Turfa Oral History Project Introduction

When I retired in 2010, I thought I would join a retirement association here at Towson and was surprised to find out there wasn't one. It turns out the number of my colleagues were doing the very same thing. Turf was formed in 2015 on, and the executive

committee decided that we had a lot of institutional memory within our committee and within our organization, and we thought it would be advantageous to take that information and try to get it into the public domain videos in aural history seemed like the way to go. It's

incredibly important to us to get a many voices and perspectives as possible to help flesh out that institutional memory. So projects like the turf, a oral history project, are incredibly important. We have really fabulous rich records from the president's and the provosts and kind of those

administrative bodies. Um, that we're helping Thio make decisions and policy. Um, we have some student voices through the tower lights and the yearbooks, um, in some student organizational records. But as we've been learning mawr through classes and projects surrounding the 150th anniversary, we don't have very

many faculty voices. Um It's an area that the archives didn't necessarily put a lot of focus into collecting. And so, through projects like this, where more voices air able to come into the archives were able to create a more diverse and inclusive voice and memory for

the institution, I didn't even know where thousands state teachers, college waas You know what? I drove up York Road to go to go with your college. I never looked to the left up the hill to see that there was anything there. And so in the middle

of August, I come in and I have a like a 30 minute interview. I made clear my academic record wasn't that good. I hadn't finished my masters yet, but they needed somebody to fill a 12 hour load. The teaching physical Science one. At that time, I

would say 95% of the students were still teacher ad and teacher add to certify be certified the in Maryland that needed 12 critics of sciences for physical science for biological science. So there was, uh, that course in the biological sciences department and in physical science, and

then they had they could take a elective off for credit somewhere to fulfill. And so basically all of us in physical science taught this one course physical size one. I was one of probably seven, and the reason there was an opening was that after 63 the

Board of Education could see this great flux of students coming in that would need bachelor's degrees. And so 1000 decided then that if they had to do this, they needed riel science majors. And so they had a new science department, which was what we now call

Goldsmith Hall. And they were evidently having lots of trouble, because by the middle of August, the beginning of August, the things weren't being finished. Things they were having lots of trouble. And because Bob Dale, in physical science, had some experience in construction, you know, he had

built his own house or something. This is indicative of how how unique that little setting waas they took a full time faculty member made him the liaison to the contractors, even though he had no riel training today, you know exactly what they do. They hired a

bunch of adjuncts that would be it, but back then, they really wanted a full time person to cover the 12 hours one of the incidents. I remember it's my first year here. I got a call from someone in the P Department and they asked me, Is

it true that you wear pantsuits? And I said yes. And they said, Oh, then we can't. Uh huh. But I didn't think it was a revolutionary, but apparently it waas Oh, there was little understanding in the math department. I think about advanced degrees and so forth

because, and certainly computing the new department chair when I arrived in the fall of 68 said to me, Well, welcome. But if this computing doesn't go anywhere, you can always teach math with an aural history. You get to see the emotion three intonation, the tone of

someone's voice. You know how that how passionate they become about a particular topic on that history comes to life in a new way. So rather than reading something in a page or just seeing a static image, students and researchers air able to really connect with the

history on a different level. Rather, interestingly, I was astounded when I became interested in a house in that there was no rank and initially, I not only thought it was strange, I wasn't too sure I'd be comfortable because it appeared that it was just so wide

open that you just have no idea how you would fair under that condition. Although you had graduate training, you did not have a master's degree. That's true. What was your rank when you came, Assistant professor? They offered me in a in credit instructor position and I

said I really wanted to be an assistant professor to start because I knew that I wouldn't get promoted easily. But I was assured by the powers that be when I interviewed, and particularly with doctors, Hathaway in Odell. It was very comfortable. But the state, um, board

of trustees, I guess it was probably decided that wasn't too good an idea. And they wanted us to go. So we had this rather extensive and somewhat let's say, replete with challenges change from no rank because suddenly you know rank had to be signed to everyone.

You can imagine what kind of how long it takes to become a full professor. Well, unfortunately was I started out as an associate professor, so that's a couple steps up because of the original assigning of rank related thio, Ph. D. And a number of years of

service. And then, of course, it became a meritorious related a merit system where you earned your stripes, so to speak, in the military sense. I think the value of the oral history project, quite honestly, is that it will, over time, give people a tremendous insight into

what the university is like and how it has evolved. For example, you'll find out what classes were like and class sizes were like in the 19 sixties, maybe even the 19 fifties and 19 seventies. You'll find out what it was like to be involved at a

university when we had an anti war movement going on something that we hope will not be very prevalent in the future. So all these things will provide folks with an insight into what are university was like and basically a total different millennium Faculty perspectives air incredibly

important to a university because they're the members of the community that air here. The longest students are typically here for maybe 4 to 6 years. Um, staff and administrators tend tohave a shorter tenure at a university, but faculty are very easily here for 2030 40 years.

Um and they really have, ah, chance to express how the university has grown, how they're you know, how the university looked when they first started. Um, and maybe how the colleges developed how new disciplines were entered in how additional courses and curricula kind of evolved over

time. The whole a curriculum thing became obvious to me as a neophyte because I arrived a Z you know, as you said in 59 in 60 the Scientific American authored and published the cell and the initials DNA suddenly became a new important awareness or all biologists.

And of course, knowing biologists as well as time went by. But the electron microscope and the advent of molecular biology changed things forever for the good, but in the same breath, it didn't in any way detract from the organism, make end of things as well, because

that was still especially, but it became more and more obvious that we needed Thio have Cem new members of the department who were skilled in those areas that were oncoming. And of course, that helped also with the the eventual graduate school development and with pre med

and pre vet in. I think it was 1970. I went to the first conference for the special interest group on computer science education. Uh, I believe it was in Dallas and there were 180 people in attendance from all over the U. S and three women. One

of the women had brought her several of her students with her, but the we met her and talk to her. But basically the other women attendee and I spent our time together because it was, uh, you know, you were such a minority. Uh, but that was

the beginning of saying, Well, this is where I will learn what other people are doing and what we can adopt and adopted. Towson. It's really interesting when we have classes of students come in to use the special collections and university archives that there's this perception from

students that faculty and administration were the same thing. That faculty were making the decisions and the policies about you know, what students were allowed to do on campus and what they were allowed to wear and what the curfews were eso to get more input from from

faculty is really filling in a gap that we've had in our personal institutional memory. So I think that I'm most interested in learning from the turf it oral histories, more perspective on what was happening on campus, the dean of students you probably ever hear her name.

It's an unusually oriole. Murphy never knew Oriole was the dean of students, and in many ways I think she was more influential than he waas in everything. I mean, she was single, and therefore her whole life was the university. And as the dean of students, she

was totally protective, particularly of the students who were here on campus. But it was interesting to see them together. And when they had these teas, and so for the president, I think there's a picture over there. I just saw he and his wife, they're somewhere in

there. And they held these formal tease over clan ask. Did the ladies wear gloves? Oh, yeah, it was because it was 19. Barely 1959. We'll hook was a real faculty member who cared about faculty. I mean, he was not a one of these. Look at me

people, right? He really saw the college turned to university. He would listen to faculty opinion. He wanted a cohesive faculty. They had a cafeteria for faculty for lunchtime in right close here in this main part of campus. And it was really lovely to be able to

meet people from different departments. You've got to know a diversity of faculty. It was it was very healthy. I thought they moved it across the road over to that house. That Auburn Auburn house. Yes, and you couldn't go over there for lunch because it was a

long walk, and especially if the weather wasn't good and then you wouldn't get a place to park when you came back. So the faculty staff dining room had been ditched by the previous administration, and I really wanted to get that back. And so I worked very

hard, and I think it happened only because Hoc wanted it back. Whereas I understand again this is Google. But But the Fisher administration thought it was just a well that the faculty didn't have a chance to get together and e talking. That's right, rabble rouse. And,

uh, I mean, it's a completely different view of what the university is, which is that it is a community. Okay, Uh, people who have the same goal in mind, which is education and the society. Eso seeing that that community effort to band together and start contributing

mawr to our institutional memory has been really exciting. As an archivist, um, that this is something that we have communal, um, possession over and control over. And then we can make it as rich and wonderful. Resource is possible. Yeah,

we feel the oral history project is worthwhile. And if you're interested in participating on, are contributing financially to the perpetuation of this project. I urge you to follow the link at the end of this video. Yeah.