SLIPPERY ROCK - Wilma Cavill has simple advice for her colleagues when they ask how they can teach university students for 45 years and remain as content as she is.

"Love teaching, stay healthy and be willing to cause trouble once in a while," she tells them.

Living that advice has kept her in the profession for longer than anyone currently teaching at SRU. As of 1999, in fact, she's been the longest serving faculty member at any of the 14 schools in the State System of Higher Education.

Robert Smith, interim president, presented Cavill with an award honoring her 45 years of service during a faculty assembly in April.

"At that point, you've touched tens and tens of thousands of lives," he said.

Her status also makes her grand marshal for commencement, which allowed her to carry the university flag and lead faculty into the ceremony Saturday.

Retirement isn't on the horizon for Cavill, professor in the health and safety department. After 45 years of university teaching, Cavill has never moved on to administration. The opportunities were there, but she said she'd miss the students too much.

"I like teaching," she said. "I like contact with the students. They make me laugh. They make me angry."

Overall, it's a group of students that is friendly enough to say hello every day and usually hold the door open for her, she said. Even on a bad day, she prefers the classroom to the mountains of paperwork that administrators are faced with, Cavill said.

The cycle of teaching also is comforting to her.

"There's always closure and new beginnings," she said. "When you finish one semester, you start another."

Cavill has actually spent closer to 50 years going through the academic cycles at SRU, attending as an undergraduate as well. In 1948, she remembers arriving and paying $243 per semester for room, board and tuition. The state funded the school more in those days, she said.

There were only 800 students at the university then and it was called Slippery Rock State Teacher's College.

After graduating with a health education degree, Cavill spent six years teaching health and physical education at Ben Franklin Junior High School in New Castle. She went on to get a master's degree in counseling from Westminster College. When an old professor contacted her and invited her back to SRU to become faculty, Cavill couldn't resist.

She started as aquatics specialist and supervisor of student teachers. Over the years she has taught a variety of subjects and coached a variety of sports. And over the years, she's thankful the workload has diminished significantly.

"I teach 12 credits per semester now," she said. "When I started we had 28 contact hours (with students) plus coaching."

Collective bargaining "changed our lives," as faculty, she said.

In addition to making a manageable workload, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculty has helped faculty keep the quality in education, she said.

For several years, Cavill was active in the union's local executive council. She still works to support the group whenever she can.

"I believe in the union," she said. "I believe in the work we do. We're all very committed to keep the quality of education in place."

Clairie Settlemire, retired history professor, worked with Cavill for several years.

She remembers that Cavill was a mentor for many faculty members.

"She was always friendly and good at welcoming new faculty," Settlemire said.