Two popular professors were suspended and a third quit, but San Antonio College says it's expanding the program and opening the nation's first on-campus mortuary.
San Antonio College had the first mortuary on a college campus in the nation, officials said, and its 62-year-old Mortuary Sciences Department soon will dedicate a new building.San Antonio College will soon expand its Mortuary Science Department into a new building and is hiring faculty, even as some fear the long-respected, 62-year-old program is in disarray.
But some students have appeared before the Alamo Colleges board to decry the departure of their professors, and others question how easily they can be replaced and worry the department will let accreditation standards slip.When Professor Catherine Smithpeter was abruptly placed on leave at the end of March, the impact was immediate.
But to close observers, it was no secret that Smithpeter differed with department and college administrators over several issues, including operations of the mortuary science labs.In April 2022, Smithpeter filed an Alamo Colleges police report on a female student she said yelled at and threatened her.
“I don’t want to see a huge group of people that have a passion for service and want to be morticians not be able to even give it a shot because there’s not a college nearby, one that they can afford,” said Smithpeter, 44.“I just said basically to myself, 'If I do this, I’m supporting a decision that was made that’s harmful for the students,'” said Martin, 61.
The student said she’s been accepted for online classes at Northeast Texas Community College in Mount Pleasant and will continue her education under dual enrollment because “I feel like I’m being lied to and held in the dark on purpose with the state of the program” at SAC.Sylvia Villarreal, in her third semester seeking the two-year degree, said the sudden departure of faculty was “done in such a disorderly way, causing so much chaos for myself and many of my classmates.
In 1961, SAC established the first college-based funeral service education program in Texas. It offers an associate degree, fully accredited by the American Board of Funeral Service Education and the Texas Funeral Service Commission. The college is a member of the University Mortuary Science Education Association.
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