Interviews 301 - 310

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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Background; Undergraduate and graduate work at University of Chicago; Training in writing; Working with computers at Duke; Appointment at UW; History of Center for Demography and Ecology; Need to update Center's computer; NIH grant and selection of new computer; Complications of working with newly released 1970 census data; Impact of communication by computer; Poverty Institute and SSRI.

Background; Courses; Housing; Committee on discrimination in fraternities; Wisconsin Socialist Club; Other leftist organizations; Bringing leftist speakers to campus; Involvement in civil rights issues; Student factions on campus; Hometown scholarship; Race relations on campus; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); Black fraternity; News of picketing in North Carolina; Picket of Madison Woolworth's store and those involved; NAACP reaction; Lack of faculty involvement; Northern Student Movement; Fund raising in classrooms for southern black students; Hostile reception; Green Lantern Co-op and its membership; Frank Lloyd Wright's offer to design Co-op building; Peterson's career; Syndicated column on computers.

Background; Graduate work at Michigan; Teaching at Princeton; Appointment to UW Rural Sociology Department; Glenn Pound's mentorship; History of "occupational changes in a generation" study with Robert Hauser; Reception of resulting book; "New structuralism"; Move to Sociology Department; Its composition; Effects of computer mail system; Year at Center for Advanced Study at Stanford and shift to life span research; Appointment as director of UW Institute on Aging; Goals; Current research; Future directions.

Issues concerning Merger; Merged Board of Regents; Lobbying and vote counting in 1971 Legislature; Critical votes on Merger bill; Relationship between Governor Patrick Lucey and David Adamany; Lucey's politics regarding education and Madison campus compared with Warren Knowles's; Merged System, its relative economy and effect on WSU and Madison campuses; Faculty salary controversy, 1985; Politics within System and declining power of Board of Regents; Faculty exodus from Madison campus.

Build-up to Merger; Its passage; Governor Patrick Lucey's attitude toward higher education and Madison campus; Adamany's role in 1970 campaign and passage of Merger bill; Political vulnerability of Madison campus; Activity of Fred Harvey Harrington and legislators in 1960s with respect to higher education; Controversial appointment of President John Weaver; Structure of merged System; Issues of neglect of undergraduate education, control of academic positions and appointments, academic staff job classification, post-Merger budgets, and nature of System presidency and Board of Regents; Key figures in politics and University administration; Policies as president of Wayne State University.

Pre-Merger systems of higher education in Wisconsin; Failure of CCHE; Powerful personalities of Fred Harvey Harrington and Eugene McPhee; Their relationship with legislators; Warren Knowles, William Kellett, David Adamany and Lee Dreyfus in relation to Lucey's platform for higher education; 1970 gubernatorial campaign; Faculty support for Merger as campaign issue; Appointment of John Weaver; Politics of Merger battle, 1971; Austerity budgets; Elimination of campuses; Parochialism and Board of Regents; Effectiveness of System; Impressions of Edwin Young and Robert O'Neil; Problems of System presidency and search for O'Neil's successor; Problem of faculty exodus.

Decision to accept System presidency; Efforts to foster good relations among System campuses; University League and System; Relationship with Madison campus; Board of Regents; Role of president's wife; Importance of interviewing candidates' wives; Book on faculty spouses; Impact of faculty pay issue; Relations with legislators; Handling tensions during pay plan controversy; High quality support services for president's family; Courses in women's studies.

State of higher education in Wisconsin around 1970; Fred Harvey Harrington's failure to handle student rebellion; Failure of CCHE; Governor Patrick Lucey's motives regarding Merger and his tax-sharing redistribution plan; Narrow passage of Merger bill; Impressions of Harrington, John Weaver and Lucey; Merger Implementation Study Committee; Problems realizing efficiency potential of Merger; Weakness of recent boards of Regents.

Appointment and briefing; Previous employment offers at UW; Views about position of System president; Pay plan controversy and problems in distribution of increase; Relationship with chancellors; Board of Regents and background of decisions on Veterinary School and nursing degrees; Legislature and University; Governors Lee Dreyfus and Anthony Earl; Relationship with Madison campus; Issue of quality vs. access; Accomplishments besides pay plan; Observations on background of Merger; UW-Milwaukee; His attempts to protect Madison; Current move to regularize academic staff; Legislators supporting UW; Comparison of UW System with other university systems.

Background; John R. Commons's secretaries; His travels; His position in Economics Department; Faculty and graduate students in Department; Treatment of women faculty in 1920s; Commons's Friday Nights; Mrs. Commons.

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