Interviews 21 - 30

Each Guide entry contains information about an interview, including biographical data about the interviewee (name, vital dates, dates at the UW-Madison, and principal positions held as of the interview date), information about the interview (interviewer, year conducted, length, and series, transcript, and restriction information if applicable), and a list of key topics discussed in the interview. For more detailed information about an interview, or to obtain a copy of an interview contact the Oral History Program.

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Structure Agreement with TAs; Bargaining committee; Legal issues; Radicalism in TA leadership; TA bargaining vs. bargaining in industry; Scope of bargaining; Neil Bucklew; Council of Ten; Mediation; Injunction; Consequences of TA Strike of 1970.

American literature; American Writers series; S. I. Hayakawa; Harry H. Clark's teachers; Relationship with students; Sinclair Lewis; Travels; English Department problems.

Background and education; Early years of Medical School; Student Health Service and student clinic; Physical Plant development; Medical staff and administrators; Glenn Frank, Alexander Meiklejohn and Experimental College; University committees; Medical research, including WWI work on gas warfare; Bacteriology Department; Travels and retirement; University Club and dining clubs; Interdepartmental cooperation; Publications.

Courses for engineers; Enrollment; Transfer students; Women in engineering; Hiring; Expectations of Engineering faculty; Engineering TAs; Reflections on TAA; Chancellor's Advisory Committee on TAA and TA Strike of 1970; Department of Chemical Engineering; Institute for Environmental Studies; Army Corps of Engineers; Institute for Technology in Surabaya; Engineering Experi- ment Station; Research Committee and WARF; Other committees.

Background; Graduate work at UW; Appointment to faculty; Appointment as associate dean; Robert Marshall's deanship; Minority program; Research; Campus attitude toward Engineering; College and state; Other engineering schools in Wisconsin; Metallurgy-Mining Department issue; University-Industry Research Program; John Bollinger's new approach; Faculty governance; Problems of teaching engineering subjects.

Childhood and early education; Undergraduate work at West Virginia University; Master's work at Carnegie Mellon; Wartime service; Olaf Hougen; Doctorate at UW; Mallinckrodt Chemical Company; Robert Marshall and Engineering Experiment Station; Instrumentation Systems Center; Engineering oceanography and space programs; Materials Science program; Department of Chemical Engineering; Professional activities; College of Engineering international programs; Robert Ratner; Retirement.

25.   COTTAM, Grant  (1918- )
Professor of Botany
At UW: 1945-1948; 1949-1986

Career before UW; Unrest of 1960s; TA Strike of 1970; Botany Department; Institute for Environmental Studies; Climate-food research project; Work on committees.

Note: See also joint interview with John Thomson, #134.

26.   CRONON, E. David  (1924- )
Graduate Student; Professor of History; Dean of College of Letters and Science
At UW: 1949-1952; 1962-1994

First Interview

Interviewed: 1976	Length: 3.5 hours
Interviewer: Laura Smail

UW expansion in 1960s; Departmental caucus groups; TAs and TAA; Humanities Building plans; American History graduate student program; M.A. requirements; Ford Foundation fellowships; Committee for History; Comparison of History and English Departments; Disruptions in late 1960s; University Committee; WARF; Student power; L&S Faculty Senate and faculty governance; Role of L&S dean; L&S compared to other UW colleges.

University Committee's concerns about loss of enrollment money; Governor Patrick Lucey's motives; Merger Implementation Committee; Campus reaction to Merger; 1965 Extension Merger and development of new campuses as precursors of Merger; Problems created by Merger; Current fear of faculty exodus; Bureaucratization under Merger; Benefits of Merger for other campuses; Continuing decline in state contribution to higher education; Costs of Merger.

Restoration of WARF and other funds to UW after Merger; Relations between System presidents and Madison chancellors; Governors Lee Dreyfus and Anthony Earl; UW's concerns about System's allocation of fee income; Impact of continued budget cuts on L&S; Student fees; Merger issues.

Irving Shain as administrator; Autonomy of deans; First encounters with Donna Shalala; Expectations of her; Working out Madison Plan; Effects and risks of System's Centers of Excellence program; Degree review; Arts outreach programs; Major concerns: budget, bureaucratization and deterioration of physical plant; L&S and dean of students office; University Committee; Priorities for future.

Fifth Interview

Family history; Early education; Macalester College; Army service; Oberlin College; Graduate study in history at Wisconsin; House fellowship; Thesis and dissertation research; Fulbright Scholar at the University of Manchester; Black Moses; Merle Curti; History Department; Teaching at Yale University and the University of Nebraska; Job placement system at UW; Humanities Building; Teaching; Student unrest in the 1960s; Committee service; Chairmanship of the history department; Institute for Research in the Humanities; Fulbright exchange program in the Soviet Union; L&S deanship; Budgets; Junior faculty; L&S administrative structure; Hiring process; Academic Planning Committee; Program reviews; Staff morale and retreats; Computer technology; Fundraising; Dean’s Scholars Program; L&S facilities; Administration hierarchy; Study abroad and area studies programs; Chancellors; Freshman Seminar; Wife Jean.

Note: See also joint interview with John W. Jenkins, #450.

27.   CURTI, Merle E.  (1897-1996 )
Professor of History
At UW: 1942-1968

First Interview

Interviewed: 1973	Length: 5 hours	Transcript: 121 pages
Interviewer: Donna Taylor

Graduate study; Previous teaching; UW History Department; Interdisciplinary courses and programs; Ogg Curriculum Committee; WHA radio; Impact of WWII on UW; Writing history of UW; UW Foundation; UW Press; UW libraries; American studies; Trempealeau County and Turner Thesis; American philanthropy; Funding humanities and social sciences; Peace movements; McCarthyism and UW; Status of women; UW faculty and administrators; ILS; Trends in historical studies.

History Department; Efforts to develop American Studies program; Hiring of Louis Gottschalk and other Jewish historians; William Hesseltine; Paul Knaplund; Howard Beale; Conflict over 1953 meeting of Mississippi Valley Historical Association; Relationship between Knaplund and Fred Harvey Harrington; Gaines Post; Robert Reynolds; Chester Higby; Merrill Jensen; George Mosse; Philip Curtin; Jan Vansina; Departmental politics and hiring practices; William Taylor; William Sachse; Attempts to hire women historians; Changes in M.A. requirements; Graduate students; Teaching undergraduates and work with TAs; Work habits; Influential figures and changes in discipline of history.

Family background; Childhood; Interest in history; Life at Harvard; Frederick Jackson Turner and others; Ph.D. work on history of American peace movement; Reactions to interest in American intellectual history; Arthur Schlesinger, Alfred Knopf, Samuel Morrison and others; Teaching at Smith College; More on graduate work at Harvard; Teaching at Beloit; Acceptance of job at UW.

Undergraduate work at Harvard under Frederick Jackson Turner; Turner's approach to history and teaching techniques; Structure of Harvard's graduate program in 1920s; Dissertation defense; Dissertation under Turner; Rejection of dissertation by Arthur Schlesinger; Second dissertation; Critics of Frontier Thesis; Turner's lecture style; Essay on Turner; Assessment of Turner as historian.

Peace movement; Intellectual history; Study of popular culture; Religion and scholarship; Social history; Black history; "Traditional" vs. "non-traditional" history; Multiculturalism; Women's history; Teaching; Former graduate students; Early interest in history; Frederick Jackson Turner; Charles and Mary Beard; Academic politics; Lessons taught by study of history.

28.   CURTIN, Philip D.  (1922- )
Professor of History
At UW: 1956-1975

Interviewed: 1975	Length: 1.5 hours	Transcript: 42 pages
Interviewer: Donna Taylor

Circumstances of coming to UW; African Studies program; Comparative World History program; Department of African Languages and Literature; History Department; Ambivalence to growth; Teaching; Quality vs. quantity in teaching; Necessity of publishing; UW as research institution; Reasons for leaving UW.

Education; Reorganizing news service; Origin of Bucky Badger symbol; University plaque; Fight for library; E. B. Fred and other administrators; School of Journalism; Mass Communications Center; State Historical Society; Military public relations program; History of Philanthropy project; Reasons for leaving UW.

Early work; Early associates in Chemistry Department; Joint work with Harry Steenbock; Committees; Teaching and curriculum; Atomic energy and Manhattan Project; McCarthy era and Astin affair; Faculty changes; Facilities; Solar energy; Cooperative research on nitrogen fixation and thermal luminescence; Dinner clubs; Research support.

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