Akron Magazine - Winter 2010 - (Page 25)

Lecturing From 2,300 Miles Away When people retire, they usually do things like golf or fish, or perhaps work around the house and garden. Roger Snoble ’68 chose to also teach University of Akron students about public transportation from California. Snoble, the retired CEO of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), was a guest lecturer during the Fall 2009 semester as part of Dr. Charles Monroe’s Transportation Geography and Planning course. The students were able to learn from Snoble via synchronous distance learning (real time audio and video feed) from the Palm Desert Campus of Cal State University at San Bernardino, only four miles away from his Mission Hills Country Club home in Rancho Mirage. “The opportunity for my students to learn from someone like Roger Snoble was one not to be missed,” says Monroe, associate dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and professor of geography and planning. “Mr. Snoble is widely regarded as one of the top public transportation professionals in the nation.” Snoble’s career in public transportation spanned 43 years. He began his transportation career in 1965 as a planner for the TriCounty Regional Planning Commission in Akron. He also worked as a planner for Akron Metro Transit District from 1971-1973. He served as president and general manager of the San Diego Transit Corporation, where he worked for 20 years, rising in the ranks from planning and scheduling manager to the top executive post. In 1994, he was named president/executive director of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit District (DART). In 2001, Snoble was named MTA’s new CEO, a post he held until his retirement last April. Upon hearing of his retirement, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised Snoble, saying, “Roger Snoble is a dedicated public servant who has provided solid leadership and a steady hand in restoring the credibility of the MTA while improving public transportation for millions of Los Angeles County residents and commuters.” When asked what made him decide to serve as a guest lecturer to his alma mater, Snoble says, “I owe so much to UA, which provided me with a solid foundation for my career. I wanted to help UA students develop skills that will help them also have rewarding careers, and help make the urban areas in which they work better places to live.” In addition to sharing his real-world knowledge with the geography and planning students, Snoble entered into the semester with some goals he wanted to achieve with his lectures. www.uakron.edu Roger Snoble (on screen) with dr. Charles Monroe (far left) and Dr. Monroe’s transportation geography and planning students. — ROGER SNOBLE ’68, ’71 “My biggest goal was to get the students to really understand the basis of transportation geography, and to help introduce them to what it takes to make transportation systems for urban areas work,” Snoble says. Another aspect of Snoble’s lectures has to do with the environmental impact of transit systems. “We all want to contribute to saving our environment, it’s a very important part of planning and building projects,” he explains. “But it is a very difficult process so having some insight to it can be very helpful to the student’s future success.” Snoble, who earned both a bachelor’s in education with a major in urban geography and a master’s degree in economic geography from UA, has no plans to retire from sharing his knowledge. “I would like to keep teaching with Dr. Monroe at the University,” he states. “Perhaps next year, for the first lecture, I will come to the campus and get to know the students a little before returning to the desert for the following lectures via synchronous distance learning.” | 25 | A MAgAzine for AluMni & friends of The universiT y of Akron “My biggest goal was to get the students to really understand the basis of transportation geography, and to help introduce them to what it takes to make transportation systems for urban areas work.”

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Akron Magazine - Winter 2010

Akron Magazine - Winter 2010

Akron Magazine - Winter 2010 - (Page C1)
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