avail.
“We’ve been trying to get that course going but we haven’t had enough people sign up for it,” Ferguson said. “We need to have the people before we buy the cars and the equipment, but maybe we should. If you build it they will come. So I’m going to see what’s working and how we can emulate it.”
Ferguson doesn’t view his sabbatical as time off, but as just another way to help out his students.
“I want to make it clear that this isn’t a vacation, and the other places aren’t paying me,” he said. “This is a valuable opportunity for faculty like me to recharge my batteries. In what other career do you get time off of work to be a good employee?”
Sounds like just what the doctor ordered.
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