1 10 47 https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/0d859f78e9f059ecc4edf71249c12d31.mp3 6d5957095abda2b5ea0e79f966775655 https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/b98660f9c3203b3aa53447be97f8f9af.png 8040c05abed95639500dcb8b9c6c64c0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Geoffrey H. Strauss Biographical Text At Harpur College, Geoffrey studied accounting. A summer job as a counselor with the college’s Upward Bound Program for disadvantaged youth decided him on a career in teaching. He taught accounting at Broome Community College and Endicott High School for 33 years. Date of Interview 2017-12-14 Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Year of Graduation 1968 Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County. Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County. Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Geoffery Strauss Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 14 December 2017 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) IG: 00:00 Oh, it is snowing again. Okay, so are we on? Third speaker: 00:15 Yeah. IG: 00:22 So, Jeff, please tell me your name, your birth date, and where we are. GS: 00:32 Okay. My name is Geoffery Strauss. My birth date is May 3, 1946 and right now we are in my living room. IG: 00:43 Okay, so what are the years that you attended Harpur College? GS: 00:47 For our bachelor's, I went there from 1964 graduated in 1968. Then for my master's, from 1969 to 1971. IG: 01:01 Where did you grow up? GS: 01:03 Grew up on Long Island. IG: 01:04 Where in Long Island? GS: 01:06 Baldwin, small town on the south shore, middle of Nassau County. IG: 01:10 So, so what? What were your- What did your parents do? What? What was their occupation? GS: 01:20 My father was a certified public accountant. My mother was for most of my life, a homemaker. IG: 01:27 Right. GS: 01:27 And then when I got to high school, she started a business. So she was a businesswoman for-for a few years, IG: 01:35 Oh, what kind of business? GS: 01:36 Uh, she made things, she made- took-took umbrellas and decorated them, and they had these things called bobeches. They were like a tube. She decorated those, and you put a candle inside, so the candle looked pretty. IG: 01:55 What were- where did you go to high school? GS: 01:59 Baldwin Senior High School in Baldwin. IG: 02:02 Was there an expectation in your family that you would go on to college? GS: 02:07 From the time I was born. [laughs] Yeah, that was one of the things fairly typical for Jewish families. Education is very-very important. So yeah, the expectation was- my father always said you could do anything you want, but first you go to college and then you can do whatever do whatever you want. IG: 02:24 Did you have siblings? GS: 02:25 My sister, had an older sister. She went to Smith. IG: 02:30 So of course, the expectations were for her as well. GS: 02:34 Oh, absolutely. IG: 02:35 Why did you, why did you decide to go to Harper College? GS: 02:38 Kind of a funny kind of story. There was uh, I had been accepted by Drew University in New Jersey, and I went there to look at-- it was a beautiful campus, absolutely gorgeous, like a little piece of New England in New Jersey. Uh, and they had a wonderful program for social studies where you spent your senior year, your junior year, I am sorry, abroad. So I was all set to go there, and then I got accepted at what was then Harpur College, and my mother sat me down and said, "Still, we are still paying on your sister school, Harpur College, your scholarship will take you all the way through while your father said you can go anywhere you want. This would be much less expensive thing." So I ended up going, I ended up going there. So which was actually, I guess, changed my life. My wife there. I changed my occupation there. So it was kind of interesting. IG: 02:57 Right. So what were some of your expectations going in to Harpur? Did you have sort of a career in mind that you would pursue? GS: 03:55 Yeah, I was going to, I majored in accounting, so I was going to take over my father's or join him in his practice, and then eventually take over his practice when he retired. That was the initial thing there. Accounting had no part of my life when we went to Drew, but they had a good accounting program at Harpur, so I switched, and that was my idea there. And I also enjoyed social studies, so I took a lot of classes in the social science department, and a professor there thought I was a social studies major and offered me a graduate position. But I said, I am an accounting major. He said, “You are an accounting major. Why are you taking 200 level courses?” So I said, I like it. So that was a holdover from-from Drew. I just love the politics and the history and-and that. So it is still interested in that. IG: 04:50 So you graduated with a degree in- GS: 04:53 Accounting. IG: 04:54 -in accounting, in accounting. What are you- what is your profession now? GS: 05:01 Well, of course, I am retired now, but for many years, I taught accounting at high school, the local high school, Union-Endicott, and then we also had a program with Broome Community College whereby I taught college accounting. The kids got college credit for-for that as well as high school credit. What was your graduate degree at Binghamton? And- That was in teaching accounting. IG: 05:26 Oh, and teaching in accounting. GS: 05:27 Mm-Hmm. IG: 05:28 What made you decide to go into the teaching profession rather than join your father in his business? GS: 05:38 I had in my- I forgot whether it was my freshman or my sophomore year, they had a pro- they began a program at Harpur called Upward Bound. This was a program for college or kids with college ability, but because of economic or social reasons, probably would not go to school. So this was to encourage them to go. And I became a counselor there, started working with kids, and really enjoyed it. So when I graduated, I sort of combined the accounting and working with kids and went to- started at Maine Endwell, and then moved over to Union Endicott, and played high school for 33-34 years. IG: 06:26 Was your father disappointed that you did not join him in his business? Or did he really like the direction that you were going in? GS: 06:36 It was funny. I think at first, he did not want me to become an accountant. He said as much, too much work, too much work, too much time involved. And I remember, I remember as a kid, you know, he would go- leave in the morning. He would not come home until seven at night because he worked in New York City. And by the time he got home, he did not have dinner until 7:30 or so forth. And then it was basically, after you did your homework, time for bed. So during the week, yeah, hardly ever got to see him, so I realized he spent a lot of time working, but still, that seemed like the thing to do. But I think as I went through college, he sort of warmed to the idea. For a couple of summers, I worked for him, and we worked together going into the city during the summer. We are trimester then, so we had four months off. And so I think he wanted the idea, but then, you know, I sort of moved away, and I do not think he was too upset by it. IG: 07:36 Where did he work? And did he have his own firm? Or...? GS: 07:40 Yeah, he was, he was in, he was in practice by himself, and but most of his clients were in New York City, although he had some up-up- upstate Westchester County. And then actually he had some down in Georgia too. So he would fly to Georgia, do some of his work there. And then he would, he would fly home. IG: 08:00 So what- before going to Harpur, what reputation did Harpur have in your mind and- GS: 08:10 My mind, oh, it was a real, highly academic school, high pressure school, but certainly one of the better-better schools and in the, in the SUNY system. I was out for liberal arts. And so it met my-my requirement there. So it was, it was, it was a good mesh, but it met with its reputation. It was a very high-pressure school. IG: 08:39 And when you arrived and spent some time here, did that impression change? GS: 08:45 Oh, no-no. It just reinforced, once I was a student, that everything revolved around the-the curve, you know, and if you were having a good time, there was some kid back in the in the dorm, studying a little more, which would mess up the curve. So you had a, you had to be back there and studying yourself, so you could get up on that on that curve. IG: 09:13 What was the- so you took liberal arts at first as a requirement. GS: 09:18 Mm-Hmm. IG: 09:18 So what were some- did you have any outstanding courses that you- outstanding faculty that you studied with that kind of pushed you in the direction of teaching? GS: 09:30 Uh, not actually in the direction of teaching. I had a few professors who I really liked. There was one, again, in the Social Studies Department, Dekmejian [Richard Hrair Dekmejian], who was just fantastic. He was he really- I really enjoyed the classes I took with him, and the accounting classes we had Phil Piaker, who was also a local CPA, had his own firm here, and he was terrific. I-I really enjoyed the courses I took from him, but nothing pushed me toward the teaching during the school year, it was, it was the program, the Upward Bound, during that during the summer, that sort of moved me in that direction. IG: 10:14 So you spend most of your time studying, what did you do? What was, what was residential life like? You know, you would spend all your time studying in your room or in the library. And what did you do for recreation? GS: 10:32 [laughs] It was kind of interesting back then. I remember in my freshman and sophomore year that they only had one classroom building called the CA building. Half of it was the administration, and the other, other way was the classroom building. So very often you would go there find an empty classroom. You just sit in there in the evening and then you would study there was nice and quiet. I do not know if they still do things like that, but we did it back then. The library--I did not study in the library too much. It was either in my room or over in the classroom building. IG: 11:04 Right-right. So um, your wife mentioned that she met you in your freshman year. GS: 11:14 Yeah. IG: 11:15 And could you just describe how you remember her from that time? You must have a lasting memory. GS: 11:22 Well, it was funny. She was one of the few upstate people up there. There were so many kids from the metropolitan area, so we sort of called her the funny little upstate girl. And she was very naive, very Catholic. So it was a real change for me. IG: 11:46 Yeah. GS: 11:47 Because most of the kids that I knew on Long Island and associated really with in college too, were nice Jewish boys and girls, and somehow, she-she came, she came to the fore, and there was just something that clicked, right from the very beginning, when I first met her, there was just something special about her, and seemed to work. We have been married for almost 50 years, so it seems seemed pretty good. IG: 12:13 I would say. So, did you first interact after class? Where would you go out? Would you be in your- GS: 12:24 Well, a little bit of both- IG: 12:26 -segregated dorms, which were called co-ed dorms. GS: 12:28 Well, the first semester where we were in what they considered at that time a co-ed dorm, you know, boys in one wing and girls in the other wing. IG: 12:36 Right. GS: 12:37 Then come the fall, that dorm was filled up. So I started during the summer, and then I went over to Broome when Broome first opened up. Now that was the Broome that is not there anymore. They built that building. The construction of it, even when it was brand new, we knew it was really poor. I was like, this building is not going to last. And obviously it did not, because now they have a brand-new dorms. You know, that whole section there. So we, you know, we were there. I had her in a couple of different classes, Spanish class, which was not my forte. So she, she helped me with that. IG: 13:16 She mentioned that. GS: 13:17 Yeah, sometimes by looking over her shoulder, [laughs] uh, languages were not my thing. I took Spanish in seventh grade, eighth grade, ninth grade, tenth grade, eleventh grade and twelfth grade, and they wanted to put me in Spanish. I think two were Spanish three, and all they did was speak Spanish in there. And that was just way beyond me. So they let me audit once again, and then I made it through two, and somehow, I managed to squirm through the language requirement. But boy, that was not easy for me, and it actually runs in the family. My sister had the same problem with languages. She-she took Latin, and then she took Spanish in college, and had the same, same difficulties. We have comprehensions and different thing. Languages not mine- IG: 14:04 You have ability in math, and you have probably for accounting. GS: 14:10 Well, in accounting. And what I really wanted to be for many-many years was an architect. IG: 14:15 Oh really? GS: 14:16 Uh, there was no room for me an architect. I could not do like, I could do the accounting kind of math, the higher math, calculus and stuff like that. I had a lot of difficulty with that. So the architecture was-was going to be out. But I do have a- I do enjoy building things. So that is, that is my idea. I like, I like building accounting systems. I like building physical things, IG: 14:47 Did you build any part of this house? GS: 14:47 Uh, not the house--some of the cabinetry, that clock there, that clock there. So all these things, I build the porch. If you look out in the porch. The porch I built. So, you know, I do like working with my hands, and I got that from my father. He did a lot of woodwork, so I followed with that. I have gone further than but then he did. But then I have- I had being a teacher. I had more time to really do that, and my father never took vacations except to play little golf. IG: 15:19 Um, in my mind, Harpur College at the time was really strong in liberal arts, but you said that you had good experiences in the accounting department. Can you describe what the accounting department was like at the time? GS: 15:35 Uh, kind of difficult at that time we- I was just taking courses, uh, but the idea of eventually, of course, joining-joining my father. Uh, but you know you, they had the courses set up and the catalog--this was the one you took in your freshman year; this is the one you took next, one, next one. So I just follow the progression some professors I like better than others. You know, just like in any, any of the departments, but Dr. Piaker showed he was, he was one of the one of the better ones, because he-he explained things so-so wonderfully, and he had the practical experience to do it, because, you know, he was a practicing CPA as well. Anyway, I just, I just followed her through and eventually got my degree. IG: 16:30 Were you as sort of politically aware as-as your wife at the time? GS: 16:38 She was more politically aware than me. I like more of the history part of it, but the-the mechanics of politics I enjoyed. IG: 16:52 How do you mean? GS: 16:53 You know how different countries worked. You know how they set up their political systems. One of the professors I had in one of my classes, Dr. Ulc [Otto Ulc] I believe he was from one of the communist countries and-and was a judge there and escaped into, you know, into the West. And he was really an interesting guy, really interesting guy. And, of course, he showed us how, taught us how the legal system and the political system worked in the, in the communist regime at the time. And we- you know, compared those to, you know, democracy most of the time in Europe, United States always being sort of a little different. Now, it is all falling apart, but-but-but at the time it was, it was the years of the war in court, kind of liberal, progressive, and it was, and it was kind of kind of fun. I just like those kinds of things. IG: 17:50 Yeah. Were you influenced by the Vietnam War? GS: 17:54 Oh, yeah, a lot, yeah, certainly against the war. Probably one of my reasons for not going into-into accounting itself, we could get a teaching deferment. So that-that-that influenced me a little bit, but if I did not have any interest in teaching, I do not think that would have entered my mind just-just to pick up teaching as for deferment. But that was part of it. IG: 18:17 Yeah. GS: 18:18 Yeah. Vietnam war, with to me, was a disaster from-from the get go, and it turned out, turned out to be- IG: 18:23 Were you aware of it being a disaster? Did-did- GS: 18:26 Oh, yeah-yeah. I did not think it would be such a disaster, where we, you know, I mean, the mightiest army in the world, and could not defeat a whole bunch of, basically a ragtag army. IG: 18:39 Right. GS: 18:39 But they were very dedicated, very clever, very-very dedicated to the to their cause. And I do not think we really had our heart in it. And the truth, I do not think the guys over there had their heart in I do not think the country had their heart in fighting this war. It was more of war for the politicians. And as it turned out, it seemed to be even they knew it was not a good war, but they just felt to save face, we had, we had to stay in. IG: 19:09 Was there- do- in your memory, was there a lot of student activism? GS: 19:15 Oh yeah, there was, you know, a lot of marches-marches, busses going down to Washington, DC. Yeah IG: 19:23 Were you involved in that at all? GS: 19:25 Not as much on campus a little bit, but not-not so far as going down to Washington. I stayed pretty much, you know, on campus with our studying and with our- the group of people who are our friends. IG: 19:41 Did the army recruit at all at Harpur College? GS: 19:45 I do not think so. No, I am not even sure they were allowed on campus. Looking back, it was pretty anti- Very anti-military. -military at that particular point. IG: 19:57 Um, there was a big town and gown separation, and I- in Binghamton, GS: 20:02 [inaudible] IG: 20:04 You know, town and gown. GS: 20:07 Oh, town and gown. I am sorry, yes-yes, I gotcha, yeah. IG: 20:10 So, you know, I imagine that many of the Binghamton locals were probably supportive of the war. GS: 20:18 Yeah, there was not a real close town and gown relationship while we were there at all. There was the town and there was the gown. IG: 20:25 Right. GS: 20:25 And they seemed very resentful of the campus. They did not mind us spending the money in town, but they did not associate with us. I am not sure if that is changed or not. There was very few of the students who lived off campus. IG: 20:40 Right. GS: 20:40 Almost everybody lived on campus at that particular time. Uh, so I guess the relationship between students and-and the community, I do not think we are very strong at that particular- during those days. IG: 20:58 Well, perhaps you know now I noticed that the I know that the university is very invested in helping them- Binghamton community, but before it might not have happened. GS: 21:11 Now, it is a little satellite all by itself. IG: 21:14 And you felt that very much, that you were sort of a culturally apart. GS: 21:19 Yeah, since most of us were from downstate, yeah, and more liberal, this was a pretty conservative. Was and is a pretty conservative area. Harpur sort of stood by itself. IG: 21:30 Right. GS: 21:31 You know, pretty iso- physically, it was isolated. IG: 21:34 Right. GS: 21:35 You know, on campus, small campus, lots of land all around where- which the campus owned, but kept us, kept us separate. The only way to get into town was a bus, you know, the public bus, which had to stop. And the only, you know, the mall, as we know it was not built yet. All we had was the Vestal Plaza and the stores that were there, Britts, which was a department store that is long gone. And so that is where we would go shopping. IG: 22:05 Nobody had cars at the time. GS: 22:07 Very few, very few. There was not even much parking. Eventually, I got a car. I think it was in my junior year, and that really liberated up a lot of us, but we- as far as driving around is concerned, you drove home, you drove back, but once you were on campus, unless you went out for dinner or something like that, yeah, you pretty much stayed on campus. IG: 22:31 So um, tell me about, you know, residential life more and the dormitory situation and where you would visit your wife. Did you go out? Did you visit her at her dorm when you started going out? GS: 22:51 Yeah, well, we did both--for a couple of years, couple of semesters, we were separated. I was in Broome, I think she was in Whitney, and then eventually a place opened up, a room opened up, so I went there. So we were, we were pretty close, because they locked the ladies up. So that, you know, after that the guys would go out, but, and you had to have your girlfriend back on campus, by-by-by curfew. But, you know, we would go out. We would go to dinner together. We would study together. She would help me with my Spanish, one way or another. She did not help me with my accounting. IG: 23:08 Yes-yes. I understand that there were a number of breakups in that relationship. GS: 23:35 Oh, yeah, that is the religious thing. Yeah, we had being Jewish and her being Catholic, my parents were not really keen on-on the-the-the joining of the two, but there were just something about her which I just could not- IG: 23:50 [laughs] That is funny. GS: 23:52 -could not-could not shake. So we kept on going back. And eventually we decided to get-get married. That was, that was a somewhat traumatic area, because my parents did not want us to get married because of the religious factor, and my father said he would disown us and so forth. But once we got married, he got to know her, found out the wonderful person she was and we did not, you know, we did not have any difficulty from that standpoint. But before we got married, my parents sent me to talk to a cousin who was a rabbi, to try and talk me out of it. And then from her, from her side, we had to go to, I think it called pre cana classes, which did not mean much to me, but you did what you had to do, and so we eventually ironed out all the problems, and things seemed to work. Third speaker 23:53 How did you raise your kids? Did they get the both culture? GS: 24:00 Yeah, they did, but that was basically my wife. I was not very religious. I was not very religious. And if it were not for my wife, I do not think they would have gotten much of the Jewish side. But we celebrated both. They did not go to Jewish religious school. They went to Catholic school. Well, you know the after-school kind of Catholic school, Sunday-Sunday school for a couple of years until they were confirmed, but after that, they did not, they did not go and we tried to show them that there were different ways of looking at things. Everyone has their own stuff, but there was really basically a commonality of all religions. But my kids aren't very religious either. Maybe that is my fault, but Jan was the one who made sure that we celebrated both and that the kids knew of both cultures. IG: 25:51 Yeah. Do you think that-that kind of acceptance of, you know, of just of the coexistence, the possibility of coexist, of two religions, coexisting side by side in a family. Was that in any way influenced by sort of the liberal attitudes on campus at the time, or is that something that came to you. GS: 26:23 That is an interesting- that is an interesting question. I cannot answer that. I do not know if it was my liberality. It was more my love for Jan than anything else that seemed to- I could not shake her out of my mind. She was, she was, she was pretty important to my life. From the time I met her, there was a chemistry there, obviously, and I was just determined to make it work. But two of us were determined, even though I said, "No," this is not going to work. This is not going to work so we would break up. Was not her breaking up with me? Was me breaking up with her because this is just going to be too much of a hassle. But then could not get her out of my mind, so I would be back. And then eventually I just scrapped that idea of this is not going to work, and decided it is going to work. IG: 27:14 Did you have expectations of staying in Binghamton, or did you want to return to Long Island? GS: 27:20 Well, that is sort of, sort of interesting. I- uh, Jan was from Niagara Falls. I was obviously from Long Island; we were physically almost right in the middle. It was four hours to her house, four and a half hours to my house, you know, her parents’ house. So her parents, I think, wanted us up there. I know my parents wanted us down there, and we thought, well, this is a good compromise in between, you know, from a physical standpoint. Plus the city in Long Island really started to get to me. It was just the long lines, the hassle down there, working for my father for a couple of summers, pretty much turned me off from-from wanting to-to be down there. It was just too stressful--was not-was not- I adapted more to the Upstate way of life than it was to the to the to the city way of life. We like to go to visit down there. I mean, museums and things were great, nice place to visit, but we did not want to live there. IG: 28:24 So you stayed in touch with Binghamton, with Harpur College and then Binghamton University through the years, right? I mean, you went back to graduate school. GS: 28:37 Right. IG: 28:37 Would you- your wife mentioned that you had exchange students that- welcome to- into your home. GS: 28:44 Right. IG: 28:45 And some of them came from Binghamton. GS: 28:47 Uh, the exchange students did not come from Binghamton. IG: 28:50 Not the exchange but what was the name of the program? GS: 28:53 There was a rotor- the rotary program, yeah-yeah, that, yeah. The Business rotary had the exchange program where they brought students in. They would go to high school, but they needed homes for the for the kids, and they would rotate them, I think, every three or four months, so they had experience with various families in the United States before they, before they went home. And through, I sort of, I think I gave her the idea, I am trying to, trying to think way back, because my-my school participated in the program. We had kids from the program, and my department and the language department shared an office. So they had, they had asked, does anybody have you know- is anybody interested in hosting some of these kids? So I went home and asked my wife, and she said, "Oh, that would be a great idea." IG: 29:44 Right. GS: 29:44 So this started really when my when my daughter was born. IG: 29:48 Right. GS: 29:49 So 40 some odd years ago, and it was, it was really, really, very nice. The kids came into the house. They- our kids had had exposure to. IG: 30:00 Yeah. GS: 30:01 Kids from all different- IG: 30:04 Parts of the world. GS: 30:05 -parts of the world. And then eventually we went and visited some of them in Brazil and so forth. And of course, Jan had the Spanish we had a lot of Spanish speaking students. We did have one from South Africa. We had one from the Philippines, I think all told we had 11 or 12-12, kids here and we and we also had a professor, a teacher, who stayed with us for a few weeks, because we-we were like a sister school of a German- our German department had a relationship, so the- our teacher went over to Germany, and their teacher came over here Helmut, and he was, he was, he was quite a fella. IG: 30:49 But, you know, looking back, there was not a lot of international students or diversity at Harpur College when you were going there were there any students...? GS: 31:00 I think, I think there was not to the extent that they have today. IG: 31:05 No. GS: 31:06 We developed a friendship with one guy from, from Africa, Yeah, your wife mentioned. Yeah. And he was, he was a super guy, but also very-very bright man, and went-went back. We-we have been in contact on occasions, through-through email. IG: 31:28 Right. GS: 31:29 Other than that, we have not but he was a really gutsy guy. He went back to try and improve a lot of the blacks in-in Africa. And he went into some problems with-with the government, which was a, you know, a white government back there. So he was, he was a very, very brave fellow, but, and just a super-super nice guy. IG: 31:51 So you stayed in touch with him, since, you know what he did after graduating. GS: 31:56 Yeah, he-he went on to graduate school, I believe, in Canada and also in England, he kind of got some degrees. We did have a tendency to lose touch during those-those years. We just hit on each other, you know, once in a while. IG: 32:12 By email, by phone? GS: 32:14 Well, back then, it was basically by-by contact, either someone knew of what he did, or things of that nature, or maybe by phone, email was unheard of back then. IG: 32:26 Right. GS: 32:27 So it was not until, I guess, a few years ago, somehow, we got in touch with him, got that phone. We somehow made contact there. It was interesting. We were down in New York City and visiting my sister-in-law, and there were posters on the telephone poles, and he was giving a talk, and we wanted to see him, so we called, and we for some reason, we just could not make contact there, and I was, I was really disappointed and but I cannot remember how, but we did make contact again once email came about a few years ago, because he was a friend, not only of jam myself, but also the-the group of people who we were with. So somehow, we made and then, you know, by this time is his brother had passed away, and, you know, he had his kids and-and what have you. And then we lost, lost contact again. IG: 33:30 So it seems like you had a close group of friends that- GS: 33:34 Yeah, we did. IG: 33:35 -stay with- what-what do you think maybe it was a special thing about the school that kind of engender that type of relation, GS: 33:44 Yeah-yeah. I think so. IG: 33:44 Not everybody stays in touch with their- GS: 33:49 Yeah, well, I think part of it was-was you needed a support system there, because of, again, the pressure, the pressure of the school, so you needed a support system to maintain your-your sanity and your ability to keep on going. So we developed this-this group of, I do not know about ten of us, I guess, and several of us married each other, you know. So now-now we are couples. So we-we certainly stay in touch. We see each other. We are going to see each other over New Year. One of them, one of the one of the group, became a doctor, so we use enough money to buy a home in the Poconos. So we all, we all meet in the Poconos, and then we then meet again, usually during the summer. And now he is going to retire, so I think they are going to be moving permanently to the Pocono place so well they will be close enough to- [crosstalk] IG: 34:47 -is that, did he come to the (19)67 reunion? I see. GS: 34:50 No-no-no, he did not know. The reason being that they, they had another commitment. Uh, but they had, they had wanted to, but they-they they could not do it, but he had graduated at that time to the (19)67-(19)66-(19)67 time. So he was, they were the only ones at the group who did, who could make it. IG: 35:04 [crosstalk]-interested in- what was his name? GS: 35:13 Oh, Wolraich. Mark Wolraich. IG: 35:16 How do you spell it? Because I might [crosstalk] GS: 35:18 Oh, boy, W, O, L, R, A, I, C, H. IG: 35:23 Mark? GS: 35:24 Mark, yeah, and his specialty is working with-with kids like-like our granddaughter. So when our granddaughter was first born and we started to see difficulties with her, he pretty much knew what was, what the problem was, and-and without him, she would not have gotten the help as soon as she would have. It is so difficult to get young kids to see the doctors and the organizations that will analyze and finally determine that-that she was autistic, and he knew people up in Rochester, and he got us, got us in-in just a couple of months, where, if we had called ourselves, it would have been over a year before she could have been seen, because they were just so backed up. I mean, so few facilities, so many kids like this now. So he has been through any-any calls to see how things are going. He looked at the SUNY has a thing for autistic kids, which-which we did not know until the situation came and then and John said- IG: 36:36 It is new center. It is a new center, right? GS: 36:38 It is a school. IG: 36:39 It is a school. GS: 36:40 It is a school. Yeah, it is down behind the old men's gym. Yeah. So we went and visited there, and we went and visited the Handicapped Children's Center in-in Johnson City, looked at both programs and because she is, she is kind of social, where a lot of autistic kids cannot. Along with Mark's input and so forth, we decided that-that would- the one at Johnson City would be a better fit for her. So it has- he has been just terrific. I do not know what we would have done without him. He just moved mountains for her. IG: 37:19 That is very fortunate. GS: 37:21 Very fortunate. Yeah, it is one of those things, you know. It is who you know. IG: 37:24 It really is. GS: 37:25 We were very fortunate. Yeah, one that he was our friend, and that he just happened to go into this field. He runs a big program out in the university where he where he teaches. IG: 37:26 Where does he teach? GS: 37:30 Uh, trying to remember, he has moved around so often. Jan-Jan [calling his wife], Midwest. IG: 37:47 Well, it does not matter, I mean, um, so maybe you could tell me about some of the ways um, that you have seen the university change over the years. GS: 38:09 Oh, yeah. Well, first of all, it became a university. It was not a university. And we were there when we started, and while we were there, it became the State University of New York at Binghamton. IG: 38:20 Right. GS: 38:21 That was the last couple of years. So they developed a small graduate-graduate program, and you get graduate degrees there. And just a physical plant itself has grown enormously since we were, since we were, we were there. We just had the little-little core the brain was-was there. No, but the brain. IG: 38:22 Yes-yes. GS: 38:23 So just-just basically the-the old buildings and the brain were there with a couple of dorms. Then by the time we finished, or almost finished, they built what we called the self regs, which is the Hinman complex, and-and the cafeteria up there. And of course, they have expanded their-their program tremendously, I mean, to the point where they have a school for-for kids with-with difficulties, right on campus. I mean, we had- we did not know the building was there, let alone that there was a school there. IG: 39:18 And now they are expanding the health sciences to Johnson City. GS: 39:22 Right-right down in Binghamton, they have a campus, so they are going to have one in Johnson City. So now they have a, you know, a nursing program, which was not there when we were there, in addition. So, you know, the physical plan and the academic pursuits have just expanded dramatically since-since we have been there over the years. IG: 39:47 Do you think that it still has the spirit of Harpur College? You know, the reputation that it had of being socially committed students and academically rigorous. How has, you know, the- GS: 40:04 From everything I understand, yeah, it is rated one of the, you know, the highest schools in the state university system. IG: 40:10 Yeah. GS: 40:11 So I would say absolutely. And the kids, when we, when we go over there, we do not get off and talk to this, to the students therapy. You could see it. It seems very academic. They have the libraries in each of the complexes now. Now we just have the library now they have satellite libraries all over. The quality of the faculties remain very high as far as doctorates are concerned. So I would say academically, it is probably as good as- IG: 40:43 As it was. GS: 40:44 As it was, yeah. IG: 40:45 But what really differentiated, you know, Binghamton now from Binghamton at Harpur College when you were going? Because it was a smaller school. GS: 40:55 Much more. That is one of the reasons we went there. IG: 40:57 It was, it was a smaller school, was it would you say that it was politically active more so? GS: 41:05 Yeah. IG: 41:05 Do you think that-that is was a response to the times, to the (19)60s, the culture those sort of the youth culture of the (19)60s? Or do you think that it was, you know, peculiar to unique to the school, or, you know- GS: 41:23 Well, I think that the universities, a lot of the universities at the time, in the (19)60s, with the Vietnam War, Kent State, and a lot- IG: 41:23 Right. GS: 41:23 I know that stuff occurred during, during our, our growing up time, and I think that necessitated all the activity, the political activity that was generated on campus at that time, and now-now, I think again, because of the political situation which we have, it probably has, well, it rejuvenated our political interest and made much more active again, after years of, you know, raising a family and and-and working, we have got much more politically active now as a result of the Republicans taking over. So it is- [crosstalk] IG: 42:17 Do you think seeds were planted at Harpur College? GS: 42:19 Yeah-yeah, I think so, yeah. Plus-plus our-our liberal attitude, all right, we are much more inclusive that society has become. We-we just like everybody. That is one of the reasons we like to travel. We like to meet people, talk people. One of the advantages of taking the cruises that we do is we sit dinner with people from all over the world, and you get to talk politics. Although it was interesting. The cruise we just got back from, nobody taught politics. It was sort of a subject which was not brought up. This is the first time, and just so- IG: 42:56 To Sydney, when you went to Sydney? GS: 42:58 Yeah, we went to Australia and New Zealand. IG: 43:01 Right. GS: 43:02 People just steered away, even people from other countries just did not bring it up, which is totally different. IG: 43:08 Well, maybe they are afraid to hurt you by saying anything negative. GS: 43:12 Yeah. Well, you know, you are on vacation, you do not want to get into an argument. And in all-all truth, we probably would not get into an argument because we probably would agree with them. [laughs] As far as the situation is concerned, we are an awful situation. I am really worried about this country staying together as the United States, and we are so-so polarized that I just will be amazed if we survive this as a united country. So hopefully things will change. Do you remember any legends or great stories about Harpur College at the time? IG: 43:53 But the only one was Lake Lieberman. Talk about that. GS: 43:59 Well, behind- in the Broome complex, behind the Broome complex and behind the Newing dining hall, which is now, I understand it is gone. There was a pond, and the story was the time that one kid fell in, and they said, "Should we get them out?" And said, "No, just leave them in." So that is, that is how, that is how the name came about. That was the story. I do not know what the real story was- [inaudible] Lieberman got but that was the story at the time. So that was one of the thing. And then we had the coat ceremony. IG: 44:41 So did the kid live? GS: 44:42 Oh, yeah. I mean, this was not a pond, still there. It was not very deep, and it was brand new. It was a man-made pot. So that was, that was one story which we had, and that was, that was, that was behind our dormitory, so that there were. Two other, I guess, activities, the stepping on the coat ceremony, which was on the Esplanade, which is now gone, unfortunately, that took place, and that was annually, in the spring, when the cold weather stopped and the warm weather began to officially state that spring was here, they would have a stepping on the coat ceremony, where they take an overcoat, do a few speeches in old, an old English--some, some kid wrote an old, I cannot repeat it. Some of the people remember, I do not know if you have a recording of it, but it is it was quite something. And then they, when it was official, they would step on the coat. Okay. Spring has now arrived. That was, that was the official statement. IG: 45:44 Did you see the ceremony performed at any point? GS: 45:47 Oh yeah. IG: 45:47 Oh you did. Speaker 1 45:47 Oh yeah, I saw it, but I cannot repeat the Old English speech that was given, but oh yeah. That was probably the last couple of years I was there. And then the other- [crosstalk] IG: 46:00 [inaudible] as-as being a student on campus, did you attend this? Oh-oh, so people kind of you know, plugged into the student events. GS: 46:05 Oh, sure. Oh yeah. IG: 46:10 on your [inaudible], yeah. GS: 46:11 When we were there, you had the campus was our life. IG: 46:13 Yes. GS: 46:14 When we were there, that was, again, we did not do much off campus. Campus life was-was the life. And there were no other campuses to go to at the time. So, uh- IG: 46:24 Were you into sports? Were you into any other activities? Really? GS: 46:27 No activities. That is kind of interesting. One of the reasons I went to Harpur was--I was a target shooter, and I was on the rifle team in high school, and Harpur had, at the time, a target range by the time I got- but when I came up here, I found out that they had basically closed it down. So I was quite a, quite a disappointment to me. It was still there, but it was not being used. So I even brought my rifle up with me, which had to be locked up with the, with the campus police, and I never took it out. Yeah, or they would not let you keep in the dorm or anything. So that is where it had to be kept. And then if, well, even the campus police did not have guns back there, all they had was a night stick. Everybody has guns, yeah, on campus. I mean, kids have guns too. IG: 47:20 I do not think so. GS: 47:21 Oh! Third speaker: 47:21 Maybe not on campus, but in America- You go to the Walmart and purchase- GS: 47:26 I know it is a gun crazy culture. I know a lot of our friends, yeah, we call them gun nuts, but a lot of my friends are gun nuts, so it is just part of our crazy cultures. I do not understand it, and I am an old NRA person, but that was the NRA back when I was a member. Was a lot different. That organization has been hijacked from an educational to a political group. Anyway. That is sort of an interesting story of itself. But yeah, from a sports I am not very sports oriented. I am also very, probably because I am very, not very good at sports. I am more into reading and doing my woodwork, things of that nature. I wish they would have to work- a wood shop on campus. We could have worked, worked up, but they-they did not. That would have been really cool. And the but the one other activity, if you are talking about sports, was train you were [inaudible] up train, you would- the cafeterias had fiberglass trays. That was very important, that they were fiberglass, and we would steal them borrow and there was a hill right by Broome that goes down towards the-the old gym and the fields down there. So when it snowed, we would take these trades, we would sit on them, and we would shoot down the hill. So that was that was about the extent of my-my kind of physical activity, but it was kind of funny. At some point, they bought new trays, and they were metal trays that were encased in a rubberized plastic case that was textured and they would not slide. So that was the end of tray, unless you got some other device. But we, I guess maybe they did it to save the trays in the in the cafeteria. IG: 49:32 Probably somebody caught on. GS: 49:35 Yeah. [laughs] IG: 49:38 So, you know, tell me what you miss most about those years. GS: 49:43 It had to be the people and the camaraderie we had with-with our group, that was great. I mean, we still meet with the people, but we have, we have, we have spread out so we do not see each other all the time, but I really miss. Living and being together with all-all of our friends, that was really great. I do not miss the pressure of the, of the academics. I mean, it was, I think 10 or 15 years after I graduated, I would still wake up in the middle of night, well, for my nightmare, saying, oh my god, the papers due tomorrow, only to realize, you know, you graduated, like, 10 or 15 years ago, but you had these nightmares, but the people were terrific. And I think also living, you got to learn to live on your own, away from your parents, you know, without their protection- IG: 50:37 But in a community. GS: 50:39 -but in a community which was which was loving and-and safe for the most part. I miss, I miss that a lot, because the world is not safe anymore. My world is not-not safe the way it was. You like-like any most colleges, you are protected. So. IG: 50:58 It was safe, it was a haven. But the world still was not safe with the Vietnam- GS: 51:03 Oh, absolutely. IG: 51:05 -and- GS: 51:05 Yeah, but- IG: 51:06 I am being very aware that you could be- [crosstalk] GS: 51:09 Oh, drafted. Oh yeah, the draft was-was-was an ever-present worry, yeah. But while you were on campus, as long as you had that deferment from- for being a student deferment. You were, you were safe as soon as you graduated. You were, we were in trouble. But they-they had the-the war boards. Well, one of the ways you could be deferred from-from the armed forces was to take this exam. And if you got a certain score in the exam, then you could continue your student affirming. If you did not do it, then you were up for- to be involuntarily taken into the, into the army and sent over to Vietnam. So I remember those. And then they had the lottery late later on, where they picked your name out of a or your birth date out of a hat. And if they picked your-your date, it was more difficult to get into deferment, you know, so and those people who were later dates than they would be recruited later on, but if they had the number of bodies that they needed to-to satisfy the-the army at that particular point, if you were in the-the end of the-the lottery, you did not get called. IG: 52:36 Did any of your classmates get called during the college? GS: 52:42 Uh, only one that I remember, we were not very close. One of the brothers ended up going over, and then, of course, we lost contact with him once he was recruited. But most of us went on to graduate school so we could continue our-our deferments, or we had occupations such as teaching which-which would defer. So most of us did not go. We mark got into a program whereby he had to do public service while he was in medical school, and that kept him out of the army, per se, but he was in the Public Health Service on an Indian reservation. IG: 53:27 Oh, how interesting. GS: 53:27 Well, they adopted- IG: 53:29 Here in northeast, or...? GS: 53:32 Oh, no-no, out west. Okay, see, I- IG: 53:45 You want to stop this? GS: 53:47 Yeah. Third speaker: 53:54 Okay. IG: 53:59 Soum, tell us about- do you recall any great characters from among your group of friends? Could you tell us about anyone you know who was a real character? GS: 54:15 Māori Cruise. I think he was from Cuba. IG: 54:18 Yeah. GS: 54:19 He was a character. IG: 54:20 How so? GS: 54:24 Never took anything seriously. He was always one of those free flight people who just seemed to enjoy life. I think that was probably his Cuban upbringing. He got a mo- he even got a motorcycle. You know, it was my first and only motorcycle ride. Was holding on for dear life. Māori around, but he was, he was just a fun, a fun guy. I do not even think he lasted for more than a year or two at school. He just enjoyed life too much. But he was a real character. We had a, we had a good time, if you wanted, if you wanted a good time. Māori was the guy to go out with. I think he was Cuba- he was Cuban from Cuba. IG: 54:59 Was he a Cuban American or Cuban from Cuba? So, how did you how did he talk about Cuba? How did you feel about Cuba at the time? Did you think that it was an enemy state? GS: 55:13 I do not think so. We-we did not talk politics. As far as that was concerned with the Māori, everything was-was social. You did not talk to him seriously about things like that. In my memory, he was just happy to be here and was enjoying life. So he- his happiness was very infectious. IG: 55:43 How do you think your classmates would remember you from your years at Harpur College? What would they say about you? GS: 55:50 Oh, gosh, if they even remembered me. IG: 55:53 Basically your friends. GS: 55:54 Well, those people, the ones are still friends. Oh, I think they would remember me. IG: 55:59 How? GS: 55:59 Well, how? I do not know. IG: 56:04 [inaudible] yourself from those years. GS: 56:06 Sort of, I am sort of a jokester. I- not practical jokes, but I use a lot of double intenders. I turn words around and things like that. That is sort of my reputation. But also sort of to a certain thing serious. And you can have serious discussions, which we do whenever-whenever we get together, we all talk politics and so forth. We are all of the same kind of political persuasion. And- IG: 56:36 So, You are pretty much the same person that you- GS: 56:40 I do not, I do not see me changing. I think, I think I am more tolerant. I thought I was tolerant them. I think I am more tolerant now. I think my attitude toward women have changed dramatically. I was used- I was brought up at a time when, you know, women did what they were told. Kind of idea. Wives did what they were they were told they were subservient to the husbands. Jan made quick disposed of that very quickly, [laughter] and obviously it was for the good, you know, but I learned quickly that-that is not the way you treat a woman or a wife. IG: 57:27 So you are emotionally intelligent, not only book smart. GS: 57:30 Well, I like to think so. Plus, I was in a profession where there were a lot of women. IG: 57:34 Right. GS: 57:35 In teaching there were a lot of women, so I always considered them my-my equals. I never considered them subserving to me in any way, shape or form. But then I felt the same way about secretaries and custodians. I never- there were a lot of professionals who think of those people and-and the I hate to use the term lesser occupations as somehow being inferior. And I was always friends with all these people. Yeah, we had to treat them- I mean, they are people who just were in a different field. That is all. That is why I looked at it. So I think most of my friends feel that way. And this, I think when they think of me, they-they think of a person who's very accepting and very tolerant and liberal. IG: 58:24 Good. Just [inaudible] I forget this one thing, you were on a judicial board, the punishment for your wife's infraction. GS: 58:38 Oh, not her infraction, her roommate. IG: 58:40 Her roommate. GS: 58:41 Her roommate, her roommates, infraction, yeah, yeah, judicial review board, we had [talking to his wife] No. [his wife replies] Okay. Okay, I have to read this later. Uh, supposedly we were self-governing. Okay. When it came to the real thing, of course, the administration took over. But for minor infractions of the rules, a student was brought before the judicial review board. Nine out of 10 of these things, maybe 99 out of out of 100 were curfew infractions. So we had to come up with some way to punish the girls because their boyfriends brought them home late. I mean, looking back, I was so absurd, [laughs] but we did not take it really all too seriously. Because, I mean, even then, we knew that curfew was kind of, kind of kind of dumb, so we imposed a penalty on Jan's roommate, who came back late, of having to make chocolate chip cookies for the dorm. I mean, this is a kind of a [inaudible]. We had this little, little cubby hole of a kitchen with this little tiny oven, and I knew that Jan mother had sent her with cookie trays and mixing bowls and so forth. So I thought, gee, this would be a good, a good thing. I like chocolate chip cookies. The dorm likes chocolate chip cookies, so why do not we have her make chocolate chip cookies for the dorm? So I did not realize at the time how much work was involved. We probably would have thought of something else, but it was sort of like almost in jest, almost in fun, because a silly infraction, you make a silly punishment. I mean, what do you- what kind of things are you going to do? How did you join this judicial board? You applied. IG: 1:00:49 You applied. GS: 1:00:49 You applied. Yeah, you know, they had different organizations on campuses like the radio or-or the newspaper thing. And I applied. And I do not even know how you got accepted. Right. Just all of a sudden, I was I said, "Sure, I will join that." And you were there. IG: 1:01:08 You were there. Well- GS: 1:01:11 So long ago. IG: 1:01:14 I am, you know, I think that we are going to wrap up soon. I would like to know if there are any concluding remarks that you might have about Harper College and your experience there, and you know how it impacted the rest of your life? GS: 1:01:32 Well, obviously it had a great impact in my life. My best friends, I met there, and we kept, we have kept in touch for 50 years, met my wife there, and we have been married for 50 years, but looking back on it, we had a super-duper education for a super-duper bargain price. The tuition was only $200 a semester at the time-- region, scholarship took care of that, so it was room and board, which I think was $400 or $435 a semester plus books. Why we do not continue to do that is beyond me. I know there is a cost involved, but here we had a situation where superb education a price that anyone could-could pay for and then we went on to make a country. Why do not we continue to do that? Encourage people to do that. I mean, people cannot just go out in the world without an education, especially now. So why do not we willingly and happily educate our populace at a reasonable price, right? Why burden them with years of debt? It is crazy. So I am definitely appreciative of the education I got, and every time I think of the costs, it just makes me laugh, because how- it was what an opportunity we had, what an opportunity we had, and we did not. I do not think we realized it at the time, how great, because we thought that would continue forever. State University is always going to be $200 a semester, and the quality of the education was just terrific. Could not, could not do better. And I assume the quality of education that the kids are getting there to State University today is at least equal to what we had, although the cost is-is a lot more, well, still cheaper than private schools, but because my son went to Ithaca, so we know how that is. But what an opportunity. I am indebted to the state of New York for the education they provided me, both elementary high school and college. Could not be what I am today without them. IG: 1:03:59 Well, thank you very much. GS: 1:04:00 Oh my pleasure. My pleasure. IG: 1:04:02 Thank you so much for your time welcoming us into your lovely home. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Geoffrey H. Strauss Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Strauss, Geoffrey H. ; Gashurov, Irene Description An account of the resource At Harpur College, Geoffrey studied accounting. A summer job as a counselor with the college’s Upward Bound Program for disadvantaged youth decided him on a career in teaching. He taught accounting at Broome Community College and Endicott High School for 33 years. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-12-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2017-12-14 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 64:09 minutes Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/777f545d3c4124d217e0435f9adbcca1.mp3 268280458446fae268623115b1aadc3d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-06-12 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Dr. Michael McGoff Year of Graduation 1969 Biographical Text Dr. McGoff is senior vice provost and Chief Financial Officer for Binghamton University. His doctorate was in computer-oriented onomastics, the study of names, which he programmed to study the indigenous languages spoken in New York State. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni from Broome County; Harpur College – Alumni in linguistics; Harpur College - Alumni living in New York City. Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni from Broome County; Harpur College – Alumni in linguistics; Harpur College - Alumni living in New York City. Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Michael F. McGoff Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 12 June 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) IG: 00:00 Okay-okay. MM: 00:02 My name is Michael McGoff, Senior Vice Provost and Chief Financial Officer for Binghamton University. We are in my office, Administration Building 711 and today is June 12, 2018. IG: 00:15 Okay. Thank you. So, Dr. McGoff, where did you grow up? MM: 00:22 I grew up here in Binghamton. I was- my grandparents came from Ireland to work at Endicott-Johnson Shoes. My- they did and my father was born in the south side of Binghamton. When he got back from World War Two, he became a Binghamton policeman, and married my mother, and they had nine children. I am the eldest. IG: 00:48 That is tremendous. So, was your mother a homemaker? Or did she work? MM: 00:55 She worked in some as a bookkeeper, accountant. It was a finance company, but most of the time, after you have nine kids, you need to be home. IG: 01:06 I would think so. So did your and-and you mentioned that your grandparents are from Ireland. What about your mother's side? Are they Irish? [crosstalk] MM: 01:18 My grandparents were from Ireland. That was my father's side. My- her grandfather was from Ireland, and her grandmother was from Ireland. IG: 01:26 Do you know what part of Ireland? MM: 01:30 My- well on the paternal side, my grandfather was Monahan, and my grandmother was Claire. I believe that the um, my grandfather's side, I would have to look it up. Actually, I think it is an ancestry, but I cannot remember. IG: 01:46 Okay, that is fair enough. So, in your family, was education encouraged? MM: 01:55 It was not discouraged. I was a good student when I was in high school and in an elementary school, my father had nothing past high school, my mother had nothing past high school, and I was encouraged to do what I wanted to do. IG: 02:12 I see. So did the conversations in your house revolve around local events, your family events. Did you talk about? MM: 02:26 Well, my father worked three jobs, so he was not home very much. IG: 02:29 I see. [crosstalk] MM: 02:32 As I was growing up, you know, most of the talk, I think, was about school and about family. There were, you know, current events, I guess so, right, yeah. IG: 02:46 So, what were you a big reader? Did you like certain subjects? MM: 02:53 I always read a lot. I still enjoy reading. When I finished high school--I went to St Mary's Elementary School and was encouraged by the teachers there to study, and I always did well in school. IG: 03:12 Right. MM: 03:13 And then when I went into high school, I went to something called St. Patrick's Academy, which closed in my sophomore year, and I graduated from Catholic Central in 1965 it was, I was among the first graduating classes from what is now Seton Catholic Central High School when I [inaudible] just opened. IG: 03:41 Where did your number in the what-what number child were you? MM: 03:45 I am the oldest. IG: 03:46 You are the youngest. MM: 03:47 Oldest. IG: 03:48 Oldest-oldest. MM: 03:49 And my father died when he was 52 so when any girls got married, I was the patriarch. IG: 03:56 Oh, so who- what did the- your other siblings become? I am, I am watching. MM: 04:06 No, getting a message. Two of my brothers became firemen since retired, one of them is still very big in sports. He was division one referee in basketball. He also is the assigner for still is the assigner for soccer and basketball, and most of central New York for referees. I have a- there is diabetes in my family. I have a brother Jim, who had severe diabetes, type one, and had a rough life with it, and he was disabled, but everybody is still around. My sisters went into the health sciences, worked in the hospitals. IG: 04:57 As what, doctors? MM: 04:59 The technicians, technicians, yeah, and a brother, John, who was longtime fireman, who went back and got his bachelor's and then his master's [inaudible] all the way, and ended up not being able to do what he wanted to do, because if he taught, he would not be able to collect his retirement as a fireman. So, he ends up he is the- whatever the title is, Head of Education for what I know a Spectrum was Time Warner, the others. Let us see, uh, some-some of them had some higher education, and no one finished a degree, except for John. IG: 05:52 So as the head of your family, by default, you-you sort of stepped into your father's shoes. MM: 06:02 For somethings [crosstalk] IG: 06:02 Obviously-obviously. No. Okay, so how did that change your direction? Did you feel more the weight of responsibility on your shoulders? Did that determine certain interests? MM: 06:14 When he died, I was already was not living there anymore. IG: 06:20 I see, I see. MM: 06:22 In fact, by then, when he died, I had already finished my bachelor's, I think, my associates, my bachelor's and my master's, and was working on the doctorate. So, I was living someplace else. I actually had been married, and she and I were both graduate students together. IG: 06:45 Okay, so let me backtrack, then. Did you have a sense of what you wanted to do when you were graduating high school? MM: 06:55 No, in fact, I was surprised. I must have applied, though I do not remember it. I was surprised at the high school graduation that I got a scholarship to go to Broome Tech Community College, where I went for a couple of years and-and at the same time, was here on campus, studying and doing other things here on campus. And then I went out to New Mexico for a short time. IG: 07:23 To New Mexico? MM: 07:25 New Mexico. Yeah. IG: 07:25 Where in New Mexico? MM: 07:27 New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. IG: 07:29 Oh, that is where my daughter lived for a while. MM: 07:31 I was going to go to school there, and I decided that that the education was not as good as New York. So, I came back. IG: 07:39 But it is a beautiful place. MM: 07:40 It is beautiful. As long as they keep the water running all the time, then they can have grass. IG: 07:45 So, when were you there? What are the years that you were there? MM: 07:48 I was not there for a whole year. I was there for weeks. Let us see when was it? It was 1967, summer and fall of (19)67. IG: 08:04 So, you know, let us backtrack. So, did you have a you know, why did you decide on Harpur College? MM: 08:19 I was in New Mexico. I had already been- I was with the woman that I ended up marrying a few years later. We both decided that New Mexico State was not the right place for us. We had both been admitted to Harpur. We both drove back to New York day and night until we got here to start classes in August, late August, early September, somewhere around there. Yeah, that is when I forgot my first job and on campuses. IG: 08:51 So-so, wait and you got your first job. So, you were working while you were a student. What-what? MM: 08:59 I was self-supporting. IG: 09:00 You were self-supporting. You were self-supporting. That is not surprising. Coming from a family that- MM: 09:08 Yeah, they did not have the resources help, although I had scholarships, and I just- IG: 09:13 You had a regent scholarship, MM: 09:15 A what? IG: 09:15 A Regents scholarship? MM: 09:17 Yes, I had a, I do not remember exactly what the title of the thing was. Tell you the truth, it was a scholarship that I got in high school. But I do not, not sure they called it Regent scholarship, whatever. Yeah, but I needed to work or I would not have lived. IG: 09:38 So, you had this idea that Harpur College and New York education was superior. Did you have an idea? Did you have a direction? Did you know what you wanted to pursue? MM: 09:48 Well, to tell you the truth, as I said, I grew up in Binghamton, and at that time, most people in the area did not hold the college in very high regard. In fact, my father was a Binghamton policeman, and right around that time, Herbert Aptheker had been here. And so, there were a lot of people that just thought this was a communist place. A lot of communists, long haired hippie. I do not think they said hippie at the time, but long haired, sandal wearing communist, but I knew that had a good education, and I knew that I wanted to come back to it. IG: 10:29 No, did you, did you? I am just wondering you know how you mentioned that you went to Catholic High School, that your siblings went to Catholic high schools. MM: 10:42 Actually, they did not. IG: 10:43 They did not. MM: 10:44 No. IG: 10:45 They did not. MM: 10:45 Because at that time, my brother Kevin did, but with my brother Jim and my father being sick and then dying, there was not enough money to pay those tuitions, so they all started going to public school, and all of them graduated from public high school. IG: 11:07 Do you think that your family was particularly Irish? Was there a sense of Irish culture in your family? IG: 11:14 Yes. IG: 11:15 How was that expressed? I was I was getting around that through Catholic- MM: 11:19 My-my-my grand my paternal grandfather and paternal grandmother were still alive. My father was very close to them. They had very thick brogues, which a lot of people would probably not understand now. We just spent a lot of time there. There were also like cousins that visited from Ireland and so on. Cousins of my father. So, you know, it was clearly Irish. And my grandmother, on my mother's side, was very proud of having been Irish. Her father came from Ireland, and he was he drowned. He drowned in trying to get them dinner by shooting a duck in a river. And so, she had to quit high school about 14 or so, something like that, in order to help the family. But I do not know how she got so smart, but she helped me learn algebra when I was in high school, even though I do not think she ever, I do not know what she finished, eighth grade, seventh grade, I do not know, but all of them were very Irish, yes. IG: 12:32 So also, you know, what was the sense in your family that you know you said everybody was proud of being Irish? What were they? Were they proud of the of the rich culture of the or their personal sort of stories of survival, of surviving through struggles? What do you think it was? MM: 12:53 Just a, the love of the heritage, I guess. My I have to admit. I mean, I do not think of myself as Irish very often. But when my wife and I did ancestry, and I found out I was 99.4 percent or 93 percent something like that, Irish, I was proud of it. IG: 13:17 Right. MM: 13:18 Yeah. IG: 13:19 Have you ever heard that the Irish and the Slavic nations were one? There is one theory that they were once one. They came from the same family tree. MM: 13:35 I never heard that now. IG: 13:39 Yeah, MM: 13:39 It is interesting. IG: 13:39 It is interesting. It is very interesting. MM: 13:39 My wife, my present wife-- have been married 39 years her-her grandparents and family members came from Russia, Ukraine, whatever it was at the particular time to work at Endicott Johnson, so I have got this whole kind of, we were married in a Russian Orthodox Church. So, I have got this whole- IG: 13:57 Oh, which, which one? MM: 13:58 It was called our mission of the Blessed Virgin that is over on- IG: 14:02 That is where [crosstalk] that is where I go. MM: 14:04 Okay. IG: 14:05 So that is very interesting. It is a very interesting connection. So, I was just trying to get a sense of your background and sort of you know what the ethos of this family was, and- MM: 14:19 It was very close family. I do not know that we thought about being Irish and all that as much as we thought about taking care of each other. It is interesting. People would never [inaudible] a big family. I would come home and, you know, 11 people were living there, and yet, within a few minutes, you would say, “Where is John?” It was just like; it was like a hive or something. [laughs] IG: 14:42 Right-right. I can imagine. And so-so, you were in school. You were at Harpur College, after, you know your- MM: 14:55 Came back from Mexico. IG: 14:56 From New Mexico, and what did you know, and you had this, obviously, you had heard that, you know, Harpur College was full of communists and hippies. What was your first impression of the school? I mean- MM: 15:14 My first impressions of the school was a lot of hard work, but it was lot of folks from downstate, which was different for me and proud to be here. And the- I said a lot of hard work, it was a lot of hard work. And also, I was working full time, but it was just filled with all this stuff to learn. I mean, I took a lot of different courses. I studied a lot of different things. I love language. So, I was involved with early on, with folks in the English department, mostly, but I ended up in my later, in my undergraduate and then in my graduate work, studying languages. So- IG: 16:05 Which languages did you study? MM: 16:07 Old High German, Old English, Middle English. Did some Frisian I studied some- IG: 16:15 How interesting. MM: 16:16 [inaudible] and some Algonquin. I did some my dissertation was in languages, or actually it is in an area called onomastics, which is I used I was, I was working in the School of Advanced Technology. So, I had a background in computing, and so I was able to marry computing and onomastics, which is the study of how my study was how names through bilingual interaction, names pass from one language to another, typically becoming meaningless, but also being able to carry that language into a different language, able to study the first language. My-my teacher was a guy named Bill Helm, or Bill Nicolaisen [W. F. H. (Bill) Nicolaisen], who ended up just dying here about a year ago, a year and a half ago in Aberdeen, that he taught here for many years. He came from Ohio State, and we studied together for years. I studied with him. IG: 17:20 What-what you know, what predisposed you? I mean, this is serious linguistics at an undergraduate level, which is quite unusual. MM: 17:30 Yeah, there were no linguistics programs, so, yeah, work with individuals, as I said, Old High German, Old Norse, with some faculty members who were here. IG: 17:40 Do you remember their names? MM: 17:42 Bill Snyder. I worked with him on some Sanskrit and some Old High German and-and Old Norse. I did [crosstalk] IG: 17:53 That is phenomenal. That is really phenomenal. I really [crosstalk] no, no, that is okay, that is, that is, but this is at the undergraduate level. MM: 18:03 We started that stuff at the undergraduate most of the work was at the graduate level. Yep. IG: 18:11 Most of the work- MM: 18:11 At the graduate I mean, I was just getting the background in order- IG: 18:11 So, at the undergraduate level, were you studying old German and Frisian and or did you were you exposed to that in graduate school? MM: 18:21 In undergraduate I mostly like, I work with Bill Snyder in German, and we did some, some work and older versions of German I did, let us see what I do Middle English with, with I um, with faculty here. And then I got introduced to Bill Nicolaisen, and I started working with him on some things. And the old Norse was in my first year of graduate school. IG: 18:55 That is fantastic. MM: 18:56 So, I was here all the time. IG: 18:59 So, Binghamton, but that is, that is tremendous. So, Binghamton actually had a strong linguistic presence. Were these- MM: 19:09 It was-there were no programs in it, and so to say strong. We had strong faculty members. It had backgrounds, but it- IG: 19:17 So, they were teaching these subjects out of their language programs, right out of the German program or English programs. MM: 19:25 English program, yeah [inaudible] Barney Huppe [Bernard Huppe] is the first one to introduce me to older languages, Middle English. We did Chaucer and some other things. Bernard F Huppe, he was one of the leading lights of the early faculty members here. IG: 19:42 What is really interesting is that you were kind of ahead of the curve in that you combined your interest in onomastics with computer you know, generated what- to study. MM: 20:01 Yes, when I first started working here in my first job in 1967 August in 1967 was in the school, the brand-new school of advanced technology, which the current incarnation is the Watson School. And so, I worked for a man named Walter Lohan, who was the first dean, and at the same time was working. We hired a- was a little while later, but we hired a guy named John McHale, who was colleague of Buckminster Fuller, and John was a sociologist who was a futurist. So, when I worked with him for quite a while, I think they called me a research associate, but I read for him, and he had a need to, you know, constantly be reading things. So, we, there were some of us who read things in order to, you know, get rid of the chaff and give him the pearls through the- we at the end of the day, he would have a whole bunch of things to take home that I had sort of filtered out for him so they get so they did not have to read things that were just worthless. I read a lot of things for him. Same time, I worked for Walter Lohan, who was, who was the Dean of the School of Advanced Technology, and eventually, at the end of the life of the school advanced technology, I was acting dean for a couple years. IG: 21:36 It is very interesting. You know, there is so much that I want to ask about. MM: 21:43 I am jumping all over the place. IG: 21:44 No-no. And, you know, it is a personal interest of mine, because I, too, studied linguistics many years ago. So, for example, what was and you got your doctorate in linguistics, what- MM: 21:56 The doctorate is actually mean, this was, what was what was the title, computer-oriented onomastics survey. It was sort of independent study, kind of thing that I had, I did with Bill Nicolaisen. And then, in fact, I am still involved in, I am still on the editorial board of onomastics journal. And um- IG: 22:17 So, what were your some of your findings in your thesis, you know, if you could summarize this in in a nutshell. What-what did your research find? MM: 22:28 Well, that is about 300 and some pages, but I have not looked at in a long time, but it is. What I did was a study of the place names of New York State and the Aboriginal languages and some of the New World, world languages that came here, and was able to trace some things back, how the names came to be, what the language was about, and so on. But I was able to do it on many, many, many, I do not know how many 1000s of names, physical features and so on, and use the computer to be able to analyze it. And nobody at the time was using computing. So, it was a hot topic. And I went around a lot and talked with folks about it, introduced some people to it. And in fact, Peter Raper, who is in South Africa, he does South African onomastics. He was I- he came here and I introduced him to computing, and he is still using-using it. IG: 23:35 So let me understand. So, you had, you know this corpus of words from names from various Aboriginal languages. MM: 23:44 Not only all the names, yes, but- IG: 23:48 Not only the names, but the languages themselves. MM: 23:51 That I was interested in the languages, we use the names to get to the languages. IG: 23:54 To get to the to the languages. So, you reconstructed the language through the names, or? MM: 23:59 In some cases, you know, I do not know, pick on something Susquehanna, the Susquehanna River. IG: 24:04 Yeah, right. MM: 24:07 The, it does not matter to me. It did not matter what the what it etymologically meant. I was interested in, like, hannah is pleonastically repeats river right. Hannah is river that kind of thing was what I was interested in. You are taking me back a long way. IG: 24:27 No-no, but I hope you do not mind. So, this is, you know, we can- MM: 24:33 So, you can study the languages and reconstruct things about the languages by using what was brought into our everyday language and changed over time. See, you know, you can trace the changes and things like that. People do not know what they are saying when they say Susquehanna. What it means or where it came from, anything else. But you can, that is what I was interested in. IG: 24:57 Right. And you were. You know, did you find, did you find evidence of-of, you know, a people's history, of their migrations, of their contact with other, other tribal cultures? MM: 25:18 And you can trace, like you know, you can trace where dialects of the Iroquoian language, for instance, where they were based on the names that are still the areas where those dialects [inaudible] IG: 25:33 Did you present your papers and at linguistic conferences? MM: 25:38 Um, onomastics conference, yes uh huh. I [inaudible] international at the time, was called International Congress of Onomastics Sciences, big one in Ann Arbor one year. Just about every major city and the country where there were conferences would be middle- we were mostly associated with MLA in the early years, and then the conferences that I went to, and then in the later years, within the last 25, 20 years, we moved to LSA, Linguistic Society of America, and so that we meet now in January--used to meet during the Christmas break, but that is when MLA met and spoke at MLA, various places like that. IG: 26:28 Did you- are you acquainted with the work of Chomsky [Noam Chomsky]? Did that influence you do anything MM: 26:34 [crosstalk] here, and I heard him speak, probably in the (19)60s. IG: 26:38 Tell us about that. That is wonderful. MM: 26:42 He gave a lecture, and I believe was Cassata Sioux. I had to be in the late (19)60s sometime in there. Do not remember much of what he spoke about probably was more social than it was linguistics. But- IG: 26:56 Even then? MM: 26:56 Yeah, right, oh yeah. He is- had on things then, yeah. A lot of people came and spoke-spoke in Binghamton over the years. Then I tried to go as many as I could. One that comes to mind is Christopher Hitchens. And lots of, lots of big names came. IG: 27:15 In the (19)60s? MM: 27:16 (19)67. Yeah, it was, it was a different- the university was a different place than during those years. It was mostly known for the humanities; the sciences were there. And of course, you know when, but in the like, for instance, that we went through a horrible time in (19)76, 1976, (19)75, (19)76 when New York State was financially going south, because New York City was-was having difficulty, and we had huge cuts here one and would not remember what it was--must been the fall of 75 we hired six assistant professors in our school, and in May of (19)76 we laid them off. That was that kind of bad times. And so, it was big on humanities. But my point was going to be that during those bad times, the sciences and the nation engineering school and things like that, they were the ones taking the hits. We had a PhD in physics, which we got rid of at that time. Now that would not happen, but that is what happened then, because Harpur was well known for the humanities and some social sciences, but most humanities are big, very I mean, it was the most famous English department in the country, I think in public schools. IG: 28:49 It had a great reputation from it had the reputation of being an elite, the equivalent of an elite private college. That is what I hear from almost all the alumni I speak to. MM: 29:04 Yeah, they call it the public Brown or something like- IG: 29:07 Something like that. It was based on the University of Chicago system, was not it? MM: 29:14 Partially also the collegiate was based on the collegiate colleges were based supposedly on Oxford, but there were, there were a lot of people who thought a lot about education in those years, just and higher education and how students learn and that kind of thing, much more discipline oriented now. IG: 29:38 Did you-you know, I imagine that you were, in part, influenced by your family's perspective on the college you know, the academic community here and the students. Did this perception change over the years? I mean, how did you regard these hippies and communists? MM: 30:05 Well, I never thought of them that way. I was quoting the local people. Was interesting, because the woman I told you about became my first wife. Her- when we started, we went out to New Mexico. We had gone to school together at Broome. We came back here. We were students here, but her father was a violin maker and played viola in the orchestras. Her mother was a pianist and taught music. She was a dancer herself and a violinist and so but all of her parent’s friends, many of her parent’s friends, were also university faculty, like Ken Lindsay and Christine Lindsay were Ken started the art programs here. We would spend a lot of time with them, either up at the cottage, or they would be coming over Harry Lincoln, who was the beginning of the music programs here, they would be there too. So, I would he even when I was not on campus, I was involved with people from on campus. So, I thought of that. I just came to think of it as a family. And I will have been here 51 years in August, and- IG: 31:18 That is tremendous. MM: 31:21 [inaudible] it is. It was. They were different times, but they were still did not seem to be. It was a much more close knit. I think when I stepped on campus first time at (19)65 there were like 22- 2200, 2300, 2300 people here. Now there is 17,300 students, let alone a couple 1000, more than a couple 1000 people that work here. IG: 31:50 And you never considered leaving when you, for example, earned your PhD. Did you seek employment elsewhere? MM: 31:58 Well, when I finished my doctorate. I was, let us see, (19)79 I was an assistant dean already. So, I became an assistant dean in (19)76 during all the issues, all the problems and people were being laid off, and I took on new responsibilities. And so, by the time I got the doctorate, I was married second time, and have been married now to my wife, Donna Pylypciw, who for 39 years it will be so, I guess I have forgotten the question. But no, I this was, I mean, I had, I had possibilities of jobs in other places. In fact, went out to Michigan to interview for a job out there. But just this was home. IG: 32:53 Yeah, I see. MM: 32:54 I think even though job was home. IG: 33:00 How did you get involved in the financial aspect of administration? MM: 33:11 Well, as I said back in the (19)70s, when I stepped into administration from some of the various other jobs I had had. You had to know something about financials. I had lived through the Rockefeller years, when there was plenty of money up here on campus, but I became assistant dean and then associate dean, and so the fight I was, at one-point, Associate Dean for Administration and academic affairs. I think it was the other way around Academic Affairs and Administration. And so, all the financials were reporting to me budgets and that kind of thing. So, I got into it. And when I became acting dean of the School of Advanced Technology, again, you know, I had to oversee, but at the time, was probably like a five or $6 million budget, something like that became much larger over time. And now, when I the provost at the time, when I was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Administration in the Watson school from (19)83 we started the school in (19)83 so for like 15, 14, 15, 16, years, I was in the Watson school. And then in 1999 the provost at the time, Marianne Swain, asked me to come over and be vice provost. I think we were called Associate Provost at the time. And I took on the academic all the academic budgets, and then in 2014 Harvey Stinger decided, when a good friend of mine and colleague, Vice President for Administration, Jim Voorst VORs [James Van Voorst] left, Harvey decided that he was going to put the financials underneath Academic Affairs. So now all of the all the financial side, reports to me. So, you know, I would have some courses and those kinds of things, but I just learned it by working it, I guess. And now I have CPAs who report to me, and they can worry about the details. [laughs] IG: 35:21 That is a perfect situation. I am just thinking how unusual your background is. I mean, I have known people who have wedded the technologist background with a humanist. I know some people you know. I know some people who have made a career of that. But do you see any future for this direction in engineering, for example, is the Watson school doing anything that you sort of naturally fell into? MM: 35:56 Well, of course, when I was in the Watson school, I was an administrator. But because I take things on and because I maybe I do things well, I do not know, for a couple of years, I was the chairman of computer science and Associate Dean, because I had had background in computing when I came here in the (19)60s. I, you know, I learned some programming languages in that time. It was over key punch cards, and I helped create a program called foundations in computer science--actually before computer science existed. It was foundations computer systems. And we took people from various backgrounds, everything, art, music, English, whatever, and put them through a series of six courses to prepare them for a master's to study in a master's degree in computer systems. It was called the foundation of computer science. We created video tapes. This is like 1969 right in there, and taught an awful lot of folks, especially folks in IBM and General Electric, Sarah Link, enough background in logic and Boolean algebra, set theory, numerical analysis, that kind of thing, and some programming languages to be able to step in and start learning computing. So that I was, since I was involved in that, and I have got involved in it, I became knowledgeable, and so I did all those things too. IG: 37:19 Do you think that the (19)60s, in any way encouraged this exploration of different disciplines? And you know, was there a greater experiment, experimentation and searching from one-one area of I mean, I am just thinking about this computational linguistics. I think that it was very innovative. Do you think that it is a product of the time, or just that technology was headed in that direction, and this was exploited by other disciplines? MM: 38:05 Not sure I can understand or I can answer that question, but I do not know that it was as much the (19)60s as was this place. This place was wedded to people exploring it was big. We still say these things. We do less of it, but in the (19)60s and (19)70s and even into the (19)80s, people were encouraged to explore. When you came into Harpur College, you were, you know, they tried not to lock into things. There were fights. In fact, when people tried to make it easier for registration by picking courses for people and having locked in courses, it was just unheard of. So, I mean, I took many-many courses undergraduate that I, you know, from anti just was lots of there was, it was a big plate, and you could eat whatever you wanted. It was the best part. And things like computer science was not entirely defined at the time. That was so that people from various areas could get into it. It was, there was something called the ACM association for computer machinery. ACM 68 was a curriculum. That was when people first started defining what computer science was. So, it was open to everybody. I mean, as I say, the it was the School of Advanced Technology at the time was designed in order to take advantage of this exploration that people in Harpur [crosstalk]. IG: 39:33 Right. Do you think that this exploration exists at the present time? Is it still sort of, you know, is there still a, you know, a partnership, a collaboration between the arts, the humanities and technologies? I mean, I know that it exists in in the library field with Digital Scholarship. But do you think that there is this kind of- MM: 40:04 I think it is- IG: 40:05 -bridging of different [crosstalk] MM: 40:07 I think the possibility is still there, but it is it. You know, I do not want to sound like some old fogy, but I think it is it is different now in that there are so many forces working against students being able to explore. If you look at the Excelsior program or TAP, people are encouraged just to figure out where they want to head, and they are locked into a set of courses. If they do not follow those courses, they are going to lose TAP, or they are going to lose the Excelsior, or they are going to lose whatever it is. So, you cannot do a lot of exploration when you are being trying to focus like that, because politicians, geez, I lose my job. Politicians have set it out so that it is no longer the responsibility of the state to help create the future of the state, as much as it is the personal responsibility. When I first came here, the tuition, the cost of education, was born by the state and by the student. At that time, it was in the 20 to 30 percent range that the student paid, and the 70 or 80 percent in the 70 percent range that the state paid. It is now exactly reversed so these same politicians have put in place, in my opinion, I think they are abdicating their responsibility for the future of the state. But anyway, they put this in place where now students create these great, enormous financial burdens, which now the politicians complain about by saying that, you know, the colleges are burdening these people with all this cost and they have got to pay for loans into their waning years. The fact of the matter is that there are so many more constraints on people now I did not have the constraints that some of these students have. Now they got to take that lab course. They do not have to want to take that lab course. They got to take. So again, sound like an old fogy. Things have changed, no, and it is, it is back then it was a lot less discipline oriented for the faculty and for the students, and a lot more of this exploration I talked about. You can learn different things, but right now, you will find students that have to take these courses or they are not going to get in pre-med. IG: 42:26 And essentially, it is because of financial constraints. MM: 42:29 That is one of the big ones. IG: 42:31 That is one of the big ones. MM: 42:31 Yeah, and also that higher education has changed. People are much more discipline oriented. When I first came here, people were wed to the college. Faculty were wed to the college. They, you know, they would come out to things. There was a faculty review. There were things like that. Now a lot of faculty, of course, it is bigger, but a lot of faculty do not know each other. You have to encourage connections so that people can do some interdisciplinary work, whereas then it was, you know, the people from various areas hung out. The physicists were there when there was a concert. Now you find you do not even mind some music faculty when there is a concert. IG: 43:20 So, what is, you know, what-what is, what is the how? What is the solution? How did you reproduce, you know, very scientifically oriented students to the liberal arts and import and educate them in the importance of having a rounded education? MM: 43:45 Well, I do not want to sound like an old toot here, but as I say, a lot of things are working against it. And instead of that, and again, I am sure it is different for some people, I am just seeing what I observe generally. And that is that you hear students say, instead of having this exploration I talked about, now we have Gen Ed courses. You got to take a general education course. You got to take it. You hear students saying, well, as soon as I get rid of my gen eds. IG: 44:15 Right-right-right. MM: 44:17 You do not want to get rid of your gen ed. That is interesting stuff. So, it is just the world has changed. I cannot say it is better or worse than, you know, I am sure. I am reminded of one of the first Deans I worked with, Leo Faisal said, you know, students are not as good as they used to be, and they never were. [laughs] There is always people looking back at a golden age, right? IG: 44:44 Well, you know, maybe, maybe there is truth to that, because I have really been meeting with extremely accomplished people from who are (19060s alumni. So, there is probably something to that and-and they all attribute their success to the education that they received at Harpur College and the breadth of courses that they were allowed to take that had nothing to do with their major. So, you know, I just, just give us, you know, maybe, an overview of the significant events that you recall in your life as an undergraduate or even as a graduate, and how the student community, and you yourself responded to them. For example, you know the death of JFK, or, you know, some something that really stuck in your memory, and what the campus was like on that day, or days, or? MM: 46:00 Okay, I remember something my early years here, the Vietnam War was a big thing. Most men and women were affected by it. Men because they were going to be sent there. I had friends who were sent to Vietnam and were killed. People were constantly worried about whether or not they are going to be drafted or whatever. Bruce Deering was president. I came in just as Glen Bartle was had stepped down and Bruce Deering was inaugurated. I think in (19)67 or (19)68 something like that, (19)60 somewhere in there, and we did not have the Binghamton campus Harpur did not have the kind of intensity and the demonstrations and the anger that went on at many campuses, And I attribute part of that to Bruce Deering, President, went out and he demonstrated with the students. We went down, and we did a march down to Binghamton, and we were all on the city hall, you know, listening to speeches and so on. And he had gone with the students. And so, it was not like, you know, there was something here on campus and administration to say, you know, they were the establishment. He was a major force in keeping this a common campus, even though students were very upset with people were being drafted and going and not coming back. Those were intense years. It was a lot of building going on at the time, so things were constantly changing. What your hose built. This building was built not too long before it came that kind of thing in the (19)70s, the early (19)70s, the big thing was the state being in financial trouble, and so we lost a lot of lost a lot of people at that time. And it was and trust. There was a lot of trust lost because basically people started pointing fingers at each other and saying, you know, they were not my words, but the thought was, they were not as important to this university or this college as these people are, and you ought to, and they did. They-they cut [inaudible] at the time, and I remember some of the painful things about that. There was a lot of change through the years. I mean, I am not doing well at remembering kind of things are going on, but I do have you know, the emotions were quite high most of the most of those years, the early years. IG: 48:56 Did you feel solidarity in as a student with the other students- MM: 49:00 And the faculty, IG: 49:02 And the faculty. MM: 49:03 We had teachings, for instance. And I still remember Ed Wilson, who was a sculptor, who was in the art department, a black man. I do not remember where it was, but I remember being in a room with a bunch of students and Binghamton, there were not a lot of black people. And so just talking about the world from his perspective, was mind opening for me, and that had also to do with the Vietnam War. But a black man in the Vietnam War era, there were just, I mean, when something happened, the faculty were involved. When there was a teach in, all the faculty were here, doing, helping with the teaching. They did not just stay home. IG: 49:49 That is quite wonderful. MM: 49:58 Yeah. I learned a lot from a lot of folks. Stuart Gordon, who was a good friend of this Walter Leon and I talked about, and he was, he never was. He might have been acting president. I think he was chief officer in charge, or something like that, for a while, but he was dean of Harpur. One it was just Harpur. He took over after Bartle stop being dean of Harpur and became a president. And then Stu Gordon became vice president for academic affairs and so on, but he taught people a lot about how to work together. I remember a lot like, for instance, you would at that time, no, of course, no email. You would be preparing memos to each other, and the Secretary would type those memos. And sometimes it takes a whole day to get a memo out, because you were trying to just get it right, and so on. We typed on a letterhead, and sometimes Stu Gordon would send back those memos corrected it was read and saying, nobody was going to work here unless they, you know, think about things this way and express themselves well. And you had to be a good writer. So it was, it was even part of, I mean, that, thankfully, it never happened to me. But I had a colleague who got one back that was, you know, who had somehow complained about something, and the memo that came back was, never shake your hoary locks at me. IG: 51:26 I wish he were editing over our president's shoulder dispatches, all these misspelled tweets. So, you know, you know, let us see, I am looking at the time, and I am thinking that, you know, if what were some of the most I mean, you have, you have given us a lot of examples, but what do you think were some of the most important lessons that you learned as an undergraduate at Harpur, about studying, about life, about- MM: 52:10 Well, I had to learn it. First of all, high school, elementary school all that came relatively easy to me. I was a good student, but when I got here, and even Broome was I was excellent student, but he did not have to work as hard as you had to work here, not at the expectations were not as hard high as they were when I came here, unlike probably most of the people you were talking about or have talked to, I was a local and a transfer student, and both of those things were not held in high regard, in fact, by a lot of faculty, transfer students are still not held in high regard. And so, I had to prove myself, but I also had to work very-very hard, because so much was expected of you. And so, I remember my father, who, as I said, never finished or finished high school, but never went to college. He-he one time said, because it was just a different life than he had ever experienced. He said, you cannot really be studying all that time. What are you really doing? No, you had to study. It took hours and hours and hours. It was a full-time job. And unlike, and I should not be saying this, but because I do not want SUNY to hear this, unlike now for many faculty, for credit courses were really for credit courses. They were designed to be more than the three credit courses at other colleges, this whole public Brown and all that kind of thing. They really meant it. There was you earned that extra credit outside of class and inside of class, and it was really four credit hour courses. Now you will bump into faculty will tell you not, the same course I taught when I was at so once, it was a three-credit course. There is four credit here. What is the difference? It was- they were, they were. Expectations were much higher of the students at the time. It was a lot of work. IG: 54:14 So, yeah, I-I see that. I But what were, what were some of the takeaways from that experience of really working very hard and- MM: 54:33 Well, I do not know takeaways or some. I mean, I do not think I learned it there, but it became important there the pride in what you do. You do not do anything is half assed. When you write a memo, somebody might be correcting it, right? You do it because you were trying to do your best. This is not just me. This was a lot of these students; I have friends now that were here back in the (19)60s. You know they. We still talk about people and things that happened then, and it was a lot was expected of you, and I felt I am proud to graduate from Harpur. IG: 55:16 Students are going to be listening to this recording. And I always ask as we are nearing the end of our interview, if you have any advice for them as they embark on their careers. I mean, you have had such a varied and robust and interesting career. You know, from linguistics to computational linguistics to engineering to finance, what is there anything that you can draw from that that would put these students in good stead for their future? MM: 56:01 I do not know that I am that wise, but I can tell you that, first of all, I should say these students are not the students who are here are not any less smart or less hard working than the students when I was here in the (19)60s. Matter of fact, we had a speaker at the commencement here a couple weeks ago said, you know, your students are far better than we were when I was here. And it is true, these are excellent students. But if I had to encourage anybody, I would encourage them to, you know, do some things you care about because you care about them, and not just because somebody tells you-you cannot be a physician without having done them. Do those things if you have to too. But you know, when you are I do not the Anderson center reports to me. It is the Performing Arts Center, and I go to all the concerts. And oftentimes there will not be anybody there whose hair is not my color which is white there-there are no young people going to classical concerts. You have an orchestra and the place will be half full. That would never have happened in the (19)60s. People are not exploring the way we explored. And I or they do not appear to be, and I would just encourage people to-to open up their lives to other possibilities, other thoughts. Remember that you are going to have to live a whole life, and it cannot just be because you are good at writing code. You got to, you got to enjoy your life to learn other things. That is what I was encouraged to do. IG: 57:37 That is very good advice. Any concluding remarks? MM: 57:44 No, I just hope this gets buried for about 10 years and then I do not have to worry about it. IG: 57:51 [laughter] MM: 57:51 Probably [inaudible] IG: 57:52 Thank you very much. MM: 57:53 Okay. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Michael F. McGoff Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni from Broome County; Harpur College – Alumni in linguistics; Harpur College - Alumni living in New York City. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource McGoff, Michael ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource Dr. McGoff is senior vice provost and Chief Financial Officer for Binghamton University. His doctorate was in computer-oriented onomastics, the study of names, which he programmed to study the indigenous languages spoken in New York State. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-06-12 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Michael McGoff.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-06-12 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 57:54 minutes https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/28ed262ac5ebc6bb3b8df7ab741ca2f7.mp3 dfd24e54737213ac823efb45b077053a https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/7ba1e3137489841bf3ad117b4fb08e3a.png 08f47b8e52a383cbdd0dd99bc85b1d27 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-05-18 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Dr. Ruth Silverman Year of Graduation 1964 Biographical Text Ruth Silverman, PhD, is a sociology professor at Nassau Community College, where she created the Women’s Studies Program. She is the sister of Dr. Amy Weintraub. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni in Women's’ Studies; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni at Nassau Community College; Harpur College – Alumni in the New York City area Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni in Womens’ Studies; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni at Nassau Community College; Harpur College – Alumni in the New York City area Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Ruth M. Silverman Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 15 May 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) IG: 00:01 Testing, testing, 1,2,3, it is working. Okay. So, we are here with Ruth Silverman. Ruth, RS: 00:08 My name is Ruth Silverman. I graduated in 1964 with a BA in sociology. I am being interviewed today, May 18, 2018 in my sister's apartment, who also graduated in 1964, my birth date is 11/24/(19)42. IG: 00:31 Perfect. Okay, so wh- where did you grow up? RS: 00:40 Do not worry about your back. IG: 00:42 Okay, all right, and I am going to actually move this up closer, if you do not mind, sorry, because I am hard of hearing, right. So, Amy, where did you grow up? IG: 00:56 Albany, New York. IG: 00:58 And tell me a little bit about your parents, what they did and- RS: 01:06 Well, my father had a PhD in sociology from Columbia University, and he headed up the Bureau of Statistics, the Department of Mental Hygiene in Albany. And my mother, my father retired and got a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. My mother became his assistant, his office assistant, under grant. IG: 01:35 Okay, so you are the only two siblings in your family. You are the two daughters. Were there other siblings? RS: 01:42 We have an older sister? IG: 01:44 Yes, so were the- were the expectations of for you similar? Do you think that all girls were expected to go on with their higher education? RS: 02:00 It was definitely an expectation. It was a- my mother came from a family. We were six children, and my grandparents, of course, were immigrants, and all six children went to college. I mean, that was just an expectation. And my mother's family and of course, my father was, well, let me put it this way, his brother did not go to college. My father went all the way through, but there was an expectation that you were going to go to college, of course. IG: 02:33 One thing that we did not say, I think that, you know, at the beginning we say, what you what you currently do what your profession is. RS: 02:43 I have been teaching at Nassau Community College since 1986 in sociology department. My appointments in the sociology department, but I have also taught courses in it was the Women's Studies project. There was no Women's Studies Department. Some people come from other departments. So, I was active in creating the Women's Studies program courses, the intro course, the first course. My doctoral work was in sociology of health, especially women's health. So, um- IG: 03:19 And where did you do your doctorate? RS: 03:22 I did my master's work University Wisconsin, Madison, and the PhD work at NYU. IG: 03:30 So, you know to backtrack, we will touch upon this a little bit later, but tell us a little bit about your growing up, what was that like, and where did you go to high school? What you know, what the preparation for Harpur College, what you know, predisposed you to- RS: 03:53 Albany was very small when we were growing up there. It has changed considerably. The State University of New York in Albany was originally State Teachers College at Albany, and it was a local teacher’s college. There were no dormitories. But of course, the State University has expanded tremendously. The State Government has expanded. I mean, it has got this downtown campus called the mall, and they traded the Avril Harriman campus out by the university. So, you know, it was, um, it was a different city. It was much, much smaller and more what insular, less cosmopolitan, I guess you would say, when we were growing up, but we did not go to the public school. My parents sent us to the middle school, which was the training school for the teacher. We were right next door to the Teacher's College. IG: 04:51 I see, I see. RS: 04:52 And so, we were- our teachers kept moving. As you know, we worked in semesters. And they had to do their student teaching, but the supervisors were the same. IG: 05:05 I see. So, do you think that you got over? Did you get your grounding for your future studies at the high school? RS: 05:17 I think we got a very good grounding. Because we were neither completely public. Of course, the state, the college was a public institution, but and we were already completely private. [laughs] We were- so it was a funny coming so we did not have to take, we want to- we did not take regents. They only recommended that for applying to colleges, you should take a few regions so they could have some basis to compare you with students in the in the public school system. And the preparation must have been very good, because we did very well. I did very well in the ones in the regent’s exam said I chose to take so they could see that that the middle school was teaching at a level to take the New York State Regents. IG: 06:17 So, I take it that you got the regents scholarship for college. RS: 06:24 No, and I do not know why we did not get it. IG: 06:32 Many-many-many people did get a regent scholarship, you know, but nonetheless, um, so-so, why did you decide on Harpur College? Did you apply to other schools? And what kind of- RS: 06:49 We applied to other schools, but Harpur, Harpur was just beginning then, and if I remember correctly, it was um Dr. House, the guidance counselor who recommended to my parents that it would be a good place for us to go. And four of us- we went. It was a small school. I think that there were 60 people in the graduating class. It was not and four of us applied to Harpur and got in. Yeah, four of us in the middle school applied to Harpur and got and we all got in so we were not competing against each other. So, the middle school must have had a good reputation. IG: 07:30 Right. And what you know, what- why did you decide on Harpur rather than, you know, buffalo, or any other school in the SUNY system, or anywhere else. Why? RS: 07:46 I guess my parents thought that that is they put us in instead of tending us to the big high school in Albany. I guess they figured that a smaller school would be good for us. And they were right. They were absolutely right. I think Amy and I both. I mean, we just blossomed. IG: 08:04 Well, so tell me about this experience. You know what- how when you arrived, you know what were, just tell us a little bit about that arc of what you were like when you first arrived at Harpur College and how you blossomed? Can you- RS: 08:25 I think I blossomed intellectually, definitely. I blossomed in the way I felt about myself being a competent person, one of our professors, or we both had the favorite, our favorite professor, Dr. Peter Dodge, who we had just because the fact that when we were freshmen, and we had to take World History two semesters of it, and we both ended up in his class. And we-we just connected. And actually, he was Amy's honors advisor, but he also mentioned the fact that to us how, and I think it is a tribute to the kind of school Harpur was that you could have a relationship with a professor for four years, and he could say to you at the end, how he saw us grow from when he had us as freshman in the history course to when we graduated. IG: 09:28 But any sense of the girl that you were when you first arrived in Binghamton and well, you mentioned that you became more self-possessed and more sure of yourself, but you know what-what-what were some of the big world view changes or internal changes? RS: 09:52 Oh, because Harpur was small and it took students from all over New York State, but there definitely was a cultural difference between the students who came from New York City and those who came from upstate. And I have a call. I am going to get a glass of water so I can hear my voice beginning to- IG: 10:25 Okay, we are back on so we continue with Ruth Silverman. RS: 10:33 There was a cultural difference between the students who came from New York City and political cultural and political difference between those who came from New York City and those who came from upstate. And it was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, the protest against the war in Vietnam and most of the people who were politically active. And it was also the beginning of a student the student uprising against in loco parentis. And the students who were leading the movement were all the students from New York City. IG: 11:14 So, and how did you look upon these rebelling- RS: 11:19 Well, the big rebellions had not started when I got, when I got to the University of Wisconsin, you know, there it is, but the beginning of, you know, it was beginning- was beginning at Harpur, and it was my introduction to politics. I would have to say. Yeah. IG: 11:44 Because you had not thought of the world before in terms of politics. RS: 11:50 I do not think that if the student, if Harpur, had not attracted such a large contingent of students, I do not know whether or not the campus would have been the same, and I would have been the same because I teach at a local community college, and you do not, you do not get what at my at the local community college. What you got, and at Harpur, these were bright students. Sophisticated, used to traveling the subways, you know, traveling subways and busses by themselves. When they were younger, they just bought a different vibration, a different view of the world, a different politics as they had a different culture. IG: 12:38 And you found that exciting. RS: 12:40 Yes, yeah, the ones, the ones from upstate New York, were more laid back, placid, I guess, looking back upon it now, I would say they were more conservative. They were certainly not [inaudible] and forth on the moon. In fact, I remember there being some kind of a friction between a young woman, I think she was in our dormitory, who was Republican or something. Amy 13:09 Oh yes. And I had never been a Republican in my life. RS: 13:14 And there was some friction there between her and the ones who were beginning to leave, leave the upcoming movement [inaudible] are from upstate. [laughs] IG: 13:25 So, did you get involved in any of the student protests? Yourself? RS: 13:33 No, we were there because of the fact it was just beginning. Then, I mean, people were talking. And because you were in the sociology department, you know, issues were being discussed. But I think because by the time one year later, two years later, when I was at Wisconsin, I mean, that was the really beginning. You know, the free speech movement. The Free Speech Movement began at the University of California, Berkeley, during the time that I graduated Harpur and was at Wisconsin. And the free speech movement at that point, then just moved out, I-I assumed it also began. It went to Harpur, but it certainly went to University of Wisconsin. And interesting enough, one of the faculty members in the sociology department, William Sewell, circulated a letter around faculty at the University of Wisconsin supporting the free rights, free the free speech movement at Berkeley. So, things were just beginning to happen. I think if I had graduated in (19)66 I would have seen a bit more, but we were just on the cusp of it. I mean, you knew, you could tell it was coming. IG: 14:56 Right. So-so tell us you know, for those give us. A very quick history lesson. What was the free speech movement? Was it? And see, sort of, you know, the beginnings of it in at Harpur College. RS: 15:17 The free speech movement emerged as a protest against the war in Vietnam, and the students were, if I remember correctly, the students at Berkeley, Mario [Mario Savio], something about if I remember correctly, was the leader of the free speech movement at Berkeley, and he-he generated the students to come together and openly, you know, in protest-protest on campus, the war in Vietnam. And of course, at that point, college administrators were not we were not used to students protesting like that. In fact, I have a colleague who went to the College of William and Mary in Virginia right at the same time that I was going to Harpur, and she was editor of the newspaper, and she said that even a conservative-conservative-conservative place like the College of William and Mary, protest was beginning to start, even at a place like that, and she was editor of the newspaper, and somebody wanted to come to campus. Was it Aptheker [Herbert Aptheker], the historian, who was also a communist, and the students the college president would not let him come? And the college newspaper got involved, and they were writing articles in the newspaper, you know, free speech. So that was the issue. But you certainly did not have it in the (19)40s and the (19)50s, students organizing on campus, publicly coming out and protesting. And that is where the free speech, free speech movie goes. It is new. It is ever right to the same, you know, free speech that is in the bill of rights as students. IG: 17:04 Right. I mean, it must have been a very heavy time. Did it spill over into the way, into the dynamics of the classroom? Was there more, you know, challenging intellectually of the positions of your professors, although- RS: 17:26 Well, we had one professor in sociology. IG: 17:29 In Harpur or Wisconsin? RS: 17:31 Well, I will get to Wisconsin later, but now we are talking about Harpur. IG: 17:34 Yes-yes. RS: 17:35 Richard Hamilton, who seemed to attract a lot of those students, intellectually and politically. Oh, yes, a new club was formed in I think my junior year, the International Relations Club. And I think Ronald Bayer is one of the founders of the International and they managed to get Eleanor Roosevelt to come and speak, and that was what launched the International Relations Club. IG: 18:15 I remember speaking about Eleanor Roosevelt's visit. Amy 18:20 She visited the campus. Amy 18:21 Yes, it was a fantastic visit. The whole the whole campus, was filled with excitement that Eleanor Roosevelt was coming. IG: 18:29 Amy, just for the purpose of this interview, just tell us who you are. AW: 18:35 I am Amy Weintraub. I am Ruth Silverman's twin sister. IG: 18:38 Very good. AW: 18:39 Who also went to Harpur? IG: 18:40 Thank you. AW: 18:41 Yes, who also went to Harpur? RS: 18:44 So, yeah, Harpur, it was just beginning to Harpur, but I remember our professor, Dr. Dodge, we were listening there was talk show. So, they were talk shows back then, and I do not remember what the issue was, but it was just like today. And I do not know how I was listening to the radio, to this particular station and to this particular show, but somebody in the community was calling in and complaining about that socialist professor at Harpur College, you know, named Peter Dodge, and I remember being floored. And I remember going over to his office and saying, I just heard somebody on the radio call you a socialist professor. IG: 19:36 What did you think about that label at the time? Did you think it was ridiculous? Do you want to protect him? What-what- RS: 19:43 Absolutely it was absolutely ridiculous. Took, you know, to confuse sociology socialists. But he must have been interviewed somewhere, yeah, you know, and he must have said something. And he must have said he was a social- artfully, a sociology professor, and she heard that he was saying and she heard it a socialist. So, you know, it was just beginning at Wisconsin. I mean, at Harpur, two years later, at Wisconsin, I was taking a course on social change, and social change was happening on the campus and the course, I think that is the only time I dropped a course. But this course had no it was so up here, and it had no relation to what was happening outside on the campus. By the time I left, they were teachings all the time. And I was going through the teachings. I was learning so much at those teachings. IG: 20:46 Tell us about that. RS: 20:47 I think if I had, if I had entered Harpur two years later, it would have been the same thing. Okay, I do not because, in fact, it was the times, so it had nothing to do, I think, with Harpur versus Wisconsin, just the fact that I was at Wisconsin who graduated just on the cusp of the movie and the change. And one of the things, the changes that were being asked of the college at that time to do away with, it was not just, you know, the war and civil rights was the whole notion of in loco parentis, and we had to be in the dorm at 10 o'clock at night on weekdays, 12 o'clock on weekends. And there was a dorm mother who would lock the doors, and if you came in late, you have to ring the doorbell and explain where you were. But the big thing was, when you got to be a senior, you could stay out, but remember, there was no place to go. Anyhow, we were on the Harpur campus. Where were you going to go if you stayed out at night? The library closed right? Everything, everything closed down, right? So, the movement was to do away with this whole notion that you had to be in by a certain time and co-ed doors. Why were men and women separated. IG: 22:11 You know, clearly, you know, the movement reached a crescendo at Wisconsin. And you know, just if you could tell us about the teachings, because a lot of these institutions are, maybe have been absorbed by, you know, the culture, but we really do not know what they were at their very beginning. So, what are teachings? RS: 22:37 What is a teaching? IG: 22:38 Yes. RS: 22:38 A teaching is when you announce a public space and that you get some experts, like not-not-not necessarily people from your own university, but people who you have contacted, who are experts, and they come -and it can last for a whole day, and you can choose which one of those talks you want to go to, and it is like rolling, you know. And so, you are learning so much that is not part of a set curriculum. So, I remember, you know, learning so much about the history of Vietnam. And why? You know, why worry in Vietnam. They had never taken any history courses on that part of the world. But by (19)65, (19)66 we were really involved in Vietnam. And so, for that reason, there was more protest that was also, Wisconsin is a larger school, generate more people involved. It was a graduate and, you know, it was a graduate training school. But as I say, it was because you could feel it in the air. You could feel it in the air at Harpur. IG: 23:56 I am just trying to really see what a teaching is, is it, is it an auditorium filled up with experts, as you know, expounding on their subject? RS: 24:10 There was a certain sub, there was a certain topic that is going to be discussed, and it is going to be announced. The lectures are announced at a certain time, and who the speaker is, and these teaching because last the whole day. And you just decided which one it is that you wanted to go to. It was not like one little classroom where somebody was coming was a huge arena, and students were going to the teachings, rather than to their classes, as I did. I mean, I learned nothing about social change in the classroom, but boy, did I see social change occurring right before my very eyes, those two years at Wisconsin and-and the point is the fact that was students who were generating it. This was the whole notion of student. I mean, once before that time, administrators said one thing and everybody. The administrators were not used to students saying no. IG: 25:06 I can see that that is, that is- RS: 25:08 And at Harpur, we began to see students saying no. And I assume that after we left, that the young, the people who were one year, two years, three years behind us, moved into those positions, and, you know, because they saw what was happening. So, I assumed that after we left, it must have been like not, maybe not, because University of Wisconsin was such a large place, such a major university. But it must have been the same way at Harpur, because it was already beginning when we were there. IG: 25:42 So-so, for example, you said, you know, saying no to your administrators was one of the, one of the type of, you know, social, social changes that took place during those during those years, (19)64, (19)65 what were some other social changes that you were witness to, you know, during your college and early graduate years? What were some other social changes that were student-student initiative- RS: 26:18 Between our sophomore year and I am Junior here that summer, Amy and I were counselors at a camp in North Carolina, and we traveled down there by bus to a place called Hendersonville, North Carolina. I mean, train to Hendersonville, North Carolina, right? And it was the beginning of the student, students being involved in the Civil Rights Movement and going down in summertimes. And the last thing my father said to us before we left, he says, "Do not get involved in it." AW: 26:58 I am going to tell that story. RS: 27:00 What? AW: 27:01 I was going to tell that story. RS: 27:02 Do not get involved. You were going down there for the summer. I do not know what he thought we was doing. We were going to do. We were going to go. So, we take the train from New York to Washington, DC. This is, this is a fascinating story. We take the train and at Washington, DC, we have had to switch to another train. So, we walk into the first car, and it is really an old, old train, an old car, and it is completely black-black. So, Amy and I walk we made no what to do, so we walk out into the next car. It is the same thing. What we realized later on was that further up there were the nice, white coaches. We looked at each other, and when you are twins, you do not have to speak. But we knew being nice Jewish girls, that we could not move. We could not we would have to go in. And so, we traveled from Washington to Hendersonville AW: 28:13 In a black car. RS: 28:14 Completely black. AW: 28:15 Only whites in the car. RS: 28:17 And it was not years later until my husband could not take his class one day, and he said, I am showing a film called Eyes on the Prize, a very famous film about the Civil Rights Movement. And this particular one that I was showing was how interstate commerce, how Robert Kennedy had declared that anything that was going between states had to be desegregated, and it had recently been issued okay, that you had to- we did not know that. We just sat on the car, on the train, on the car, because we felt that we could not turn our backs people on the car, that particular car. Must have thought that Amy and I were two civil rights workers, and my father's words came back to me as I am sitting in this class, watching Eyes on the Prize and saying to myself, "Oh my gosh, my father's last words." And here we were. It had just been promulgated, and we were sitting on this train, the only two whites, what else could they think of us? That we were two young civil rights workers, right? Not that we were going to a Jewish camp to be councils for the summer. We were civil rights workers Testing, testing the new law. AW: 29:37 We got to know we got the house to go. They still had the black and white bathrooms. This was 1964. RS: 29:46 So now we go after in (19)64 This was (19)62, so of course, it would still be, AW: 29:51 You were right, we did not go in (19)64 we went in (19)62 years between [crosstalk] at a junior camp north and [crosstalk] [inaudible] to North Carolina. RS: 30:04 [crosstalk] When I went to Wisconsin and met my husband. [AW is offering tea: milk and the sugar and tea} and met my husband see between (19)64 he was two years ahead of me, so he arrived. When I arrived in (19)64, he arrived in (19)62 and between in January, I think between (19)63 and (19)64 He and three other white friends rented a car and drove down to the south. And they went to the trial, the Medgar Evers trial, and again, had just been the court said rumors had just been desegregated. But of course, they go to the trial, and there are these four white kids sitting in the with the blacks, even though it was desegregated, and I did not think anything of it when he first told me a story, but years later, I said, you drove down to the south with a car, four of you white with a Wisconsin license plate, and then you drop in on the trial, and you sit in that part of the courtroom that had been reserved for the Blacks. I said, "Where was your head?" But, of course, I did not purposely integrate the train, but in our own naive way. IG: 31:39 Yeah. But it is, it is, it is a wonderful story and a wonderful act, because we are too, either polite or-or- RS: 31:50 -to living. Yeah, Jewish-Jewish liberal. IG: 31:58 That you did not leave and you did. You know, it is, it is a wonderful thing. It is, you know- RS: 32:06 But anybody, could have come and looked at us and thought we were civil rights workers. Never told the story to my father. But of course, it was years like not that was not that long after, maybe, what 10 years later, when I saw that film and learned that they had just integrated the interstate, the trains and the busses going interstate. I mean, they had just done it like it was not a year before. IG: 32:39 But I am just interested, what were the feelings that sort of, you know, compelled you that no, we were going to stay here? Was it because of your liberality, of your, you know, ethics, of your politeness, or a combination? RS: 32:58 You know, it was both, because the year later, we broke that was the first time. Then we split up. Amy went back to the camp, and I was working at what was called the major camp, the head camp, and it was part of a new movement called Young Judea. And at the end of the summer, there will be a national meeting of everybody at the camp. Okay? So, Amy came up, and then there was this march on Washington. It was August 1963 and we had a debate whether or not young Judea, a delegation from Barryville, New York and [inaudible], would go to the March on Washington under the Young Judea banner. And there was pro and con. It was one of the most it was an epiphany for me, and we voted the vote Benjamin that we were going to send a group down and marching with a Young Judea banner. But what won the day was when people were talking about the prophetic tradition, that we must live that prophetic tradition as Jews of Isaiah, Amos, and that we had to go, and that was the first time in my life I had ever really seen religion used to justify, maybe not justify. So not a good word, but to use, just talk about, IG: 34:43 -to legitimize or- RS: 34:46 -maybe legitimize, also to back up a moral movement. IG: 34:51 Yeah, that is tremendous. It is tremendous. RS: 34:55 And, yeah. So, there was a lot happening. And Harpur being in Binghamton and being a small college, it was even happening there. But of course, it takes a while. I you know I was going to say earlier that this is the 50th anniversary of the sit ins at Columbia University. IG: 35:24 That is right. RS: 35:24 So, when we graduated in 19, when we were graduated in 1964 it was about two, three or four years before the-the real movement started. IG: 35:41 The only thing, the only you know, comparable thing that I could think of, was the when a religious movement actually legitimized a political one. Remember liberation theology in Latin America? IG: 35:57 Oh, yeah, yes, [inaudible] RS: 36:00 Yes, yeah. And we had, we belonged to a conservative synagogue. In addition to going to the middle school, we went to Hebrew high school three nights a week, from six to eight. But we had never really learned about talked about that prophetic tradition. That was the first time in my life, anybody brought up that prophetic tradition, but in Judaism, now, that whole profession, prophetic tradition is the thing that is behind what we call Tikkun Olam. AW: 36:29 Yes, it is called tikkun olam letak, a means to fix so the Reform Movement is very dominant. In the Reform Movement Tikkun Olam to fix the world, which means no to better the world. RS: 36:43 Actually, it comes from the Cesar Terek book. David has more of a mystical meaning, but it has taken over to have a social justice meeting that when Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, something was broken, and the sparks went out in- AW: 37:03 The Kabbalah. RS: 37:05 What? AW: 37:05 Kabbalah. RS: 37:05 Kabbalah, yeah, Kabbalah. Madonna said, the Kabbalah. But so, it had a mystical thing to bring together, those-those sparks as one. But then it became tied to, not mysticism, black social action. IG: 37:20 And there is a magazine Tikkun [crosstalk] RS: 37:27 So, Lerner, what is his name? Michael Lerner. IG: 37:33 So that, do you think that this prophetic movement was kind of a, not a driving force, but an accompaniment-accompaniment. RS: 37:44 It was a driving force for me because of the fact that I was not into Marxism. That was the time, basically, when Marxism came to college campuses. And a lot of the students from New York were into but they were political science majors, history majors, sociology majors, and they were into reading Marx. RS: 37:46 So, and you decided against that. RS: 37:46 Yeah, it did not. It did not speak to me. But when I discovered that I could be active and stand for certain things, and I could find it in my own tradition, I could find and I felt more I felt more comfortable coming to it from that tradition. IG: 37:46 So, tell us about sort of the formation of Ruth Silverman, the scholar, the- RS: 37:46 Yeah, and a lot of that was due to-to Dr. Peter Dodge, as I said, when we graduated, he said to us that we had grown so and when he first met us as freshman in his history class, and actually he became Amy's honors thesis advisor. And as a matter of fact, it was Amy, this is how close we were when we were sophomores. She said to me, “You know what?" When we are a senior, we are going to do an honors thesis, and we are going to graduate with honors." And I said, "Okay, sounds good to me," but she was determined to do it, and Dr. Dodge, which he could not, he could not be both of our thesis advisors, so Amy-Amy took him and I took somebody else. But Dr. Dodge was much more supportive of her, much more interested in what she was doing than the one that the one that I chose, what was exhilarating when at the end there was an honors thesis presentation, and all the faculty who had honor students and maybe some who did not, were invited to hear our presentations, and I had to get up in front of all of these professors and talk about my honors thesis, that changes you a lot. IG: 37:46 Susan, what did you talk about? RS: 37:46 What was my thesis in sociology? We had in sociology religion; we have read this book called Oligarchy. Well, the original book was by the Italian sociologist [Robert Michels] The iron law of oligarchy, and which he says, "Whoever says democracy", I think the famous quote was, "Whoever says democracy, it is actually me in the end, it is oligarchy." And he- Michelle's and he was, he had studied how the labor unions in Italy started out as being democratic, and then eventually they become less and less democratic as a small group of people tend to take over and run it. Okay? And so, a lot of people started taking that idea and applying it to other kinds of organizations. So, it was applied to the American Baptist. I know what you call the American Baptist Convention, or something like that. Somebody had written a book how they were supposed to be very lay oriented and very democratic. And he said, even in there, you tended towards this oligarchy. And then Seymour Martin Lipset did a study of the book was called Union Democracy. And he said, it is very interesting that when you have some people on top who form the organization or the union or whatever you want to call it, it is not going to be democratic. It tends to be more democratic when the groups exist already and then they coalesce together and forming a national organization. And then you tend to get more democracy, because they were autonomous to begin with. They were not so. So, I started the conservative movement in Judaism, which had three, three parts. There was the rabbinical training school. There was the organization for graduates of the rabbinical school. And then there was the organ, the organizational arm, which was called- AW: 37:46 Not son of America. United Synagogue of- RS: 37:46 United synagogue of America. And so, I did, you know, I went to conventions, I went did a lot of interviewing, and it was obvious that the one arm of the seminary had the- was, you know, the major controlling element, and that the congregational arm of it was not also autonomous, you know. And so that was my that was my honors thesis, and I had to get up and did not talk about my thesis. The fact that I still remember it. IG: 37:46 I was about to say, it is remarkable, but it really must have been a formative experience writing this. RS: 37:46 I see I see this today. I am on the board of the Long Island Progressive Coalition, which is the Long Island chapter of citizen action of New York. There are there is another called Metro Rochester, something like that. Both of us existed before citizen action of New York existed, but with they formed chapters in many places there were top down. It is actually top down because every chapter other than Rochester and Long Island were formed through Albany. So, because that we existed, we existed because we existed. You know, it is nice to have a statewide affiliation, but because of the fact that we existed before they existed, we have much. We have made it clear to them and certain issues, we are part of you, but we existed before you. But I can see that Seymour Martin Lipset was correct. It depends upon how the union was formed, or the organization was formed. And if you had [crosstalk] if you had individual chapters that people, come together, saying the strength in numbers, it is less likely to get oligarchy. IG: 37:46 D-o you think that that was a work that determined the future of your, you know, interests or, I mean, this is it must, you know. I mean, it must have propelled you on to- RS: 37:46 It must have, in some way. I mean- IG: 37:46 In some way, in some way. RS: 37:46 -because of the fact that I know every time there is some kind of a little friction between says an action in New York and us, I always say "I have said it before, I am going to say it again," that this is, this is what we learn in sociology, okay? And it is our history. That makes for that friction, because we existed before they did. IG: 45:24 By the time you got to your PhD studies- RS: 45:28 I was- I had changed my area. Well, when I got to Wisconsin, I became interested in sociology of health and illness, because that was my father's area. IG: 45:38 The sociology, excuse me, of- RS: 45:39 Health and illness. AW: 45:40 There is a thing here for you. Keep it. RS: 45:43 Became interested in sociology of health and illness, and my husband had done a master's thesis in that area, so actually, I built upon his master's thesis, and then when I went back to graduate school, there was a space between my masters and my doctoral work. IG: 46:03 How many years would you say I went back in (19)76 Yeah. So, what happened? You mentioned a husband. So where did you meet? RS: 46:19 At Wisconsin. IG: 46:20 At Wisconsin. RS: 46:21 Two years he was there, two years before me. So, there was, there was no sociology of health program major or anything like that. I am soon there is now. But being a small college, the course offerings were courses that you had to take if you were a sociology major, but Wisconsin, that was one of the major areas. My husband had a fellowship in national from the National Institute of Mental Health. So, but when I went back to NYU, I had given birth to my first child, and I became interested in studying the history of childbirth in the United States. And that got me- IG: 47:13 That is fascinating. RS: 47:14 What? IG: 47:14 Fascinating. RS: 47:15 And that got me involved. When I went back to NYU, I majored in women's health in the sociology department. IG: 47:24 Why did you decide to come to New York City rather than is that- RS: 47:28 Amy, I stayed in Madison the summer between my first and second years. Amy had a fellowship to New York City, and she stayed in New York City with three friends of ours. They rented the apartment of the wife of Hal Holbrook. Hal Holbrook, the actor Hal Holbrook, he would call up every once in a while, to find out how they were doing after his one of his performances as Abraham Lee, that is Mark Twain. He invited them to come. AW: 48:01 It was, um, it was a classroom, naturally. RS: 48:05 He, no, he was playing Tom Sawyer, not Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain, Mark Twain. He was the famous performer of Mark Twain. IG: 48:12 I have seen him on television, yeah. RS: 48:14 So, he, they met him afterwards, right? And I had spent the summer, and Madison had a job with one of the State Departments doing something, and I came to New York before going back from my second year. And I said, "I have to, when I get my masters, I have to take a break between Albany Binghamton and Madison." I said, "I need to go to New York," right? I have had enough, you know what, these little places. So, it was fascinating that actually my husband came from Philadelphia during that semester, the Winter Break in (19)65 or going on (19)66. We met in New York, and we had a great time together. And then we get back to Madison, and the first Saturday back, he says to me, he proposes. And I remember saying to him, I will never forget it. Of course, I will never forget anything. Well, I want to tell you something. "My sister and I have both decided that after we get our masters, we want to go in. We want to live in New York." I said, "So if you want to join me in New York. [laughs] IG: 49:33 You must have, he must have been very much in love with you. RS: 49:41 So, it was not the yes, it was not the No, it was a kind of a strange proposal. And it was not until, like two weeks later, that we finally came to realize that that was a proposal. [laughs] IG: 49:55 That is very sweet. RS: 49:56 So, I just wanted to be able to be in New York. And of course, the minute we moved to New York was it, I cannot say it was the very minute, but by the time (19)68 rolled around, we involved. We got involved in the McCarthy the whole "Stay Clean for Gene." We got involved in the McCarthy campaign. IG: 50:22 So, tell us about that. RS: 50:28 57th Street. Amy saw a notice somewhere that there was an office, and Amy can open the door if you are hot--your apartment, as usual, it is hot. AW: 50:44 Huh that the Parker's village. When you leave, before you leave. No, I have all my flowers. We bought those chairs. So, my husband managed to assemble all those four chairs, and I think he did a great job. But the bathroom looks so pretty with the new chairs and my flowers. So, I thought we could sit out there today. But given the weather, we cannot do that. IG: 51:21 I think another time, but it is a lovely view. AW: 51:24 It is. RS: 51:26 So, Amy went and someone said to me, if you were from the Bronx, you do not want to work out of here. So, they sent me to a place in the Bronx on 161st Street. And I told them where I lived, and they said, oh, there is a lovely reform Democratic Club up right where you live. That is organizing for McCarthy, Gene McCarthy. So, it was right near me. And not only did I work for Gene McCarthy, um I became- my husband, and I became members of the club, it drew in a lot of young people, even up in the Bronx, because he was teaching at Fordham, they were young people who were protesting the war in Vietnam. And this little reformed Democratic Club attracted lots of young people who revitalized it. And I stayed with the fact. As a matter of fact, I ran for state office from my assembly district, and I won. I was taken the democratic state committee woman from the 83rd assembly district for several years. IG: 52:38 You have a very storied career. RS: 52:43 And the funny story is, the second they did not expect me to win the machine Democrats. So, the second time I ran, they put the assemblyman's mother ran against me, because this was a inter Democratic Party, intra Democratic Party primary, general election. So, I would go, you talk about how I changed. I went as a quiet little girl entering Harpur and a few years later, in 1968 in the morning, time I am doing subway stops, handing out my literature. And then I said, you know, I can do a lot, get to a lot more people. I cannot keep running up and down the platform. You know, a lot of people coming in on this end, and I cannot get to the people coming in on this end. So, I recruited Amy. I took one end of the platform, [laughter] I took my literature, and then about eight o'clock, it starts thinning out, because at eight o'clock I am going to work, and I see Amy heading towards somebody at the other end of the subway, and I look, oh my gosh, it is my assemblyman. She was heading over to him with my piece of literature, asking I made a [inaudible] something. [laughs] I got there just as she got [inaudible] [laughs] IG: 54:17 And does Amy realize what-what= RS: 54:21 She did not know who he was. I said, you know he was- I said, "Good morning, Assemblyman, taking the subway, the subway station." [laughter] IG: 54:22 It is a good story. So, you are in your work as a politician, what do you think are your main achievements? What did you aspire to do? What did you accomplish? RS: 54:52 I think, I think you know who started it, the position of a committee woman. Eleanor Roosevelt, she insisted that there be a position for women. So, from each district, each assembly district, there was a female committee woman and a male committee woman, and it started with her. So, I was not running against a male. I was running against I was running against a female. Um, so what-wat was the question? IG: 55:31 Accomplishments? RS: 55:32 Accomplishments. Oh, yeah. So, you know the reform Democrats wanted to reform the way elections and politics are in. They wanted to move away from the back room, okay, where people decided who was, who the candidates were going to be. So, there would be the statewide conventions, and if you got enough votes at the statewide convention, you did not have to go the petition, right? Which, when I learned that, I thought, well, this is not much of a reform. There should not be a convention at all. Why are we having a convention? Anybody who wants to run you get enough signatures and you get on the ballot to run. Why should it be that some people get, you know, the blessing that the convention and they get more than 25 percent and somebody else has to go to the petition route. So, my proudest moment was when Hugh Carey ran for governor. Oh, that year I got so many phone calls from people who wanted me to give them the vote at the state convention in Buffalo, and he calls me, and he asked him for my vote. And I said, well, the time that she placed it, I really do not like this convention system. I said, I would rather there would not be any convention at all, they say. So, I think when I get up to Buffalo, I am just going to pass. I am not going to vote for anybody. And he says, "Ruth Silverman, you could sound just like my kind of person." [laughs] And then the other thing was my Bronx- IG: 57:27 How old were you at the time? RS: 57:33 That was not the [inaudible] Well, I was 21 when I graduated in November, (19)64 and this was like (19)74 maybe by now 31 it takes, it takes growing up, but my growing up and becoming who I am started, started at Harpur and my parents were absolutely correct to realize that we needed a small college in order to grow we- I just, you know, I cannot, I cannot, I cannot sing the praises of small colleges enough. I even, I, no matter how large national is, we do not have large lecture classes. I mean, you have a large load of, you know, 4, 3, 5, classes to teach with. each class is top well, in sociology, it is 34 so students Nassau Community College do not sit in a large lecture hall. Well, nobody cares about you and who you are and what your name is. IG: 58:32 No, I have heard said a number of people I have interviewed from Harpur College, the Harpur College at the time, was equal to an excellent, you know, elite- RS: 58:48 You know what they call- IG: 58:50 Private college. RS: 58:53 You know what AW: 58:54 [crosstalk] Brown University. And I worked harder at Harpur College, and I did at Brown University. RS: 58:58 And, you know, they used to call Harpur when we were there, we were called the Swarthmore of the state university system. I do not know whether or not what it is like now. So-so much larger, whether or not students who go there IG: 59:10 Have the same experience. I do not think so. I do not think so. It is a very different- AW: 59:15 How many students are there now? IG: 59:18 At Harpur College? AW: 59:20 For college? IG: 59:20 I do not know. I do not know. I mean, it is, it is, I am sure that it is, RS: 59:25 it was, it was a special place. It was very special. And I felt when I went to University of Wisconsin that I was totally prepared. As a matter of fact, my theory course at Wisconsin was a- what was the exact same course I had to take social science majors. Had to take up what was it called at the end of the there is a word for it, to take- AW: 59:49 Colloquium. RS: 59:51 Yeah, it was, and it was based upon the philosopher Nagel. So, I had to go through the if then stuff about theory. I-I cannot tell Wisconsin, it is the same course I have already taken it at Harpur. IG: 1:00:06 Must have given you a great deal of confidence, right? You know and well, and it is probably an easy pass into a difficult graduate course. What was NYU like? What you know, you-you did a very interesting dissertation. And was kind of, what was, sort of, you know, the climate, what was then, what like in New York City- RS: 1:00:33 In NYU, I did part time- IG: 1:00:36 In intellectual circles- RS: 1:00:38 I did NYU part time, taking two courses in the fall and one course. You would not go to NYU for the high quality of the teaching. IG: 1:01:03 Really? RS: 1:01:04 I had Elliot Friedson was one of the top experts in this field of sociology of medicine, sociology and healthcare, whatever you-you know, whatever you want to call it, right? And then he moved from there. He became very much involved in studying professions, not just the medical profession. So, I take a seminar with him. Meets one day a week for an hour and 40 minutes. So you go to NYU, you take a course with one of the leading experts. He was writing a new book. He would come in, start reading us from where he had left off, and at an hour and 40 minutes, he put the book and correct there. And then the next time we would he would read from where he had left off, reading and chewing gum at the same time. IG: 1:01:59 Did not any of the students complain or about his manner of teaching? RS: 1:02:08 Not him in particular, but what the students did at one point, they wanted to have a student rep on one of the faculty committees. I do not remember how I got it, but I was the student rep, and by this time, you know, I knew my own mind, and I remember the students, well, it was not formal, but I remembered that some informally, the students were taking one stand, and I was supposed to be the representative, and I sitting in on this meeting, and I am listening and I am listening, and I think it was maybe by hiring somebody. I do not remember what it was, but I decided that their position was not the right one. So, I voted the way I felt the vote should go. And I do not remember what the issue was, whether or not it was courses, the hiring of somebody, I do not remember what it was. They were not faced with me, the students, I said, but I have to, you know, I am sitting there, I am listening to the arguments, and you know, you did not, you know, I was not sent here just to do what you [inaudible]. I was sent here to listen and to, you know, do the best I can, you know, but to raise my hand and to vote on something that you know based upon what every argument that I am hearing. And it just so happened that there was an argument that was, you know, different than I thought, better than yours. IG: 1:03:44 So-so, you know- RS: 1:03:46 But all this happened, I have to say this will happen, yeah, from going to Harpur. I do not know whether any of this would have come through if we had gone to a larger, a larger school, but it was the atmosphere of excellence, academic excellence, but also interaction between students and professors, beginning to feel that the times were changing. IG: 1:04:13 They were changing, but also your own upbringing, because your father was an academic. I think that- RS: 1:04:21 he was not, um, he was a state employee. He headed up the Department of Statistics. We did not teach, but AW: 1:04:27 He headed up the department was called epidemiology. I remember statistics or epidemiology; it was one of those. RS: 1:04:36 It was interesting that my father had done a study through the data from the Department of Mental Hygiene on violence committed by people who were mentally ill, and he did it with at that point, the Commissioner of the Department of Mental Hygiene and. Somebody wrote an article in The New Yorker, which I had never heard of at that point, in which they mentioned the study done by Benjamin Malzberg and Hoke. I think hope was the depart was head of department at that point, and Dr. Dodge got the New Yorker, and he was reading this article, and Malzberg is not a very common name. [laughs] So after class one day, he comes up to us, and he says, "Would you happen to have a father, Benjamin Malzberg, who is a sociologist. So, do you relate to him? " and we said, "Oh, that is our father." IG: 1:05:36 A proud moment. RS: 1:05:42 Very proud, very proud. Also in history, American history, when we got to the point about the nativist movement, the nativist movement of the early 1900s and a lot of my farmer, [crosstalk], that led to the passage of the immigration law in 1926 and he had done a lot of work using his data from the department, but that was his dissertation. As a matter of fact, using statistics to show that any tendency to immigrants having more mental illness was due if you control for variables like age, etc., you know, AW: 1:06:21 Or acculturation. RS: 1:06:22 You know, was, it was a culturation. AW: 1:06:23 The second generation, the mental illness among Jews had definitely dropped. RS: 1:06:27 So, any anyhow, um- IG: 1:06:29 From the first? AW: 1:06:30 From the first generation, RS: 1:06:32 Anyhow, that was- AW: 1:06:33 On the first generation more mental illness because they were getting, they were culturing a totally different culture. It was, you know, being- IG: 1:06:40 I have heard that said that they carried kind of the burden of- AW: 1:06:45 Exactly. IG: 1:06:45 -of, you know, scrambling, both [crosstalk] RS: 1:06:50 Alcoholism, anything that it was a matter of migration, and especially- IG: 1:06:54 That is so fascinating. RS: 1:06:55 So, and especially a lot of young men being here by themselves. They did not have any-any families with them? IG: 1:07:01 What are you calling first generation? Though, is it? Is it? You know people first gen born? RS: 1:07:07 I know people get confused on that. First generation is with those who are first born in this country. IG: 1:07:12 Yes, rather than their parents. RS: 1:07:14 Their parents are not first generation. First generation means those who were young. Yeah. So anyway, he-he asked us whether or not we were related to Benjamin Malzberg. AW: 1:07:27 The history professor, Oscar Hamlin had written a book. RS: 1:07:30 Oh, yes, so we got something, yeah, to the section on him when we had this book at that time. I do not know maybe that is the lead from colleges, but was every topic had a pro and a con. I mean two people, you know. I mean not-not opinion pieces, but from the academic literature. And so, the piece that was in there from the academic side. And there, in the body of one of the articles, a name pops up. And of course, the history professor also got it. [crosstalk] But that would not have happened had we gone to a larger university. IG: 1:07:31 Of course, of course. RS: 1:07:31 So, you know, our preparation for graduate school was top notch. And I am so happy that we got into Harpur, because while I was fourth in the class and Amy was fifth, math was not our [inaudible]. So, we got through algebra, and we got through geometry, and we decided not to take any more math, which was, I do not know how they allowed us to do that, because these days, in order, they did not call it the advanced Regents diploma, but you really need the third that third math class and that they took. They took the two of us anyway, and they took one other student who did not take the third math class, and the three of us, when we got to Harpur our first semester, had to take a course to make up for it in probability. There I am- we are without my father, the statistician I recently was talking to a friend who was an electrical engineer, and I told him that I had to take probability my first year because I did not take trigonometry in high school. He said, "Ruth, you should have taken trigonometry. It is much easier than probability." So, we made Harpur anyway. IG: 1:07:35 Yeah, you made Harpur anyway. RS: 1:07:35 And as a matter of fact, I do not know whether or not I even remember who Kathy Henderson and Stuart Lewis from Harpur also went and the admissions officer at one point. I guess, he, I do not know how my parents knew this, but the admissions over asked Dr. House, who was the guidance counselor at Milton, whether or not there were any more students and more [inaudible] and more students on the level of the four of us. RS: 1:07:35 Well, but that is, that is, you know, certainly a great, great accolade to Harpur College and the education that you all have gone. RS: 1:07:36 But I am curious, because people who were at Harpur, this is the (19)60s, yeah, so people who were at Harpur in (19)68 was there ferment there? IG: 1:10:43 Yes. RS: 1:10:44 Eventually? IG: 1:10:45 Eventually-eventually, I think that they were more certainly politically involved. But Ron Bayer, for example, is quite a graduate of (19)64- RS: 1:10:57 (19)64 and I think he was active in students for democratic [crosstalk] IG: 1:11:00 He was extremely-extremely active- RS: 1:11:02 When I think, when I think of the students coming from New York and how politically active they were, the name that always comes to mind is Ronald Bayer. IG: 1:11:12 I mean, he is tremendous. And so, in my mind, he sorts of, you know, epitomizes the most [crosstalk] RS: 1:11:19 He is the one who started the International Relations question, I am positive of it, and he must have been the one who contacted Eleanor Roosevelt. IG: 1:11:27 Right. So-so, yeah, you know, and I have heard from, you know, the majority, I would say, the vast majority, of individuals I interviewed what you know, superlative-superlative education, and they, they got at Harpur and individualized attention and all that. So, you know, just your career trajectory, you graduated from NYU. What-what did you do? RS: 1:12:01 I teach at Nassau. IG: 1:12:02 No, I know is that your, was that the job that you got after getting your PhD, and did you just stay there? Or did you, kind of- RS: 1:12:14 I had a teaching assistantship at NYU. RS: 1:12:16 I also had a research assistantship one year, and then when I graduated and was trying to work on the dissertation as well, but I had, you know, children, I had to go somewhere. So, I had to pay for-for Ari, and that when I had the second child to go, to go to daycare, so I taught a course at Nassau Community. And then, you know, I eventually just stayed there and I got two National Endowment for the Humanities awards, [inaudible] IG: 1:12:16 I see. IG: 1:12:54 In what? RS: 1:12:55 The first one because my area, that was a fascinating seminar. I spent the summer, spent eight weeks at Cornell. It was called humanities and medicine, but it was, really was a sociology, in many ways, a sociology, of course, but it was interdisciplinary. And was Sandra Gillen was an interdisciplinary and he ran the seminar. We read lots of literature to see the connection between medicine and how people illness is defined and how it is reflected in the humanities and in the literature, etc. It was a fascinating seminar and- RS: 1:13:37 And what was that? RS: 1:13:38 My essay to get in- IG: 1:13:40 Excuse me, what-what year was- RS: 1:13:44 1986. And then 10 years later, I think it was, I was asked to teach a course on the history of Israel in the history department, because, actually, my husband was approached by the chairperson because of the fact that they had it on the books and it had not been taught in years and years and years, the chairperson happened to know my husband, and my husband said, my wife can teach it. She has got an acknowledge. You have an excellent background. But in her graduate work at NYU, one of the first papers she wrote was a history of the labor movement in Israel. And so, she knows something. So, I taught the course. And then one summer, Michael Stanislavski was one of the leading experts in the history of Zionism, was giving a seminar. The first seminar at Cornell was open to people from community colleges and four-year colleges. No, that was the community college one, the one at the one at- AW: 1:14:51 Columbia. RS: 1:14:51 -Columbia. Now I do not remember which one, one of them was only four. For community college people. So, I was only competing against people from community colleges, but the other one was open to anybody, from anyone and yet, I was able to I was able to get in a community college competing against people from four-year colleges, and the college is very proud, because college likes to publicize the people who get these national awards- IG: 1:15:23 Of course. RS: 1:15:24 -and I brought two of them. IG: 1:15:26 So, humanities of medicine and? RS: 1:15:28 The humanities, it was so interdisciplinary. We were reading Roth [Philip Roth], The Anatomy Lesson and using that as a parttime to understand something about modern medicine. People were doing. There were people there who were art specialists. There were people there who came with a drama background and all bringing a different perspective on-on medicine and illness from their, from their disciplines. They, I mean the famous, but the famous painting, I do not remember. It is in the universe. It is in Philadelphia, at the Philadelphia Art Museum, the famous one, when the-the operation and shows the doctor. [crosstalk] IG: 1:16:19 I can see it. I can see it. I do not know. I can see it the very it is a surgery. It is an autopsy. RS: 1:16:29 Autopsy or something. IG: 1:16:31 I think it is an autopsy. And it is very stark, and so same colors black- RS: 1:16:35 It was brilliant, and they were the way he-he wove us back and forth between different disciplines and the understanding of- IG: 1:16:44 That is more commonplace now. You know, places like Columbia, for example, have narrative and medicine program that was started by a doctor who also has a PhD in literature in the early 2000s I forget her name, but it is sort of, you know, but when, when you were looking back at (19)86 I think it was really you were in the vanguard of such a movement. RS: 1:17:09 Oh, yeah. I remember somebody did a slide presentation on Da Vinci of his drawings. And he had one picture of himself in which he drew himself with a wound. I was taken aback. I raised my hand and I say, you know, psychology, psychiatry, has so much to say about penis envy. He said, "Look at this picture." I said, "Why has anybody ever written up womb envy?" AW: 1:17:46 Written up what? RS: 1:17:49 Womb envy, W, O, M, B, and it was actually directed towards Sondra Gilman, silence. But to me, that was an obvious. He was depicted in this drawing, having a womb. That tells us a lot about something. IG: 1:18:14 So, you got this- you had two awards, and that allowed you to do what? RS: 1:18:21 Well, when you get into the seminars, first of all, it is, it is prestigious for a community college to have somebody come in and get to get to and then you have to write a paper as part of this. You have to do some research. IG: 1:18:35 Right. Do they give you money to- RS: 1:18:37 Oh, yes, you get a stipend, of course. And actually, the one that I took, the one at Columbia, that was, that was the summer that my mother had her first heart attack, so I was going up and back to war on a lot. So, I did not do the best piece of research I possibly could, but I did something I was interested in. What since Freud did not consider himself Jewish in the traditional sense, I was always curious about, well, how did he feel about Zionism so? But then they were nine of us. All seminars are 12 people, three women. I was one of them. One of them was a Palestinian woman. It was very-very interesting. So, she was not, you know- Two years later, my colleague in the English department, Sharon leader, who was both a developer of the Jewish Studies project at the college and the Women's Studies project, called me up and said, "Ruth, you know, the National Women's, National Women's Association, the women of studies, whatever it was, she said, you know, has been very cool to having panels, having anything to do with Jewish women." And she says, "I finally worked on them, and they have agreed to have some panels this summer at Skidmore, which where they met. He said, “Would you give a talk on women in Israel?" And I said, "Well, I am not an expert on Israel." I said, "I am not an expert on women in Israel." But as for talking, I said, "What, you know, Sharon, I think I want to do a paper on women and Zionism. And I said, you know, of all the papers in that seminar on Zionism, not a single one of them was about a woman." AW: 1:20:36 And there is a book. Arthur Hertzberg. RS: 1:20:37 I am going to get there. I am going to get here. So, they made your book in the field, Arthur Hertzberg, Zionist Idea, came in 1959 published. It was a hit, and it was reissued and reissued and reissued and reissued. There is not a single woman in that compendium, right about of a woman I said, you know, I think I need to do a paper and do some research called Women Written out of History. So, I gave the paper, and I revised the paper so many times, and gave the paper at various places, and I was on to something. IG: 1:21:20 You were so forward looking. RS: 1:21:22 I was so for- because did you see this month- IG: 1:21:28 And when was this? This is- RS: 1:21:29 1990s. IG: 1:21:30 That is, that is tremendous. You know- RS: 1:21:32 -had awesome magazine, which my mother made us like [crosstalk] maintenance life, members of this organization had, also has an article this month. It just came the other day. [crosstalk] let me finish yet. I will get it. You can take a look at okay, go, get go, get it. Has been reissued, not reissued. A new a timely, new book, new people in it. And guess what? This volume now includes women. [inaudible] magazine [inaudible] to do about it that, finally, that women are coming back into the history. IG: 1:22:14 Well, exactly, [crosstalk] RS: 1:22:17 Zion is invented now, putting women back in the picture. I- boy, was I on to something? IG: 1:22:26 Just recently, the New York Times started doing an obituary column of the women were forgotten. [crosstalk] AW: 1:22:39 Yeah, right. I read some of those. It was absolutely fascinating. IG: 1:22:45 This was very recent. RS: 1:22:51 "Female and Zionist then and now, reclaiming the voices of the women who helped shape the Jewish liberation movement." Now, what is really fascinating is, okay. This is the article. IG: 1:23:02 Yes. RS: 1:23:04 Yesterday I get the Jewish week, and the Jewish Week has an interview with Gil Troy, the new the one who put he is fighting it. He is quite a scholar. AW: 1:23:16 if you want to take a look at that. RS: 1:23:17 Could not believe, I could not believe it was the same book, the person who was interviewing him does not mention there is not one mention that what is new about the new is that, not only that, it has got some new men in it that were not in the original one. Not one mention in this conversation, going back and forth, that the new book now includes women for the first time. IG: 1:23:43 Right. AW: 1:23:45 Here it is. IG: 1:23:47 It is, it is a tremendous- AW: 1:23:50 Jewish Week, Gil Troy, the most recent one. RS: 1:23:55 [crosstalk] And I got this earlier in the week, and then this came yesterday, and talking about the new addition, there is only one, there is only one mention of women in this conversation, right? And it is a criticism that Anne Roiphe was included in it, but does not mention any other woman that is included, and there is no addition. 63 women were mentioned. I am glad that it mentions, you know, it has been re-re edited, and includes women. I am not very happy that a major paper that goes out to hundreds, 1000s and 1000s of Jewish people in, you know, in the New York City area has this- is unhappy with the fact that, but Roiphe does not know diaspora Jewish or Zionist history or religion or philosophy, it is hard to place Roiphe seriously in a serious volume on Zionist ideas. Other than that, there is no mention in this- AW: 1:24:56 This whole review. RS: 1:24:58 -about all the other women who have been included, but having a problem with Anne Roiphe. [laughter] IG: 1:25:06 Right-right. So- RS: 1:25:09 Write that to the answer room. I think it is time to write a letter. IG: 1:25:11 Yes-yes-yes. So-so you are still kind of charging ahead and-and, you know, challenging the status quo, and you are sort of, you know, true to your value, to your roots, and as a young person, you know- RS: 1:25:32 Actually, in many ways, we are following me through on my father, not just, but not just the fact that we are sociologists, but he was one of the first immigrant boys, okay, Jewish boys, to go to City College, and then he went. He got a- he went, he got his masters at Columbia. Then he got a friend's fellowship to go to Europe. He was going to study with Emile Durkheim, but by the time he got there, and it was the war of an on Emile Durkheim had died, but he studied with, you know, I think, Amy Durkheim, son in law, who was also an expert in the field. And he went to the London School of Economics. Then he goes back to Columbia and finish up his PhD. And the reason why he did his dissertation on immigrants is it is because of that that when he you think, you think academia has left us today, back then, academia was leading the nativist you look at the literature on nativism is all coming from academia and especially from sociologists. And he is sitting in all of these courses, whether it is at Columbia City College- IG: 1:26:42 Oh, I remember, I remember- RS: 1:26:44 English, England, and they are all talking about, you know, these immigrants- IG: 1:26:50 Right. RS: 1:26:55 -whose genetics are lesser, and that, you know, what will happen if we cream them into the country. It was not coming from, you know, the- it was coming from academia. I took a seminar once at the American Museum of Natural History with Professor associate of biology, actually from Stony Brook, who became interested in these racist biological ideas. And he pointed out we were sitting in the Museum of Natural History that in the 1930s the guy named Mueller, who was head of the Museum of Natural History here in New York, was one of those nativist racists, and that Hitler thought in many ways that the United States would join the war on his side, because we had all of these academics and the Institute out in Long Island, the scientific Institute. IG: 1:27:46 Oh, that is [crosstalk] springs-springs. That is where [crosstalk] the people- RS: 1:28:05 That is what eugenics records were kept. IG: 1:28:05 Cold springs. RS: 1:28:06 Cold Spring, that is where the oceanic records were kept. So he is, so here is a young Jewish [crosstalk]. Here is a young Jewish boy, and he is sitting at all these classes, and he is hearing people lecture and talk about immigrants. And so, when he got the job up in Albany, he had a wonderful mentor. He first got the job as the assistant director, and the person who, Dr. Pollock, who was the director, was his mentor and helped him do his dissertation using the statistics from the Department of Mental Hygiene. And from there, he just, he has mentioned in the introduction to Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma [Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy (1944)]. His work is mentioned. So anyway, one of the things I am involved in when I moved to the island is I am on the board of the Central American refugee center. And when people, when people ask me why I joined the Central American refugee center? Well, I joined it for two reasons. I said, I follow this. I am following through on my father's work. I said, he did it academically. I said, I give you I joined the board to do it in a different in a different fashion. IG: 1:29:19 That is beautiful. I think that you know we are going to, you know, think of wrapping up [crosstalk] RS: 1:29:29 When I think this, all began, shy, a shy little girl, I have a story to tell we all had to take on our freshman year at Harpur, this broad-based social science course that it was neither sociology political science, okay? And we read books like gold race all of a sudden, IG: 1:29:51 Not kingdoms of nations. RS: 1:29:54 No. IG: 1:29:55 Something of nations. RS: 1:29:57 No. We were reading. We were reading those books, right? Um, broad, general books, Pirenne. We did not read that in history, Pirenne], [Henri Pirenne], Medieval Cities [Medieval Cities: Their Origins and the Revival of Trade], right? I think we read that in that social so, I mean, we were reading really high-level stuff, and the professor, one day, who was not Jewish, decided that he was going to devote the class discussion to the {inaudible] trial. AW: 1:30:22 I am not going to say that. IG: 1:30:24 To the what? AW: 1:30:24 [inaudible] trial. RS: 1:30:26 [inaudible] Franklin [crosstalk] was on trial. So, you know, instead of discussing this high level, okay, Richard Sawyer, I even remember his name, so he starts talking about it. And one of the first comments that come out, Paul [inaudible], I even remember the kid's name, Jewish from New York. Says, "Oh, well, why are we discussing that now, that was a while ago," and the teacher was not Jewish, literally, the mouth fell down. And from my community, where I grew up, in old New York, nobody, but nobody would ever say that. And what did I do? RS: 1:31:09 What did you do? RS: 1:31:10 I kept quiet. I had not yet found my voice, and in many ways, I was too shocked. IG: 1:31:21 Wonderful example, that is, that is, that is what I was searching for, I think, in the beginning, because that that shows you that huge road [crosstalk] RS: 1:31:30 In front of him was a small class, but nevertheless, in front of all these people, I was open my mouth. I had never heard a Jew speak like that. IG: 1:31:43 No. RS: 1:31:44 -not where I came from. IG: 1:31:45 No. RS: 1:31:45 -you would not. You would never say a thing like that. IG: 1:31:47 But-but you are saying this that you had not found your voice, that you-you were to, you know, we are taking a back. I was embarrassed for him. RS: 1:31:59 And I tell you, actually, I think the first time I ever found my voice, I used to go to services in Albany. We would go to service Saturday morning Binghamton. So, at Wisconsin, I went to the hill. Now, I went to services every Saturday. And one February, cold February day I walk in, it is quiet, it was so cold, and I walk into the sanctuary. There is eight men. They look at me and the look of disappointment on their face, but you cannot walk [crosstalk]. So, I sit down, and then somebody says, "Well, you know, we only need one other man, because then we can take the Torah out and count the Torah as a male." AW: 1:32:50 And the Torah is a female word. RS: 1:32:53 Well, this is the second time in my life I have got this total I had never known this. Heard anybody say that, and I had no control of what came out of my mouth. I was thinking this, and as it was in my head, I hear it coming out of my mouth. I do not believe this. I said, "I am sitting here a living, breathing human being, and you are not going to count me, but you are going to take the Torah out. And not only you and count the Torah, you are going to count the Torah as a male, [inaudible] this." Absolute silence. Nobody said anything, and we never did [inaudible] They got the Torah. It must have been my second year. I must have been engaged already, because the fact when I left to come to New York and get married, the rabbi called my apartment and spoke to my roommates. He-he had been sitting on it my comment for months and months, and he wanted to call and let me know that he wanted me to participate in the high holiday services in the fall. The only problem was, I was gone. [laughs] IG: 1:34:14 [inaudible] what? RS: 1:34:14 I was gone. IG: 1:34:15 You were gone. RS: 1:34:16 He waited until August, and I had never told him that he knew my husband, but I had never told him that Arnie and I were leaving and that we- I was too busy, you know, finishing up looking for a job, looking for a place where we were going to live, you know, preparing a wedding from Wisconsin that never thought on me to go tell him I should have. I really feel badly. I did. I so he waited until I am gone- IG: 1:34:43 Yeah, but-but you changed his mind. RS: 1:34:47 To-to think about it, and to say yes, he wanted me to, and I would have loved to have been there to participate, but I cannot be in two different places at the same time. IG: 1:34:56 That is a great That is a great story. That is a great story. Let us, let us, if you were, you know, since, since students are going to be listening to these interviews, I always ask my interviewees toward the conclusion, what advice would you give a beginning student about a beginning you know person, either you know about to graduate or how they how they should think about the rest of their career. You know, what are the most important lessons that you have learned from-from your you know, studies and from your life that you would like to impart to these young people. RS: 1:35:42 As important as the academic part is, one of the things that you should be open to is getting involved in groups and issues that are not tied completely to what you are there should be a connection, but there should be some kind of cause, or some kind of a group, because of the fact that often it is for these kinds of connections that you make, not completely in the academic world, but that can lead you into very, very interesting places. Now, if somebody wants to get a PhD in neuroscience, of course, my advice was, stick closely to your academic career and find yourself a professor who will be a mentor you would give academia but I still think that it is important to try and move outside of academia and try and, you know, there are groups out there that, even with your interest in getting a PhD in neuroscience, that would be love to have you come and join them, and, you know, be on some kind of, let us say, advisory board, and that can lead you often to all kinds of interesting, interesting places, people that you never would have met. IG: 1:37:15 That is very good advice. RS: 1:37:22 So it was, it was, you know, moving beyond-beyond, moving into McCarthy campaign. And then, you know, they are being so involved in running for a political office. And then when I moved to Long Island, I felt, I felt like, I need to, I need to join something. I need to become involved. take how to take my time. But it is all these groups that are now involved in that, you know, they make an- in fact, I become the expert on immigration and what is happening in Long Island, in my department, because my involvement with the immigration issue. Fact, in fact, actually, I wrote up a paper. I presented a paper at a Hofstra conference. They have a suburban study of suburbia center, or something like that. And they were having a conference, and they were talking about the changing nature of Long Island. And I actually, I know, because my involvement there, I actually went and did a research paper. We went to the census. I did, you know, I did a number of things, and I present [crosstalk] as a matter of fact- IG: 1:38:32 So-so about what-what-what- you know, in a nutshell- RS: 1:38:37 Why-why, why was, why was there so much conflict all of a sudden around immigration on Long Island? And I thought of this because Andrew Beveridge, one of the leading sociologists of immigration at Queens College, I attended a session of his sociological national meeting in New York City, and he said he is talking about the fact that, you know, there were no immigrants on Long Island. That is the guy ever driven around the place. You go to certain communities on Long Island, well, the South doors are, I mean, you are not going to see them. In memory where I live. You go to Hempstead. Yeah, you will see them. You go up to Glen Cove. Glen Cove had such a bitter- they tried to, they tried to pass that that they could not stand out. And you know, I said, so yes, I give him. And I said, the proper the problem is that, in terms of the general numbers, they might be like, but you take a place like Glen Cove and all of a sudden, for some reason or other, you see the numbers of immigrants increasing. And then I did a similar community out on Suffolk County Farmingdale. And he said, it is not so much whether the numbers are 70 percent the point is the fact that if you census after census, you see the numbers increasing. That is the important point, not whether you have a map of the census and you see that, you know, in a large census district that you look at within the census district, and that is why there was conflict on Long Island, because they were moving into suburbia, where they never been. We associate immigrants with New York City, right? But they were moving into suburbia, and maybe your census figures did not pick it up. But you cannot always go by the Census figure, and you got to break it down into smaller units, and that is why we had so much conflict. They were moving. It was the new movement, and there was a woman who came to Carson for a while, got a BA at Harvard. She got her law degree at Harvard. She came involved in a Spanish organization in western so when she came to New York, she started something the clinical the workplace project, because Carson deals with the legal issues. She was dealing with what was happening in Long Island, and she wrote a book called suburban sweatshops. How immigrants are moving to the Long Island, and maybe they are not working in a factory. But one other sweat shops, lawn care. Kitchen, restaurant kitchens, you know, you go through the issues, calling them suburban sweatshops. IG: 1:41:23 Right. That is very interesting. RS: 1:41:27 And but you know, if I had not looked out of the confines of academia and become involved with community organizations, would I know this. And as a matter of fact, then, matter of fact. Deborah, not, no, Jennifer-Jennifer, something, she kind of, she got a MacArthur reward for her work in setting up a workplace project and her book. IG: 1:41:50 Jennifer who? RS: 1:41:50 Jennifer Gordon, I think. She got it. She got she became a MacArthur scholar. But how would I know about this if I had just, if I had not gotten out of academia and looked around and said, “What else can I do?” IG: 1:42:04 Yeah, well, you know, there is, there is a tradition, I think in Italy, of that was sort of personified by Umberto Echo where, you know, intellectuals were public, public intellectuals, so they have both the role in their larger community- RS: 1:42:24 Europe has [crosstalk], the public of the public until at the public intellectual right? IG: 1:42:28 This has been a tremendous pleasure. RS: 1:42:32 Well, it was really lots of fun going back and thinking about Harpur and the- (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Ruth M. Silverman Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni in Womens’ Studies; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni at Nassau Community College; Harpur College – Alumni in the New York City area Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Silverman, Ruth ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource Ruth Silverman, PhD, is a sociology professor at Nassau Community College, where she created the Women’s Studies Program. She is the sister of Dr. Amy Weintraub. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-05-18 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ruth Silverman.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-05-18 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 102:37 minutes https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/4ad3dade9e07c21989df7f163995debd.mp3 8e699e5a681a4d200333ead51d8b6e7c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2017-12-14 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Janice L. Strauss Year of Graduation 1968 Biographical Text Janice is a Niagara Falls native. She worked as a Spanish teacher in Broome County. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County. Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County. Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Janice Strauss Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 14 December 2017 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) IG: 00:03 You will keep track of time? Okay. So-so please tell me your name, your birth date- Third speaker: 00:05 Yeah. JS: 00:13 Okay. IG: 00:14 -and where, and where we are. JS: 00:16 I am Janice Strauss, and my birth date was December 17, 1946 and we were in my home in Endicott, on Bean Hill Road. IG: 00:29 So, could you tell me where you grew up? JS: 00:34 Well, I was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but only lived there for five years, and my parents moved to Niagara Falls, New York, and that is where I grew up, in an infamous area now called Love Canal, which we did not know about at the time. [laughs] IG: 00:49 So-so could- when did you come to Harpur College? JS: 00:55 I came to Harpur College in 1968, no 1964-1964 I graduated in 1968. Came in the summer of 1964 because Harpur College was still on trimester. And so, they had three semesters a year, one the first one started in July of 1964. IG: 01:20 So, what- do you have any memories, sort of, you know, brief snapshots of what the campus looked like when you first arrived, or, you know, from-from the time that you were there? JS: 01:30 Well, it was certainly much smaller than it is now. It was all red brick. The buildings were all red brick. There were none of these other designs. Um, and it was in perpetual- it was under a state of perpetual construction. There was always an area that was being added, um modified. I remember them planting trees one summer and pulling them out the next year because they were going to put a building right where they had just planted the trees. So, it is constant-constantly changing. IG: 02:07 Great planning. JS: 02:08 Yeah, we wondered [inaudible] wise guy, college kids, every once in a while, wondered about that. [laughs] IG: 02:15 So um, what were um- what was- tell me what were some of the significant events during the time that you were there that you remember that stand out? Um, historical events? JS: 02:31 Oh, historical events. Well, the entire time there was overshadowed by the Vietnam War, protests. People constantly leaving campus to go on busses to Washington, DC, running around, borrowing things from other people, everything from handkerchiefs in case they had to be prepared for tear gas to-- we were all rummaging through things to find things to send them off. As far as campus itself, we had a visit from Governor Rockefeller, Nelson Rockefeller at the time, because he had a hand in expanding campuses all over the state. And sometimes they called it Rockefeller's rock pile or mud pile, because with all that construction and building, something was always torn up in a mess, and when it rained, it would be muddy and-and I remember that a lot--people being concerned about that. Other significant historical events, the one that just hangs over my head is Vietnam. IG: 02:35 And how did you feel about the Vietnam War? JS: 02:38 I thought it was a dumb idea. Then I know that I know more, I think it was an even dumber idea. [laughs] I was not- I was still a little green. I just knew that we were sending a lot of people over there to kill other people, and the domino theory was-was right up front and center at the time. Our government was constantly telling us that if Vietnam fell to communism, then the whole rest of Southeast Asia would become communists, and we had to be worried and concerned about that. But even then, it was clear that it was a guerilla type war that our government did not even understand, and yet, standing back and looking in, you could see what was happening and-and the- the um- and it made for-for so many more deaths, because we did not seem to understand the strategy. We were fighting two different wars, and it meant that more people were being killed on our side, and more people were being killed on their side as they dumped Agent Orange. And I even remember us protesting against the Dow Chemical corporation because they were producing Agent Orange- IG: 04:50 During your time on campus? JS: 04:52 Yes-yes. So that was the biggest thing by far. IG: 04:56 Do you think that you became politicized on campus? Was, or did it stem from your upbringing? JS: 05:06 More so on campus-- just before I went to Harpur College, I had been an exchange student to Ecuador, and that opened my eyes. That was, that was the beginning, because then I saw what was happening to USAID money. Money was not going to the common person. I learned a different way to think-- everything from as simple as a space you know how we are sitting right now, we were fairly comfortable not in Ecuador, if you were friendly, you have to be here different. And because of how I was raised, I take a step backward, and they would take a step forward, and pretty soon I would be against the wall every day. [laughs] Things that you never thought about at all. I was very green when I went to Ecuador, and that started me thinking more along political and different lines. Kind of opened my eyes that there were there were different things out there that I never knew about. IG: 06:01 So, you spoke Spanish before you went to Ecuador. JS: 06:07 No-no, I had studied three years of German, [laughs] a year of Latin, a year of Latin, and three years of German. And yeah, I learned it quick, quickly, very quickly, um, yeah. So- IG: 06:19 Obviously, a talent for languages. JS: 06:22 Yeah, so when I came- eventually became a Spanish teacher. IG: 06:27 What? What did your- what was your home life like? What did your parents do? JS: 06:33 My dad was a factory worker. He worked for DuPont. It was a terrible job. I did not totally realize it and appreciate it at the time. At that time, though, they paid laborers decently so they could earn a living-- we had a small house. We owned our own home. I was the oldest of five kids, and my mom, for most of my childhood was a homemaker. It was only when they started cutting back at DuPont, and my father got a lesser job, but my mother went back. She already had her college degree, and she went back into teaching. And so, when I was in high school, my mother went back to work but I was the oldest. The youngest was only in kindergarten at the time, but- so I was- as the oldest child, I often took care of my younger siblings, but not until I was in high school. I mean, I led a pretty sheltered life, quiet, lower middle-class neighborhood, with my dad working his tail off, I think, which eventually killed him. He died when he was only 62 and by then, his hair roots had started to turn green from all the chemicals and he made, he made sodium for DuPont, and they did something called tickle the cells, which meant that they stirred up big, giant furnaces, and the sodium would pop up at them. And you would see them hanging out as you drive by the factories, you would see them hanging out the windows trying to breathe better. And I did not appreciate when he brought- he wore long underwear every day to protect himself from the burns. And when he came home each night, you could ring the sweat out there was that much. I mean, that is so you can imagine how hot it had to have been inside and all that kind of stuff. And as a kid, I do not- look back and look back at it. As an adult, I can appreciate so much more what he did and what he went through than I did as-as-as a kid, you know, but there were a lot of those in Niagara Falls. IG: 08:35 It was a family that valued education. JS: 08:38 Very much so. Yeah-yeah. IG: 08:42 Because you went on to college and became a Spanish teacher. And your siblings? JS: 08:46 They all went to college-- all of them. I have a brother who has just retired as a- was a registered nurse. I have a brother who became an engineer. Lives in Boston. He worked for the EPA up until this year. I have a sister who was a systems analyst who has retired and now lives here. She lived in New York City her whole adult life, and my youngest sister got a degree in accounting and did the books and things for a car company. So yeah. IG: 09:19 So, returning a little bit to campus. What was residential life like? Who were your friends? You know how did you spend time outside of class? JS: 09:35 Well, we made lifelong friends. IG: 09:36 Yes. JS: 09:37 I pulled this out in case you wanted to see. I did not know how this works, so I did not know what you wanted to see or do. [crosstalk] Oh, whatever works for you. But um, we have, we still have at least a dozen friends or more from-from those days-- that people we met on campus. Um, at the time, and I think it still is-- Harpur College was a geek school, and anytime you were not studying, you knew somebody else was studying and screwing up that bell shaped curve that you had to get over that hump [laughs] it was going to be- your grades were not going to be so good. And so, there was a lot of pressure, and we released pressure in good ways, fun ways, silly ways. I am not even sure they are acceptable today, the guys had, well, we had a curfew. IG: 10:09 Yes. JS: 10:10 The women had a curfew, which was- we were on campus this fall, the ladies were shocked. They said you had a curfew, because my wise guy husband had said to them, oh, we used to lock up the women. And they laughed. And when I was going like this with my arms folded, they looked at me and looked back at him and said, “You are not kidding.” And he said, “No,” he was not kidding. We had a curfew at 11 o'clock, and then the guys went out. When they came back, they would do things like have panty rays. You familiar with those? Oh my gosh, they the guys would come back, they would maybe been to town for a couple drinks or something, and so they were having fun, and they knew all the women were locked up in the dorms, and they come under our windows, and yeah, "We want panties. We want bras" and-and girls would throw them out. And-and I thought it was so dumb and silly. I went down to the basement one time with my roommate, and this is how we bonded and did so many things together. You asked, you know what? What it was like? We went into the lost and found in the laundry room, found some old bras, got some name tags. A lot of these young men had been in summer camps, and they had their names sewn in all their clothes. So, we took some of those labels out of their clothes and sewed them onto the bras and shot them out the window. So, the bra had a guy's name a label on it. And it was really funny, because the next day, some guy would come up to another guy and say, I found your bra last night. [laughs] So we did goofy, silly things like that that were just, you know, let off steam, but did not take too much time. [laughs]So that is kind of stuff we did. IG: 12:10 So, you know, how did you feel about curfews at the time? JS: 12:15 Even at the time, I found it annoying. You found annoying, but you just sort of accepted it, like we did not have any demonstrations about it, or anything like that, but I remember being especially annoyed with him one time. I still married him anyway. Because, because my roommate had been kept out late by her boyfriend. She had been saying to him, "I have to get back for curfew." IG: 12:35 Right. JS: 12:36 And um, he brought her back late, and at 11 o'clock they locked that door, man-- you could not get in. So, you had to ring the buzzer, and the house mother would come to the door. The head resident would come open the door, write you up that you would come late, and you got sent before the judicial review board for your punishment. So, he was on the judicial review board, all right, so he knew me, and he knew that I had in my closet, in my room, things for making cookies. So, he used to everyone, so I will make cookies in that little kitchenette in the basement. So, he sentenced her to make chocolate chip cookies for the entire dorm. And they all thought it was really funny we were- so I helped her. We were down there steaming the whole time while we made these chocolate chip cookies for the whole dorm. [laughs] In a sense, the punishment was silly, goofy, but we were still annoyed. [laughs] IG: 13:32 Right. And apparently that a peer of yours made- JS: 13:36 Right. [laughs] IG: 13:37 -made the judgment- JS: 13:38 Yeah-yeah. IG: 13:41 What were some of the expectations for you, for, maybe for-for you when you went to college, before going to college? So did you think of having career-- what was nor- the norm for women at the time, or maybe you were outside of the norm-- because of your Ecuador experience. JS: 14:00 And, yeah, in my group, and in-in, you know, this lower middle-income kind of thing, not everybody went to college. A lot of them went off and started working right away. But I remember my father, who got drafted out of college and never finished college. I think that is one reason he ended up as a laborer, telling me how proud he was that I was the first person on his side of the family to ever graduate from college, and he was very excited that I was going to college. And so, what expectations were just that I would do well. I had really good grades in high school. I did not have really good grades at Harpur. I had, I struggled to get over that hump on the bell-shaped curve. I remember one time getting 91 points out of 100 and it was a C plus. And I was so upset, I went to see the professor, and I handed him my paper, and I said, "Look, I only missed nine points on the whole test." And he pulled out of his drawer a graph and went through from the graph for my class, and said, "Look at this graph." And I looked at it, and the majority had gotten 90 or above. And he showed me how I fell exactly, just above the hump that he called a C, with that 91 points. And that is how they did the grading. He graded. He-he charted the-the grades of every student along this curve, and that is how you received your grade, not how many points you got on a test, but where you fell on that bell shaped curve. And I remember being so frustrated. [laughs] I did find the actual system there pretty frustrating. Even when I was there, when I look back on, I go, "Huh," but even when I was there, I remember thinking, this is really annoying. [laughs] IG: 15:48 So, at the time, did Harpur College have a reputation of being a tough school academically? JS: 15:55 Yeah-yeah. In fact, my guidance counselor at my high school called Niagara wheatfield. I lived at- the name of the town was actually Wheatfield, right outside of Niagara Falls. I remember my guidance counselor saying to me, “You are not going to get in there.” But I did get accepted and-and so I went. But I think with a 90, with a lower 90 high school average, I was on the lower end of the people accept it at Harpur College. So, I struggled, but I graduated, and some of those other people did not. [laughs] IG: 16:27 So, do you think that they did not graduate? Did Harpur College have also the reputation of being a party school or? JS: 16:34 No, not at all. No, not at all. IG: 16:37 Very studios. JS: 16:37 Yeah, no. IG: 16:40 What did you study? JS: 16:42 Well, mostly Spanish [crosstalk], but I started [crosstalk] IG: 16:46 [inaudible] academically [inaudible] JS: 16:48 Um, it was tough, but it was um, not what I expected. I expected I had come back just from Ecuador, speaking a lot of Spanish, and I wanted to build on that and improve on that. And instead, it was strictly a literature curriculum. It was read-read-read- IG: 17:02 Right-right. In English? JS: 17:08 -and no in Spanish. IG: 17:10 Uh-huh. JS: 17:10 You would read the novels in Spanish, but some professors conducted class in English and some in Spanish. It was, it was a mix. IG: 17:18 Right. JS: 17:19 And so, it was not what I had hoped. I had hoped to get much stronger in my Spanish, and I developed some strengths from the reading, some vocabulary, but not- I did not become [crosstalk], yeah, I- we did not- I took every conversation course they offered while I was there--usually they were only two credit courses, where our courses at the time were four credits. IG: 17:41 Right. JS: 17:42 Because they were on that trimester thing. We had four courses each semester, and each course was worth four credits. So, we did 16 credits per semester, and they only offered these two credit conversation courses, and I think I wound up with a total of eight credits in conversation. So, it was not exactly what I had hoped I still had the opportunity to use the language, but it was different than what I expected. IG: 18:05 Do you have any professors that stand out in your memory as being exceptional? JS: 18:13 Oh, absolutely. A bunch of- IG: 18:15 Give us some examples. JS: 18:16 -bunch of them who are excited in what they did and very good. And there was a fellow who died shortly after I graduated. His last name was Bachelor, Dr. Bachelor, and he was so enthusiastic. He would read these books and say, does not this like tug at your heartstrings. I mean, what motion [crosstalk] IG: 18:33 Remember the books that he went- JS: 18:35 Oh, God. That is tough. IG: 18:36 What were the classes? the literature [crosstalk] JS: 18:40 What were the classes- IG: 18:40 The literature classes? What-what writers did you... JS: 18:45 Oh, my goodness, that is tough. I remember that the categories, I remember we did one whole thing on-on South American literature, one on the Golden Age in Spain. I mean, the courses that they were centered around those particular things. I mean, we read all the classic ones. Read Cervantes, if you can believe it, we read the Quixote from start to finish- IG: 19:07 That is incredible. JS: 19:07 -three-three tones. [laughs] There was a lot of reading, a lot. IG: 19:13 For- you know, how many people did you have, how many students did you have in a class--for example, by today's standards? JS: 19:20 For example, by today's standards, pretty small, I am going to say between 15 and 20 in a class. Yeah-yeah. IG: 19:30 So, what other, what other, you know, faculty really made an outstanding impression? JS: 19:36 Oh, gosh, what I remember, hmmm [crosstalk] IG: 19:41 -friends with anyone after you know- JS: 19:44 Faculty, people? IG: 19:45 Faculty, yes. JS: 19:46 Hmm, I do not know that I did--Jeff did. I think Jeff actually went to a couple of their homes and things like that. But um, no. IG: 19:57 So, you did not, you did not- JS: 19:59 Yeah, I mean, on campus, we would visit with them and go to their office and talk with them. There was a German professor that I loved. I had to drop German after about a year because I could not fit in. If you wanted to graduate with a major in Spanish- IG: 20:14 Right. JS: 20:14 -you had to have another romance language. IG: 20:16 I see. JS: 20:17 And I could not carry three languages and still do all the other required courses that I needed. IG: 20:24 So, which other romance language... JS: 20:26 I picked up Italian. So, I did Italian for a while. IG: 20:29 So, do you think that Romance were strengths of Harper College at the time? JS: 20:35 Romance Languages? IG: 20:36 Yes. JS: 20:38 Well, they have very strong Romance Language department. IG: 20:40 Very strong. JS: 20:41 Oh, yeah, sure, yeah. IG: 20:43 So, if you did not go to faculties' homes, you know what-how you know, what was your recreation like? You- did you belong to any clubs or organizations? How did you unwind? Yeah. JS: 21:01 A couple clubs that- not a lot. Honestly, it was study-study-study. There really, was not- IG: 21:08 Really? JS: 21:08 -a lot of spare time for other things. We-we joined a few organizations, um, I belonged to the Newman Club, but they met maybe once a week for an hour. IG: 21:19 What was Newman Club? JS: 21:19 Newman Club was affiliated with the Catholic Church. Um and um, I cannot even remember what we did together. [laughter] Terrible. What-what sticks in my mind are the things we did together as friends, like that silly stuff I told you about the panty raids and-and, or one time when there was a terrible snowstorm, we all walked all the way from campus into Downtown Binghamton and found the only restaurant still open, and-and, you know, had had a good time there. IG: 21:23 I see. What was Binghamton like at the time? Was it very rural or...? JS: 22:01 No. Actually, I think it had more greater population than it does now. Actually, did not have the state- the tall state office tower buildings yet, or anything like that, but it was a busy place. But they did not- there was not too much town and gown mingling. They did not really care for Harpur College students. They-they always referred to us as the Harpur hippies. IG: 22:25 Oh, I see, yes. JS: 22:26 Um, when I went to the public library in Downtown Binghamton to get a library card, and she was very friendly and said, you know, fill out this form, do not worry. And I had put, you know, Box 187 Harpur College. And she went, "Oh, Harpur College," her whole demeanor, her whole tone, everything changed. I remember going for an interview for a job after I first graduated, and some kids hanging out of school, and some kids hanging out with school bus go, "There she is. There she is. That is the Harpur hippie. That is the Harpur" and I did not look like a hippie other than that. I had long hair, but that was about it. IG: 23:01 That is, that is very interesting, and it opens up a number of questions. So, you would go to the public library, would you, you know, would you use the library on campus? And what was it like? JS: 23:17 Oh, yeah, I go to the public library for novels and things like that. IG: 23:21 Yeah. JS: 23:21 I go to the one on Harpur College for everything else. All my school needs, whatever books we were supposed to read, or if I did not understand something I was reading, I would go there to look for an analysis of what I was reading. It was I looked at the one on campus much more academically. And by the way, there only was one I bring now, like I have lost track. Everybody has a library. The science building, there was just one, and it was all open stacks. And that is not true with all everything anymore. IG: 23:51 Going back to Harpur hippie. So how did the college acquire this reputation? Was it for the anti-war activism, do you think? JS: 24:02 I think in large part, I the first I remember hearing of Harper College back home in Niagara Falls or in the town of Wheatfield [chuckles] was when they sent people to protest the house on Un-American Activities Committee hearings in Washington, DC, and that is when they started to gain that reputation that they were this extreme liberal group, they did not use the term progressive back then or anything. But I remember people say- yeah, at that time, it was a small college. The reason I picked it is I applied at three state universities. First of all, only state universities, because they were the cheapest. IG: 24:41 Yes. JS: 24:42 And then when I was accepted at all three Albany, Buffalo and Harpur, I picked Harpur because it was the smallest, and you asked me about the class size- IG: 24:50 Yes. JS: 24:50 -that had, that had a lot of meaning for me, the fact that there was a lot of interpersonal exchange with the professors and all that kind of stuff. And to this day, I really appreciated that we got to know our professors. IG: 25:01 Were your parents involved at all in your college decisions? JS: 25:07 To the extent that they said I could apply anywhere I wanted, as long as it said SUNY in front of it. IG: 25:13 Okay. JS: 25:13 That was a financial. That was a financial. IG: 25:16 Did they know about Harpur's sort of liberal reputation? JS: 25:22 I am sure they have, they had heard of it. They were both well-read but-but I do not think they care. IG: 25:27 They were fine about it. JS: 25:28 Yeah, I do not think they cared one way or another. They did go with me once to visit the campus before I started there. IG: 25:35 So, what did you do after you graduated? You said that you found a job as a school teacher. Did you go- so what was your just career and trajectory like? In essence- JS: 25:52 Wow! That is, um... IG: 25:54 Did you- were you a Spanish school teacher all your life, or... JS: 25:58 Yeah, pretty much, although once I was, um into education--a flyer came across my desk for- from Nazareth College, which is based up in Rochester. IG: 26:10 Right. Right. JS: 26:11 But they were offering what they called satellite courses in Ithaca for English as a second language, and I always enjoyed that. In fact, I had volunteered to teach some kids at the public library who were who had come to this country, who needed English as a second language. And I enjoyed it. And I thought, well, that would be interesting. So, I took those courses and got certified in ESL as well. So um, that did me well, because I only worked part time for a while when my kids were little, and I had been working 80 percent at Union Endicott, when this flyer came across my desk, and then there was an opening out in Owego full time. And so, I moved out there, and they started using me as ESL as well, since I had my certification. And then when I retired from teaching Spanish out in Owego, um SUNY Cortland called and said they- their modern language department taught both Spanish and English as a Second Language, and they could use me with both certifications and all that kind of stuff. So, to this day, I still work part time for SUNY Cortland, and my ESL still serves me well, so I use both. I use. IG: 27:25 Excellent. JS: 27:25 Yes. IG: 27:27 So, do you think um, that um, you mentioned that the school had a very strong academic reputation? How do you think that you know, it shaped you for your, you know, for your future life? Do you think it- could we say that-that it- JS: 27:49 Oh, sure. IG: 27:50 -a formative that you had a formative experience there, because some people just go through college without [crosstalk] JS: 27:55 Yeah, I think some of the people who graduated did so because they learned I had to stick to it and really keep working hard and um, and it forced me to, create, develop that kind of persona- IG: 27:56 Yes. JS: 27:59 -where I am going to stick to it and I am going to get it and I- you know, I am going to get over that stupid hump on the bell shape. It certainly shaped me that way. For me that way. IG: 28:26 Do you think that the liberal arts, you know, academics, open doors that-that would not have been opened otherwise, or is that fair to say? JS: 28:36 Open minds- IG: 28:37 Open minds, open minds... JS: 28:38 -for sure. I to this day, I highly recommend that people have a kind of liberal arts education. You need to know about everything in this world. And when you get a liberal arts education, you are exposed to psychology, sociology, you name it. We had to have a little bit of everything in the first two years before we could go on and specialize. And I think everybody needs that if you are going to understand each other and understand other programs. And yeah, I would highly recommend it. IG: 28:42 Is the open mindedness, what attracted you to your husband when you met him? JS: 29:22 Open mindedness. Is he open minded? [laughs] IG: 29:27 I am assuming. Well, I do not know. What attracted me to Jeff? I would say no. I would say more his well- yes, he had to be open minded if he was close minded. No, absolutely not. That would, that would be a detraction so that so I guess maybe you are right. I had not thought about it that way. It is more his gentleness, kindness, concern for other people. That kind of stuff is what really attracted me to him. How did you meet? JS: 29:53 Um, he was a terrible language student, and this is true. [laughs] This is how we met. And I sat here, and he sat there, and he kept moving my arm because he did not understand anything the professor was saying. And he poked me [inaudible] "What did she say? What did she say?" So, I quick translated into English for him, and he would peek and see what-what I had done for homework. He did not get to move my arms during tests, though, or-or he would find out when I was going to the language lab. That was part of our classes too. So, he could sit beside me and because you would have these earphones on headsets, and he would say, "Okay, what did they say? What they say?" [laughs] And then, I remember coming back to the dorm one night and seeing him there, that guy in the Spanish class. Who does not know any Spanish? IG: 30:42 When did you meet? When- remember, were you a freshman, or... JS: 30:46 Oh, yeah, it was first semester. Because it was so small--the summer, the summer sessions were small because once you get accepted there, then you can pick what semesters you are going to attend. And many people just chose to attend two semesters a year rather than do the whole three in part because of the war, they did not want to graduate early, as long as they were a student, they still had a deferment. Um, so um, some people would go all three semesters. Some people would only go two semesters, and the summer semester, therefore was small, and you got to know almost everybody on campus, and he was living in the same dorm as I-- Johnson. And one wing, they called this a co-ed dorm. I know this isn't how it works now, but one wing was women and one wing was men, and the men were not allowed on the women's floor. The Women's were not allowed on the men's side, but that was our co-ed dorm. And after 11:00 curfew, there was some dispute as to who went where, but I seem to recall, the women were only allowed in the upper lounge, and the men were allowed in the lower area where the rec room and the snack machines were. Um, I guess it depended on which dorm you were in, because whoever was not allowed where the snack machines were would yell down and actually drop money and ask them to buy candy bars or something. We would throw them up. [laughs] So he was in the same dorm, so I saw him every time was coming and going, and then he was also in my experimental psychology class too. So. IG: 32:24 Was he allowed to visit you in your dorm? JS: 32:30 Well, I remember [crosstalk] he was, he was living in the same dorm, but he was only allowed in a men's wing, and we were allowed in the women's wing. IG: 32:36 Oh, in other words, he could not come into the women's room. JS: 32:40 No. IG: 32:40 No, I did not [crosstalk] JS: 32:41 I am going to say once, I do not remember exactly how often, but I am going to say about once a month they had open house. But even then, even then, if say I-I invited him to my room, which I was allowed to do during open house. When he came up, we were supposed to stand at the entrance to that floor and yell "Man on the floor" so that anybody could close their doors if they knew a man was coming through. So yeah, we did that. We yelled "Man on the floor," [laughs] and then he could come in and visit. IG: 33:17 Did anybody think of contesting those rules, or you did not really... JS: 33:23 I do not know. I remember when they opened the Hinman complex. Again, Jeff might be able to answer this better than I, with him being on a Ju-judicial review board and things like that. At some point the decision was made, and I do not know by whom to allow that to be a co-ed dorm where- again, only women in one suite and one floor, but we were, we were allowed to make our own rules. And so, we called them the self regs, because somebody first asked me which dorm I had lived in over there. And I said, "No, we call it the self reg" so um, [laughs] we actually made rules that-that did away with curfew for women over there. That was the that was a first on campus when we first moved into the Hinman complex. So that is when it started to change while we were still there. [laughs] IG: 34:19 That is incredible. So, did you feel empowered? JS: 34:22 Absolutely. [laughs] Yep. IG: 34:27 So, getting back to Jeff, so how you know- how did your relationship develop? You know, did you become girlfriend and boyfriend in college or... JS: 34:41 Yeah-yeah. IG: 34:41 did you [inaudible] after graduation? JS: 34:43 He invited me on a hayride, they actually had a hayride on campus. Yeah, that was our first date. Was on a hayride. And, yeah, it was on again, off again. Because this is the first thing that came to my mind when you said open mindedness. Jeff was Jewish and I was Catholic. IG: 34:57 Yes. JS: 34:58 Um, and it was not seemed to be a problem for my parents. My father was Presbyterian or something, and as far as my mother was concerned, that meant they were a mixed marriage, because we used to, they used to make fun of me because my mom called it a mixed marriage, and to most of the kids on campus, a mixed marriage was black and white or something like that. So, but we have done that DNA test, and Jeff is something like 97.6 percent Ashkenazi Jew. I mean, there was no mingling, and his parents were beside themselves that he was going to hang out with a "shiksa." [laughs] And so it was on and off again. We go out for three, four weeks. And then he-he would actually call and say, you know, we have to break up because, you know you are not Jewish and all this kind of stuff. And then he called me again, and he said, you want to go see the movie on campus. And I would say, "Is this a date?" He said, "Oh no, absolutely not." I said, "Oh, well, then who else is going," "Well, nobody else." And I say, "Sounds like a date to me?" "No, it is not a date." [laughs] So that is what I thought at first when you said, open minded. IG: 36:10 No-no [inaudible] JS: 36:11 It really did not play a role one way or another. [laughs] IG: 36:16 So how long did it take you before he- before you became a couple? JS: 36:23 That- it was definite that was on again off again, I am going to say, a couple of years before he decided, okay, it is on. He will tell you; it was my red hair. [laughs] I used to have red hair that he just could not resist. I do not know. [laughs] IG: 36:40 So that that is, so that is, that is very interesting, and we are- I will ask him this question, but where is he from? JS: 36:52 He is from Long Island. IG: 36:53 From Long Island. JS: 36:54 We were different economic strata as well. His dad was a CPA, and did very well. IG: 37:01 Yeah. JS: 37:02 And that bothered his parents, too. I am positive, but. IG: 37:08 So, um, I think I am just thinking of what else I can ask you-- so-so you know, did your-your lives, your lives continued um, in Binghamton? You stayed both in Binghamton and your husband, found work here, and you settled down. Um, did you continue having ties with the college itself? I know that you have friends, but did you have occasion to, you know, visit for some kind of alumni event, or... JS: 37:49 We still do, we still do. I think that is probably how you found this. We still go over. Yeah um, there have always been plays to see, concerts to do. And as we came to know more and more people in the community, even they would be a draw. For example, my son's friend was in the music program, and so we would go over whenever he was doing a recital, even if it was for his thesis or something, you know. So, there were all kinds of reasons to-to draw us over there. We have done partnerships with they have partnership program with foreign students, and we have done that several times. IG: 38:28 Could you explain that? JS: 38:29 Well, um, you just [inaudible] as an alumni. They will send you things, saying, "Would you help out with this program or something?" And if you say yes, then they match you up with-with a student. For example, there was a student, Shen-Shen Zhou, who's now going for her doctorate here. Who- when she first came here from China, they said, "Well, she has no family in the area? You would be in lieu of her family." If there is a holiday, and you know, there is- campuses emptying out, have her over. So, we had her for Thanksgiving, Christmas, things like that. And eventually she met an American guy and married him, but we went to the wedding and-and there was another young lady from Pakistan that we got matched up with, and she is now living in Boston, and she is- we are together on Facebook. We do not see her as much as we see Shen-Shen, but. IG: 39:21 So-so um, you know, what was your activity with the students? Like, did you take them out to restaurants, or [crosstalk] JS: 39:30 We brought them here. IG: 39:31 You brought them here. JS: 39:32 Brought them here. [crosstalk] No-no, they lived on campus. IG: 39:36 But to have dinner here for the family. JS: 39:38 Yeah. Uh-hmm. IG: 39:40 Over what period of time? JS: 39:42 Depended on who they matched us up with and how long they stayed here. IG: 39:47 Of course, was this, after your- first of all, how many children and did- went to Binghamton, where did your- JS: 39:59 [crosstalk] our own children? IG: 40:01 Yes-yes. JS: 40:02 My son went to- well, he started at Broome Community College. IG: 40:06 Yes. JS: 40:06 And graduated from Ithaca- IG: 40:08 I see. JS: 40:09 -in communications. So, he works for Channel 34 news station- IG: 40:13 Oh! That is great. JS: 40:14 -here, he is a news producer. He is not on camera, but he does- he makes commercials and all that kind of stuff, which is kind of fun, because when I see really bad one on TV, you know those car commercials that are so hokey, I will call and say, "Did you do that commercial?" [inaudible] "Mom, we do whatever the customer wants." [laughs] "I know what you are going to say." And our daughter that you met her already lives about five minutes down the road and is a secretary in the guidance office at Union Endicott High School. IG: 40:44 Oh! JS: 40:44 So, they are both- both local, which is very nice. That means our grandchildren are local. IG: 40:51 So, they did not go to Binghamton University. JS: 40:53 No-no. IG: 40:54 I misunderstood. JS: 40:56 No, they were there. They know of it, but yes, no, neither one of them attended classes there. No. IG: 41:02 So apart from the foreign student program, do you look upon Binghamton sort of as a cultural center? JS: 41:12 Oh, yeah, for sure. IG: 41:14 After graduation. JS: 41:14 Yeah, we have gone to plays, you know, orchestra type performances, some alumni events. Yeah, whatever we see is going on over there. We will, we will stop by, and we are sort of a hub for all these friends I told you about who now live everywhere else, like we really got together this fall. For many of them graduated in 1967. Jeff and I graduated in (19)68 but some of them went through that- went faster through the trimester program, and so this was their 50th, so they wanted to do something for their 50th. So, we had a house full, and we all met over on campus and attended some of the activities there. IG: 42:03 So-so did you know, actually, did you have a vision of what your life after graduation would be like? Or did it kind of just fall into place? JS: 42:19 For me, I cannot. I know a lot of people plan-plan-plan for me, it just kind of fell into place. After Ecuador, I decided I wanted to do something with Spanish. I was not even sure what, but I sort of started volunteering to work with kids and enjoyed the teaching. And right about the time we were ready to graduate, or just before, they created the MAT program, and it was like an opening, okay, we could do that. We both managed to get jobs teaching-- Jeff more because- IG: 42:47 [inaudible] MAT program? JS: 42:48 Masters in the Art of Teaching. IG: 42:49 I see. JS: 42:50 I think they still have it. IG: 42:51 Yeah. JS: 42:52 And, I mean, it has changed over the years. First, they had Spanish, then they did not, then they did. I think it was back. But Jeff, more so than I was looking at the teaching end of it, because you could still get a deferment from the war for being a teacher, and that was important, so important to so many of those young guys. And that is how he ended up in it. I just sort of naturally gravitated toward it because I liked it. And since we both got jobs here and had decided to get married. Right after we got our bachelors, we just stayed here and finished our masters. And his parents tried to get him to go to Long Island, but every time he goes down there and we get stuck in traffic, or there would be long lines, he would say, "No, I really do not want to live there." [laughs] IG: 43:40 So, you know, how has- I am just wondering, how has Binghamton University changed over time? Harpur College changed over time in your perception of a better school, a better experience, or is there something missing? JS: 43:57 It is different. [laughs] I mean, there are good things and there are bad things, if you recall, one of the things I liked the best was the smallness of it and how you could get to know everybody. That is no longer true. But then there are a lot more opportunities in so many different fields than there used to be. There did not used to be a school of engineering, there did not used to be a school of nursing. There did not- you know, all these now that there was one in pharmacy, they never used to have all those opportunities um, but it is so big now you can get lost over there. So, it, it is different. I mean, there is there is good and-and bad from- IG: 44:36 Do you think most of your graduating class did well for themselves? The majority? JS: 44:41 Yeah-yeah. Well, certainly, all the ones we have kept in touch with- IG: 44:46 Kept in touch with. JS: 44:47 Absolutely. IG: 44:48 The ones with a strong liberal arts education? JS: 44:51 Mm-Hmm, for sure. IG: 44:53 So, what are the most important lessons that you have learned from the experience of going to Harpur College? JS: 45:01 Goodness, what is the most- lessons. Huh. [laughs] I mean, I certainly learned a lot about how to deal with life. Um, I learned it- opened up my world. Remember, I came from that tiny little family in Niagara Falls. It started really with the exchange student experience, but it continued with-with Harpur. I mean, again, I found a culture that I was not familiar with. They caught- they actually called me for a while. Maybe he will remember the funny little upstate girl, because most of the people on campus were from downstate, and even that in and of itself, I found bizarre that they called me up upstate when they said they were coming upstate, when they were coming to Binghamton, to me, coming from Niagara Falls, coming to a place that borders with Pennsylvania, is downstate, and they said, "No-no-no-no-no, you do not understand it all." If you are anywhere north of Yonkers, you are upstate. In fact, even if you are in Yonkers, you are upstate. [laughs] So it was a culture that I was totally unfamiliar with, and was honestly a little scary at first. It was a different accent. They were much more outgoing and much quicker to criticize. I was kind of inhibited no longer, but I really was kind of inhibited and did not speak up, and learned to do all of that there. So that guess that partially answer your question. IG: 46:31 Right. So, it is kind of an acculturation. JS: 46:34 Absolutely, yep. IG: 46:37 And I think you know, broadening experience. Um, what you know, what was the proudest memory from being at Harpur College? JS: 46:50 That I graduated. [laughs] IG: 46:52 That you graduated. JS: 46:53 There were times when I was not sure that was going to happen. When I saw that a 91 was a c plus, you know, that I made it, but maybe that sticks out, you know, more than anything else, and my father coming to me that and telling me that I was the first person in his family to have graduated from college. Now my mom did, but he met on his side of the family. So. IG: 47:21 Do you have any sort of concluding remarks? We still have your husband to interview. That is another [crosstalk] JS: 47:29 Well, see if he says the opposite of everything. [laughs] Third speaker: 47:34 I have a question. JS: 47:35 Sure. Third speaker: 47:36 You studied Spanish. Was there any Spanish speaking person in campus as a student at that time? JS: 47:44 Yeah. Third speaker: 47:45 Like someone from Spain or Latin America? JS: 47:47 Well, there was a fellow that lived in our dorm that we were friends with. I do not know what happened to a Māori Cruise. He was from Cuba. Third speaker: 47:54 Okay. JS: 47:55 We hung out with him. Yeah, I encountered other ones, but I do not remember their names. Third speaker: 48:01 [crosstalk] some- JS: 48:02 Some, but not a lot. Third speaker: 48:04 How about Black? Were there any [crosstalk] JS: 48:06 Some, some, again, not a lot. One of our best friends was a guy by the name of [inaudible], and he was from what at the time was Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and he had an interesting life. He was already in his 30s, but he was living on campus with all us youngsters, um trying to get his education, and eventually got his masters up at McGill because he needed a degree from some country within the British Commonwealth, so that when he went back to Zimbabwe, he could be successful, and I do not understand what happened to him, but he ended up in Belgium, I think so. I think there was no place for educated Blacks at the time in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe. I cannot remember exactly when it became Zimbabwe, but it was still Rhodesia when he was with us, but again, not a lot, not a lot. IG: 49:05 So, with the exception of you know, you opened a whole other set of questions, but with the exception of you who have, who had international experience before coming to college, do you think the rest of the student community was pretty, you know, white and insular, and mostly came from downstage. JS: 49:27 In my mind, a bunch of white downstairs. [laughs] IG: 49:30 Yeah. JS: 49:32 In my mind, yeah. IG: 49:33 So, there were very few international students or students of color [inaudible] JS: 49:38 I hope that is accurate, but that is how I remember it. Yeah. I mean, where are these folks? Go ahead, just look through the pictures. Well, this- these are Harpur College pages. At the time, Harpur College bought a place out in Halsey Valley--beyond Owego. And because Jeff was on the judicial review board, he knew who to talk to-to get the keys, and we would go out there, dorm room. I am sorry, you guys probably cannot see very much here. These are all Polaroids. Do you remember back when people used to do Polaroids? Jeff me, Jeff and me, Jeff and me. But this is at that place out in Halsey Valley. They called it Lake Empire. But what I am looking for- here we are--this was a duck- a boat race on the Susquehanna. Everybody had gone down there. Look at their faces. I do not know, folks. I am not seeing a lot of different ethnicities here. Well, there was Mach- there was Machana. We were good friends with him. He was, yeah-yeah. That is, let me see, that is Machana, yeah-yeah. IG: 50:55 For the faculty, yeah, international, did you have- JS: 50:59 Yes. IG: 51:00 Yes, so your Spanish department. Where did they come from? JS: 51:06 Senora Borgel was from Spain, itself, mostly Spain. One from Germany. IG: 51:19 Spanish teacher, Spanish- JS: 51:20 No, that was psychology, one from Switzerland. That was sociology. Where else they were from? IG: 51:37 Did having that kind of international, small presence, you know, connect you to the wider world, or change your view of- JS: 51:48 No not too much. IG: 51:49 Not too much. JS: 51:50 A little bit, but not a lot. Yeah, no, so you can see, yeah, you are right. They were mostly white, huh! Studying. Even when we were relaxing, we were studying. [laughs] IG: 52:09 You were studying. JS: 52:10 That is how I remember it. Somebody's always screwing up the bell-shaped curve pressure, but we are still good friends with him, with her, with her, her, both of them. They live up in Syracuse. Most of us met our spouses there. IG: 52:29 Oh, really. JS: 52:30 Yeah, kind of lost touch with her and her, but our resident, our head resident in our dorm, had was married and had a baby. That is that was his little one. His first name was Dean. Is that a bizarre name for a campus? Think about this. There were so many people that would say to him every time they saw him, hello, Dean Porter. And I know they thought the Dean was his title, not his name, but it was his name. He was not a dean. He was just the resident that had resident. IG: 53:07 Where was this photograph taken on campus? JS: 53:09 No, they, they took a break one spring and went, during spring break, went camping in the not Great Smokies, Shenandoah-Shenandoah area, down in Virginia. IG: 53:27 So, did-did anybody- you did not have any foreign study programs at the time at Harpur College? JS: 53:34 Yeah, they did go, yeah, um, one of the young ladies here, one of my roommates, went to- they had a program in Salamanca, Spain. IG: 53:43 Yeah. JS: 53:43 And, and they also had one in France. I am trying remember the name of the city. It will come to me later. Yeah, there were, there were programs like that where you could go for a semester and study abroad. But that was expensive. And, yeah, I never went because I did not have the money, yeah. IG: 54:02 Subsequently, you went traveling and you saw these places, or some of those places. JS: 54:06 Most of them, not-not-not Spain, so much. Jeff and I have been down- well, we have hosted many, many exchange students here in this house, long term exchange students-- mostly wrote rotary students, but from a couple other organizations as well. And we have had four from Brazil, so we went down to Brazil and visited them. While we were there, we went over to Argentina, just because we were close. IG: 54:29 Wonderful. JS: 54:30 We could see we have been to Mexico a whole bunch of times. I would go shopping. He would make fun of me, because when I was teaching, I would buy all the little trinkets on the street and bring them back for prizes and things in class. And I remember one time having a whole bag of them. And we got to customs, and Jeff and that guy said, "Well, what did you buy…? IG: 54:51 Yeah. JS: 54:51 -in Mexico." And Jeff looked at the guy and went, "Junk." And the guy just said, "Okay, I passed through." [laughs] So to this day, I still tease them about junk that was not junk, that was stuff for my students. [laughs] IG: 55:05 But you kept up your language through these travels. JS: 55:08 Yeah. So yeah, use it some that way. Yeah. We also get together with other Spanish teachers. IG: 55:14 Oh, that is [inaudible] JS: 55:15 Although we retired teachers are starting to lose it. We-we first got together when we retired, and we would speak all in Spanish during lunch, and then it got to be just a half hour. And the last time we forced ourselves to do 10 minutes. [laughs] It is not quite what it used to be, yeah. IG: 55:32 Well, I can understand that language suffers from misuse. JS: 55:37 I keep it up more on campus. IG: 55:39 Yes. JS: 55:40 When I go up to Cortland- and I go into the Foreign Language Department, we are much more likely to address each other. [crosstalk] Yeah. IG: 55:41 I see. So, any concluding remarks? Do you have any outstanding memories? JS: 55:55 No, the only thing that sticks in my mind, and I am not sure it is where you want to go with this, but how nice it was back then. You know how people are talking right now about this big deal, free tuition, free college, tuition, everything. We basically had that at Harpur College-- they only accepted you if you had an average in the 90s or so. And we used to take something called the regents exam, regions, scholarship exam, which no longer exists, and we all scored high enough on it that we all got a regent scholarship. And that regent scholarship paid our tuition. Our tuition was only $200 a semester, and but that meant for me, as a kid from a lower income family with five children, with just a factory worker dad and so on, I could go to college with no problem. All my tuition was covered. It was free. In that sense, room and board was more. I borrowed money for some of the room and board, and my parents paid for some of it, but it made it relatively painless to get through college, to get a college education, so that you could rise, in other words, you could have a mobile, social, economic society. And so, it is quite doable. It is quite possible. And I feel really strongly about that, that we could do it if we had the political will. I mean, it was done. It is not a first. We had it, [laughs] and I am very grateful for that, or I would not be here. [laughs] You know, IG: 56:52 That is what it should be. JS: 57:29 Yeah, so and Harpur College had that for sure. IG: 57:34 And most, do you think that most kids had- were there on scholarship, or... JS: 57:40 I' d say most of the kids on campus had a scholarship just because of our averages. Yeah-yeah. Jeff did, I did. IG: 57:46 Academic scholarships. Third speaker: 57:48 And that also made a huge difference, of course, campus life, because everyone was intellectually- IG: 57:56 motivated, Third speaker: 57:57 Same level. IG: 57:59 yeah-yeah. for sure. So that is it. Well, good. Third speaker: 58:05 Thank you very much. JS: 58:07 Thank you. It has been fun talking about it. You know, and trying to make me think of things I have not thought about them. I will leave that here if you want something. Oh, this would be a better indicator you were asking about ethnicities and stuff. Just flip through it. This is the, yeah, look, it looks all white to me. Gosh, I never thought about that. Yeah, holy cow. IG: 58:37 I think that was probably standard at the time. Do not you think? JS: 58:41 I guess, I guess how sad. Kept touch with some of these people. Yeah, you are welcome to skim through it to see what you can find. But they are, they are broken up by- IG: 59:02 Year? JS: 59:03 No, by majors. And so, I wonder if there would be a difference, depending on whether you are looking at humanities or sciences or I will bet you find a difference between male and female. Betcha-betcha [bet you]. Find most of the females in the humanities part. Third speaker: 59:21 Absolutely. JS: 59:24 Anyway. IG: 59:25 I love this. [laughs] JS: 59:28 You want me, let me go get- yes, that was the other thing too. Do you know a lot of schools at that time were still insistent that everybody dress family for dinner? We were Harpur hippies. They did not have a dress code. You could wear jeans. IG: 59:42 She breaks the mode. JS: 59:43 At night and-and that is a little bit what-what they look like. [laughs] IG: 59:48 Is it a little bit what you look like? JS: 59:50 Oh, yeah. Jeans- IG: 59:51 Glasses, jeans. JS: 59:53 We all, we all, we were all nerds. We all have glasses. We- IG: 59:57 She has sunglasses. JS: 59:58 No, yeah, that is different. IG: 59:59 [inaudible] JS: 1:00:01 But we were all in jeans, yeah. IG: 1:00:03 Boots. JS: 1:00:04 Yeah, I did not do boots, IG: 1:00:06 Yeah. Okay. JS: 1:00:07 Yeah, let me go get the other guy and relieve him. IG: 1:00:11 Thank you so much. JS: 1:00:12 Send him your way. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Janice L. Strauss Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in Broome County. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Strauss, Janice L. ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource Janice is a Niagara Falls native. She worked as a Spanish teacher in Broome County. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-12-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Janice Strauss.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2017-12-14 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 60:14 minutes https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/5112e9b6211742e8470d4ab3d66bed61.mp3 48d484734d2fc790298073eeef97224a https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/e6952d772bf48e6bc719239f4c6a2ae8.jpg 6dfb4cb3bb3c63d8ba910d55898efafa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-01-03 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Barry Polsky Year of Graduation 1967 Biographical Text Barry graduated with a degree in Psychology from Harpur. His career spanned different professions. He worked as researcher for a pharmaceutical firm; as a software engineer after earning a graduate degree in computer science. He drove a cab and before retirement worked as a high school math teacher. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni living in the Boston area Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni living in the Boston area Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Barry Polsky Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 3 January 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) BP: 00:03 Travel will be difficult. IG: 00:04 Travel will be difficult tomorrow. It is the snow is starting at four o'clock in the morning. BP: 00:10 Right. Four or five. IG: 00:11 Four or five. We will figure it out. So, for the record, please tell us your name, your birth date and where we are. BP: 00:35 My name is Barry Polsky. I was born on November 25, 1946 and we are in Somerville, Massachusetts. IG: 00:48 Where did you grow up? BP: 00:50 I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. IG: 00:53 And tell us a little bit about your upbringing and what was the occupation of your parents? BP: 01:04 Yeah, so my parents were both immigrants from the Soviet Union. They both came here in the 1920s separately, I was amazed when I found out, when I was young that they met here and they were both from the Soviet Union. And my- neither of them had much education. My father eventually became the manager of what we used to call an appetizing store, which is a little grocery store that sells smoked fish like lox and herring and kippered salmon. And he had these big jars of candy and big blocks of halva and cheese. It was a wonderful store. It was on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and he managed the store for 25 years, and when he was 60, he bought the store from the owner, and he owned it for six years, until he passed away. My mother was a housewife when we were out of the house. I think my mother got some jobs here and there, but basically, she was a housewife and raised us, and we were, I would say, lower middle class. IG: 02:22 Where did you go to high school? BP: 02:23 Midwood High School in Flatbush. IG: 02:26 I know where that is. Did your parents encourage your pursuing a college degree? BP: 02:36 It was mandatory. IG: 02:38 Mandatory. BP: 02:39 Yes. It was just assumed. Unlike my two older sisters, who could have done whatever they wanted, my parents did not push them in any direction. I was assumed. It was assumed I would go to college, and in fact, later on, when I left graduate school, my father said, I will be disappointed if you do not get a PhD. IG: 03:01 So, is this what you did? BP: 03:03 Yes, I went to University of Rochester for graduate school in brain research, psychology and brain research. IG: 03:11 Oh, my goodness. BP: 03:12 And I got a master's degree. And then at some point, I decided that graduate school was taking too much out of my personal life to continue, and so I just left after a master's degree. And actually, you may not, you probably do not know this, I came back to Binghamton, and I was a laboratory teaching assistant in psychology for a year and a half at Binghamton. IG: 03:41 So, what was your occupation, throughout the years? BP: 03:46 I have had many careers, several careers. So, after I was the teaching assistant at Binghamton for a year and a half, I went back to New York City, and I was briefly a programmer, computer programmer for AT&T. IG: 03:49 Tell us about it. What years were the- BP: 04:05 1970 I believe. And then in (19)71 I got a job as a research assistant at Hoffmann-La Roche [F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd], the big pharmaceutical company. And I worked there as a research assistant for eight years, laboratory research. Then I went to Israel for 10 weeks, and when I got back to New York, yeah, when I got back to New York, I realized I just did not like New York City anymore, and I knew some people in Boston, and I just up and went to Boston. I decided I want to live in Boston, and I have never regretted it. I love it here. And I kind of bounced around. Did not quite know what I wanted to do. I was a bus boy. I was the- I did various things. And then I settled into being a full time Boston cab driver for about five years. And when I was approaching 40, I decided that I needed a real career, and I read a book called 90 jobs for the (19)90s, and it said that computer programmers would be in great demand. So, I went back to computer programming. I went to Harvard Extension School and got a computer science degree, and then I worked as a computer programmer for about 15 years. IG: 05:36 Can I ask what area I mean, did your programming in-in-in the (19)70s, in the early (19)70s, [crosstalk] inform your, did you do- BP: 05:47 I did cobalt programming in the (19)70, business programming, cobalt program, right in graduate school, in the program at Harvard Extension, I learned C, not C plus-plus just C. IG: 06:01 Just C. BP: 06:03 And I got a job with a firm in Rhode Island doing kind of customer service and a little programming. So, what was their niche? IG: 06:10 I see. BP: 06:10 I did that for about a year and a half, and then I was offered a job up here in Cambridge with a company called Computer Sports Systems. And they were very interesting company. They had an interesting niche. They invented automatic scoring for bowling alleys. If you go bowling- IG: 06:34 Yeah. BP: 06:34 You do not have to score by hand. IG: 06:36 Oh! BP: 06:37 There is a machine that detects the number of pins you knock down, and it projects your score overhead, and that is on all with software. And this company invented that software that did the automatic. IG: 06:50 So, what was your role in [crosstalk] helped design. BP: 06:53 I helped design and maintain those programs. IG: 06:56 Oh! That is very interesting. Who were some of your clients? BP: 07:03 Oh, well, we worked with Brunswick, which was the main, one of the main manufacturers of bowling equipment. I think I heard of- Yeah, and actually bowling alleys, big bowling alleys, would be our clients. And after a while, there was not a lot of business anymore for that. So, they tried a big project to get the company going again. The project petered out. And when that project failed, they laid off just every programmer, except one, and I was laid off. And- IG: 07:40 And what year was this? BP: 07:41 19- Let us see, I think 2003,2003 or (20)04, and I did not have another an appetite to pound the pavement looking for another job where I looked at a computer screen all day. IG: 08:01 Right. BP: 08:02 And so, I wanted more interaction. So, after doing a couple of stops and starts, I decided to become a teacher. And eventually I landed a job as a high school math teacher at Everett High School, which is a suburb of Boston. IG: 08:19 Did you go through a special program? BP: 08:21 I tried to get into a couple of training programs, and I could not get in. But in one of the interviewers said, you know, you have an interesting resume, just send your resume out to people; do not go to a training program. So, I- the Boston Globe had an ad for Everett High School wanting math teachers. I sent in my resume, and two weeks before the years begin, they dropped me in for an interview, and they hired me the next day. IG: 08:47 Oh, wonderful. BP: 08:48 So, I sort of started right off the street, and I worked there for 10 years. IG: 08:55 Did you enjoy the experience? I did. I thought was very rewarding. It was stressful, and it was the hardest job that I have ever had, especially the first year, because I was checking homework one day, and I, you know, somebody was not getting it. And I said, "Well, did you read the book?" And he said, "I cannot learn from the book." So, I decided the book was not good enough, and I wrote my own book of notes for all the lessons that year that I distributed to the students. So that I was working, you asked my wife I was working day and night, but I got it done, and later on, it became less and less work as I had my lessons planned. Lesson plans- what grades did you teach? BP: 09:40 Pre-calculus, juniors and seniors. IG: 09:45 And what kind of neighborhood is Everett? BP: 09:47 Very diverse. IG: 09:49 Very diverse. BP: 09:50 Working class. IG: 09:51 Working class. BP: 09:51 Yeah. Um, basically working class and diverse in terms of their Haitians and Brazilians, and Central Americans and African Americans, and, you know, probably maybe 50 to 60 percent white, and then the rest very diverse. And it was very rewarding, but toward the end of my 10 years, it became more and more stressful, and I think the main reason was cell phones in the classroom. IG: 10:24 Was what? BP: 10:24 Cell phone. IG: 10:25 Oh, yes. BP: 10:27 You just could not get the students away from their cell phones. And I would have a rule. IG: 10:33 Right. BP: 10:33 But it would be very hard to enforce it, because if they start, if they finished their work, I would- they would- cell phones would come out. I would say, no cell phones. They would say, I finished my work. IG: 10:43 Right. BP: 10:43 It was very hard to control. IG: 10:45 Yeah. BP: 10:46 So, I was- when I retired after 10 years, I had a small pension. IG: 10:50 When-when- so when did you retire? BP: 10:51 Okay. Yeah. So, I was hired in 2006 and I worked until, I guess, June of 2016. IG: 11:01 So that is very recent. BP: 11:03 Yeah, I am retired about a year and a half, almost two years. IG: 11:06 So how are you enjoying retirement? BP: 11:10 I love it. IG: 11:11 You love it. BP: 11:12 I love it. Mainly. One of the main reasons I love it is that I found the perfect retirement job. IG: 11:19 Which- what is- and what is that? BP: 11:22 I am a big baseball fan and I am a Big Red Sox fan. IG: 11:26 Yeah. BP: 11:27 I have become a tour guide at Fenway Park. IG: 11:30 Oh, wow. BP: 11:32 Fenway Park gives tours to thousands of people a year. IG: 11:36 How wonderful. BP: 11:37 And I am one of the tour guides there. IG: 11:42 That is wonderful. That is wonderful that you found it. BP: 11:45 And then to make some extra money, I drive Uber. IG: 11:48 Oh, good for you. BP: 11:50 So, I am enjoying retirement. IG: 11:52 Yeah. BP: 11:52 Not quite as much money as I was making when I finished teaching. IG: 11:56 Yeah, you have a beautiful home. You live in a lovely area. BP: 12:00 Well, I lucked out in many ways. When I married Randy, she had a first husband, and she was able to buy this home in the 1980s when it was affordable. IG: 12:11 Right. BP: 12:11 So. IG: 12:12 Where did you meet your wife? BP: 12:15 We were acquaintances for a number of years in a Jewish congregation of the persuasion, called Jewish renewal. It is kind of like an alternative. IG: 12:25 Where is it based? BP: 12:27 When we met, it was based in Watertown, but we meet in rented spaces. Currently, we are based in Waltham. IG: 12:35 I know. BP: 12:38 And we were acquaintances for quite a while. IG: 12:40 Yeah. BP: 12:40 And in 2004 Randy and another friend, Mary were going to New Hampshire to canvas for John Kerry- IG: 12:49 Yeah. BP: 12:50 -and they asked me to come along if I wanted to come along. And I did. And at one point, Mary took a walk, and Randy and I were left in a diner talking, and we hit it off and started dating. And- IG: 13:02 That is wonderful. So, it is a relatively recent marriage. BP: 13:07 That is right, we were married. Actually, we were together for eight years before we got married. Oh, so we were only got married a little over three years ago- IG: 13:17 Only three. BP: 13:18 -and it was my first marriage at the age of 67. IG: 13:21 It is what? BP: 13:21 My first marriage at the age of 67. IG: 13:26 Bless your heart. BP: 13:27 Thank you. IG: 13:27 It is wonderful. BP: 13:28 Thank you. I am very happy. IG: 13:32 Wonderful. That is, that is really it. It warms my heart. So let us return a little less backtrack and return to your college days. BP: 13:47 Yes. IG: 13:47 So, I mean, do you still keep in touch with your classmates from Binghamton? BP: 13:54 There is one small group of classmates that I have always kept in touch with. IG: 13:58 Right. BP: 14:02 We were in the same dorm. We were in Whitney together. IG: 14:06 Right. BP: 14:07 And there were like three or four couples that we keep in touch- IG: 14:20 Yeah. BP: 14:20 Since then, it is not a wide range of students- IG: 14:25 Not a wide range [crosstalk] BP: 14:26 But- IG: 14:26 Do you ever get together? BP: 14:28 Um, maybe on big reunions, like I get together with them on big reunions. I think I saw them on the 50th and the 40th reunion. The union now passed its 50th. IG: 14:41 Yeah, I remember you at the reunion. BP: 14:44 Yeah. IG: 14:45 On campus. BP: 14:46 Yeah. But they get, generally get together on New Year's Eve in Pennsylvania, at somebody's house. But I usually do not make that. But we said, you know, holiday- [crosstalk] IG: 15:00 -together with the Strauss's? BP: 15:01 Yes. IG: 15:02 We interview them. BP: 15:04 Yes-yes, wonderful people. IG: 15:06 Because I- they mentioned a New Year's tradition in Pennsylvania. BP: 15:12 Right. IG: 15:12 That is, that is why I thought, Okay, so tell me about the campus when you first arrived. What was it like? BP: 15:24 Well, I love say, I always tell people when I got there, it was Harpur College. IG: 15:31 Yeah. BP: 15:32 And it had 1600 students. When I left, it was State University of New York at Binghamton, and it had 6000 students. There was mud and construction everywhere all during those four years. Tt was really an explosion. IG: 15:49 So, it really went through not even an evolution, but a revolution- BP: 15:54 Yes. IG: 15:54 -for four years that you were there? BP: 15:56 Right. IG: 15:57 What did you study at Binghamton? BP: 16:00 I went in thinking I wanted to be a math major. IG: 16:03 Right. BP: 16:04 But I took calculus, AP calculus in high school, so I did not take- have to take math the first freshman year. And during the freshman and sophomore year, I kind of had an intellectual awakening, and I decided that people were the most interesting things to study. So, I majored in psychology. Now I expected to study Freud and abnormal psychology and things like that, but the program at Binghamton was primarily experimental psychology, so I studied rats. IG: 16:11 Right. But that really- BP: 16:39 It was okay. IG: 16:41 Awakened your interest in the in the dis, in the subject. BP: 16:45 That is right. IG: 16:46 Who were some of the- do you remember some of the names of the faculty- BP: 16:52 Oh, that [crosstalk] IG: 16:54 -awakened this interest in you? BP: 16:55 Yeah. Well, my friend- my first psychology teacher, was Andrew Strouthes. Um, but I had been awakened even before I started taking psychology. IG: 17:10 By whom? By what? BP: 17:12 Well, I know that during the summer before my sophomore year, I read William James' psychology. I would get a book on psychology, and this one was called Psychology, so I decided to read it. And I was reading some philosophy. I took philosophy in my sophomore year, and loved it, and I decided I wanted to be a therapist. So, this kind of psychology that I was studying as a sophomore was not really what I was expecting. IG: 17:46 Yeah. BP: 17:46 But I still liked it. Then at some point around my junior year, when I- during my-my sophomore year, things got difficult emotionally for me. I struggled with depression some, and I- at one point decided that I had too many of my own problems that I could not figure out to help somebody else with their problems. So, I went from wanting to be a therapist to wanting to do brain research [crosstalk] IG: 18:23 That is pretty self-aware, I would say, for a young person. BP: 18:32 Mm-Hmm. IG: 18:32 So, did you feel supported by the community at Binghamton during the harder times? Or did you have friends that you could reach out to? BP: 18:45 Um, I was not good at reaching out. IG: 18:48 No. BP: 18:49 I was not good at getting support. I think I pretty much carried things on my own. Yeah. IG: 18:59 So, do you see yourself during those years as a loner, or were you, you know, in a group of friends? And... BP: 19:11 I would say I had friends; I had a small group of friends. IG: 19:17 And- BP: 19:18 And I was- there was something that was not quite a fraternity. It was more like a social club. It was called STO. IG: 19:26 what was that? Tell us about that? BP: 19:32 I think there were fraternities, and this was like a fraternity light. IG: 19:37 Yeah. BP: 19:39 And it was a little easier to get into a little less prestigious, a little less, you know, rules, and I liked hanging out with those folks. IG: 19:52 So, what would you do? Would you just, you know, hang out. BP: 19:57 Wow. Uh, I do not really remember too much else about that. Just go meetings, yeah, just meetings and talk. IG: 20:08 You had meetings and talks. BP: 20:09 Right. With uh, my- this girl, close group of friends that I had- IG: 20:13 Yeah. BP: 20:15 I remember going out to Sharkies and having speedies. IG: 20:19 In town? BP: 20:20 In town. IG: 20:20 In town. And did you have a car? Did you- did somebody have a car? BP: 20:26 Somebody must have had a car. IG: 20:27 Somebody must have had a car. BP: 20:28 Yeah, I did not have a car in college. IG: 20:30 Yeah. BP: 20:30 So, somebody must have had a car. IG: 20:34 You know so-so what were what was recreational? What was recreation for you, outside of Sharkies and the fraternity, or were you studying all the time? BP: 20:48 I was studying a lot. IG: 20:49 You were studying a lot. BP: 20:54 One thing that comes to mind when you say what was recreation is the first time that I was introduced to smoking grass. [laughs] Now you have to know that Binghamton was kind of like a- IG: 21:09 Party school? No? BP: 21:11 No, it was a druggie school [crosstalk] as its reputation was as a druggie school. IG: 21:17 That is interesting. BP: 21:18 And a lot of us had our first exposure to grass and acid at Binghamton. IG: 21:25 Was that kind of inspired by Timothy Leary? BP: 21:30 Yes-yes. IG: 21:30 And that was connected to your interest in psychology, right? BP: 21:35 Probably, I mean, it was more of interest in just having- wanting more experiences, wanting different experiences. I did have- I was not an acid head. I had one trip that was pretty intense, and one time when I took like a half a dose that did not do very much. IG: 21:59 Excuse me. BP: 22:00 I took like, a half a dose of acid. IG: 22:02 Yeah. BP: 22:03 And it did not do very much. IG: 22:04 Yeah. BP: 22:05 So, I would say I had one experience. IG: 22:09 And what was the experience like, if you do not mind sharing. BP: 22:12 Not at all. It was pretty-pretty interesting. It was, it was, it was good. At one point, I just felt like, this is great. I just felt so good. And colors were very-very vibrant. And I remember- IG: 22:30 Were you sitting, standing, walking? Do- Where were you walking? BP: 22:32 Both I would, I would mostly walking. I remember- I remember going into a room. IG: 22:40 In resi- in their residence? BP: 22:41 In the dorm, right. With a rug kind of looking like this. IG: 22:45 Yeah. BP: 22:46 And the pattern of the rug looked like it would rai- it raised up and started swirling around. [laughs] It was a psychedelic experience. But some of my insecurities were exacerbated, also. I remember walking during the trip, walking with a friend, and saying to him, you know, I am afraid. I am really boring you. So that was [crosstalk] IG: 23:13 Yeah, that is interesting. I never heard that. So, in the aftermath, what do you think of this experience? I mean- BP: 23:25 I am glad I had- IG: 23:26 Yeah. BP: 23:27 I am glad I had it. I do not think it did any damage. IG: 23:29 No. BP: 23:29 I did not do it enough to really do any damage. And I smoked several times, listened to music, but I never really developed a desire to make it a lifestyle or do it a lot, and now, as an adult, the few times that I have smoked with friends over the years, I do not like the way it makes me feel at all, so I do not do it. I am trying to remember whether we used to go to basketball games. We might have gone to basketball games. IG: 24:02 So-so, you would get, you know, I mean, you would get together with your friends. Do you remember some of the conversations? Would you talk about politics, the war? You know, the war must have been present on everyone's mind. BP: 24:17 The war was a big thing. The war was a big thing. I remember either as a sophomore, as a junior, reading a book about the history of the War of Vietnam, and just deciding right then and there that it was unjust. It was a really terrible war. And I remember a group of us drove down to Washington, DC for one of the marches. And we were, we were very against the war, and there was a bond there. We-we... IG: 24:51 Do remember- what year the protest in Washington? Do you remember? BP: 24:55 I am guessing 1966. I am guessing. IG: 25:00 And you know, was it many students, or just your friends, or who went from Binghamton? Do you remember? BP: 25:09 Well, we were in a car, so [crosstalk] IG: 25:12 It must not [inaudible] so large. BP: 25:14 -very much, but there were other people that definitely went down. IG: 25:18 Right-right. BP: 25:19 I do not remember whether any busses of students went down, I am not sure. But I mean, I can feel the emotion of that and even now, how against the war we were and how much we wanted to fight it. IG: 25:34 How was it like being in Washington with this sea of young people, I imagine. BP: 25:39 Yeah, it was great. It was really energizing, and it felt like we had to express our opposition. But it was frustrating also, because we did not really know whether this was going to make have an impact, although, in retrospect, it certainly had an impact in Johnson not running for a second term. IG: 26:02 Right. BP: 26:03 So, we had sudden effect there. IG: 26:05 Do you feel that you were politicized during your undergraduate career? Do you think you are a political or was it just that one instance? BP: 26:22 That is a good question. I certainly am very interested in politics. I mean, I met- I got together with Randy going up to New Hampshire to Canvas for John Kerry. So, when it- when I am and I am very energized about the 2018- IG: 26:42 By the way, went to a fundraiser for John Kerry. BP: 26:45 Oh, right. IG: 26:48 Yeah. BP: 26:49 I am very energized about the 2018 midterms and the 2020 election. I want to do everything I can. But I would not say that most of my life, I have been that political, you know, I have had my views and I have contributed money at various times, but I cannot say that I have participated in a lot of organizing. IG: 27:13 So do you think that Binghamton was kind of a foundational experience for you, or it was just something that you went through to get a degree. BP: 27:25 I certainly think it had an influence. I mean it, it put me in the direction of brain research and experimental psychology, and got me headed off and in that in that direction for the first 10 years of my life. IG: 27:51 Even though it was not really the psychology, you know, direction that you- BP: 27:59 envision of beginning. IG: 28:00 Yea., BP: 28:00 That is right. IG: 28:03 So, you know, there were women at Binghamton. [laughter] You know, did you date anybody? BP: 28:19 Well, this is, yeah, this is, this is very important part of my history. IG: 28:27 Yeah. BP: 28:28 So, I remember walking along near Whitney in my freshman year, thinking, you know, I am really, really happy, as long as I do not think about girls like I must have had some fear, some insecurity, that-that was troubling me. But, I mean, I was basically a pretty happy person. There was something called "Winter Weekend." IG: 29:08 Yeah, what was that? BP: 29:09 It was something that I think the fraternities and the social clubs ran. It was the middle of the winter term, and it involved parties and stuff, and it was organized over- around the weekend, and people had dates for it. So, I decided I wanted to go to that. And I had been hanging around a few of people, and I asked one of the girls I was hanging out with to go. Her name was Mary Jean and so we went. had a pretty good time. I did not much, have much a dating life in high school, so I during that week. I made out for the first time. But at the end of the weekend, we were on the way back to the dorm, and I decided that was it. I did not really want to see her anymore. IG: 29:09 You did not what. BP: 29:12 Did not really want to see her anymore after that weekend. So, we get up to the door of the dorm, and before I say anything, she says, "Would like to have lunch tomorrow?" And I ended up saying, "Well, okay." And I ended up saying, "Well, okay," for the next six months-- always feeling like I did not really want to be in this relationship, but not knowing how to break it up. IG: 30:41 Right. BP: 30:43 And that lasted until, I guess it was trimester. So summer was in the end of June- was that that semester, that trimester, and then summer was July, August, September, October. So, I finally did say- she was from Buffalo, and I was from New York, so I finally did say at the end, "I do not think I want to see you when we get back." IG: 31:07 That what BP: 31:08 That when we get back, I do not think I want to continue dating, yeah, and she accepted it, but then over the summer, much to my surprise, to start to miss her, and when we got back, we sort of hung out for a little bit, and then we started going out again. But this time it was very different. I came, kind of became dependent on her. IG: 31:33 Yeah. BP: 31:34 And it did not really work well. And during this time, I find myself getting depressed. And so, this whole-- I think when I look back on it, one of the reasons I became depressed is that during that time, when I was with her, in the first semester, I was not really being myself, I was not being true to myself, and I kind of got out of sorts that way. IG: 31:59 How? I mean, how did you it is a hard question, but I mean, how did you being yourself, meaning-meaning that you were not telling her what you felt BP: 32:11 Right and sort of like being who I thought you wanted me to be. IG: 32:16 Yeah. BP: 32:16 Instead of being who I was, IG: 32:17 I see, I see. BP: 32:19 And I did not really date anybody else that seriously for the rest of the college. IG: 32:24 Did you part as friends? Or did you never speak to her again, or when you finally parted company? BP: 32:32 You mean in the sophomore year? It was somewhat acrimonious. I think, you know, I, I think we were civil to each other after that, but never close. And as far as you know, I dated here and there the rest of the time, but never really- IG: 32:35 Yeah. Yeah. BP: 32:59 -hooked up with anyone. IG: 33:01 Do you think that she was very career oriented, or was she, your former- that first girlfriend? Was she looking for a husband? BP: 33:13 [inaudible] yeah. I think she was looking for a husband. IG: 33:19 Do you think that these were the expectations of young women at the time, even those who had gotten into Harpur College, or were they looking toward- well, I mean, you cannot say, you cannot generalize- BP: 33:36 Yeah, I cannot generalize exactly. IG: 33:39 But she was looking- BP: 33:39 I think she was looking for a husband. IG: 33:41 Yeah. BP: 33:42 And I think that it was a time when expectations were changing for women. IG: 33:46 Were changing. BP: 33:47 You know- IG: 33:49 Well, you mentioned that, you know, there was an expectation from your parents. That you would go on- BP: 33:54 Right. IG: 33:54 -with your studies, but your sisters could do anything that they liked. BP: 33:54 Right. IG: 33:54 So that -that-that is my answer, really. BP: 33:54 Right. That is right. IG: 33:56 At Harpur College, which is, which, I mean, had an excellent reputation, or, I mean, it had a reputation of being a very rigorous school. I do not want to put words into your mouth. [laughs] BP: 34:18 No, it was yes, it was. IG: 34:21 It was. BP: 34:21 I mean, once my- one sister did not go to college. IG: 34:25 Right. BP: 34:26 And one sister went to college for one year and then met someone and got married. IG: 34:31 Right. BP: 34:32 But, you know, the women that were at Harpur College already- IG: 34:36 Right. BP: 34:37 I think we are a little more career origin. IG: 34:39 A little more career origin, but not much. BP: 34:42 Yeah, I think not. That is right, they still were kind of transitioning from looking for a husband to thinking, "Oh, maybe I can have my own career." IG: 34:56 So how do you think- how did the transition manifest for women that you noticed during that time? Were they becoming- what more career oriented? Were they more, you know, did they, I mean, did kids have sexual relations at the time? BP: 35:23 I would not know. [laughs] IG: 35:24 You would not know. You would not know. You would not know. So, your-your-your buddies and you were not talking about that? BP: 35:30 Oh well, yeah, I had one-one friend of mine definitely talked about his kind of conquests. And I think I had a roommate who had a girlfriend, and they were sleeping together. Oh, you know, it reminds me of the Rule of, you know, a book in the door-door had to be open the width of a book, yes, and one foot on the floor. IG: 36:03 Yes-yes-yes. I have heard. BP: 36:06 And- IG: 36:06 So, did you witness that at all? BP: 36:10 Well, we talked about those- Yeah. -those rules. But I-I mean, I never attempted to sleep with someone while I was in college. I see so I would not know. I never tried to bend those rules, but I do, I am sure that there were other my friends that did. IG: 36:31 I see. So-so how did your girlfriend from that time, and does she have a name? BP: 36:40 Mary Jean. IG: 36:41 Mary Jean. How did your girlfriend and you spend time together? BP: 36:48 Well, we would have almost every meal together. IG: 36:50 Yeah. BP: 36:52 And we would study together. IG: 36:53 Right. BP: 36:54 And, you know, we would make out. IG: 36:57 Yeah. BP: 36:58 Uh, and maybe occasionally see a movie if somebody had a car, or maybe if there was a movie shown on campus. IG: 37:12 Did you mention Mary Jean to your parents? I mean, did you- BP: 37:16 Oh yes. IG: 37:17 Yes. BP: 37:19 Mary Jane was not Jewish, and I did mention that I was going out with her, and again, my father was not happy. IG: 37:36 Yeah. BP: 37:36 Yeah, that was uh- IG: 37:39 That might have had an influence. BP: 37:42 Could have had an influence, yeah. IG: 37:44 When you went home to- for the summers, what did you do? How would you spend your time? BP: 37:48 I would get a job. IG: 37:50 Yeah. Where would you work? BP: 37:51 I mean, it was an advantage that it was a trimester with July, August, September and October, because I- you generally lied and said I was permanent. So let us see. In (19)64 I got a job at the New York World's Fair. IG: 38:10 Oh, I remember that. BP: 38:11 Yeah, and I had the most boring job in the world. IG: 38:15 What did you do? BP: 38:16 I was a Pinkerton Guard, and I was stationed between two escalators, and my job was to push a button if anything happened in emergency. So, the most interesting part of my day was when every once in a while, somebody asked me directions to go somewhere, but it was very pretty boring job. IG: 38:37 What other, what other jobs did you have? BP: 38:40 The next year, I worked in a purse factory. I was like stock boy, and I worked there for several months, and then when I told my boss that I was leaving, he said, "Oh, I am really sorry. I was about to promote you." So, they wanted me to stay, but they did not realize that I was a college boy. IG: 39:04 I did not ask you an important question, why did you choose Binghamton to study? BP: 39:12 Basically, it was my third choice. It was my [crosstalk] IG: 39:15 What were your first two choices? BP: 39:16 Cornell and University of Rochester. So, Cornell, I did not get into and Rochester, I was on the waiting list. IG: 39:23 So, were these known as math schools? BP: 39:28 No- IG: 39:29 [crosstalk] programs? BP: 39:29 They just were- IG: 39:31 Well, I mean, Cornell is for everything. BP: 39:33 Right-right, and, but I did know in my senior year in high school that I wanted to leave New York. I did not want to go to Brooklyn College. I did not want to stay at home, and so I figured out a way to pay for everything myself. So, I walked into the kitchen in my home to my parents and said, "These are the three schools I am applying to, Binghamton, Rochester, Cornell." I did not give them a choice of Brooklyn College. IG: 39:50 That is fantastic. BP: 40:00 I just knew I could pay for it. I got a regent scholarship that paid for tuition totally, which was all of $400 a trimester. IG: 40:00 Yeah, times were different. BP: 40:01 Right. Right. I got a federal loan that basically paid for my room and board at school, and I did summer work to pick up, make my expenses, so I really was not dependent on [crosstalk] IG: 40:25 That is very enterprise. But what did they say anyway? I mean, What-what? I mean, you kind of put your foot down, and this is my- BP: 40:36 They did not have much of a choice. They-they said, "Are you sure?" IG: 40:42 What can they say? BP: 40:48 But I was very glad I went to Binghamton. IG: 40:53 So-so had you had your parents heard of Binghamton before you announced that you were, you know, this was your third choice. BP: 41:07 I do not think they knew much about Binghamton Harpur College at the time. IG: 41:13 Yeah, Harpur College. BP: 41:14 Right. I do not think they knew much about it. But by the way, you know what? I tell people that I went to Harpur College- They would say, "Harvard?" IG: 41:22 Yeah. Yeah. BP: 41:22 I would say, "No-no, Harpur College, it is in Binghamton." And they would say, "Way down in Alabama?" IG: 41:35 Yeah, I know I when I told my daughter I was accepting a job at Binghamton. She thought, "Birmingham?" BP: 41:43 Yeah, yeah. IG: 41:45 But Harpur College had a reputation, and before I mean, do you know that it was you know, what were its strengths? What-what-what did you know about it before you- why did you apply to Harpur College rather than to SUNY Buffalo, for example? BP: 42:06 I think it had the reputation of being the best state school. I think that was the reputation, and I did well in high school. IG: 42:15 Yeah. BP: 42:16 And I was fairly sure I could get in, but I thought that I was worth the best state school. IG: 42:25 Yeah. BP: 42:26 You know. IG: 42:28 Did you visit before- did you visit Harpur College before your acceptance or, I mean, did you first arrive to campus on the first day of school? BP: 42:41 I do not remember visiting. IG: 42:42 You do not remember visiting. BP: 42:43 I think, I think I just [crosstalk] IG: 42:44 You just went into it cold. BP: 42:46 Yeah, I think I did. IG: 42:48 And how did it strike you? I mean, you were a city boy. How did the country strike you? What did it look like? BP: 42:58 Well, my, one of my memories of the first day of being there, my parents brought me up there, and I remember my parents leaving the dormitory, and I think I looked out the window and saw them, and they saw me as they were leaving. My father went. So, you know, they were, it was hard for them to-to- IG: 43:34 Because you were a tight knit family? BP: 43:36 Yeah. IG: 43:37 Yeah. BP: 43:39 And uh, but I think I adjusted pretty fast. And uh, hmm- IG: 43:51 I mean, what? I mean, it is a country, it is fresh air, it is, I mean, it is- BP: 43:57 Well. IG: 43:58 -pretty, it was pretty rural at the time. BP: 44:01 Yes, it was. It was not until I was at Binghamton before I had any understanding of why people took hikes- IG: 44:09 Yeah. BP: 44:09 -you know. But until then, I really just did not understand. Did not get it. But the friends that I made were from Buffalo. IG: 44:18 Yeah. BP: 44:19 And they had more of a non-city, um, feel a non-city. They understood what it was like to not be in a city, and so they kind of introduced me to walks in the country, but it was I had to get used to it, but I understood that I was in college and I was not in the city anymore. I was there to learn, and I think I adjusted pretty fast. IG: 44:52 You adapted very quickly. BP: 44:54 Yeah, and I liked my roommate, that was very important too. Sort of bond with my roommate. IG: 45:02 Did you stay with the same roommate for four years? BP: 45:05 No, I was with him for at least the first year, and possibly two years. Yeah, possibly two years that I was in a suite with several people. IG: 45:21 With how many people? BP: 45:23 I think probably four or five. IG: 45:25 Yeah. BP: 45:26 Yeah. IG: 45:27 So, did you have your own kitchen? And- BP: 45:30 Yes, I think so. IG: 45:31 You think so. So, did that mean that somebody with a car went to town to buy groceries? BP: 45:40 I am not going to be much help here. IG: 45:41 Okay, you do not remember. Do you remember- but you-you would go to the cafeteria? BP: 45:46 Yes, definitely. IG: 45:47 So maybe there was not a kitchen? BP: 45:49 Right. Could be. And I do remember liking hanging out in the student center. IG: 45:55 At the Student Center? BP: 45:56 Right. IG: 45:57 And what- where was that, and what was that like? BP: 46:02 That was by what we call the esplanade. Is it still the student center now? The student union. That is called the student union, right. IG: 46:14 I see. BP: 46:14 But we called it the student center. We would go down and get a snack. IG: 46:19 Yeah. BP: 46:20 Get a burger or something. And uh- IG: 46:24 Did people, you know, I am just getting, you know- did you know- the outside time, the you know, the political climate, the issues of the day- BP: 46:41 Yeah. IG: 46:41 -did you discuss them? BP: 46:44 Yes-yes. IG: 46:44 So, what-what were some of the things that you were discussing- BP: 46:47 Well, mainly the war. IG: 46:48 The mainly the war. BP: 46:49 Yeah. Now I remember being in the student center when the Six Day War in Israel broke out, but I know the timing is right, because I think that was in June (19)67 and I graduated in (19)67 and I must have graduated in- I do not know why I would have been there in June (19)67 but I remember- IG: 47:27 Maybe for the graduation ceremony? BP: 47:29 Could be, could be, but I remember feeling like I want to go over to Israel and fight. You know, I remember SDS. IG: 47:35 Yeah. Right. BP: 47:41 And- IG: 47:42 But you were not part of it. BP: 47:42 I was not part of that, and I was not as radical as that. IG: 47:45 Yeah. Are any of your friends part of SDS? BP: 47:50 Not I remember. No, I do not think so. Um- IG: 48:00 Was there an anxiety about being drafted among your friends? BP: 48:04 Yes, definitely. IG: 48:07 Right. So, were a lot of your friends thinking of going on to graduate schools? BP: 48:15 Uh huh? Definitely. IG: 48:17 Yeah. BP: 48:18 Definitely. IG: 48:20 So, you know what- I am just wondering also the student composition were- you said you mentioned that, you know, there were students from Buffalo, but would you think that the majority were from New York City, Long Island? BP: 48:37 And yes, I think the majority were from New York City, Long Island, definitely. IG: 48:45 But you- did you gravitate to the New York City and Long Island kids, or to the Buffalo kids? BP: 48:52 Well, my friends turned out to be from Buffalo. IG: 48:56 Oh, that is just happened to be. BP: 48:58 Yeah. I am not sure why. IG: 49:00 Yeah. BP: 49:01 They were in my dorm. IG: 49:02 Yeah. Did you ever visit their family's house? BP: 49:07 No. IG: 49:09 Did anybody visit your family? Do you think? BP: 49:13 No, I do not think so. IG: 49:14 No. Well, do you remember any of the- how are we doing for time we still have it is, it is only 4:20. BP: 49:28 Yeah, we are fine. IG: 49:29 Rather, 4:20. BP: 49:30 Yeah, we are fine. IG: 49:31 Um, did your parents have any expectations of you going on to get a job after college or... BP: 49:42 No, they wanted me to get a graduate degree. IG: 49:45 A graduate degree. BP: 49:46 Yeah. IG: 49:49 So, did you get any direction from your advice- did you have a faculty advisor? Did you have a mentor who advised you about where to apply or you know, what was your interaction like with, sort of the academic community, I mean, with the faculty? BP: 50:10 Oh, another faculty member that I remember- IG: 50:13 Yeah. BP: 50:14 -was Peter Donovick. IG: 50:15 Yeah. BP: 50:17 And I think he encouraged me to go to graduate school in physiological psychology. Now there was another faculty member, Dan Fallon, but I do not remember whether I came- I became, I became close with him, but I do not remember whether it was as an undergraduate or after I had come back and was a graduate- I was a laboratory assistant. IG: 50:42 Yeah. BP: 50:43 I am not sure which period. IG: 50:45 But these three-faculty member, these three professors, had an impact. BP: 50:50 Yes. IG: 50:51 Did you ever stay in touch with them after graduating? BP: 50:54 No. IG: 50:55 No. BP: 50:58 Jim- trying to remember whether- IG: 51:04 What-what do you think you know? Why did they advise the schools that they did? I mean, what you said this, that one of the professors advised you to- BP: 51:16 [crosstalk] to go on, to pursue- IG: 51:17 To go on. Yeah. I mean, what do they think of your work? BP: 51:22 I think they thought it was that I was had a lot of potential. IG: 51:25 You had a lot of in-in research? BP: 51:29 Right in research. IG: 51:30 In psychological. BP: 51:30 Right. Because that is what the track that I was on. IG: 51:32 Yeah, I understand. And so, were there any small victories that you remember of as you know, a research assistant during those days. Where would you conduct the research? BP: 51:49 Well, I did a senior project. IG: 51:51 I see. BP: 51:52 And that was, that was really uh- IG: 51:55 What was a senior project? BP: 51:57 I studied the circadian, circadian rhythms of rats. And it was an ambitious project. IG: 52:06 Yeah. BP: 52:08 What I did was I had rats in an activity wheel. IG: 52:14 Right. BP: 52:15 So, they could, they could step out from their cage and run in an activity wheel whenever they wanted. IG: 52:20 Right. BP: 52:20 And if you tracked the activity, you noticed- IG: 52:25 Right. BP: 52:25 -that they had more activity, I think during the-[inaudible] nocturnal or not. IG: 52:33 Right. BP: 52:34 But they might have been more active at night. IG: 52:38 Right. BP: 52:38 And less active during the day- IG: 52:40 Yes. BP: 52:42 -or and then I tried to manipulate the lighting. IG: 52:44 Right. BP: 52:45 So, I put the lights on when they were most active. IG: 52:48 Right. BP: 52:49 Took them off when they were least active. IG: 52:51 Right. BP: 52:51 And they gradually switched. IG: 52:53 Yeah. BP: 52:54 And I did that for quite a while. IG: 52:55 Yeah. BP: 52:56 And then I-I put the light on all the time- IG: 53:01 Yeah. BP: 53:02 -and I saw, I tried to see whether the activity would revert back to the original cycle. IG: 53:07 Yeah. BP: 53:08 And I think it did. And I wrote about that, and I defended the thesis- IG: 53:09 It did. BP: 53:13 -stuff like that. IG: 53:13 Right. BP: 53:13 Yeah, it was, it was. IG: 53:13 Right. BP: 53:14 It was very good research experience. IG: 53:16 It was well received. Do you remember any of the accolades that you got from your faculty? BP: 53:29 No. IG: 53:30 You do not remember. So, when you went to the University of Rochester for your graduate degree, did you feel that Binghamton prepared you well? BP: 53:41 I think it did, and I must have done well, because Rochester is an excellent program. IG: 53:46 Yeah. BP: 53:47 It is a complete Center for Brain research. IG: 53:50 Right. BP: 53:50 And if I had gotten a PhD, I would have taken neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurophysiology, neuropsychology and neurochemistry. IG: 54:00 Right. BP: 54:01 Which, I think I did take all those courses. IG: 54:03 Right. BP: 54:04 And I was- I felt like I was being held back emotionally for my tendency to be depressed from- IG: 54:14 excuse me [inaudible] BP: 54:16 A tendency to be depressed- IG: 54:18 Yes. BP: 54:18 -held me back emotionally from really doing my best intellectual work. IG: 54:23 Right. BP: 54:24 But that if that had not been there, Rochester would have been an excellent program for me to get a PhD. IG: 54:32 Right. BP: 54:33 And I had a friend who got there who got a PhD and then worked at the UCLA brain research and had a very successful career. IG: 54:49 I am kind of taking it all in and uh- BP: 54:54 But Binghamton definitely prepared me for it. IG: 54:56 Yeah. Do you feel um, a greater affiliation for Binghamton or for Rochester? BP: 55:06 Binghamton. IG: 55:07 Binghamton. Why is that? BP: 55:08 I spent more time there. IG: 55:10 yeah. BP: 55:11 It has been four years there. IG: 55:12 Yeah. BP: 55:13 I have, no I- there is, there is one friend from Rochester that I have kind of kept in touch with, but I have many more relationships from with Binghamton students. And there is just something about your undergraduate experience. There is more spirit there and more identification. IG: 55:38 I absolutely agree. Yeah. Were there any, I mean, you had a very tight knit circle of friends, and at Binghamton, do you remember- and they were all- what, you know, white middle class- BP: 55:57 Oh, yeah. IG: 55:58 Were there any, you know, students of color? Were there any international students going to Binghamton to Harpur College at the time? Do you remember that? BP: 56:10 I do not remember them. IG: 56:12 So, it was pretty- BP: 56:15 Pretty vanilla. IG: 56:16 Pretty homogeneous. BP: 56:17 Yeah. IG: 56:18 Pretty vanilla. BP: 56:19 Yeah. IG: 56:24 You know, did you care about, did you read about- what did you think about, you know, civil rights movement that was kind of really sweeping through [crosstalk] BP: 56:35 That is true. (19)64 is civil rights legislation. IG: 56:38 Yeah. So, did you know about that? Did you kind of- were you aware of that or not really? BP: 56:47 You know, I must have been, but I do not remember. IG: 56:49 You do not remember. BP: 56:50 I do not remember being aware of it, like I was aware of the war crosstalk] IG: 56:53 Of the war because it affected you directly. BP: 56:56 [crosstalk] yeah. IG: 56:56 You know the war. BP: 56:57 Yeah. IG: 56:58 So how did you follow the events of the ward. Were you watching television? Where was the television at the Student Center? BP: 57:08 I think there was a television in the lounge of the dorm. IG: 57:12 Oh, I see, I see. BP: 57:14 Because I remember watching Kennedy's funeral on that television. IG: 57:17 That must have been a shocker. BP: 57:18 Oh my gosh. It is one of those things where you never forget where you were. IG: 57:23 Did you think that, you know what we were under threat, or, you know what did you think? BP: 57:29 Oh, no, I thought it was just so very, very sad. IG: 57:33 Yeah. BP: 57:33 We loved Kennedy. IG: 57:34 Yeah. BP: 57:35 We just loved him. IG: 57:36 Right. BP: 57:37 And to have that taken out from under us was very sad, and his funeral was on my birthday. IG: 57:44 Oh. BP: 57:47 That was the worst birthday I have ever had. IG: 57:49 Yeah. BP: 57:52 So, I remember that very well. I remember Kennedy's assassination, and following- IG: 57:58 Why did you love Kennedy? BP: 58:00 He was- he had such a great sense of life, you know, and sense of humor. We loved his wit. We loved his press conferences, and we thought that he would- he had his heart was in the right place. IG: 58:30 How do you mean? BP: 58:36 I-I think he uh- I think I remember him doing things that made me feel like he would care about minorities. I do not remember exactly what he did, but I mean, probably Johnson did more for the civil rights movement, even Kennedy might have had power to do because Johnson was so good with Congress. IG: 59:07 Right. BP: 59:09 And one question that we always debated afterwards, after he was killed, and then later on- IG: 59:16 With your fellow students? BP: 59:17 Yeah. IG: 59:18 Fellow, I mean, with your friends. BP: 59:19 Right. Was- would Kennedy have dragged us into the war like Johnson did? And you know, our sense was that probably he would not have. IG: 59:32 Yeah. BP: 59:33 But who knows? We just do not know. IG: 59:36 Right. BP: 59:38 But the war is definitely what dominated our thinking [crosstalk] my thinking. I do not remember. I think I must have followed the civil rights march in (19)65 and Martin Luther King's famous speech, but I do not have as much of a recollection of that as I am the war. IG: 1:00:01 Did you talk about politics at home at all? Was that something that was talked to the dinner table? What-what were your parents? Republican demo? BP: 1:00:12 They were Democrat. IG: 1:00:14 Definitely Democrat. BP: 1:00:15 Yeah. IG: 1:00:17 Yeah. So- BP: 1:00:18 I do not think we talked too much about it, but they were definitely Democrats. IG: 1:00:26 Well, you know, do you have any recollections more that you want to share with us about Harpur College and your experience and the impact that you had that it had on you rather. BP: 1:00:44 Uh-huh, yeah. IG: 1:00:52 What-what lessons did you learn from this time in your life? Maybe, as you put it. BP: 1:01:09 I think somehow the whole intellectual atmosphere of college gave me a real conviction that it was important to be intellectually honest, to really study something and be able to and just learn enough about it to really have an informed opinion. IG: 1:01:37 Just beautiful. Yeah. BP: 1:01:41 Yeah. I mean- IG: 1:01:42 And this was a principle that guided you through your life. BP: 1:01:51 Right. IG: 1:01:53 Did you impart this to your students when you were teaching? BP: 1:01:57 I tried to. IG: 1:01:59 What did you tell them? How did you translate that into terms that they could understand? BP: 1:02:06 Well, I was a math teacher. IG: 1:02:08 Yeah. BP: 1:02:09 And I would make- I would tell them, you know, do not take what I am saying just because I am saying it. Really try to understand where this rule or this law comes from. Make it your own. You know, nothing is true just because I am saying it. It all comes from logic and reasoning. And try to reason it out for yourself so that you understand it like I understand it. IG: 1:02:43 So are there any you know and you think that that you know Binghamton- BP: 1:02:54 Oh, yeah. IG: 1:02:56 -formed you in that way to be intellectually honest, BP: 1:03:02 Right. And I mean, I felt like my opinion about the Vietnam War was the most reasoned and intellectually honest opinion I have had almost about almost anything, because I read a whole book on it. I really learned about it, but where-where it started, and who was involved, and when I decided that I was against the war, I just felt like I had really-really good intellectual reasons for-for being against the war. IG: 1:03:37 I really like that. Are there any concluding remarks, as you have? BP: 1:03:53 I think Binghamton has a great reputation, and so I am very proud to be a graduate. Um- IG: 1:04:06 What would you say to future students who are listening or to this recording 10-20, years down the line? What would you say to them? BP: 1:04:18 I would say that going to Binghamton gives you an opportunity to dive into a great intellectual atmosphere and really exercise your mind and learn all kinds of things and make the most of the opportunity. IG: 1:04:37 I think that is wonderful. Thank you so much. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Barry Polsky Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in secondary education; Harpur College – Alumni living in the Boston area Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Polsky, Barry ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource Barry graduated with a degree in Psychology from Harpur. His career spanned different professions. He worked as researcher for a pharmaceutical firm; as a software engineer after earning a graduate degree in computer science. He drove a cab and before retirement worked as a high school math teacher. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-01-03 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Barry Polsky.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-01-03 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 64:47 minutes https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/026a78dfd480db03ef5dfacf38cf11de.mp3 61b61e00dc776830e0c0d9cd3a84ba5a https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/88bf9370d60be4733617198dfa9eb086.jpg a826d33b2138197db9fcd8ca4fd43b4b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-01-26 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Ronald Bayer Year of Graduation 1964 Biographical Text Ronald Bayer, PhD, is professor and co-chair for the History & Ethics of Public Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Medical Center. His research focuses on issues of social justice and ethical matters related to AIDS, tuberculosis, illicit drugs and tobacco. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and has been a consultant to the World Health Organization on ethical issues related to public health surveillance, HIV and tuberculosis. He worked closely with Dr. Mathilde Krim, the founder of amfAR. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni in public health; Harpur College – Alumni in medical research; Harpur College – Alumni in AIDS research; Harpur College – Alumni at Columbia University Medical Center; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in the New York City area Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni in public health; Harpur College – Alumni in medical research; Harpur College – Alumni in AIDS research; Harpur College – Alumni at Columbia University Medical Center; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in the New York City area Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Ronald Bayer Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 26 January 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) IG: 00:00 Okay, so please tell us your name, your birth date and where we are, right. RB: 00:06 So, I am Ronald Bayer. My birth date is January 16, 1943 just celebrated my 75th and we are at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City on January 27, 2018. IG: 00:25 Where did you grow up? RB: 00:27 Where? I grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, before it was cool. I grew up on 10th Street and Second Avenue. It was a lower middle-class, working-class neighborhood. My- one of my funniest memories of that period of growing up was that I thought when people got older, they no longer spoke English. They had a different language. They had a different language. As they got older so old, people spoke Yiddish, they spoke Italian, they spoke Greek. They did not speak English. They aged into that language. Because I never met an old person who spoke English. So, it was an immigrant neigh- you know, nation- neighborhood of immigrants, Ukrainians, Italians. My building was an apartment house. My dad, my mother, was a milliner who worked from the- she stayed home for a while after I was born. But does she work in virtually a hat making factory for making women's hats, and then eventually moved over to B. Altman's department store, where she did custom hats for people buying fancy gowns and stuff. And my dad was a civil servant. Neither of them finished high school. My mother was born in Europe and came here when she was six. My father's parents came from Russia, and my grandfather, who's an Orthodox Jew, lived with us. IG: 02:08 Where in Russia did, they come from? RB: 02:12 Oh, I am sure it was like Lithuania someplace over there. IG: 02:16 Russian Empire. RB: 02:17 Yeah, the Russian Empire. And, I mean, the most important thing about that memory for me is that, although my parents never went to high school, my mother had very high cultural aspirations, and she took me to the Metropolitan Opera when I was nine years old. And she, you know, I knew always that I was going to college. I did not even know college I did not even know college was, but I knew I was going to college. I went to Stuyvesant High School, which then was on 15th Street, is now down at the Old-World Trade Center area, where I met lots of other kids whose parents had, I mean, some had parents who went to college, but a lot of the friends were first gens. They think they call them now and-and so [phone rings] when I- this is my wife, hello, and I guess what leads into the focus of our conversation is my last years in high school, the-the demonstrations at Woolworths around the country were taking place, so the sit ins had already begun in the south. And I remember on Saturday mornings going to a Woolworth on Broadway and Eighth Street to picket. I actually I was supposed to be going to synagogue, and I snuck out and went to picket, and I ultimately had to confess, but I did not get much flack for it. So that is my growing up, and I-I knew I was going to wait to college, and my parents did not have lots of money, and some count- and I somehow, I knew I wanted, I did not want, to go to City College or Queens College, and we did not have money for tuition. And so, I guess a counselor of some kind that Stuyvesant said, "Well, this is relatively new school." It had not yet moved to the new campus was just the process of moving, and it is, you know, it will be a campus out of town. It will be very different from being in the city, but, and it turned out that it had become kind of a go to place for people who, like me, who had aspirations but did not want to stay in the city, and did not have the money to go to private university, I think I got a New York State Scholarship, which paid part of my tuition, and then I landed in what is it called. It is not what is the town where the campus is? It is not Binghamton. It is Vest- Vestal. I landed in Vestal in those years. Glenn Bartle was the president, and had a hugely strong, I remember the correct the first two-year curriculum was, you know, they had a kind of a required course called Literature and Composition, which had used reading from the Greeks all the way in the sec- through the second year James Joyce and whatever it was like, built, I think, on the model of the University of Chicago in places where there was a strong core curriculum. And I felt liberated being there, I kind of met people from all different- I mean, most of my friends, actually, in the beginning, were New Yorkers, and that is one of the things that happened about Harpur. At that point, a lot of New Yorkers, first generation college kids came there, and it was the teachers were great, and the classes were small and-and that is where my, you know, stronger political consciousness began to emerge. IG: 06:09 Tell us about that. RB: 06:10 Yeah, well, I actually have a memory, and you probably can go online to find the stories about this. I think it was my second year. There was at that point a committee of the Congress called the house un–American Activities Committee, which was investigating so called subversives. It had its heyday during the McCarthy era, but they really went after left wing people, and if anyone-anyone who believed in civil liberties and civil rights was appalled by how they operated. People before called before the committee. They invoked the Fifth Amendment. They were held in contemporary Congress. And somehow, I do not know how I learned about it, but we learned, I think, that a film about the house un–American Activities Committee called this is thing that I remember operation UAC. And it was a film basically designed to denounce the opponents of the house un–American Activities Committee. And we learned that it was being shown at the American Legion Hall in Binghamton. So, a bunch of us went and they showed it. And as soon as soon as we finish, I got up and challenged it. I had never done anything like that before. I started reeling off all the- kind of lies. And then a few of my other friends jumped up and did the same thing, and it created a tumultuous situation. We were basically told to get out. It made the front page of the Binghamton Third speaker: 07:43 Press & Sun-Bulletins. RB: 07:45 Yeah, right. It was on the front page. IG: 07:47 What year was this? Do you remember? RB: 07:49 It had to be either (19)61 or (196)2. Third speaker: 07:55 When were you in Binghamton, Harpur College? RB: 07:58 Oh, from (19)60 to (19)64. Yeah, I came in the fall of (19)60 so. And I was startled. I mean, I mean, one of the newspapers was more liberal than the others, but it really made it sound like we were wild and-and I actually got called into some dean's office asked why I had done it, and did I think my behavior was appropriate? And I learned afterwards that she said- RB: 08:29 I said it was important to do, you know, they are taking away our constitution. You know, it was linked to my concern about liberal leftish causes, because the only people the committee was going after were, you know, they went after people like Arthur Miller and, you know, writers and whatever. So, I kind of, you know, it, kind of, I got my- IG: 08:29 What did you say? IG: 08:59 Did you know about Arthur Miller? Did you know about these titans of- RB: 09:04 Yes, I did [crosstalk] I did because when I was growing up, my best childhood friend, a guy named Paul Solman, who sometimes you may see on the on the TV hour, on Channel 13. He does business reporting, but he came from very left-wing family. He was my neighbor, and his father was an artist, and he was actually the one to brought me to my first Woolworth demonstration, and he- Arthur Miller's daughter was in his class at the Choate School House [Choate Rosemary Hall], which was a progressive private school. IG: 09:45 Which daughter? RB: 09:47 A daughter of Arthur Miller. IG: 09:51 Because there is one who is married to Daniel Day Lewis. She may have- Yeah. IG: 09:58 SDS? RB: 09:58 I have never met the daughter, no but I spent a lot of time in Paul's apartment with his parents. They were Dodger fans, which is what left wing Jewish people were, and the mother smoked cigarettes and wore jeans. No one wore jeans in the 1950s and I got a lot of political education in their apartment, some of which I accepted, some of which I-I did not. I cannot remember when I cannot remember actually, whether I, whether I was in high school when this happened? Yes, no, this is later in college. I think there was a, let me see- I cannot remember, let me, let me just jump into something else. So, the other thing that was a kind of way in which people- there was already, when we got there in 1960 already a group called some socialist club. RB: 10:01 No SDS came later. This was a, this was a local group of- they were, they were like juniors and seniors when I got there, and it was called the Social of something club, and they were pretty far left, and they had a- an advisor, who is a very famous social democrat named Kurt Shell, who was a professor of economics at Harpur, and he did not always agree with them, but he provided them with- because he believed in freedom of speech and whatever so but all of us, the younger people who had just come up from New York, used to meet every Friday night in a dormitory lounge, I cannot remember what it was called Dingman hall or something, and sang folk songs. And this sang folk songs with guitars. I did not play guitar, but I knew a lot of the songs. And we sang union songs. We sang solidarity forever, Pete Seeger type songs, and so and that was almost a routine on Friday nights to get together and sing these songs. And we brought people in who had never heard of these things before, who came became part of our world. There are- I actually had a few names come up to mind. And whether you will ever find these people. I am not sure even whether sure even whether some of them are even alive anymore. There was a woman named Jane Lagutis who was in my class, who went to Hunter High School. A lot of people who were there were Stuyvesant or Bronx Science or Hunter so Jane Lagutis, who then became a professor someplace, think of English someplace in New York State. My roommate at one point was someone named Dick Sherman, whose father was a labor activist in the--it was called the local 1199 which at that point was mostly a pharmacy union. So, it was a kind of fantastic learning. And since I was going to be in political science, it all seemed to fit together. And there was one other big demonstration that I remember, and that is-- bunch of us on how we kind of found the bandwidth to do this. We-we rented a bus to go to Washington, DC for a demonstration. It was not an anti-war demonstration because the war was a done then it was a demonstration supporting an end to nuclear testing. And I remember, we went down on a bus overnight to Washington, and we got to- we stayed in a church someplace and slept. We brought sleeping bags or something. We slept on the church. And I remember, I cannot remember who it was. The person who greeted us at this church was, he was an African American minister who may have just been stopping by. I do not know. I keep thinking- it cannot be, but I somehow have this vague memory that it was maybe Martin Luther King, but I cannot remember if that is correct. So that was, you know, it was kind of exciting to be part of the beginnings, and the beginnings, really, that they did not- the big- there was no SDS branch at Harpur [inaudible] I am not sure when SDS began. I think it was a little later. It was at University of Michigan, I think. But we, you know, I kind of- it-it was what drove it was the Civil Rights Movement and what was happening in the south. And, you know, there were the-the kind of echo demonstrations that took place places like Woolworth and whatever. But I think some of my colleagues one summer, actually went to, I do not know, Maryland or Virginia. There was a guy who was very active. I was not really close friends with him, but he was actually more active than I-- his name was Martin Liebowitz. I cannot tell you kind of pulling up these names, I have not heard them in years. Again, I do not know whether any of these people are still around. You know, when there were, you know, Binghamton was hardly all left. I mean, there was, there were, I think there was a branch of the young Americans of freedom on campus. There were, I know, I cannot remember any [inaudible]. I know there must have been moments when there was strife between our people, and they used to be. There were never. There were not fraternities at that time at Binghamton. They were called social clubs, and the people in the social clubs tended to be much more conservative. They were like, you know, frat boys. And of course, we all smoke cigarettes in the dormitories and at our, at our, I guess, you know, these, we think, in the (19)60s, of folk songs called hoot nannies. And that was, you know, when people got together at Carnegie Hall or whatever, and there would be a lead singer like Pete Seeger, and but they were not, they were not just songs. They were kind of our political education, and there was a way of developing political commitment. And I never, I never felt the school, in any way tried to thwart us or suppress us. I mean, the event in Binghamton with the House on American Activities Committee, you know, it was bad publicity. I do not know if someone from the administration said we do not necessarily agree with how they behave, but we-we support their right to express themselves in-in tradition of American freedom, I do not think anyone ever said that, but I know why my face was splashed on the front page of the newspaper, and that was it. IG: 18:10 You spoke of these activities giving you your political education. Was this political- did this political education involve any awareness of restrictions on the rights of women, of gays, of people of color? RB: 18:36 Well, certainly people of color. I-I remember, you know, contemporary feminism begins in the late (19)60s. So, it is interesting looking back at the issue of, I do not think, and the-the first decision of the Supreme Court on birth control was 1963 I was already a junior that was Griswold versus Connecticut, where the Supreme Court ruled that women, couples-couples, had a right to have their doctor prescribe birth control devices. And in uh, so it is actually interesting that I do not think the women's issue ever came up in that way. I do remember something about men and women in those days, I was in a small class, and someone who became my kind of girlfriend for a while was in the same class, freshman class, and I was talking, and she said, "Do not you ever shut up?" [laughs] And in a way, I hear echoes of that now when women say, "You know, men were always the first one to take the stage, take to talk, and we have to fight our way onto the stage." Maybe it is not this quite the same, but so I remember this memory of this woman named Judy, and it was sort of, I guess what I was being blabbering, you know, you know I was, I was actually more like my mother than like my father always talking. So, and there was never an issue of gay stuff. I mean that too, all this, I mean this was the-the first major moment in in gay liberation began around the bar in the village. I think it was 1968 as well. And it was only in 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association decided that homosexuality was not a disease actually written about that. IG: 21:04 I know. RB: 21:06 So, I actually- so let me I actually think and so by the time I left, I really found- felt that I had my political wings, you know. And I felt so when I went to the University of Chicago for graduate school, and this is 1964 was the Goldwater election, I already felt that. And then we would get involved in demonstrations against the beginning of the war in Vietnam and draft and whatever I felt like I had already sort of been-this was not my first entry into politics. The other thing that isn't directly related to, you know, activism is that my education in terms of developing an interest in sort of socialist thought began in college. I, you know, I read my first marks. I read, you know, I just- it just seemed, you know, this is what, this is what you did. And I was a political scientist, and I took political theory classes, and I took, you know- IG: 22:31 This is at Binghamton? RB: 22:33 In Binghamton, mm-hmm. So, it all fit together, and that is why I went on to graduate school at the University of Chicago, but I remember feeling that I came to Chicago, which is a very powerful intellectual tradition. I came to Chicago from a place that was pretty unknown in those years, and I had classmates who were from Harvard and Yale and Princeton and, you know, Berkeley, I felt I came there intellectually and academically completely- I never felt, "Oh, I have a lot of catching up to do." And that was a great gift. I mean, you know, for a person who's the first person in his family to go to college, and who-who- Oh! And, I mean, I- how could I miss this? Of course, it was my, you know, my junior year when Kennedy was assassinated. And I remember that. I do not remember any politics around that. I uh- IG: 23:48 How-how so? RB: 23:49 Well, I mean, I-I remember the day I had- actually, there was a bank across from the campus at that point, on Vestal Parkway--was that, what it is called. And I was going to get some money out of the bank and-and nothing had happened yet. And the way back, I- someone was lowering the flag, and I could not understand what it was. And I went to the Student Union, and there, you know, and there is actually a picture of me in the yearbook of that year with a friend in the kind of cafeteria just staring at each other blankly listening to the news. And I remember those- the following days. I remember actually being it was around Thanksgiving time, and I remember being at a someone was- he was already living he had an apartment in town, and we were watching TV, and Oswald was being transferred from one prison to the other. Then Ruby came and shot him. And we watched this thing on TV, was an unbelievable thing to watch, you know, but I do not remember any- I do not actually remember. And I remember watching the funeral and stuff, but I do not remember, you know, what the political, what the political fallout was? I actually the other political, momentous political event that I remember in those years was the confrontation over Russian missiles in Cuba. And I remember really feeling that when I went to sleep that night, would we be would I wake up? It was very scary. I guess Russian ships were moving towards Cuba. America said, "If you cross this line," whatever, and then there was this backing off. And yes, we felt there was a lot of- I know among us, there was a lot of sympathy for Cuba and the Cuban Revolution. Cuban revolution is 1959 I think, or 1960 so I remember, I remember, you know, Cas- you know, those opposed to Castro, who are Cubans all seem to be like fascist reactionaries, I do not know. And the idea that the US government was going to try to overthrow the Cuban government, and they tried to with a- you know, with an invasion, that was a big moment of, I do not know what kind of demonstrations we had, but I know it was a big topic of anger and anxiety among us. IG: 26:50 Were there any Cuban students that you know of at Harpur? RB: 26:53 It was, it was very [crosstalk] It was very white. RB: 26:58 A few Asians. Actually, a woman who went to Hunter High School, actually also who was first generation was there. Her last name was, I think it was Dottie Chin. I do not remember. It is amazing what you can you know, so and I did not- after graduating, most of us sort of dispersed. I did not- I remained friends for a while with one of my roommates who I think lives in the Albany area now--his name was Robert Puzak. I what- one of my roommates died many years ago. He was- actually came from a Republican family. I had never met a Republican, to tell you, he came from a Republican family upstate. He had had polio as a child. He was a brilliant English major. It was funny though he when he took them to go to graduate school, when he took the GRE, he got like 99th percentile in English, and he got like fourth percentile in math, no one had ever seen such a low score. And I, he did fine. He went on to someplace special, you know. So that was it. And I kind of, I, I am sorry I lost touch with those people. But you know- IG: 26:58 Very white. IG: 28:42 How would your classmates remember you from that time? RB: 28:56 I think outspoken. I actually, I, you know, I-I-I-I think enough of-of oral history and the pitfalls of oral history not to kind of make things I feel I something about the-the wonderful wonders of oral history, but also some of the pitfalls of oral history, where people feel kind of impelled to make up a few stories that seem maybe they have not, maybe they did not. I do not want to do that because I think that- I mean, I think it is fair to say that I was a central figure in the, in the politics, I actually sort of interesting. It is a little different. But the- a year, my third year, I was a junior, a cousin of mine came to Harpur, and he was, he was not as political as I, but he- one spring day, who had been a long winter, he called together a bunch of people, and they had the first stepping on the coat celebration. His name was Larry Kressel. He unfortunately died some years ago of cancer, and there are pictures of him and people throwing that coat on the ground and jumping on them. So, it was a different kind that was, in a way, a celebration of life, you know- IG: 31:07 Celebration of spring. RB: 31:08 Yeah, yep. And I thought that was great. And he had, that was the class that had Andy Bergman in it, the filmmaker who might be worth trying to get. I do not know if he is Andy Bergman lives in New York. He was, he was the filmmaker who made Young Frankenstein. He made, oh, he was, at one point, like up, you know, among the- I would not say it, you know, sort of, he sort of seemed like the Woody Allen and his age or something. Third speaker: 31:39 Is it more independent movies? RB: 31:42 No, it was- he was, you know, he worked with Mel Brooks and-and, oh, Mel Brooks was in his movies. And if you look up his in Bergman, B, E, R, G, M, A, N, Andrew, and he might even remember me, because we were moved in the same sort of circles. IG: 32:07 What did the campus look like at the time? RB: 32:10 It was very small. There was where the library building was- it was the library and the faculty offices. It was only two stories high, across from it, sort of an L shaped brick building was the only where all the classes were, and there was the science building. IG: 32:45 Where was the science building in relation? RB: 32:47 it was between the academic building and the library. Everything was very spare. There were no- I think at some point we began to have the idea of planting new trees, because it seemed it was raw looking. I mean, all the buildings were new, and the dormitories were fine, and each dormitory there were four dormitories, then two women, two men. Dingman Hall, cannot remember the names of the other places, and they all had a big lounge. IG: 33:18 Is that where you spent most of your free time- RB: 33:22 No, the-the student, student union, where the cafeteria is- was, and there was a, oh yes, this is no longer there, I am sure. When you came down the central, what was then the central drive, there was a little bridge that separated the- that linked the Student Union and the dormitories, and it was supported by four pillars that were unusual because they-they were, they were normally these things supporting a little bridge. It was called the Esplanade, not there anymore. And so, the normally, you have a pillar that looks like this. You know, narrower top. No, yes, this is normally what you think of. And this had it came down like this. And it was just a design decision. It was not a very beautiful place. But I-I actually, you know, and I remember I had never seen fall leaves before. I mean, there are fall colors in New York, but not like I remember how incredible the hills were around the campus, you know, in the fall, it was just incredibly beautiful. So, you know, I mentioned that I had brought- I saw one of the groups I helped to found is called the International Relations club. Why we called that? I do not know. It was basically a way of talking about the political club. And we invited speakers to come. So, after many-many efforts, I-I contacted Eleanor Roosevelt, and I said, we would love you to come to talk and-and she said, you know, I guess I was in touch with her secretary, who said, Mrs. Roseville, speaking fee is, I do not know what she said, $3,000 $1,200 something like that. It was a long time ago, so that was a lot of money. And I said, unfortunately, we do not have any money we can pay for her airfare to-to Binghamton. And finally, I was persistent enough that she finally said, yes. IG: 35:59 How were you persistent? RB: 36:00 I kept writing, take no for a no, yeah. And I-I just said, you know, I described who we were, the nature of our students, the kind of students at the school. And she thought point, was writing a column, a daily column, for the New York Post from the New York Post was not a rag, and it was called my day. So, we got her, I do not know how we there was another person I remember bringing up who was. I cannot remember anything about her speech, no, but I remember her saying- IG: 36:40 What was her demeanor? RB: 36:42 Oh, she was talking about her years in the founding-founding of the UN that was it. Of course, we gave her corsage. And I actually remember that the person who ran the cafeteria made a special dinner for us, about 12 of us, and the main course was Chicken Kiev, which was, I do not even know chicken- I think it is, it is a breast of chicken wrapped around butter or something. So, the other person, we and I, actually, is it? I have a picture of it someplace. There was a very prominent left-wing journalist, not an apologist for the Soviet Union at all, but quite left, named I. F Stone, and he had a weekly newsletter. I. F. Stones Weekly, and we brought him to campus. So, we, I guess we tried to bring dissident- I mean, I do not know how many we did. I cannot remember, but we wanted to bring somewhat dissident voices to campus, and so those are the- RB: 37:08 Was the president there to meet Eleanor Roosevelt? RB: 37:59 I certainly know the dean was I at the airport, actually, and it was held the- her speech was held in the nicest, actually, I thought the nicest space on the old camp that campus those things was the auditorium. And there was a very beautiful auditorium, it seemed to me. It was wood peddled, sort of a little semicircular. It was in what was then the only academic building. It was out of using the gym, which, you know, sorry, big but ugly. So, I have stone whatever, and that is about it. I think I am trying to- no- so the years I was there was- they were the Kennedy years--right Kennedy and then Johnson becoming president in 1963 or (196)4. Oh, I do, yes. Oh, it did not happen there, but I that was also it was during that period that the-the big civil rights march on Washington took place, and we were actually shifting. Harpur had been on a semester system, and for reasons I never quite understood. They decided to go to a trimester system. So, in that transition year, which was actually the transition between my junior and senior years, there was a longer break, longer summer break, and I got a job, I do not know, some kind of stupid summer job in New York City-- just to make some money, and I remember taking a train down to the March on Washington, and I remember Martin Luther King's speech. I do not recall actually having met my Harpur colleagues while we were down there on the march. So, I do not think I was in touch with them about let us meet up or something. Well, there were no cell phones. The idea of meeting up in a crowd was a little different. So, I actually, I mean, I know this isn't about, you know, celebrating. I mean, I guess oral history sometimes we are about celebrating. But I-I think I was given the academic opportunity of a lifetime, and I sort of grew up. I, you know, started in college when I was, what, 16-17, I was 21 when I was just different. And- IG: 40:53 Do you remember any, any professors who made a particular impression on you? Were they- RB: 41:00 Yeah, well, they are all dead. No, yes. There was actually my Literature and Composition teacher- my first year was someone named. His last name was Huppe, H, U, P, P, E. RB: 41:04 And he was fantastic. He was a Chaucer scholar. I remember that. And I remember learning from him how to recite the first lines of [citing in Middle English]. And I mean, what is this Middle English stuff? So, he was my teacher. And to have a man like that with 15 or 18 students in a room just discussing literature was fantastic, and I had a- there was an economist whose name was Peter Vukasin, who was really a great teacher. It was another teacher I- it is odd that I cannot remember the names of my political science teachers, although that was my field, I remember one of the things, one of the things that was interesting about that period is in every- well, there are only four dormitories. There was an apartment for a faculty member, and the dormitory I lived in, the professor was named- he was an English professor. I never had him as a teacher. His name was Peter Mattheisen [Paul Mattheisen], and it was a thing that the door of the faculty member department was virtually always open in the evening. So, I remember spending a lot of time hanging out down there. I think I do not have anything more to say. So, who are most of the people you are trying to reach out to kind of post me, after me, or...? IG: 41:04 Yes. IG: 43:26 They are graduates from the 1960s. RB: 43:28 Okay. IG: 43:29 So, it is a big range. We started with 1967 because there was a reunion for that year last year. So, we tapped some of those people, and we have conducted about- Third speaker: 43:48 Six, seven, I think. IG: 43:48 -interviews. RB: 43:50 Was that [inaudible] who had organized that reunion from the (19)67? Do you know? IG: 43:57 Of (19)67? RB: 43:58 Yeah, the one you said, the first- IG: 43:59 Well, the Alumni Association, but the Alumni Association, but the library, also had a luncheon for these graduates. Just tell us a little bit about what you do? RB: 44:19 Now? IG: 44:19 Now, and just tell us about some of the high points of your career. RB: 44:27 So, after graduating from Harpur, I actually was lucky enough to get a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, and which supports graduate study, and I went to the University of Chicago for a PhD in political science. It was- those were heavy political days, but I and I was also a pretty devoted student, and um, I um, I-I became very interested in-I mean, I remember being at the University of Chicago and having professors like Hannah Arendt. You know when Hans Morgenthau and Leo Strauss, who's a founding figure of the very conservative intellectual, but I remember studying some Socratic dialog with him in a class where they went over every line and explicated it. And I-I got very involved in politics, actually. And I actually in one, one of the years, I guess, was 1967 there was a demonstration--it was before the Democratic Convention year. But I got was an anti- I guess it was an anti-war demonstration, yes, and in one of the main squares in Chicago, and they were trying to block us, and I was trying to move forward. Anyway, I got arrested, and I was clubbed by a cop, and I had my hand broken, and I was okay, but, you know, but it was not okay. Actually, I was in jail for about eight hours, and my-my school, my chair, the chair of my department, was very supportive, and they provided us with lawyers and but I kind of lost. Then I- my feet- I had committed myself to doing work on African politics, nations that were becoming liberated. And I- that was the moment was happening, Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Houphouet-Boigny in Ivory Coast or whatever. And I-I went to Africa. I was- I remember my advisor said, "Ron, if you are not going to do this dissertation, do not go. Do not do it for me. Do not go. Take a breath. Think about it. I said "No-no-no, I am going. I am going, I am going." And I went. And I really was completely- I did some research, but my heart was not in it. There were all these demonstrations back home against the war, and I wanted to do it. I actually organized demonstrations in Accra outside the American Embassy. Finally got invited to dinner by the ambassador, who basically told me to stop. So, my academic career took a kind of a bump, and I came back, and I spent two years trying to write the dissertation on trade unions in Ghana, and I just could not do it. And you know, those are the days of note cards. I had piles of note cards at my desk, and I would keep pushing them forward and pulling them forward at that point just because of [ talking to his colleague] IG: 47:43 1015 minutes more. RB: 48:03 Yeah, let us check I have- it is in. I make- what I may have to do is ask you to stay here, and then I will come- do you have an appointment right after this? IG: 48:10 Not right after, we have an appointment at 1:30 on, I think 88th on Riverside. RB: 48:16 Oh, you are going to be there. I live on 88th on Broadway. [laughs] IG: 48:18 Oh really. Next door neighbors. He is another professor, but I am not quite sure, but he is not affiliated with Columbia. RB: 48:28 Uh-huh. Well, the only one I know who lived here is a guy who taught English at [inaudible] I do not think he went Harpur. IG: 48:35 His name is John Spiegel. RB: 48:37 Oh, I know John Spiegel. IG: 48:38 Really? RB: 48:39 Yes, he was, he was a friend of Larry Kressels and whatever. Of course, you said that, [inaudible]. So, it is a meeting now, James [talking to his colleague]. Okay, so anyway, so anyway, I-I happened to get a job working one of the early methadone maintenance programs in New York. I knew enough my brother was sort of involved with drugs, and he knew a lot of people involved. So, I got involved working. I never wrote it about Africa. Okay, so I got a job working in the- this method on maintenance program, and suddenly I realized, oh, this is really interesting, drug use, psychiatry, law, criminal law, criminalization. And ultimately, the idea came to me about writing a dissertation about that. I studied, none of it in graduate school, and I wrote a very good dissertation. And when I finished, it was- I started graduate school 1964 was 1973 when I finished, but I have been working in this drug program for two years. I got an eventually, got a 1979 I got a post doc at a place called the Hastings Center, which was a bioethics research institute. I had never studied bioethics before, but I was interested in relation with law and psychiatry. That then I feel like Forrest Gump. That then led me to the- I got at this Hasting Center I- when I started working there, someone said, you know, you are really interested in law psychiatry, how values shape psychiatry. I have a great idea for a book, the decision of the American Psychiatric Association to declassify homosexuality as a disease I did not know anything about it. He said, I know all the major players, and I will get you access to them as for interviews. And so, I did it. It was my first book about homosexuality in American psychiatry. And it was sort of, kind of became entailing the history of that moment. It was a landmark. It, you know, built on gay liberation, women's movement, whatever. And then I- while working at the Hastings Center, it was 1983-(19)82 someone came to us who was on the board of trustees and said, there was this new disease. She was a scientist working at Sloan Kettering. This new disease has many ethical issues. The research ethics are incredibly complicated. Her name was Mathilde Krim. Mathilde Krim just died. IG: 51:24 I know, I know, I know who that is. RB: 51:26 And I just, actually, just went to her memorial service. So, Mathilde Krim gave us our first grant to do ethical work on HIV. I then became completely involved in writing about ethical issues, and all my work focused on HIV. [side conversation with colleague regarding meeting time] All my work and I actually got to know Mathilde Krim quite well. I- it is like she was both a formidable activist, a brilliant scientist, and very-very rich. Her husband owned, United Artists, the film company, and then he owned another film company. They had a townhouse on 69th Street between Madison Park. It is like out of movies. He walked into this house, and there was a spiral staircase, and there was a butler who opened the door, and there was a movie theater on the ground floor that is had about 80 because [inaudible] was a business. So, because she supported my work a lot, and then she created a foundation called the American Foundation for AIDS Research that a lot of my work was funded. IG: 51:26 Were you attached to any university at that point? RB: 51:39 No, I was still working at the Hastings Center. This is the final piece of luck. I had been asked to give a talk at the board meeting of Planned Parenthood in Washington, DC in 1986 or (198)7, I cannot remember the year, it was the first talk anyone had presented on the issue of women and HIV. And I knew something about the issues because of issues around pregnancy and the transmission of virus from mother to child. At any rate, in the audience was sitting who was on the Board of Trustees of Planned Parenthood [inaudible] named Alan Rosenfield. Alan Rosenfield was the dean of this school. He came up to me after the talk and said, "Have you ever thought of coming to Columbia?" I said, "Actually, I am interested in the possibility of moving. I have been at the Hastings Center for nine or 10 years. Yes, I am interested." "Well, come see me in my office." In the meantime, uh- and so when I was trying to figure out what to do, I went to see Mathilde Krim, and she and Arthur had dinner for me in their palace, and said her husband was on the board of, he was on the Board of Trustees of Columbia. So, he said, I think you should go to Columbia. So, it did not, it was not just a show over. I mean, I, you know, I had written a lot, but, you know, this depart the department I am in said, what was academic credentials? He does not do traditional work and whatever, but they- I am basically, Rosenfield basically [crosstalk] IG: 54:35 Do- done your PhD by then? RB: 54:37 Oh, yes, I finished my PhD. And I was actually, I had finished my finished my PhD in (19)76 and I worked at the Hastings Center until (19)80 until- I was a person. Oh, I finished. I had a postdoc, which was a year, and I am coming to the end of the year. I had already my book is already in galleries, and the director, a guy named Dan Callahan, says, "What are you doing next year?" I said, "I am not quite sure." He said, "Would you like a staff position here?" So again, look, and I grabbed it, and that opened the whole world of bioethics to me, which led to the research on HIV, which led to, we did the no one had done work on the ethics of infectious disease until that point, because infectious disease was not an issue in the US. Bioethics was all about the clinical relationship. So, I, so then I came to Columbia in 1988 so it is now 30 years. Yeah, 30 years. And I came with the idea of teaching a course, oh, I came with a grant from the American Foundation for AIDS research, a five year, you know, these schools require a lot of grant money, a five-year fellowship to continue work on the ethics of AIDS. So, I came here, and I had to think about what courses I was going to teach. So, I decided I would teach a course on the ethics of on HIV, the age of epidemic. By that time, I had written a book about the AIDS epidemic, and then I developed one of the first courses in the United States on the ethics of public health, not the ethics, but not bioethics, not the ethics of the doctor patient relationship, but how you think about the ethical challenges raised in doing public health policy, whether it is about smoking or diet or-or motorcycle helmets or seat belts or or-or infectious disease or justice [crosstalk] IG: 56:46 So, what are the- you know, just give us a glimpse into what the ethics- RB: 56:52 Well, for example, yeah. I mean, for example- IG: 56:54 Smoking. RB: 56:55 Well, you know, people-people choose to smoke. They choose to smoke for many-many reasons, because they have been pushed into it by business. They have been seduced into it as children. They become addicted. On the other hand, stopping people from smoking because it hurts them is problematical if you believe that competent adults have a right to make all kinds of decisions, including to refuse therapy if even though that means they are going to die. So, the question about smoking was preeminently how far the state can go in-in pushing, nudging, shoving people to lead a healthier life. It is not an accident that most of the original aids efforts control efforts focused on innocent victims, non-smokers, who were in the presence of smokers and children where there is no ethical problem, you have no right to infect the air of smoker a non-smoker. But why do they focus on that when the real issue was 500,000 people dying every year smoking because it touched a raw nerve in America. We have come very far. We go pretty far now. We banned smoking on parks and beaches. We banned smoking in public housing projects. We this is so called a smoke free campus, and some of it, I think, is a stretch in terms of the harm to others part. So, tracing that arc, look, America is the only country that permits- does not regulate smoking advertising because of our First Amendment. From an ethical point of view, there should be no advertising, but our constitution is different, and it is not simply because business controls the story. I mean, the ACLU defends the right of tobacco companies to advertise. IG: 58:46 How interesting. RB: 58:46 And the other story that is paradigmatic is how you get to a position where you say that someone wearing a motorcycle not-not only is advised you, but must wear a motorcycle helmet or be fined. And the way the case was typically and we knew that people did not wear helmets smashed in their heads. They died more frequently. They had severe brain injuries. But when the move to mandate motorcycle helmets started, and there was a federal law that said, if you do not have motorcycle law, you do not get federal funding for Highway Safety. The argument was, if you get caught in an accident, if you are in an accident, then an ambulance has to pick you up, take you to a publicly funded emergency room, and where you may have to stay and then be hospitalized, where you may be have Medicaid, and then you may be crippled and have to be on public assistance. How can you say that it only affects you? So, it was a very stretch of harm to others in terms of economic burden. So those are the kinds of issues I love to teach about, and I have taught these courses for a long time. We revamped the curriculum here about eight years ago so that all incoming 400 students take a common curriculum. It is a [inaudible], and the first among the first six lectures they get, all 400 of them are the ethics of public health that I do. A colleague does the history of public health, someone does human rights and public health, and they do what they learn, Biostatistics and whatever. But I actually feel that one of my great contributions academically is that I sort of helped I am not the only one who does it now at all, but to spark the interest in the ethics of public health, not simply the ethics of clinical research. And that is my concerto. [laughs] IG: 1:00:42 Wonderful. Do you have any- I think that we are going to wrap up soon. RB: 1:00:49 Okay. IG: 1:00:52 So just in general, what do you think that there any lessons that you learned from your time at Harpur. RB: 1:01:01 Um, I- there were two things. I think I have no idea what the socioeconomic mixes of Harpur in this moment, and it was basically a white school when I went there, although, as I said, there were a few Asians, but there were lots of first-generation college students, not all, but enough. Kids who came from New York who would have gone to one of the city colleges, City College Queens, Brooklyn. I think creating a place that is- brings first generation college students as a mission, not just if they happen to apply, but as a mission. It is a great thing to do as a public university, and it is a great thing to do for what you- the kind of context you create. I know it is you know, may sound like, you know, old story now everyone wants, you know, campus that has diversity on it, and sometimes the diversity language seems to be a little kind of hot air stuff. I mean, the talk about diversity, but I actually think creating, making it a mission to draw people who are first generation people, and hopefully being able to bring dreamers in and to protect them. Columbia has been very good in its public statements about dreamers, and I think that so. The other thing is, and I do not know how much it remained, I think the people who created the curriculum at Harpur back then were very influenced by the idea that all incoming students should have some kind of core curriculum. We had. It was either one or two years of a social science sequence and wanted, and at least I know it was two years of literature and composition. It was mostly literature, and you had to do some writing, but it was literature. It was the most I mean; I am not a literature person. The fact that I read everything from Chaucer to Flaubert and James Joyce as part of a standard curriculum that was, it was viewed as, this is what everyone with an education need. I thought that was just spectacular. There is so much emphasis now on specialization, on skills, building Third speaker: 1:03:57 Standardized. RB: 1:03:58 Yeah, and I kind of yeah, so I actually, I understand all the pressures to do that. I see it here because, you know, our students in a school of tuition here at Columbia is about $60,000 a year when you get an MPH, you do not. It is not like getting an MD. And, you know- IG: 1:04:19 [inaudible] MD students get an MPH? RB: 1:04:20 Oh, absolutely, yes-yes-yes, that helps. But when our students get out, the income they can expect is very different from an MD and-and they and they want to make sure they have a job, something skills. So, I teach in a unit that teaches history and ethics in public health. We admit, in our department, we admit 150-130 students a year, [inaudible] of them choose to do this. There are many-many important things they can learn. But and I understand why, because they, when they go to an employer, they want to say, I know how to do this statistical method. I knew that statistical method. I know how to run a clinical- I know how to run a focus. Group and how to do things. So, I understand it, but it is for the same reason that many universities they have- they are getting rid of, you know, their universities get rid of their- I mean, I imagine you could count on hand the number of universities that teach Latin or Greek anymore, and there are even universities that have given up on Roman, you know, Italian, they may have Spanish and French and German and now Chinese, but there are many schools that just do not have comprehensive literature departments anymore. They are not supportable and-and you know from your time at-at Columbia that these places run on grants and gifts. You know, did you hear about this big gift they got from this guy, Vagelos [Dr. Roy Vagelos]? IG: 1:05:46 I heard about it. I also heard about the green gift to the neurosciences. RB: 1:05:54 Yes, right. IG: 1:05:55 [crosstalk] 200 million. RB: 1:05:56 Yeah. IG: 1:05:57 And actually, Dr. Fishback and I worked on the original proposal- RB: 1:06:02 Really? IG: 1:06:03 -Neuroscience Institute. RB: 1:06:04 Yeah, it is, you know, it is down on 100- but no, this guy, Vagelos, was the head of Merck. IG: 1:06:09 Yes. RB: 1:06:09 He gave $250 million to the school so that, no, this is interesting. He also built a building there, which is kind of a very modern building, two $50 million the income of which is to make sure that no student graduates medical school with debt. [crosstalk] IG: 1:06:13 That is tremendous. RB: 1:06:23 You know, he was the head of Merck, so he is very rich. And at any rate, I have felt, you know, as I said, I just celebrated my 75th birthday. You know, I am, I feel really privileged in many ways, but I, you know, I kind of being dogged and being ready to jump at opportunities, and sometimes just being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, IG: 1:07:07 Is that, is that one of the important life lessons? RB: 1:07:11 To me, it is. I cannot say that I would have been here had I, you know, for example, what would have happened had I trudged through and finished my dissertation on African Trade Unions, I would have been, I think, a kind of mediocre academic teaching political science- I could not do it, and I- it, it took a lot to decide I am not going to do that this. I am going to do another one. And I got a lot of you know, people around me were appalled that I was not writing my dissertation. My- I had a friend in the methadone clinic, a nurse, who said, you know, she was in a group therapy. She said, “You know, Ron, there is a guy in my group. He is 45 years old, and he still says he is writing his dissertation.” And people in the group do not know where to look when they hear him say it, because it is clearly not going to happen and he cannot face it. Do not let that happen to you. It is kind of scary when you hear that from people, because you know that you could just slip through the cracks. Third speaker: 1:08:15 I changed my topic. I know the feeling. So, I was doing something. I took all the prep work to do- to write that. When it was time to write it, I could not do it. I went through what you went through, and I wrote something totally different. RB: 1:08:32 Are you Russian, or? Third speaker: 1:08:33 I am Turkish. RB: 1:08:34 Turkish, uh, [speaking Turkish]. Actually, got some dirty words too. I had a Turkish girlfriend once at the University of Chicago. Third speaker: 1:08:47 Oh yeah. RB: 1:08:49 Her name is Ipek. Third speaker: 1:08:51 Yeah, means silk. RB: 1:08:55 Okay, I really have to [inaudible]. Yeah. IG: 1:08:57 Thank you so much. RB: 1:08:58 Thank you very much. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Ronald Bayer Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni in public health; Harpur College – Alumni in medical research; Harpur College – Alumni in AIDS research; Harpur College – Alumni at Columbia University Medical Center; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in the New York City area Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Bayer, Ronald ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource Ronald Bayer, PhD, is professor and co-chair for the History & Ethics of Public Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University Medical Center. His research focuses on issues of social justice and ethical matters related to AIDS, tuberculosis, illicit drugs and tobacco. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and has been a consultant to the World Health Organization on ethical issues related to public health surveillance, HIV and tuberculosis. He worked closely with Dr. Mathilde Krim, the founder of amfAR. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-01-27 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ronald Bayer.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-01-26 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 70:44 minutes https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/a382eceb0faecbdaf7dd47a854a6cbcd.mp3 a9452bb99f43db86382c7aa66260cf8e https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/4838a87ced4f2edc0dcd60ca4fe94ba5.jpg 7a2d9234b6877671dc3a4db39bf1851f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-01-26 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed John F. Spiegel Year of Graduation 1965 Biographical Text John Spiegel, PhD, retired in 2015 after a 49-year-career as a student service professional at Nassau Community College. His experience included work as counselor, supervisor, director of Academic Advisement and ultimately, building the college’s Student Services Center. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni at Nassau Community College; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in New York City Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni at Nassau Community College; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in New York City Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: John Spiegel Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 26 January 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) JS: 00:02 Very impressive. [laughter] IG: 00:03 So please tell us your name, your birth date and where we are. JS: 00:18 Okay. My name is John Spiegel. I was born on June 11, 1943. Um, some of my classmates knew me as Jack, which was a nickname I acquired in high school, and some of my high school graduate friends who also came to Harpur brought that so some people know me as Jack Spiegel, and where we are in terms of the interview? IG: 00:46 Yes, physical location. JS: 00:49 We are sitting in-in my living room at 98 Riverside Drive and in Manhattan, which is on 82nd Street, and it is about 1:45 in the afternoon on January 26. IG: 01:06 Okay, so just tell me what-what do you do for a living? What is your line of work? JS: 01:15 Okay, well, I am retired. IG: 01:18 Yes. JS: 01:19 I um, I worked, had a career spanning 49 years, retired in September 2015 and I worked as a student service professional for Nassau Community College on Long Island. JS: 01:39 In various capacities, both as direct counselor, advisor, supervisor of programs, coordinators of offices, and finally, my last incarnation there was as the Director of Academic Advisement in a place that did not have an advisement center, and needed one badly, and I initiated that project and made it come to life, which I am very proud of. IG: 01:39 Yeah. IG: 02:09 That is interesting, okay. So maybe tell us, let us go back to your- JS: 02:15 Sure. IG: 02:16 -beginnings and tell us where you grew up. JS: 02:19 I grew up in Inwood, Manhattan. So I am a New York City kid. Inwood is the northernmost community in the island of Manhattan, and that is where I grew up and went-went to high school, Stuyvesant. I commuted to Stuyvesant High School from there and-and that was my, you know, at the age of 18, went, went to Harpur, and never came back to Inwood, except for a few months, maybe to live with my parents when I was between- when I was on a leave of absence from work, traveling. IG: 02:55 So who were your parents? What did they do? Where did they come from? JS: 03:01 My parents were Viennese-Jewish refugees--came from initially, they were in England in- from 1938 to 1940 having barely escaped the Nazis in-in-in Austria, my father was actually a political prisoner in the Dachau concentration camp, and was through some political connections, through my aunt in Washington, which are too detailed to go into, you know, at this point where they were able to get him out of the camp, which was before the war, and that at that time, there was still possibilities people were put in there for political reasons, rather than-than just religious. So he would if that did not happen, I would not be sitting here talking today, and my mother was also, you know, Viennese, and she was able to get out, you know, in (19)38 and go to England for two years, and then they emigrated here to the States. IG: 04:08 And so what do they do in the United States when they came? JS: 04:13 Right. Well, so my father was a psychiatric social worker. He was trained as a lawyer in-in Austria, but could not practice here, and I think, decided not to pursue the law. I think the war, you know, had a big and prewar had a big influence on-on his career direction. My mother was a seamstress. She would do alterations for- in local tailor shops. And that was, that was her primary. I mean, she did not work full time, but that is how she made money. When she did when she did work. IG: 04:51 Um, were there, were there expectations for you to go on with your uh, higher education? JS: 05:01 Oh, absolutely. I mean, there was, there was a clear message. My father was, you know, had achieved Bachelor of Law Degree in Austria, and he was a very educated man. He would constantly let me know how much he knew [laughter] and how much I did not, and but it was clear there was no, there was no alternative that was what was going to happen, which was okay with me, except when I got angry at him, and could use the fact, you know, that I was angry at him, I would use it so I am not going to college. But no, there was no, there was no doubt that that was the track that I was on as to what, where that was going to lead. He never- the one thing I can say for him is that he never put pressure on me to go in a particular direction. You know, his- the message was, you know, you- it is important for you to be educated, which I totally bought into. So. IG: 06:10 And what were your reasons for going to Harpur? JS: 06:14 Okay, this- it was not my first choice. Um, I- you know- IG: 06:24 What was your first choice? JS: 06:25 My first choice was Oberlin College, and I was not accepted there. My second choice was Colby College in Maine. I was accepted there, but it was apparently not financially feasible. Binghamton was or Binghamton, you know, there was no Binghamton at the time, it was Harpur. I had researched it. I remember sitting in my local public library looking at the catalogs, and I said, this sounds pretty good. And I heard about it. And certainly the cost was very-very appealing. And I convinced my father to drive me up there. So we took a trip, and I liked what I saw. I liked what they had to say. And so this really became a viable alternative for me as a way of going, being able to go away to school, because I did not want to stay home. I needed to get out of there--very badly needed that get away from home. So this, it worked. And once-once I decided to go. My only issue at the time was, you know, when I would say to people, they would ask me, where you going to college? I would say, “Harpur.” They would say, “Harvard.” “No,” I say “No, Harpur, it is, it is an upstate in Binghamton. It is part of the State University.” So there was a lot of that, because it was really pretty much an unknown entity at that time. So there was, that was an interesting sort of things, like, I would come back and see my friends and neighborhood and we would have this conversation. But you know that, you know, I was so enthralled with what was happening there and in terms of what I was learning, you know, that any of that anxiety about the prestige or status of or you know, what exactly this place really was about, you know, all fell away. So this was 1961. IG: 08:22 Yeah. What was your reputation of Harpur at the time among your friends? JS: 08:29 And, well, those who knew about it, yeah, those who knew about it said it was, it was difficult to get into. And, you know, I do not remember exactly, you know what-what the average was, but it was pretty clear you needed to have, like, a highs in the 80s or 90 average in high school to get in. It was, I do not think there was an SAT entrance requirement. I think it was pretty much high school average. And you know, that enabled me to. So I knew, I knew it was selective, and certainly because-because the price was so incredibly reasonable that it really became a real alternative for a lot of people. And there were, there must have been 10 or 15 people who went from Stuyvesant to-to Binghamton, you know, to Harpur. IG: 09:22 Including Ron Bayer. JS: 09:23 Right. IG: 09:24 Do you remember what the tuition was? JS: 09:28 Yes, $162.50 per semester. Is that exact enough? IG: 09:33 Unbelievable. JS: 09:35 Yes. IG: 09:36 So what-what were your first impressions of as-as a city kid coming to a pretty rural environment. JS: 09:46 Yeah, that is interesting. I often, you know, I talk about the multicultural experience, and it is very-very specific for- to me, um in the sense that I felt like--okay, I am upstate, and I was, I was like, I was a smart lucky city kid, you know. I mean, I do not know if I did not really have an attitude, but I definitely, you know, there was something about, you know, I was sophisticated. I knew it all. And who are these other- who are these Hicks? You know that-that are, that are there. That is embarrassing to talk about, but it is true. That is, that is, that is how I felt. And the other part of it was I felt like I had entered another culture. I was not- they did not know what a bagel was. I would ask for a soda. They would say "What?"--they would call it pop; I believe. And I would say, and then there were a few of those things that were common parts of my language or my- you know, and that they did not know what I was talking about, and I did not know what they were talking about. IG: 11:05 So is it just cultural references or actual words that were different? JS: 11:10 A few words were different. I mean, there were things, you know, some like menu items at certain restaurants. I mean, speedies are very big. They are very big in Binghamton, these sort of lamb on a spit that you could go into a bar and get, you know, and they give you a piece of bread, and you would- IG: 11:30 A kebab. JS: 11:31 Yeah, but it was called a speedy, and there would be a so- that was different. But I think, you know, sort of the biggest shock was people spoke with a different language, different accent, and we called it the flat and-and I was like, so-so some of my friends, some-some of the guys on my floor and my freshman year, they would say, "Hi, Jan" and-and I would say, I would say "Hi," and it is a, wow, I do not understand. I am only 190 miles away from New York City, and the people talk different. So it was really, you know, so that was, that was, you know, the beginning of my multicultural experience. You know, there, there were, there were kids from farms. There were kids from upstate cities and towns, very smart, but I- my first reaction was, oh, they-they do not know anything. They are dummies. They talk funny. I mean, this is, you know, so part of my educational process was, over my years, there was to get to know a lot of these guys, these folks, and find out that, you know, that was all nonsense and-and there was some incredibly smart, you know, wonderful people, you know, who I looked at like- I mean, I did not spend, you know, as a kid, I did not spend a lot of time out outside of New York, New York City, other than traveling with my parents and, you know, to Canada, maybe, and New England. Anyway, I knew people in Maine spoke differently, because we spent a lot of time in Maine when I was a kid, but- IG: 13:17 During the summer? JS: 13:19 During the summer, yeah. So I do not know if that is the kind of thing you are, you are interested in, but that was sort of that with but I refer to that as-as you know, my multicultural experience in college, I mean, most of the students, I mean, I could maybe remember two or three African American students. There was one student from Africa while I was there. There, I do not remember- there may have been students from other countries aside from that, but I- not from, you know, do not come to mind. So anyway, that was, you know, I tell people about that sort of, you know, it felt very much when I thought about it, because you, when you when you hear people from Ohio or Western New York talk. That is they have the flat. I said, Oh yeah, I know that. That is, you know, so we would, we would laugh about that kind of thing and, but just in terms of, there was that clear, you know, upstate versus downstate sort of cultural thing going on, and it was, it was pretty good natured, I would say, for the most part. And you know, they would laugh at us, we would laugh at them. And, you know, and- IG: 14:30 So, how would they laugh at you? JS: 14:32 Well, I do not know, you know, it was very subtle, but, you know, it was, it was, it was, you know, it was not that it was like [crosstalk] that, well, no, it was more like, you know, some, you know, these guys are, you know, wise asses and no, know it all and, you know. But I mean, it was not that. It was definitely more our side, the downstate, Westchester, New York City, Long Island attitude towards, you know, it so, it was our own provincialism that was much more dramatic. I think you would not hear it as much expressed, at least in my- in our presence, you know. So, that was a dynamic. IG: 15:22 What was residential life like? How I mean after-after classes? How would you spend your time in the dormitories? And did you mix with these students from upstate New York? JS: 15:41 Not, you know, not socially, initially. I mean, there, let me put it this way, the in on the floor, in the dorm, we- there was, you know, there was a sense of belonging to the floor. There was an identity on the floor. One of the things that I think made it more dramatic was the fact that there was a shortage of dorm space, so people were tripled in rooms, and so there was, you know, there was a lot of congestion, but it also forced people to interact. You know, here is an example. One of the people I roomed with was a friend of mine from Stuyvesant, and there was a fellow from upstate in our room, and I liked him a lot more than as it turned out, living with my-my friend who I decided to live with, I- he drove me crazy, and I had and I had to get out of the room and for the next semester. So, you know, that was definitely something but, but we tended to do things, certain things, together as a floor, we would go to basketball games together. The team was especially good that year, and we were very excited. We go to the home game. Sometimes we went into road games, and so there was, there was interaction on the floor. We would visit in each other's rooms and laugh, and the RA would hold floor meetings, and there was a lot of kidding around. And so you know that it did happen in that context. But seemingly, when we went outside of the dorm in terms of who we would spend time with, it tended to be people that we, you know, came from the New York area, at least initially, in the first and when I joined one of the social clubs in my sophomore year. And we had primarily downstate people, but there were a few upstate people, and you know, so there was [crosstalk] IG: 17:48 So, tell us about the clubs, the social clubs. What were like- which do you- did you belong to? JS: 17:54 It was Caledonian Society, and I was very attracted to that group of young fellows, and couple of them, one of the things that appealed to me is that they had very couple of very creative people and very funny people, and it was just a lot of fun being with them. And it was really an enjoyable part of my experience there. You know, it is interesting the- you know, I never quite understood the strict guidelines that they had about there. You could not have a house, hazing practices were severely, you know, restricted. There was some hazing, but there was no physical hazing. Um, and uh- IG: 18:44 So what kind of when you talk about hazing? JS: 18:48 Well, you know, you they would send you on, you know, trips. They-they would grill you. Sometimes they would make you do, you know, errands, you know, I mean silly things. I think the toughest thing was just find the final night was they, a panel of them grill you and start to accuse you of doing all kinds of things. And, you know- IG: 19:20 Was it meant to be taken with a grain of salt? Was it meant to be humorous or...? JS: 19:26 Um, well, I, you know, what I think is they-they had already decided to take me in. So it was that, was that decision is made, but now they just wanted to make me think that they were going to reject me. So it was, it was a little manipulative, but that is as bad as it got. I unfortunately took it very seriously. I thought they would try to kick me out, and I kind of lost it, but so they, you know, they, but so I finally figured I was a little paranoid. So. IG: 20:00 As-as many city kids are, yeah. JS: 20:02 So anyway. IG: 20:03 So what- I am just curious, what kind of things did the social club engage in? JS: 20:09 Well, they- we had- we participated in intramurals. There was softball. That was flag football. We had; we-we did- had parties off campus parties. It was a social thing. And, you know, dances just with the club, but most of it was just spending time together. And you know the sense of identity you had if you went to a beer blast, which was some of what they called the big events, social events. IG: 20:48 Downtown? JS: 20:49 Downtown, off campus, you had a mug that was everybody in a social club had a mug with their name on it and the seal of the social club. And that was a thing about you went to, you know, with the beer mug, and you would spend time with them at the beer blast, and where you would spend time their rooms in the dorm and but it was primarily parties, and it was intramural athletics. I do not remember too much else. Sometimes we saw each other in New York when we came home, but that was rare. So. IG: 21:29 So-so what- let us see. So, what were- was your experience of academics like at Harpur? What do you remember of that? Do you have memories of faculty? JS: 21:42 Oh, absolutely. IG: 21:42 Who made a particularly strong impression on you? JS: 21:46 Yes, um, I took one of my favorite courses was what they called Soc Sci, which was Social Science 101, and the instructor was Philip Piaker, P, I, A, K, E, R. He was in the accounting department. Now, I thought this was very interesting. The accounting was part of the social science department at that time. It was a real eye opener for me. He was a wonderful instructor. It was a core course, and one of the things that I think that they did very well is all new students had to take this class. So everybody shared the experience, and just in English. So in everyone, everyone, and there was no remedial English, you know, everybody took English 101, and sometimes they have lectures in the auditorium, whatever it was called at that time. IG: 22:47 Where was the auditorium? JS: 22:48 It was on the old administration building, which, when you come up the center drive is like a loop. And was on the right, that was the administration building and admin classroom. It was called Classroom Administration Building because the administration was in there and there were classrooms and there was the lecture or the big lecture hall, which was 600 seats, which served as a theater concert hall, was a multi-purpose facility. And so everybody who was taking English 101, which pretty much the whole freshman class would-would pile in there and-and some one of the designated professors would speak, depending on who it was, it became a source of entertainment and maybe a chance to fool around a little bit, whether we were somewhat contemptuous of the way the person spoke or what they were saying. It was a little just slightly disrespectful, not in a very, you know, kind of overt or acting out way. But like with people that, you know, we would like make remarks to each other side by side. Um, one of the things is, you know, I think that somehow it is hard to describe, but the people who went to Harpur and the group that I spent time with, there was a certain sense, a banter, a sense of humor that we share. And when we get together, we-we still, you know, that very much resonates. And one of the things that you know, one of the- my overall impressions there was, there was not a lot of stimulation. It was, you know, Binghamton itself was not- IG: 24:49 You mean, outside of the classroom? JS: 24:50 Well, outside the classroom, yeah, I mean, you know, there was the snack bar, that was the big social area and there, and there was not a lot of- was not a lot to do. There was, there were, there were programs, but it was pretty stark. IG: 25:07 What kind of programs? JS: 25:09 Well, cultural events, cultural events. And I got involved in that. I was on this convocations committee, sponsoring some of that, with some of the leaders there, but it was a pretty- I call it somewhat of an austere existence, in a way. And I mean, I had a car starting my sophomore year, but there was not really too many, there were not too many places to go for just a change of scene. So it became, you would go to the class, you would go to the library, there would be the snack bar, and then you go back to your dorm. And so it was a sort of repetitiveness about it that was a little, I do not know, kind of psychologically, I think draining in a way. And I cannot think of the right word for it. It was interesting that many years after I graduated, I saw this article about the fact that the southern tier of New York has the most overcast days of any place in the country. And I said to myself, that is why I was so depressed for so often. [laughs] So, you know, there were times, but I think it was more that there was sometimes the existence was a little mundane, and compared to, you know, sort of my expectation of a kind of a rah, rah college life type of experience. Athletics-athletics were de-emphasized, And, you know, so that was, you know, in this so there were, you know, limits on certain social events, like, you know, the fraternities. Not that would have been great to have, you know, physical hazing, but you know the fact that there were limits. I mean, there was a clear message, you were, you were here to do you know you were here to be a student and that, and that is your job. You know which-which is fine. I am just saying that. You know, sometimes I think I was something- I was a little bit surprised. I was I felt academically overwhelmed when I came there. IG: 27:43 So what courses were you taking? JS: 27:45 Well, I started, I think I had a theater class my first semester, English, Social Science, trying to think what the others were. Oh, yeah. Oh, I had, I had, oh, this, this is interesting. I was thinking, originally, thinking of majoring in psychology. So I was, I said, well, psychology is in the science department. I do not understand. I had never heard of behavioral psychology. Well, that is what it was. It was behavioral psychology. And I said, well, when do you learn about people, as opposed to having a white rat to run through a skinner box, you know? So that was a little bit, you know, and I was a little bit disappointed in that, in that regard, and I ended up being a political science major, so I was a little bit unprepared for that. I was, I think I was, I was a little bit disappointed. But by the same token, I was very taken by the-the academic rigor and intellectual sort of standing that was and the quality of what was being taught, and the challenge involved in-in-in learning and learning new things. IG: 29:04 Any classes or professors that stand out? JS: 29:08 Well, you know, actually, I actually thought that the psychology was very interesting for what it was. It was not my, you know. And I liked the, I liked the professor who was funny, Professor Deane, I think, was the primary instructor for the psychology class. So you would have two lectures a week, I think, and then you have a three-hour lab with a white rat. And I was bitten by the rat once because I was carrying the box and my thumb was sticking through it. But, you know, I survived that, obviously. And so the- I mentioned Professor Piaker, the social science and Professor Deane for psychology, I do not maybe Professor Santangelo was my English 101, instructor. I think that is it, you know, I think that is who it was, and I do not and the theater class, oh, yeah, I do not remember his name. I think it was theater that I because I had to write a play. IG: 30:14 Really? JS: 30:16 Yeah. IG: 30:16 Did you enjoy that? JS: 30:18 Writing a play? No, [laughs] it was totally beyond me. Um the yeah-yeah, so, I mean, there was some, there was some great, there were some great teachers. You know, definitely great teachers. Okay, so let us see- IG: 30:36 Do you feel that you got a well-rounded education from Harpur? JS: 30:42 Absolutely. IG: 30:42 Yes. JS: 30:43 Absolutely. IG: 30:44 Yeah. JS: 30:46 I, you know, I once counted the number of term papers that I wrote while I was there, and it was 52 and I-I-I had a problem. I mean, I am a good writer. I am, you know, in terms of that respect, you know, writing papers and letters and putting words together, but I took a long time to do things, and I, you know, tended to, you know, drag it out and hand in things late, but I did learn how to do research. I learned, you know, what scholarship is I, you know, I spent a lot of time in the library and, you know, going through sources. And I feel like, I mean, I have a PhD, but I feel like the fundamentals of academic rigor and how I approached learning and research were-were definitely found- IG: 31:56 S IG: 31:56 Scholarly research? JS: 31:57 Yes, one of the things that one big message that always came through was the notion of the scientific method in in social science research, and the difference between facts and values and facts and value judgments, something that does not seem to matter much these days, but, you know, I always, you know, kept that in mind, and it was one of the clear things that I took away from the place. You know, I just want to mention that I used to say to myself, you know, I have been in class. It was- I would get back there for a semester, you know, it has been, I would say some one week into classes, but I am three weeks behind. I say to myself, how did that happen? In terms of the assignments? That is what it felt like. It was very-very demanding. It was several years later, after I graduated, I said, you know, they worked our asses off there. I said, what, you know? What was going on? What was going on? Well, I found out that the educational model was from the University of Chicago, and they decided they were going to export that model and-and bring it to Harpur. And, you know, they basically, I felt like we were going to throw a lot of work at these people. And let us you know, let us see what happens. Whoever makes it, makes it, and if you do not, you flunk out. And one of my criticisms that I do not think, at least from my perspective, I was not prepared to, in order, in order to be like an A student, I would have had to bury myself in the library. And some of my friends did, and they got and they but, you know, they were comfortable doing it. I was, I could. I had trouble dealing with the demand and the demand of the work there, and it was very- it was frustrating me, and I was a good student in high school to the get there, and suddenly, from being an A student to being a C plus B minus student, I was, like, shocked. I did not understand how did this happen. How did I get stupid? And so [crosstalk] IG: 34:34 -is such an excellent school. JS: 34:35 Yeah-yeah, of course. So that was, that was a bit of, that was a bit of a shock to me and but I was critical of, you know, at-at the of the amount of work. And, you know, in some ways I was, you know, I was, I think I was unprepared for the level of knowledge that I thought that they expected of us. I mean, like, for example, I remembered a philosophy course, I do not, I do not want to sound negative, I am telling you, you know, for me, it is a primarily a good experience, but there were negatives to it. You know, do not like to be critical, but the philosophy course was pretty abstract. The instructor was pretty well-known person. He threw using an extensive amount of Latin terms as part of his explanation, a priori, a posteriori, you know, ipso facto. And, my god, am I supposed to know what all of this is? And how do I, you know, how do I find out? How do I- okay, well, there was no internet yet. I was, fortunately, after, you know, a little while, I went to the bookstore, you know, if I said I got to figure something out, and I was able to get this book called The Dictionary of Foreign Terms, and it saved my life. But it was that, it was that kind of thing. I said, "Wow, I do not know what he is talking about," how and there is no primer here, what you know, it was, you know? So I think that there was, there were great teachers, but maybe not so much paying attention to what was happening with the students and their-their ability to- IG: 36:38 Comprehend? JS: 36:38 -yeah, to comprehend and absorb. You know, what was taking place. IG: 36:42 What just explained to us, what is the, what was the University of Chicago model that you followed? Is it a great books core, liberal arts core? JS: 36:51 It is probably liberal arts, but I think it was the core curriculum was a big part of it. And I, you know, I mean, I, my sense is, first of, you know, the caricature of University of Chicago is one of extreme academic rigor and not much else going on there. I mean, it is a beautiful campus, but that this, you know, the students do not have a lot of fun. [laughs] That is, that is, that is, you know. So it was like it was the amount of material. And so, you know, we are going to throw this at you, and you know, and you know, if you make it, that is good, and if you do not, you flunk out, you know, too bad. So you know that there so in terms of support for people who might have been having difficulty, there was a little, I do not think there was much concern about that. Anyway. IG: 37:41 This was a time when social mores were beginning to change. How did you and your friends respond to the pressures of your day, of the day? JS: 38:05 Well, you know, I was thinking about that because I had a feeling that question might come up. Uh, there used to, you know, we were right on the cusp of some of that change. The girls had curfew, to be back in the dorm by 10:30 at night. It seemed bizarre to me, you know, you would be sitting in the snack bar and they would be running out to go back to the dorm on Saturday nights. I think it was maybe one o'clock, I do not know. So that was, you know, and they had, they had a couple of very mature women who were- IG: 38:48 RAs? JS: 38:49 No, they were like the residence hall directors, but they were, they were like, they were not young, trained people. They were more like, you know, matrons. And there was a Mom Hardy and the Mom something they called the mom Hardy, you know, it was 1961 and one of them, you know, was, like, very stern, and, you know, sternly she was projecting, protecting their virginity of the student of the women there. And, you know, they- so we had a, you know, this kind of an attitude about them, you know, that is just, this is so silly, but, you know, so I think we came in with, like, I do not, I do not get this kind of level of- it just, it seemed archaic, okay, but in terms of our own experience, there were regulations about dress. So, you know, you were not allowed to wear shorts to go to the, to go to the resident, to go to the, you know, the dining room. IG: 40:01 And classes probably/ JS: 40:02 Well, not, you know, people did not talk about that, but, you know, a bunch of us would get together and say, "What is this nonsense?" In fact, I think there were. I think you-you also, I am not certain about this, but let us stick with the shorts, because that is a part of it. And so bunch of us started talking, said, "We do not like this. This is ridiculous. Why cannot we wear shorts?" So we had, like, a protest, and we decided we were going to we- and these women were in charge of monitoring, you know, the entrance to the dining hall. And one day, like a couple of 100 people just show up in shorts, and let us say, let us, let us see what they do, you know. And they ended, they just caved at that point, because it was like, you know. So, you know, it was like, it was like, the first time that I actually participated in some kind of social action, you know. And although with an unlimited scale. IG: 41:01 How did it feel? JS: 41:03 Oh, this was great. I mean, I, you know, there was a little bit of risk, I mean, to it, you know, but we did not know what was going to happen, if, you know, they made a stand and but it was kind of like the tide had had turned. And then, you know, when you think about, I mean, what are they going to make an issue? How big of an issue are they going to make about, you know, men wearing shorts, you know, so that, that you know, that was done at that point. Um- IG: 41:40 What other activism, if any, were you engaged in on campus? JS: 41:45 Well, one-one was a bit risky. There was, there were stories about the campus physician being having alcohol in his breath when he saw students, and at the time, I was on the student government I think maybe I was a sophomore. I had run for student government representative, and I was, I was either designated or volunteered, or both, to investigate this, and started talking to people, interviewing people, students, and there would, you know, there were, there were reports of multiple, you know, incidents of this. And I was called in. I guess word got out. I was called in by the Dean of Students and confronted about this and threatened. And I do not remember what he threatened me with, but I think he tried to scare me about, you know, that I was messing with was something that was quite dangerous, and somebody's reputation, yada-yada, you know, I do not remember the details of it, and I, you know, I backed off. I figured, you know, I-I am out here pretty much, you know, on my own in a kind of, you know, dangerous, you know, neighborhood. And, you know, I was a little bit concerned I want, because I wanted to be an RA, and I was a little bit concerned also about, what is this going to do to my reputation, if I am going to be perceived as a troublemaker? So I backed off. So that was an individual thing. The other thing that was going on so 1964 fast forward to the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. And so in terms of my own involvement, we had a sympathy demonstration on the quad. We held up signs supporting the members of the Free Speech Movement, and we stayed out there for an hour or something. I was sponsored by our own student government, so that was participating, you know, in that kind of thing, there was a lot of more serious activism on the campus that I was less familiar with, some of the there was an attempt to sign up students to do voter registration in the south. And in fact, they may have even been efforts to get people to participate in the Freedom Rides. And that was an area that I was just too anxious to, you know, felt like was extremely dangerous and would was not comfortable doing that. And there were some people who activists and doing things, and I think more locally, and Binghamton volunteer involvement and, and, you know, but I was not my, my primary act activity. He was in student government trying to make the student life better for the people- IG: 45:06 On a local- JS: 45:07 Yeah, on the campus, IG: 45:09 Do you remember JFK's assassination? JS: 45:11 Oh, my God, yes. I can see it in my mind coming out of class, and people are gathered around portable radios and listening, and, you know, President has been shot, and I was like, "Oh my God. “And, you know, within half an hour, you know, it was over from the time, what am I- overtime. And one of them, you know, life changing, devastating time I was, I remember that I remember getting the Sunday New York Times afterward, and reading it in-in my dorm room, and just being totally, you know, such a state of shock and grief about-about the whole thing, you know, because at the time, you know, he was, we very much identified with the youth and energy of this, of this guy, and, you know, refreshing note that he-he brought. And so that was a pretty, pretty horrible moment. And, you know, not being thrilled with who the new president was, and so without really knowing much about him, but just the way he contrasts with the way he presented himself. And I could not, could not relate to his way of-of communicating. IG: 46:41 What about the Vietnam War? Was there already fear of being drafted and or was that really- JS: 46:52 Um, okay. You know, the dates and when things occurred, you know, I know it was August of (19)64 that the Tonkin Gulf incident occurred. I do not know if you know my- I understood that that was a very dangerous situation, but it did not come home to me in terms of what this meant, or possibly could mean. There was a new professor in the Political Science Department who had the word was out. He was sort of more conservative, and maybe had been in the CIA or had some kind of background, and that do not remember his name, he was pretty new, you know, he was presented, you know, or so. The word was, it was that he was maybe more conservative than the rest of the faculty, and he made a projection at that point, he- I remember this specifically by such and such a date, a year from now, they are going to be 100,000 US troops. In two years, they are going to be 200,000 and he just sort of like, and I remember sitting there with a bunch, and this was part of his talk about, I think it was about Vietnam, but it may have been more the national defense posture. But I remember, you know, turning to other people say, you know, he is it really, "It cannot be true, right? It is not. He is just, there is just no way that that is going to happen, right?" And sure enough, it all happened. But I remember that was my first sort of like wake-up call, that this something could happen. And then, you know, I think in (19)65 people started to be drafted, and more and more people, and I, I was very nervous about keeping my student deferment. And so I went, you know, I mean, I decided at that point I am going to go to if I can go to graduate school. Let me go to graduate school, because I did not like what was, what was happening. IG: 49:13 So, where did you go to graduate school? JS: 49:16 I went to SUNY Albany for my master's in student services. IG: 49:20 Yeah JS: 49:20 And it was there for a year. And then, you know, when I finished in September of (19)66 I got the position immediately at Nassau. IG: 49:28 And when did you do your PhD? JS: 49:35 I got my- earned my PhD in 1986 from St John's University in counselor education. IG: 49:41 Oh, it is interesting. What other political events impacted you? JS: 49:51 While I was a student, or...? IG: 49:56 You were a student while you were a student, the Bay of Pigs, the failed invasion of Cuba, um- JS: 50:04 What was date of the Bay of Pigs? Was what (19)62? You know- IG: 50:13 Was there fear of Soviet Russia? JS: 50:18 Well, you know the, um- okay, we are maybe talking about the Cuban, Miss Cuban Missile Crisis. You know, that is interesting. Now, in that situation, we knew some bad things were going on, but we, you know now, if you can imagine this situation at that particular time, there was one television on the whole campus. I mean, one television in the student center, in a room that could seat maybe 40-50, people tops standing room would be 60, which is, by the way, as an aside, was the first time we had ever seen the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was packed like sardine cans, and it was hysterical. It was like, but you know, it, I felt like the Cuban Missile Crisis was a little bit more remote. I remember being very involved in my studies, and I did not really, I was not really familiar with, sort of the day to day, you know, significance of what was going on. And it was, there were, you know, there were, you know, you heard about things, you know, maybe you saw things, but it was not something that was being talked about, you know, as in the sense that, you know, we were all, you know, there could be a nuclear war, and we could all be gone. I mean, I mean, I mean, I, we grew up with that. It was just another-another one of those episodes this, I mean, more serious, but I was, it did not feel that different from some of the other, you know, the duck and cover drills and, you know, I mean, Kennedy, you know, ran for president on the idea of the missile gap, you know that, and the Russians and their-their missiles, and so I am glad I did not know, you know, my subsequent reading, and you know about it like it was- we were pretty close to a disaster. So anyway, so that so that was, I was not as affected by that, but I would say during my senior year when, you know, I think the Vietnam thing started to become a little bit more dicey. I was very anxious about what was going to happen. And, you know, because my because my own life, in terms of direction, was pretty unclear at that point, I did not have a clear career choice, and it was like, "Oh, my God," you know. IG: 53:15 Did you feel, did you feel support from your fellow students, because they were experiencing the same anxieties? JS: 53:28 You know, we did not talk about it much. I think I do not, I do not recall that it was, in some ways, it was not a reality. You know, we were focused on graduating, finishing, getting out of there and applying to graduate school. That was, you know, a lot of, what are you going to do next? And also, you know, the-the sense of, of, oh my god, this, you know, this experience, this pivotal experience in my life, is going to be over. So there was, there was also some loss that was there. And, you know, my all, I mean, these people who your friends and you, you know, you were very close to your they we re not going to be in your life as much as they were. And I mean, that kind of change was also very- it was, it was scary. It was, it was, it was upsetting. IG: 54:27 Did you stay in touch with any of your classmates? JS: 54:31 Absolutely. It is about half a dozen people from Harpur that I see on a regular basis, and we are very close, and- IG: 54:49 That is very nice. JS: 54:50 Yeah, oh no. It is, you know, it is something that we share and-and then some of them have networks with other friends of people. I know I do not see them that often, but I you know, I ask about them and what this- IG: 55:06 What lessons did you learn from this time in your life? Do you think? JS: 55:14 Well, I have a tremendous respect for knowledge and learning in the truth and um, I, the fact that I learned how to-to write and communicate both verbally and verbally and in writing, and I take a lot of pride in being able to do that. And there is one other thing, so just ask me the question again, IG: 55:57 So what lessons did you learn from this time in your life? What were the major [inaudible] JS: 56:00 Okay, so, well, I would say, among other things, if you, you know, you-you really, if you really want to know what is going on, you have to work very hard to find out. You-you know, truth is a hard thing to get at, and it takes a lot of work to find out what the truth is. You know, I am a history lover, so I spend a lot of time trying to do that, and so I enjoy that a lot. Um- IG: 56:50 Have you pursued your interest in history over the- JS: 56:53 Absolutely, yeah. IG: 56:54 Through reading? JS: 56:55 For reading, from reading. I am in a Lifelong Learning Program now, and you know, I have done some work on some history presentations for them. This [crosstalk] IG: 57:05 Lifelong Learning Program through- JS: 57:08 Actually, it is City College called Quest program, once for adult-adult- IG: 57:13 Wonderful. JS: 57:14 And the other thing I did not mention there, I did a lot of theater there at Harpur, and it was one of the things I really loved doing. And after, and I did some community theater after I left on Long Island. IG: 57:31 As an actor, not as a play writer? JS: 57:32 As an actor. Oh, yeah, not as a play writer. No, I am not a creative writing is not my thing, but-but I would say, and, but now this, this being at this Lifelong Learning thing, has allowed me to get back into it. Because they do, they do Theatrical presentations. They do, you know, we do readings and, you know, there is a show every year, and- IG: 57:55 Sounds wonderful. JS: 57:56 Yeah. So that is, you know, it has allowed me to re-experience some of the joy that was, some of some of the most joyful moments. Our senior, the senior show at in 1965 was Guys and Dolls and sometimes and people still call me by my- the member of the cast- IG: 58:19 You playing? JS: 58:20 Julie. [laughter] So they still say, you know, "There is Big Julie" I mean, it is funny, but that was, you know, that was a, I was a key moment. And I almost did not graduate because I was so busy, you know, with the show, that I-I would still remember that my political science teacher, I got a D in that it was the only D I ever got. He says, "This is a gift." And I said, "Thank you very much, because my parents are coming to graduation," you know. But so, you know, I know. I sometimes tell people that, in many respects, what I majored in college life, but that is sort of what I did. You know, with my in my career, I did, I did love the college experience. It was, it was, there was a lot of vitality in it. And that is what I-I gravitated to, and I ended up spending, you know, my whole life working with college students. And you know that part of the- you know, the educational experience and wanting to make it as dynamic and interesting and challenging as possible. Um- IG: 59:40 What words of advice would you like to leave for maybe students now and for future generations of students listening to these tapes? JS: 59:51 So we are talking about Binghamton students. Are we talking about students? IG: 59:55 Binghamton students? But it could be more general. Third speaker 59:58 Or whoever is going to listen this interview? JS: 1:00:03 Yes, okay, well, oh, my god, daunting. Let me think for a second. Well, I really, I believe in the notion of academic challenge and that it is, you know, even though I cannot say that, I did not practice this, but I- you know, looking for the easy way out is never the good idea is never a good idea. Take something. Take a class that you do not know that much about. Challenge yourself. You know, it is, it can change you. It can make you a better person. Do not just, do not just do things that you are comfortable with, because you are going to lose a lot. You are going to regret a lot, and that is what I mean I used to when I work with students. I would always- we, you know, one of the courses that was offered at Nassau Community College was a speech class, and we did not have a public speaking. We did not have a public speaking at Harpur. But I always say, this is, this is a very important skill. And, you know, it is, it will really help you in your life. And lot of people would be anxious about it, but I just wanted to plant the seed that this is a, this is a good idea. So I think another thing I would attach to that is, you know, the importance of me being able to communicate, both verbally and in writing, but also to-to push yourself into academic areas that you might not be that comfortable with. I mean, you do not want to take it on, to have it be so difficult that it is going to be overwhelming. Where you are, you are going to be so anxious that you cannot function. But how important it is to challenge yourself academically and intellectually. I guess [crosstalk] IG: 1:02:28 You have done that throughout your life? JS: 1:02:32 For the most part. [laughs] I mean, I have not say, you know, I mean, I have not taken, you know, foreign-foreign languages, where I have thought about it, but I guess I just have not been that motivated in that. But I think, you know, I-I-I try to, I try to learn new things if I can, you know, I mean, if I am interested in and just to-to expand my knowledge, and I just find it, it is, it is very interesting. It is very it I s a good way to live. IG: 1:03:09 Any concluding remarks. JS: 1:03:12 Well, I do not know. Concluding remarks, well, you know, I am a little bit out of touch with what it is like to be a student now at Binghamton. I have not been there in about 20 years. I know it is very different. I mean, when we, when I started my there were perhaps less than 1200 students. There was a very small school, everybody you know, kind of knew each other. So I am sure it is very different in character now. But you know, I think something that I feel very strongly about is even though I was, and this is interesting, I was not a shining academic student, you know, in terms of performing, you know, well in terms of what grades, but I learned a lot, and I learned how to learn, and it was, it was all worth it. It was, it was, I mean, it was a tremendously academically challenging place. And despite the fact that I had difficulties, so much has stayed with me in terms of my learning, some of the courses I took, some of the doors that were, you know, were open to me, particularly in-in history, which has become a passion of mine. And you know, it just had a tremendous amount of meaning to me, and I hope that other people will feel the same way, you know, as they move through their lives. IG: 1:05:09 Thank you very much. JS: 1:05:13 You are very welcome. IG: 1:05:17 Thank you. It is a good interview. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with John (“Jack”) F. Spiegel Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni at Nassau Community College; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in New York City Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Spiegel, John F. ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource John Spiegel, PhD, retired in 2015 after a 49-year-career as a student service professional at Nassau Community College. His experience included work as counselor, supervisor, director of Academic Advisement and ultimately, building the college’s Student Services Center. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-01-26 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context John Spiegel.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-01-26 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 65:19 minutes https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/a20bfab336130e2d75a3d55096806bd2.mp3 cf30ae8b5895e45b5a0213d13473c3d6 https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/8aefb28975d00d4430b87c7dd1f8a7d6.jpg 92a76cb3569cb5b59109f0ede92c6a46 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-02-13 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Ellyn Uram Kaschak Year of Graduation 1965 Biographical Text Dr. Ellyn Kaschak is an award-winning psychologist, author, teacher and human rights activist. She is a professor emerita of psychology at San Jose State University. She teaches in the gender studies program at University for Peace in Costa Rica. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni at San Jose State University. Harpur College – Alumni at University for Peace in Costa Rica; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in San Francisco. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni at San Jose State University. Harpur College – Alumni at University for Peace in Costa Rica; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in San Francisco. Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Ellyn Uram Kaschak Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 13 February 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) IG: 00:00 Up to you. We can either try to get you on Skype, or we can just do this over the phone. EK: 00:09 Okay, either way, or we can go on FaceTime. You guys [inaudible] FaceTime IG: 00:16 Uh, FaceTime? No, I am here with my colleague, Aynur de Rouen, and so say hello. Third speaker 00:28 Hello. How are you? IG: 00:29 Who is the- yeah, she is the project manager for the oral history project. So should I give you a little bit of overview of what the oral history project is, or should we just plunge into the interview? EK: 00:46 Why do not you give me a short review? IG: 00:48 Okay, so the short review is that we-we are creating a virtual center for the study of the (19)60s. It will exist to promote scholarship on this important decade. And- EK: 01:10 Okay. IG: 01:10 -so we have collections of audio recordings, um, different collections. So one collection is a you is a set of 200 of interviews with 275 prominent leaders from the 1960s representing a range of political affiliations. So we have everyone from yippies to, you know, civil rights leaders like John Lewis and Shirley Chisholm, and there are people who were anti-war activists, as well as Vietnam vets who, you know, willingly went to this war. So that is one collection. The other collection is the collect, you know, the project that you are participating in, and that is a set of oral history interviews with alumni of Harpur College from the 1960s and it is to give. So it is to give a look back on what your experience at Harpur was like and how you perceived the events around you so the larger perspective. So these are, you know, these are tapes right now for oral history that will be transcribed, digitized and placed, excerpted, placed online. We have to ask you for your permission to- Third speaker 02:42 -consent form, and I can email to you. You can either sign it and email back to me, or, if you prefer, I can send it via mail with a paid envelope. So it would be maybe easier for you. Do you want me to do that way? To do that. EK: 03:20 Email is easiest for me. Third speaker 03:22 Email is easy. Okay, I will I will email to you, then EK: 03:27 You will never find me if you should not stand there. Third speaker 03:29 Okay, all right, I will send you an email after the interview this afternoon. IG: 03:35 Okay. EK: 03:36 Okay, good. IG: 03:37 Okay, so are we ready to start? EK: 03:41 Yes, okay, I do not know what is wrong with it. IG: 03:46 It is okay. That is okay. EK: 03:48 So keep going this way. I guess. IG: 03:49 Let us, let us go this way. Okay, so Ellyn, tell- first of all, you need to identify yourself and tell us who you are, where you are and what you are doing by participating in this interview. EK: 04:10 Okay, so this is the actual interview. IG: 04:13 Yes, yes. EK: 04:16 Okay, I am Ellyn Kaschak, and I was a student at Harpur from 1961 to 1965 so I hope it does not mess up the tape too much. So I just sent John, and he said he'd welcome over to somebody a bunch of photographs from the 1960s of the dorms and articles, you know, invitations to dances and things like that that is going on. IG: 04:50 Okay. Do you know who you sent this to? EK: 04:54 I sent it to John. IG: 04:55 I see, I see. EK: 04:56 John um- IG: 04:59 Cook-Cook. EK: 05:00 John Cook. IG: 05:01 Yes. EK: 05:03 And he said he walked him over to the library so somebody has them. IG: 05:07 Okay, I will get them from him. EK: 05:09 And there is a whole bunch of, there is a whole bunch of little odd names from dancers. And I do not know if they still have it, but they used to have the vacation, stepping on the coat ceremony in the spring. IG: 05:22 Oh, that is wonderful. Okay, so you please tell us you want, what is your age? Where are you speaking? Where are you physically located right now? And tell us that you are, you know, participating in this oral history interview. EK: 05:42 I am seventy-four years old. I have been a professor at San Jose State for many years. [coughs] IG: 05:55 We will, we will, but we did not catch what you said last you are 74 years old, and EK: 06:05 I, when I graduated from Harpur, [inaudible] is George Washington University, I see where I got a master's degree in clinical psychology- IG: 06:13 I see. EK: 06:13 -from there, they were not hired at Union, and I could not get a job, and they were not taking union into the PhD programs, even though I was a top of my class. And so I was told that I could not get a PhD because it was a waste of money. And you know, when I would just stay home and have babies? So I worked in DC for a couple of years as a school psychologist, and then times started changing, and I went back to school at Ohio State, got a doctorate, and came out to California to do my internship at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Palo Alto, and then I got a job at San Jose State as a clinical psychologist at a community psychologist. And I stayed there for my whole career, until I retired. IG: 07:02 Okay, so where was that at what state at California state? EK: 07:07 San Jose. San Jose. Oh, San Jose State University. IG: 07:12 State University. I know where that is. EK: 07:15 Yeah. That is right in the middle of Silicon Valley stuff. IG: 07:20 Yes-yes-yes. EK: 07:21 It was [inaudible] and I went there. IG: 07:24 Yeah, I could imagine. So just let us backtrack now to your early life and tell us where you grew up. Where are you from? EK: 07:39 I am from Brooklyn. IG: 07:41 Oh, well, where- EK: 07:44 I spent a few years in Valley Stream before I left, but mostly Brooklyn. IG: 07:47 Where in Brooklyn, if you do not mind my asking. EK: 07:53 Coney Island. IG: 07:54 Oh, I know where that is. So, who were your parents? What did they do? EK: 08:04 My parents were first generation Americans, and they were Celia and Bernard Uram, and they just kicked around and did a lot of things and fun. [coughs] Oh, I apologize. Finally, my father, after I was out of the house, when I was in my 20s, opened a successful business. So- IG: 08:35 Excuse me, a what business? EK: 08:37 A successful business. It was called [inaudible] stores, and it sold [inaudible], it was a discount store. IG: 08:43 Okay. And you said that your parents were first generation from where? EK: 08:50 Well, my grandparents came from Eastern Europe, and they came in 1900s to get away from the [inaudible], so way before Hitler and from Russia and the Austro-Hungarian empire. IG: 09:05 Okay, all right, did your parents go to college? EK: 09:11 No, they just barely finished high school. They had no interest in my going to college, or anybody going to college. They did not even know what it was, and I was the one that consisted on an education. So that was the early days of the scholarships before the government shriveled them. So after the New York State using scholarship and I needed to go someplace inexpensive, of good quality inside New York. So that became Harpur. IG: 09:46 Um, so, how did you persuade your parents to let you go to college? EK: 09:52 Well, I did not. I just went. [inaudible] on me. IG: 09:56 Okay, so, um, uh, you know, so- EK: 10:02 I had the scholarship. I paid for everything myself, and I practiced increasingly, I went to college. IG: 10:09 Well that is, that is very bold, very courageous of you. EK: 10:13 I am bold. IG: 10:14 Bold, courageous. So, um, so EK: 10:20 Like- what I wanted. I did not want to like it. You know, sitting in Brooklyn, owning somebody's children. IG: 10:27 I see. So did you have siblings? Do you have siblings? EK: 10:32 Yes, I did. I have two younger siblings. My sister is three years younger. She eventually went to Stony Brook, and my brother is a high school graduate. IG: 10:42 I see, so did he go into the family business? EK: 10:49 He did not. He had, psychological problems. So he has not worked. IG: 10:55 I see, I understand. So you decided to go to Harpur because of its affordability and because of its reputation? What was the reputation of the college back then? EK: 11:09 The reputation of Harpur was that it was the [inaudible] public schools. It had a great reputation, and it was really just starting up. I do not know how it got a good reputation so fast. So they have just been Triple Cities College a few years before. IG: 11:28 So did you learn about this from your friends, from your academic advisor? Do you remember? EK: 11:37 I do not remember. I needed a lot of research myself, but also had a pretty good values counselor, so you probably helped me. IG: 11:44 Okay and you financed your own education. What did you work during your college education or during the summers? When did you make money? EK: 11:59 I always worked during the summers, and once in a while, I worked during the semesters in the cafeteria, you know, cleaning up the trays in the cafeteria. IG: 12:10 Okay. EK: 12:12 I mean, the campus. I was just here; the campus looks very different. There was one cafeteria, and everybody had to eat on campus. IG: 12:21 What were your first impressions a city girl from Brooklyn, from Coney Island, coming to really the boondocks. So what did you think? EK: 12:39 In the first place, my father was one of those guys that would not use a map, so he drove to Albany and went to the left turn to get to Binghamton. So it took us two days. We pulled up, and it was nothing but mud. There were two, three buildings and mud. "Are you horrified?" I said, "Take me home. I do not be here." And they had not finished the dorms. There were only two dorms, two girls dorms and two guys dorms, and they had not finished them. So they had us tripled up in the dorms for the first semester. So it was, I guess it was after the [inaudible] in a lot of ways. IG: 13:22 So how-how long did it take you to acclimate to these new surroundings, and what helped you? EK: 13:34 Well, it took me a few weeks. I was really depressed in the beginning, and then I started to meet people. I had a boyfriend. I met friends who were also from New York. There was an extreme divide. I do not know if this still is, between the upstate and the downstate students. IG: 13:52 There was a big difference? EK: 13:55 A huge difference. So the downstate students were my friends. They were familiar to me. They were also from Brooklyn or Long Island or the smartest kids in their class and so on. The upstate students were also very [inaudible] were the smartest students I have ever met at any school that I have gone to, and they were smarter than a lot of the faculty where I taught. So I like that. The upstate students were just industrious. They just studied all the time. So the first two roommates that I had, were set the alarm o'clock for six o'clock in the morning, go to the cafeteria, have breakfast and begin studying before their classes. The first time I have ever seen people study like that. IG: 14:43 What were some cultural differences, if any, between the upstate and downstate students? Could you remember any anecdotes? EK: 14:54 Um, the upstate students went to church on Sunday morning, early [inaudible], and they would, they got in couples or in friendship groups, and only used to study in the state union of the library and then study from morning to night. IG: 15:19 And but you, you must have studied as well. I mean, what was your experience of academics at Harpur? How did you- did not you find it rigorous, or did- EK: 15:35 Much more rigorous than anything I had done before. And so I did study, and I wanted to be a psychologist, but the Psychology Department only did rat psychology. The 1960s was the height of Skinnerian psychology, so that meant you studied rats and boxes and not people. So I will tell you an anecdote. We do not have to live for three hours every week, and they eat a little like closet with your rat. Your rat had a fresh bar to get food. I do not know if you are familiar with those kinds of studies. That is Skinnerian psychology, and I became so bored because my rat was asleep. It turns out that rats are not trainer animals, so they sleep all day. So nobody saw the rat in setting up the labs. So I took a pencil and I poked my rat to get it to wake up and do the study psychopaths, of course, and rats [inaudible] with me. And so I went to the whatever it was in the nurse's station at the Student Union. I got a tetanus shot, and I dropped psychology, and I majored in foreign languages. IG: 16:53 What, um. That is very interesting. It echoes some of the experiences of other alumni who studied psychology. They also complained about rat psychology. EK: 17:08 There was no people psychology at all. You could forget about it if you went to that and I wound up majoring in Russian language and literature, which I think was a good start for being a psychologist. Anyway, Dostoevsky, Chekov all of them. IG: 17:24 Yes-yes. That is what I studied as well. EK: 17:28 Did you? IG: 17:29 Yes. EK: 17:29 So as a result, I mean, Russia is coming back before the Russian maybe it will be useful. IG: 17:36 Perhaps. EK: 17:37 An interesting topic to study. IG: 17:40 It is an interesting without question. It is an interesting topic to study. It is an interest. It is a rich literature to study. So you nonetheless, so um, so you were disappointed with sort of the direction of psychology courses. How did you find the Russian literature courses who were some of your professors? EK: 18:08 You know, they had the early professors there that we still had moved over from the community college, so I had, we used to call them by their last names [inaudible] they did not have doctorates, but they were both from Russia, and from [inaudible] IG: 18:37 I see, I see. So you know, how was that? IG: 18:43 It was the Russian department. IG: 18:45 That was the Russian department. How did you find your experience? EK: 18:50 I love languages, so I found it very interesting. IG: 18:53 Did they teach- EK: 18:55 And Russian was much more difficult in psychology, because we had to read War and Peace and all that in the original. IG: 19:02 Really, you read- EK: 19:04 I am probably the only person you know that read War and Peace in the original, but I still have the book. It was a tremendous effort. IG: 19:16 That is, I could imagine, that is extremely impressive. That is an education in itself. EK: 19:21 It was. And then when I finally went back to psychology at Northern Washington University in the people psychology, you still had to take your, you still had to take nine years exams to get an advanced degree. And I took my English, and was a beast. IG: 19:40 I could imagine after reading War and Peace in its entirety, you probably did better. You probably knew more than a lot of the faculty, the Russian faculty there. EK: 19:54 Probably I do not recommend it. I mean, it is really origins, but I need to learn a lot. I was very happy with the major, because I got to know languages, and then I did psychology later on, and it really showed me instead, because of the rigorousness of Harpur, is what really changed me. I was from one of those school [inaudible] in high school. It really changed me into taking education really seriously and studying and being prepared and so on. IG: 20:25 So um, you um, studied Russian very intensively. You worked in the cafeteria and in the summers to pay your way through college. But you- did you participate in residential life? What was that like for you? EK: 20:49 Residential life was not much. We had, you know, that was we had a paid-telephone in the hall, and that was the only telephone so everybody's boyfriends would go in in the evening, we had a curfew. I believe it was 10:30. There was a curfew for the girls, not for the guys. So everybody would say good night at 10:30 and then the phone would start ringing. But there was only one phone, and so residential life, as I remember it now, revolve around a lot, around the [inaudible], and what fraternity did he belong to, and what dances you went to, and things like that. IG: 21:31 And you mentioned you had a boyfriend. EK: 21:35 Yes, I did. IG: 21:35 And so what-what life did he expose you? EK: 21:42 He, um [inaudible] is actually his name. I kept his name. [inaudible] Uram was actually my family's name. IG: 21:53 Oh, that is very interesting. EK: 21:56 So and I just actually saw his sister for the first time. And, I do not know how many years, I just did a TED talk last year. I hope maybe you were there. IG: 22:10 I know I was not there. I so I miss your talk. So- EK: 22:19 I just saw her for the first time in years, and his parents had gone, but she still felt like family to me. So he was a townie, what we used to call a townie, yes. Oh, and he commuted, and he lived at home with his parents. So being that he commuted, they got him a car. So that was like the epitome he had a car. We could go places. We could go out on dates. He we used to drive all over upstate New York. I do not know if [inaudible] still there. It was a monastery. IG: 22:56 Yes, I visited it. EK: 22:58 It was a beautiful experience. It is like we used to do things like that quite a bit together, especially on the weekends. And he studied and also worked this whole time [inaudible]. And his mother worked in- as a waitress in the Arlington Hotel. I do not know if it is still there. Third speaker 23:21 What hotel? EK: 23:21 It was one of those ugly buildings, and she gave him all his money so he could go out and date and do things like that. So we had a pretty good time. And I was close to his family, because they were right there. So I go spend Christmas with the family and so on. And most of the activities centered around what they called Men's social clubs. They did not have fraternities. There was no football they were going to be principal and not have a football team, not have fraternities and so on. So but they had men's social clubs. And so most of the activities were for [inaudible] and then on social clubs, and then the big dances. EK: 23:21 The Arlington hotel, it was downtown. Third speaker 23:21 No, I do not know. Third speaker 24:08 I have a question. So how did you feel about having a curfew because boys did not have it, girls had it. So how did it make you feel about it? EK: 24:21 You know, we did not question it that much of the time. It was 1961. Boys could and also the boys could live off campus. And we did not like it that we were not, you know, like we'd [inaudible] know about it. And a lot of the girls used to sneak out after they did it, they did a great check at 10:30 and then they climb out the window and go over to their boyfriend's place. EK: 24:42 So, it was accepted that the way girls had to be treated, and it was a little bit of a joke, because the idea was, you know, you told me you cannot get pregnant before 10:30. You know, so it was a little bit of a joke, but we took it kind of as a joke. Nobody took it that seriously. Nobody was strongly into feminism or anything. EK: 24:42 Yeah, it is interesting. IG: 25:11 Was that was feminism or the women's right movement in the air at all? EK: 25:20 Not in Binghamton. IG: 25:22 But at Harpur? EK: 25:25 No-no, not really, not really. We had some very interesting guests that came and talked to us. And so there was a lot of politics in the air, mostly Vietnam politics. [inaudible] good news. He was a very well-known writer, and he came to campus. And when the Roosevelt came to campus and he did not have any money, she charged a lot of money, and one of the student leaders told me, we do not have money left to [inaudible] And she [inaudible] limousine one day and hung out with everybody. IG: 26:04 That is great. That is great. EK: 26:06 But there was not much about feminism. The females were all there to get to get a husband and a degree. IG: 26:19 Well, you found it you know your boyfriend, and then who became your husband. Were there? Was there anxiety about the Vietnam War, and how did it express itself? And as his- EK: 26:36 Tremendous anxiety about the Vietnam War, because that was the age of the guys that were getting drafted. And so there were two ways not to get drafted. And one used to go to graduate school. [inaudible] to get in and keep studying, and the other was to get married. So a lot of people were getting married to keep the guy out of the war. A lot of my friends got married last year, and also the pill have just come out control, a- EK: 27:11 Birth control. EK: 27:12 So a lot of them, you know, even technical version in those days, the technical discussion how old you are now? IG: 27:22 Well, [crosstalk] I see, I see. EK: 27:27 And so a lot of the girls once they decided marrying a guy,[coughs] [inaudible] enjoy birth control, so they got pregnant, and the girls dropped out of the guy finished school. So a lot of my female friends went home last year to have their babies. IG: 27:50 Unmarried or married? EK: 27:51 Married, they slept with the guy only because he became engaged and they knew he was the one they were going to marry. Otherwise, she did not have sex with anybody. [inaudible] marry him, then the sexual thing has changed drastically. IG: 28:07 Yes, I agree. So was- were you involved at all in student activism, was there were any of your friends involved in student activism, and what was the nature of that? EK: 28:29 Listen very much. There was a small group of students from the city that were involved in activism, and most people mostly people, I think, kept themselves into their own group. IG: 28:49 So- EK: 28:49 And some-some activism in that Vietnam and that was all these, nothing, I remember, nothing about feminism. IG: 29:01 What about the Civil Rights Movement? EK: 29:04 Well, the civil rights movement, yes, definitely, and we will let anybody who went in March, I met, I actually worked on Shirley Chisholm presidential campaign that was already in California. IG: 29:19 That is very interesting. [crosstalk] yeah, she is one of the people we have interviewed in our 60s collection. EK: 29:34 She was not really the first woman to do anything, and she really was a tough woman, history [inaudible] president. Then I was already in California, doing my internship. And once I got to California, I got I was not very aware of politics. I was just doing my own life. And when I was at Hartford, once I got to California, there was civil rights. It was Vietnam, there was black people running for offices, all kinds of stuff, and there was the abortion coalition. That was the first big issue of feminism. IG: 30:10 Was that in the (19)70s, when did you get to California? EK: 30:15 Got to California in the late (19)60s, maybe 1968 and they had started. I was in Ohio. Oh, I know- Ohio until 1968 studying psychology, and that is when the consciousness raising groups began. And so we all got ourselves in the consciousness raising group, and all became feminists, and there were no courses in psychology of women at all. They let us organize someone and teach without a faculty member, but all the faculty were men, and they did not have any idea what we were doing. So when I became a feminist, it was in the mid (19)60s. I had already, I was maybe four years out of Harpur. I was not going on while I was in Harpur. IG: 31:17 So there were no- you did not really have that much of a political awareness at that time at Harpur? EK: 31:31 [crosstalk] interested in learning and in having fun- EK: 31:38 -and that is the way I use race, that you pay attention to your own life and you do not get involved in this other stuff. My entire family is still that way. I am the only one who's political, and I became very political. I wrote in several books on [inaudible] psychology. IG: 31:38 In having fun. IG: 31:54 That is remarkable. What did you think owes to this? You know, radical departure from the way you were brought up. Is it the academic experience that you were exposed to, or what-what do you think contributed to your enlightenment? EK: 32:18 I think I academically studied and just like they call it quickly, study this stuff, and all of a sudden you realize that this is not a normal world. This is a world that you will be impressed. And so that moment, it just feels normal. Well, of course, blacks cannot go into places that whites go into. And you know, I looked at in the south, so I never really saw that. But, you know, females cannot be used, men keeping it and so on. And all of a sudden, you read the material, and there is a huge quick in your head, and you see that it is not normal, and it is not just the way the world is, the way the world will be constructed. And once you see that, you see it can all be reconstructed and reconstructed, and you know, the same again. IG: 33:09 Did you that is very interesting. Did you learn any of these intellectual skills? Do you believe at Harpur College? Did you get any of the sort of, you know, foundational, you know, intellectual, intellectual foundation for this, to make that leap? EK: 33:34 I would say, not in the sense of content, but in the sense of thought process. Because what I began to do the work that I do, I was not a therapist for too long, even though I studied therapy, but what I write is epistemology and philosophy of science. So what I wanted to do was to ask the questions. And that is what those fields are. You know, why? How do we know what we know? Is it makes a question of epistemology, and I have written several books on that topic. And I just, I actually just wrote one of the blind people who are, how do they understand gender and race? And that was my question. How do they know what they know they cannot see skin color. They cannot see any other stuff. Yet, they really need to know about all those things. IG: 34:27 So I am just curious. So how do they know? How do they perceive race? EK: 34:33 They asked their friends, you see, when I started writing the book, I was hoping that they were going to have a different system, not that they were not going to discriminate, because they were human beings, but they were going to have a different system, maybe touch, maybe something else. No, they go around and they ask their friends and then have this whole elaborate way of asking, like, if they go to a bar and they need a woman there. Her, they have a similar [inaudible], and when he shakes hands to tell them if she is pretty or ugly, so they know whether to go out with her. IG: 35:10 But they must have experienced discrimination themselves. EK: 35:15 You know, many of them did not, because they went to schools and they were all mixed together. I mean, they got to the A's when they started dating, they would bring home a boy, and the mother would say, you cannot date that boy. He is not of your race. And that is when they started learning. IG: 35:32 I see. Was there, yeah- EK: 35:36 Very startling to read about how they learn about race and gender and sexual orientation. We have a lot of stuff about transgender going on now, and they cannot tell the difference because the voice is the same. So the transgender things that are going on are just visual. And so I came to realize how much of our society is an issue. IG: 36:03 That is, that is very That is fascinating. EK: 36:09 That is actually what my Tiktok was on. It is unusual. IG: 36:14 I-I will look at it after we speak. But returning to Harpur College, did you feel that there were groups, you know, or individuals that were discriminated? Did you have, well, you probably did not have this idea of discrimination per se, but did you feel that it was there was, you know, maybe less of it because it was a homogeneous community, or was there any, any kind of discrimination on campus? EK: 36:53 There was not much. The students from downstate were almost 100 percent Jewish. Ones from upstate were almost 100 percent capital Protestant. EK: 36:58 They did not mix with each other. They did not think about marrying each other. I had friends that I do not know if you have spoken to Dolores Chapel yet. IG: 36:58 Yeah. IG: 37:09 No. EK: 37:11 She knows she is [inaudible]. IG: 37:13 Yeah, I am writing down her name. Okay. EK: 37:16 She was somebody that used to speak to; she was married to Giles Hoyt and he became a German professor. She was growing another guy ever since high school from her hometown, which was Tonawanda. When it got time to marry, she converted Catholicism, and they broke up after 10 years of dating, and she married somebody else, sure he did too. So the big discrimination was between religions, and it was not just Jewish and Catholic and Protestant, also. the, uh, I do not believe there were any other groups on campus. Everybody was white. Two men who came from Barbados and must have been on scholarship. So they were not Americans, and they did not stay very long. What happened is that one of my friends began dating, one of them, and her father happened to be a photographer, and so she sent, she only sent her pictures home to be developed. Remember, they used to develop pictures. He saw that she was sitting on the lap of a black man, and he pulled her out of school and made her come to Hofstra so and there were two black men. There were maybe 400 students in each class, if I remember correctly, and everybody else was white, if you consider [inaudible] used to be white. IG: 38:55 I am laughing. And yet, Ellyn, you married, you know, someone who was a townie. I married a Catholic boy. So isn't that kind of a very rebellious, you know, decision to have made, and- EK: 39:18 Yes. You seem to getting to know me, I was not rebellious, I just do what I want to do. And especially then, it was like that. And also, I had dated him for four years, but my family should have been ready for it. IG: 39:33 Right. Have they? EK: 39:34 You know, I met him in freshman year. IG: 39:37 Yeah, had they met him? EK: 39:39 But neither of us had any particular variation. IG: 39:49 So did you encounter any resistance from either of the families? EK: 39:56 My family. IG: 39:57 Yeah, yeah. But you prevailed. EK: 40:04 It was not a horrible resistance to say, he knew they could not control me by that point. IG: 40:10 I-I guess not. EK: 40:13 Yeah, I was going to do what I was going to do. So we got married, and part of the reason we got married, this is a funny anecdote that you are making me think of it is they had $250 round trip. You could go to Europe for the summer. It was a shorter flight. And I said, I cannot go to Europe. I do not marry him. We cannot travel around Europe. It is not like today. And so the week before graduation, we got married, week after we went and spent some [inaudible]. IG: 40:45 I have known people to get married for lesser reasons. EK: 40:53 That is the main reason that I married him. IG: 40:56 Well, you know, if you read contemporary Soviet literature, you know, there is stories by Trifonov [Yury Trifonov] about, you know, couples marrying because somebody had a- an apartment in a prime neighborhood- EK: 41:18 Oh yeah, [inaudible] IG: 41:21 -apartment with an extra room. So-so I am curious, how do you think that your classmates remember you from Harpur College days? EK: 41:32 A lot of the people I was friendly with had graduated, most of the New York City kids who went back the second year we could not take it in Binghamton, so a lot of us did not graduate together. There are fewer in touch with Peter Carroll Oliver [inaudible] or Erin Oliver, IG: 41:53 No. EK: 41:56 Well, you missed. IG: 41:58 No. I mean, I- no, I do not. EK: 42:01 I do not know if you want to list the people in general. IG: 42:04 That would be wonderful. That would be wonderful, but I need to speak to graduates, I think. But it would be really wonderful to get a list from you. EK: 42:18 Carol graduating from there. Bruce Benderson graduated from there. He became a writer, and he lives in Paris and writes in French. IG: 42:27 Oh, wow. EK: 42:27 So he'd be an interesting guy. Yes. Carol Oliver became a one of those Maharishi people, and she lives in Iowa at Maharishi University. IG: 42:41 That is great. EK: 42:43 And, you know, there was a lot of hippie stuff going on. IG: 42:48 Was there experimentation drugs? EK: 42:56 There was not much drugs. I remember Cal gave me for a wedding present, a nickel bag of grass. To translate into current lingo, a nickel bag was like $5 worth of marijuana. That was a wedding present for me, and I had never seen it before. I did not know what to do with it. There was not much in the way of drugs. It was a lot of alcohol. IG: 43:23 A lot of alcohol. So but my question was more, what do you think that? How do you think your classmates would remember you? How do you remember yourself from that period? EK: 43:46 I remember myself as mostly being [inaudible] and his friends and studying and socializing and not being anything. So I am not sure how many of them would remember me, except the ones that I was close to. Names that I am hearing you will definitely remember me. IG: 44:10 So you are in touch with these other people? EK: 44:13 Not in touch with some of them, but some of them even come up on Facebook and see what they are doing. The reason I know about Giles and Dolores is when John first came out here with some [inaudible] he was trying to give some money to the German department or something. He was a German major, IG: 44:36 And his name is Giles? IG: 44:38 All right. EK: 44:38 And I do not think I got along with him very well, because they do not set the alarm to six o'clock in the morning to get up and study it. I was like, "Are you people crazy?" So, you know, because they had, they had fair people often with what we get along well as roommates. And when I did finally get the roommate, they had fairly rich. They were right. We did not get along. Oh, here is another funny story. Her name was, I mean, I do not know how much detail you want. Her name was Sophia Kashack, K, A, S C H, A, K, and she sat next to Bob in orientation. His name was Kaschak, and she fixed me up on a blind date with him. That is how I met him. So [inaudible] EK: 44:38 Giles G, I, L, E, S, and his last name is H, O, Y, T, and the wife [inaudible] I guess, I guess she took his name. Her name was Doris. She was my roommate. She was my first roommate. IG: 45:39 I am- And so Kaschak, how do you spell that again? K, A- EK: 45:45 My version? IG: 45:46 Your version EK: 45:47 K, A, S, C HA, K IG: 45:51 So similar to yours? With [crosstalk] yeah, I understand. So, what do you think you know kind of looking back on this experience at Harpur College, what lessons did you learn from life at this time, from this time? EK: 46:15 Well, the thing that was most important to me is how intelligent the students were, that I finally there had people I could have conversations with, you know, on the equal level, and that there were other people in the world who thought about the things that I thought about and wanted to do the things that I wanted to do. And I think that really served me a lot because that brought me out of my shell. In some way, it made me realize all the things that was possible to do. So in some ways, I would say there were a few good faculty members, but mostly it was the other students for me. IG: 47:00 And you were kind of, you found yourself, you were coming into your own, or you were finding yourself. EK: 47:06 I was, I did find myself. I very much came into my own. My retirement on psychology. I had quite a bit of confidence and so forth. IG: 47:17 That is wonderful. EK: 47:20 I did not have that when I went to Harpur, I was just kind of beaten down and told not to go to college and get married and all that. Love to see some of those people again, but it would be a shock. I am sure you think that you look exactly the same and everybody else has changed. IG: 47:45 I am sure that there would be there you would find common ground if you were friends during your formative years at college, I think that there would be a connection still. EK: 47:57 I think so too. And a lot of them went on to be writers, and a couple of them from, you know, in Hollywood, Richie Cunningham and what is the other guy's name, there were a few graduates eventually- the usual audience are very-very big Hollywood producers, Rob Reiner and people that you would know. IG: 48:27 Wow. It would be so helpful. So to get a list, a short list, EK: 48:35 You do not have those names. IG: 48:36 I have those names, but I cannot identify them from lists of hundreds of people. So if you [crosstalk] I just have a whole directory. And the year they graduate I do not have, I-I- you know, you are pinpointing the people that would be very interesting for me to talk to, and I think for posterity, to have- EK: 48:59 Yeah, people that went on to be very well known in Hollywood, to be very good writers. I cannot think of that. It is not coming to me right now, but it will. IG: 49:09 Okay that it would be really great. So you know, for-for someone listening to this tape. And you know, considering-considering, you know, the considering going to Binghamton University in just in a future generation. What could you tell this prospective student about your experience and about-about what are the most important lessons that you have learned in life that relate to education? EK: 49:52 You know, it is hard for me to say, because Binghamton is so different. It was like a small I wanted a small college room. I would get to know everybody, and it would be like a community, and that is what it was. And now I do not even know any people that were there, but it is overwhelming to come to the campus. I was extremely impressed. John took me around, but it seems like they have a lot of really fascinating opportunities and summer programs and things like that that I was very impressed with, and I still think the students are very bright. EK: 50:27 Yeah. EK: 50:27 I think it is very important. I do not know. I cannot, I cannot really say, because I was there for two days. I think it is very important. From what I understand, the faculty is very good right now. Also, I met Russian Studies faculty, that is kind of what I am interested in. And I met Don and Harvey and [inaudible] studies faculty, Liam Mueller and whatever it is, and they are very enthusiastic and very motivating. But I think at least for me, the most important thing were the other students, the first time in my life, the other students were as smart as I was, and able to have the conversations I wanted to have, and that is really what changed me. EK: 51:18 But I could not hear it now. EK: 51:28 It does not even does not even look the same. IG: 51:30 Yeah. EK: 51:30 You will see some of the pictures because they sent a picture of the student union and the old dorms, which I can go offices now. And it is a completely different place. It would be hard for me to comment on it now. I think it is a top education. IG: 51:44 Yes, that is a wonderful plug, but your criticism or your advice to future administrations is to have a greater diversity of students and faculty. Is that it? EK: 52:01 I think they have it now, I looked at it when I was there. IG: 52:04 Yes, okay. EK: 52:06 I was just there last March when I did the TED talk and I said, "Oh my god, they have every city, every color, every other people." I think they have done it. IG: 52:15 They have done it. EK: 52:16 Without my advice, IG: 52:17 Without your advice. EK: 52:21 Because the world has changed so much. IG: 52:23 Yes, it has. EK: 52:25 You know, you cannot do that. IG: 52:28 I have. EK: 52:29 I was very impressed by the administrators and the faculty that I met. I met a few students because I gave a scholarship for summer work with women. So I met that student and some of the students had questions. They came to talk to me. IG: 52:44 That is wonderful. Any concluding remarks? Ellyn, I know that you are braving your cold so we can end now after an hour, but I would like to ask you if you had if you have any concluding thoughts or remarks, EK: 53:08 [inaudible] and also feel free to call me again when I am not sick, if you need other comments or other names or something. I am just getting over that horrible [inaudible]. So that is what this caution is about. I live in, oh, I live in Costa Rica now. IG: 53:28 Oh, that is incredible. EK: 53:31 Just here for a few weeks to take care of taxes and business. And so I went down to Costa Rica when I was in George Washington, and got to know the place, and I have been teaching there and training students and training therapists throughout probably four decades. In addition to being here, I split my time. IG: 53:50 So what are, what are the university that you are teaching at in Costa Rica? EK: 53:57 It is called the University for Peace, and it is the United Nations campus. There are four of them in the world. They bring students in from- this is how much I changed from back then. They bring students in from all over the world, and they teach them skills that hopefully are, you know, conflict resolution, and skills that are hopefully helpful in bringing about peace. And they send them back to their countries. They become diplomats, they become presidents of their countries, and it is one way to try to bring about peace. And they are wonderful students. IG: 54:32 That is wonderful. And what do you teach them? You teach them what? EK: 54:38 I teach gender and peace. My- I have got my [inaudible] to be, you know, gender and ethnicity and sexual orientation, pretty much, but as a clinical psychologist, so I teach them those topics and how they handle their peace issues. IG: 54:55 What a wonderful life. EK: 54:58 It is fabulous. I love it there. It turned out to be [inaudible]. And I keep writing I just have a look at so- I could say that about Harpur also got me started on exactly the life I wanted to have and I was meant to have. IG: 55:14 That is very gratifying to hear. EK: 55:18 And I am thinking now about getting some kind of donation to a program, because I am really grateful that they starting out. IG: 55:25 Well, I if-if I can, I will pass that information to John Koch, and he will be delighted. I am sure. EK: 55:35 I have noticed him very well. I have met with him several times, working on what project I can do. He is a lovely man. IG: 55:41 I will, I will let him know. EK: 55:45 Okay, and if you need to find me, yeah, like an ocean sound, okay? IG: 55:50 I will. I will, in a few days, I will email you for those names. I taken some down, but I, I am, I will, I will do a follow up, EK: 56:02 Okay, and take the coughing out of my tape. IG: 56:04 I will, we will, we will. Okay, thank you so much. EK: 56:12 Happy to talk to you again anytime you want to. IG: 56:15 Thank you so much. Get better soon. EK: 56:18 Thank you. IG: 56:19 Bye, bye. Take care. Bye, bye. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Ellyn Uram Kaschak Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education; Harpur College – Alumni at San Jose State University. Harpur College – Alumni at University for Peace in Costa Rica; Harpur College – Alumni from New York City; Harpur College – Alumni living in San Francisco. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource Dr. Ellyn Kaschak is an award-winning psychologist, author, teacher and human rights activist. She is a professor emerita of psychology at San Jose State University. She teaches in the gender studies program at University for Peace in Costa Rica. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-02-13 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Kaschak, Ellyn Uram ; Gashurov, Irene Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Ellyn Kaschak.mp3 Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Language A language of the resource eng Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-02-13 Extent The size or duration of the resource. 56:23 minutes Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/db07d2a3541c28677edb4bffcdcffe75.mp3 2a4a5b8141094ebfb7f9fa67a87824f2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-02-14 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Dr. Andrew Grant Year of Graduation 1967 Biographical Text Dr. Andrew Grant is a retired Assistant VP for Institutional Advancement at Hebrew Union College in NYC. He worked as a disc jockey at WHRW-FM. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni at Hebrew Union College; Harpur College – Alumni living in Suffolk County, Long Island Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni at Hebrew Union College; Harpur College – Alumni living in Suffolk County, Long Island Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: Andrew Grant Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 14 February 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) IG: 00:00 Where are you, if I may ask? Are you at home or in your office? AG: 00:04 I do not have an office. I am retired. IG: 00:06 Oh! AG: 00:07 On January 2. IG: 00:09 Could you- well, congratulations on your retirement. We just want to make you a little bit louder. I am- Third speaker 00:15 Okay. This is, I think, the loudest. IG: 00:19 That is the loudest it can go? IG: 00:20 do I need to do that? Or you do that? Yeah, it does. It does not get louder, yeah, can you? Can you do it from your end? Dr, Chris, AG: 00:31 I do not think so. I think my volume control is only- my machine, Third speaker 00:37 Yeah. AG: 00:37 Is that better, or no? IG: 00:40 I think so. I think so, okay, okay, so why do not we begin, um- AG: 00:48 [inaudible] you need to move a little bit more together so I can see. IG: 00:54 Okay-okay, so we are not- Third speaker 00:58 Okay, okay, I will just- IG: 01:00 I am just looking through my notes. That is, that is why I moved away. Okay, so why do not we begin with you identifying yourself when you were born, what you do and when you went to Binghamton, AG: 01:27 What was the last one? IG: 01:29 When you went to Binghamton? Or we could ask that later. AG: 01:34 Okay. My name is Andrew grant. I was born in November of 1946. I went to Binghamton. I graduated in 1967. IG: 01:46 Okay, very good. So where did you grow up? AG: 01:51 In Manhattan and the Bronx. IG: 01:54 Oh, may I ask where in Manhattan? AG: 01:58 In Washington Heights. IG: 01:59 Oh, I lived in Washington Heights. AG: 02:02 Where? IG: 02:04 By Fort Tryon Park. AG: 02:05 Yeah, that is where I lived. IG: 02:07 Okay, 1/80 and Fort Washington Avenue in probably the most beautiful apartment building and apartment that I have ever lived in. It was beautiful, Art Deco. AG: 02:24 Yeah, I was, we were on 1/90 and Hillside. Speaker 1 02:27 Okay, AG: 02:27 At the lower at the lower end of the park, my sister actually still has an apartment up there. IG: 02:31 Oh! Well, um, yeah, I am familiar with that area very well, and a lot of my Russian emigre friends lived there. There was a big Russian community in Washington Heights, but that is, that is after your time. AG: 02:52 That is after my time. My time was, it was many Holocaust survivors, as-as-as was my family. IG: 03:02 Yeah, okay. These were, these were refuseniks who came to the US in the late (19)70s and early (19)80s. A lot of- AG: 03:15 My parents. My parents came from Germany in 1940. IG: 03:18 Okay-okay, all right, so and who were your parents? AG: 03:25 Who were they? Who were my- the names? IG: 03:27 What you can tell us their names, what did they do? What was their occupation? Where were they from? You mentioned this briefly. They were from Germany. They came in 1940. What did they do in Germany? What did they do in the United States? What was their occupation? AG: 03:47 My father, my father had a- his family had a textile company, and when he came to the States, he became a textile salesman. My mother was a homemaker. IG: 03:59 Okay, all right. And did they- did your parents go to college? IG: 04:06 No. IG: 04:07 Yeah. And what were their- 04:09 -and they did not pick it up when they got here. IG: 04:12 I see what were their expectations for you in terms of college? Was education valued in your family? AG: 04:20 It was they expected that I would go to college, and I did. IG: 04:31 So can you elaborate a little bit? Were they supportive of your- I mean, did they help you study? Did they help you choose your college, or were they, yeah- Speaker 2 04:46 It was, it was not a- an issue- was always assumed that it would go to college and we- they, you know, it was very different in those days. I just- my daughter just graduated from Colby, and the process of getting her situated in the school that she wanted to go with all the visits and the trips was very different. We went to visit Binghamton. I saw it. I do not think I visited any other schools. I chose it for a number of reasons. It had a good reputation. It was a state school. It was inexpensive. I had a regional scholarship, so it became less expensive, and there was not as much thought about it when I went to school, certainly as when my daughter weighed her options for which school she wanted to go to. IG: 05:52 Okay, I-I-I- that was also the experience, my experience versus my daughter's, I think a lot more thought went into her college selection. So what was your experience at Harpur College? AG: 06:18 It was- IG: 06:19 Yeah. AG: 06:20 I guess the best word I could use is bland. IG: 06:23 Bland. AG: 06:24 It was bland. It was, it was- I was not, you know, there was a lot going on in the (19)60s. I was not much of an activist. It was, it was a question of getting through my studies. I was not a superior student by any means my academic success came much later on, when I, when I proceeded, pursued my doctorate. I had a small group of friends and was not very much involved. I was involved with the radio station, so that was my extracurricular activity. And it was really a question of trying to find myself at that time. IG: 07:05 Well, that is, I mean, these are all very interesting points, so maybe let us start with the most interesting to you, which was the radio station. Tell us about that. AG: 07:19 It was, well, I was, I was looking for an extracurricular opportunity there as and all of the clubs and all of the other extracurricular activities, there was, you know, I guess there was a fair, or whatever it was they displayed. And it was, it was, I had never done that before. And it was, it was an interesting group of people, and we all got our FCC licenses, and that was where I spent most of the- my time that was not in class and in the library. IG: 07:53 So the radio station was conducted from the library, the physical space? AG: 07:58 No-no, It was conducted- IG: 08:00 Oh, I see I misunderstood. AG: 08:03 I was either in class or in the library study- IG: 08:05 I see, I see I misunderstood. Okay, so I would like you to talk more about the radio station. Where was it located? AG: 08:15 I think it was in the student center, if I remember correctly. And we had a- in those days was it was, I think while I was there, they expanded it, they bought a much more powerful transmitter, and I had many of my friends that I was close with and I met through the through the radio station. Third speaker 08:45 Wait, what was it called? AG: 08:47 WHRW. Third speaker 08:49 Because it is still continuing, and I still listen. They play great music. New Age, different- IG: 09:00 Oh. Third speaker 09:00 Yeah, they do. I even listen some Turkish music there. IG: 09:04 Oh wow, that is incredible. Third speaker 09:06 Yes. AG: 09:09 They still have reunions. I know that I did not go to my reunion. I went back to Binghamton a few years after I graduated, and I got lost on the campus, and that was the last time I went back. AG: 09:20 I graduated in (19)67 maybe (19)71-(19)72. [crosstalk] you have to remember, if you look at an aerial photograph of the campus, there is a kidney shaped drive that goes around in the middle. That is all there was. And in those days, that kidney shaped drive that went around a number of the buildings, but that was the entire campus at that time, and then it expanded tremendously. IG: 09:22 When was that? IG: 09:55 Hmm. Yeah, that that is our impression from speaking with other graduates from-from this time, from the (19)60s, that it was kind of a, you know, a smaller, much smaller version um-um. of-of- it was, it was actually a different-different-different type of campus. It was very kind of bare bones. But returning to the- excuse me. AG: 10:27 It was tiny. IG: 10:28 It was tiny. But returning, I am really curious about the radio station. What role did you play? Was-was the- was it a sound studio? I mean, how- what-what was the equipment that you used? AG: 10:42 I did not hear the question, was it a, what type of studio? IG: 10:48 Sound studio, sound studio. AG: 10:51 inaudible] It was- there was a, there was an office, and there was a, there was a- an on-air studio with offices, you know, an office around it, and wherever the trend, the transmitter was someplace else. And we- I did some of the, some administrative activities we all managed, helped manage it, and I did a little bit of on air announcing. IG: 11:29 What kind of music did you play? What kind of talk shows did you have, if any? AG: 11:35 [inaudible] talk shows. I did some-some music, some-some popular, current music and of the day. IG: 11:43 So what, what was, you know, some of the- AG: 11:46 Easy listening kind of stuff. IG: 11:47 I see. It was, is that? So, what role did you have? Did you decide on, on what music was? Went on air? AG: 11:58 Yeah, for those, for those few shows, and I was what they call the traffic manager, and now we are talking 50 years ago, so you are testing my memory. IG: 12:09 I am. [laughs] AG: 12:11 More than 50 years ago. IG: 12:13 More than 50 years ago. Okay, so it was, it was really easy listening. There were no, there were no, there was not much reporting. Or did you do any reporting? AG: 12:27 A little bit, we did a little bit of news. I think I filled in one night for-for somebody who, who did the news, who was not able to make his show. So I was, I was, I was a fill in for that night. IG: 12:39 Was the news local, or was it national? AG: 12:44 It was national., IG: 12:45 it was national. AG: 12:46 National. Yeah. IG: 12:47 So- AG: 12:49 We had a UPI ticker. So we read the news from the UPI ticker that came in. We had a subscription to that. It was, it was a fairly well supported function. IG: 13:04 How many were you? AG: 13:08 Oh, I would not begin to try to remember that well. IG: 13:12 Approximately. Was-was it 10? Was it two? Was it 100? AG: 13:19 I would say that maybe involved in the in the station at that time, maybe there, there were 20 people. IG: 13:24 I see. So, you, you do not remember what the news of the day was. What were the important discussions that were taking place during those years? Do- AG: 13:37 Well, I was it was the Vietnam War, obviously. Was that- was this, the 67 war, these- in Israel was development of the State of Israel, the war. Those are the ones that that stand up. IG: 13:58 Yeah, do you remember what you know, position, politically, the radio talk show hosts would take of the war. Were they- were you just neutrally reporting events? Or- AG: 14:18 I do not remember. IG: 14:19 You do not remember. AG: 14:20 I would assume it was, it was an anti-war stance because of who we were, but I cannot conjure that out of my memory. IG: 14:32 Right. That is understandable. So how many years did you spend on the radio? Was it your entire college career, or...? [crosstalk] AG: 14:50 My college career was only three years, because I took advantage of the trimester system, I went, I went two summers, I should have graduated in (19)68. I graduated from high school in (19)64 but I went two summers and made up a full year that way. IG: 15:10 That is pretty intense. AG: 15:12 It was a mistake. IG: 15:14 Yeah. So what was, what were your academics like? What did you study? What was your major? AG: 15:23 Major was political science. I intended to go to law school. I went- had a year of law school, and then I would have been drafted. So at that time, there was- we were looking, everybody was looking for an option, and I became a New York City school teacher. IG: 15:43 Oh. AG: 15:44 I was in, I was in law school, and my mother called me up, and she said she and my friend's mother had gone down to the Board of Ed, and that they, they had, there was a teacher shortage, and they-they had a program which was called manpower channeling, so anybody became a teacher got a deferment. I spent, I think was five or six years teaching in elementary school, and I was already pursuing my-my doctorate at that time in public administration at NYU. What happened with that program is the city bought courses in all the local universities, and they paid for 12 credits for anybody who was accepted in that program was fairly competitive, as you can imagine, because-because it was all guys who were looking for an alternative to the draft. So I completed, they gave me 12 credits at NYU. I completed a master's in an education in 1970 and then I was very much interested in urban planning and enrolled in the- what is now the Wagner school for public service. Wagner that time known as the graduate school for public administration, and I was in that master's program for maybe a year or two, and they came out with a PhD MUP option, which is what I eventually graduated from. IG: 17:38 Interesting. So while you were teaching, where did you teach? Which neighborhood? AG: 17:45 In Marble Hill, in the Bronx. IG: 17:46 In the what? Excuse me. AG: 17:48 Marble Hill in the Bronx. IG: 17:50 Oh, I know where that is- a beautiful museum. So returning to Harpur College, how- did-did- Was there any- do you remember any faculty at Harpur that made an impression on you? AG: 18:12 Yeah, I remember, I- as a political science major. I was- I took many of the political science courses I but I the one that stands out most was an English teacher by the name of Sheldon Grebstein, who I eventually met later on he became the president of SUNY Purchase for a while since retired, but I was there, and I lived close by to that campus. I had a membership to their swimming pool, and I had met him before I was a senior, and I took his poetry clothes- course. There was also a political science professor by the name of Blair Ewing, who left there, whom I remembered because I was accused of having stolen his final exam. IG: 19:12 And did you, did you? AG: 19:17 I did not. AG: 19:18 It was a, it was quite a, quite a traumatic- I was a very naive young man, and I had a- one of the best final exam schedules I ever had. It was a dream schedule. I was done on Wednesday, and I had a date in New York to see one of the other students at Harpur's, to go to Peter Paul and Mary concert. And I was home for a day, and I get a call from the Dean, and they say, "You have been implicated in a cheating scandal. You have been accused of having stolen Professor Ewing's final exam." "What-what are you? No, they did not tell me that." They just said that I had been implicated in a cheating scandal, and they wanted me to come back. So, I said, I am not coming back. I did not do anything. We will deal with it when I get back after semester break, so the phone goes back and forth and back and forth, and they got my attention when they told me I could have an attorney present. IG: 19:18 You did not. [laughs] IG: 20:31 That you could what? AG: 20:34 That I could have an attorney present. IG: 20:38 Oh-oh, wow, wow, that is serious. AG: 20:41 That was serious. So, I said to the dean, "Give me the benefit of the doubt and assume that I have no idea what you are talking about," which I did not, "and tell me what I have been accused of, or I will not come back. Either give me some details," I said. They told me that I was holding up the entire classes grades. Remember very well it was, it was Blair Ewing's course in totalitarians, comparative totalitarian systems. And I said, you tell me "Why you think I did something, and then I will come back." So they said that I had been accused of having stolen an exam. I had broken into his office and stolen exam. And then I sort of started remembering I had spoken to a friend of mine who actually was the general manager of the radio station, and I had spoken to him previously, and he had, like most students do, give me the details of this professor's previous exams, and he never changed his exams, so the questions were familiar. And I called him up and I said, I this is what is going on. He was still on campus because he was, he was involved in some activities that that he needed to be there for. And I said, "Look, I do not want a character reference. I want you to write a letter to the dean and tell her detail exactly what you told me without any without any value judgment." So this also happened to me, my first plane flight ever. I get back up to campus, I go into the dean's office. Ewing is sitting there. First words he said to me. And I- you can remember, you can imagine how-how prominent this is in my memory, because I remember it exactly. 50,52, 53, years later, he looked at me said, "Mr. Grant, I do not think you cheated. You should have done better." IG: 22:59 What an excellent response. AG: 23:01 I said, "What did I get?" He said, "You got to be on the exam." So, I sit down, and there is a young woman who is sitting there, and I recognized her as a student in the class, and then I remembered that I had met her in the in the snack bar just before the exam, and I saw her studying for the exam, and I said to her, "Well, you, you should study these things, and this is going to be the-the format of the of the exam." So I was talking to her, she reported me for having stolen test. IG: 23:34 How terrible. Third speaker 23:35 Oh my god. IG: 23:36 How terrible. How terrible. AG: 23:38 She thought she had missed out on something. So, I said to them, first of all, you had the letter from-from Joe Breast who was the, who was the general manager of the radio station. His main name may be familiar with Columbia, if you were going through the records of those days, who he and I graduated again, look to the data. I said, "Is it considered absolute academic dishonesty to research previous exams?" They said, "Absolutely not." I said, "Is it my fault?" And I looked at him "that you never change your exam questions." And so they got a chuckle out of that. And then this student looked at me, and she said, "But you knew the exact format of the exam," and I said to her, "As would you had you not cut the class where he gave that to us in class?" IG: 24:28 I am sorry. As- what did you tell her? AG: 24:31 She-she had cut the class where he gave us the format. IG: 24:35 I see. I see. I see. I see. I see. Oh, how terrible. AG: 24:41 I said "Was there ever any evidence of your office having broken into it that somebody had taken your exam?" "No-no-no." I looked at them and said, "So, what am I doing here?" And they looked at me and they said, "Well, there was a good faith accusation, and we had to follow up." So, they paid all of my expenses and sent me on my way, and the dean looked at me, and she said, "Next time, do not be so forthcoming with information for somebody else." IG: 25:13 What was the good faith student reprimanded? AG: 25:18 Again, I never saw her again. She just she vanished from campus. I think she was embarrassed. I do not think they reprimanded her, because she felt that she had enough information to-to make that good faith accusation. But she-she was the kind of student who cut a lot of the classes and all the and he had given us a great deal of information about the exam, so that was kind of one of the highlights of my college experience. It was not a pleasant one, but it came out okay, but I did not realize in my naivete how close I was to being expelled. IG: 25:56 But what I mean, it is just, it is awful. It is an awful experience that-that you know, reminds me of, of the time of Stalin, where, you know, neighbors would denounce each other. You know, but- AG: 26:16 Certainly, the case Nazi Germany for my parents. IG: 26:18 Yeah-yeah. Yes-yes. I mean, it is very, it is very similar, and but it must have been a really formative experience as well. Do you, do you- how do you think that that- I mean, it was a shock, probably to the system, and how did- what-what impact did it have on you? AG: 26:38 It was, it was, really, was not a shock. Because I-I believe I did not do anything so there was nothing, there was nothing. There could be no consequences, because I did not do anything which is stupid. I become much more circumspect in terms of information I give at the people and what you know, what I say, I felt I looked at them and I said, we could have done this on the phone. IG: 27:06 Yeah. AG: 27:08 If there was no evidence of any breach, we could have done it on the phone and-and have saved ourselves all of this time, expense and-and stress, [crosstalk] much more cautious person. I am- I certainly have disabused myself of the notion that-that being innocent protects you so that those- that was, that was, in fact, a formative experience. Third speaker 27:39 When did that happen? Were you a sophomore, freshman? Would- AG: 27:43 I think it was a sophomore. AG: 27:45 No. IG: 27:45 No, it is okay. It is all right. IG: 27:45 Do you remember the Dean's name? AG: 27:52 I remember the professor's name. He certainly can. IG: 27:55 Yeah. AG: 27:55 I am sure that is in the annals someplace. IG: 27:58 Well, so you were a sophomore, you returned for your junior year? What did your friends say about this incident? Do you remember? AG: 28:08 They just shook their heads. I said, you know this thing, it was, it was just, it was just, you know, kind of bureaucratic stupidity. If they told me what they needed to know on the phone I would have, it would have jogged my memory, and I was about this. I do not remember her name anymore. I said I had a conver- [his phone rings] Hold one second. Okay. IG: 28:34 Okay. AG: 28:35 That was my-my cell phone. My cell phone goes through my computer, so. IG: 28:44 I see, I see, okay, so, um, how do you think- AG: 28:51 I tried to close because it is if I, if I disconnect by accident, I will call you back. IG: 28:58 All right, that is fine, sure. That is fine, but you still have a little bit of time. AG: 29:04 Yeah, we are good. Okay, good. I close it and you are still there. IG: 29:08 Okay, very good. So how do you think your classmates remember you, if they were to tell me, those-those who remember, and those, for example, those you worked with on the radio? How would they describe you? AG: 29:28 Not sure I think they would describe me as that is hard to put-put into words that they were required to describe me as, you know, nice guy, not a, not a not a great student, not somebody who was, who was very involved and in any kind of political activity or any kind of activism, somebody who was, you know, we were kind of just there and good friend, but I have not really kept in touch with anybody from-from Binghamton at all. IG: 30:13 You have not? AG: 30:15 I have not. IG: 30:15 You have not. AG: 30:18 I tend not to do that. I tend to move on from one-one experience to the next very small circle of friends from, you know, different-different stages of my life. What is, what is amusing at-at this point is I have recently, become through Facebook, got connected with a group of friends from high school. I have, I have a distant cousin who I have been friendly with, and I was on his Facebook page, and there was a friend of his who looked familiar. His name was familiar. And I wrote him. I said, "Are you the same David who went to Clinton High School?" And he said, "Yes," and we had put together. There are five, five couples who all went to high school together, except my cousin. My cousin did not go to high school with me, but he met many of my high school friends at City College, where he went. So we now have a group of five couples who we meet every three or four months, and we go out to dinner, to a theater, to a Broadway production. And that predates. That is certainly from, from that era. IG: 31:46 That is, that is very nice. I wonder if I know of other couples who from Binghamton who see each other annually. They have reunions in different parts of the Northeast. So just tell me a little bit about campus life. You know, the majority of students were like you from New York City or Long Island. And then there were some students from upstate New York. Did you notice differences between these you know, city-city folk and townies, they were called, I think. AG: 32:33 I remember one, one of my one of my friends, was he was convinced that Jews had horns. That is how he grew up and-and his exposure to a lot of the New York students and a lot of the Jewish students was-was a kind of an eye opener for him. So yeah, we found a lot of, a lot of the upstate students a little bit provincial when I- before I got there, and my-my housing preferences, I put down that I did not want to.- I would prefer to room with somebody outside the area that came from. And I did that, and I had a roommate. We did not get to be good friends. And then through the radio station, I met some other people, and eventually roamed with them. And they were from -from the New York area, also from Westchester. And then eventually, my senior year, over junior, senior year, I got a single. IG: 33:38 So do you- did your impression of students from upstate- I mean, you mentioned that there was a cultural difference between New Yorkers and, you know, upstate New Yorkers. Did you, did your impression of upstate New Yorkers change over the time that you were at Harpur? AG: 34:05 I got friendly with people. I, yeah, there was one I- we exchanged visits during vacation. So a number of people come home to New York with me and show them New York. I went to their homes and- IG: 34:19 Where? In Binghamton or? AG: 34:22 No, upstate, and that now these were not people who these were all people within the dorms, I said, people who were local. I see. And we, you know, we realized we had more in common than we had differences, as is typical when you put different cultural groups together. IG: 34:45 Yes-yes, I agree. So tell me a little bit about more about your free time on campus. Did you spend it all at the radio station? Or did you hang out with your friends in the dorm? Or, how did you spend- AG: 35:04 Partially, even the radio station, mostly hanging out with friends in the dorm, doing, you know, going to movies. I- nothing really stands out. IG: 35:16 Yeah. AG: 35:17 As-as you know, spectacular. We- it was, it was very much a lot of my-my friends were pre-med and pre law, as I was, and we did a lot of it was, there was a lot of- and we mostly were, were studious, and that was a reputation of the institution in those days, and I still, I think it is still the reputation of the institution that it is, it is certainly not a party school. It was very much a place where people paid attention to their studies, spent time in the library, and yet spent some time, you know, dating and going on dates and going out to dinner and campus events when there were performances, but that was pretty much it. IG: 36:10 So, how did you get around? Did somebody have a car, or did you take a bus? AG: 36:18 [inaudible] The- you know, the under the underclass years there were, there was transportation into town. Some people have had cars. There was a, there was a shopping mall within walking distance, right- next to campus. So wanted to go shopping. A good while they would walk. Some people had cars. We would go. There was a I am sure it is still there. I think it is still there. We did not go out with some of us went out to bars. We were not heavy drinkers. We were more when we went out. It was more to a place called Pat Mitchell's, which was an ice cream place. We would go out and we would, we would have ice cream, and there were weekend nights, sometimes we would go out drinking and in the bars. In those days, drinking age in New York was 18, so it was much easier to-to go out and socialize that way. IG: 37:32 I wanted to ask, were there women who worked on the radio? AG: 37:38 Yes-yes. IG: 37:40 Yes. Um, were- you know, do you think that there were different expectations for men than there were for women, or did the women who worked on the radio serious about what they were doing and maybe thinking of a career in radio? AG: 38:03 I do not really think, except for one person who became a journalist, I really do not think that anybody expected to make a career out of this, certainly not the people that I was close to. And no, I do not believe that the expectations for the women were any different for the men. Also the women who wanted to be on air. Broadcasters certainly had the opportunity to do that, and it may have been a question that I was not astute enough for any kind of discrimination as far as that was concerned. But I certainly the women who were interested in doing whatever they wanted to do on that particular extracurricular activity had ample opportunity to do it, and did and did so. IG: 38:58 it is interesting. So you know what looking back, what lessons do you think you learned from this time, including your unfortunate brush with this false accusation? What lessons did you learn from this time in your life? I mean, there are probably several, you know, because you spoke about, you know, the impact that the false accusation had on you. But what would you say? What did, what did this experience give you? AG: 39:38 The college experience? IG: 39:39 Yes. IG: 39:40 Or? IG: 39:41 Yeah, in a broader sense, not just a degree. AG: 39:44 It certainly was-was for the first time, I was away from home, and I was determined I had the same, I had the same offer that many of my friends did if I went. To City College, my parents would buy me a car. I said, keep your car. You know, the Holocaust families were very overprotective, and there was a friend of mine later said, you know somebody I had met. Much later, he said he went, he went swimming and got wet, off to your ankles. They sent out the lifeguards, my parents, my parents drove me up and we were 50 miles outside of Binghamton. She said, "You know, you can still go to City College." IG: 40:42 They were more comfortable with that alternative. AG: 40:45 Yeah. The irony was that I had a friend who did exactly that and was killed in an automobile accident while he was, while he was in it was going to City College. So you never know. You just never know. IG: 40:58 You really never know. AG: 40:59 It gives you, yeah, I think, I think that whole experience was, I did not come out. You know, everybody comes out of those experiences different. But I, you know, it was an experience. I-I-I, when I was in graduate school, I look back and I said, it is you really need to apply yourself a little bit more to your studies than you did when you were in school. It was a question of trying to find out, find my find-find out who I was as an individual. I got part of the way there, but [crosstalk] IG: 41:34 What did you, yeah, find out about yourself as an individual from that short period for from those three years? AG: 41:45 that I was, that I was very much a solitary kind of individual. I know that when my father was a road salesman, and he would leave on Monday, he still had institutional textiles, and he had a fairly broad territory, which included the Adirondacks and his- many times during school vacations. When I was in high school, our vacation where we would go along with him, we go up to-to the resort areas, and sometimes he took me along by myself. And I remember thinking to myself, What a horrible, lonely existence this is. And later on in life, I find, I found, I learned the difference between loneliness and solitude. And although, you know, I married, I have a family, but there are, there are many times, right- My wife is still working, and I cherish the time that-that I have to myself. You know, it is kind of a transition when you retire, and I was worried about filling the time that I am reading. One of the things that-that happened in Binghamton was that that I was not very much of a reader. I had difficulty in talking to people about current events other than what was going on classes. I remember I once went gone with a friend to his home, and they had-had a very animated political discussion, and I had really had nothing to say. I was very quiet, and I went to a counselor when I was in law school, and he looked at me, and I feel I often have nothing to offer intellectually. And he said, "Well, do you read?" I said, "Well, you know, do subscribe to magazines?" And at that time, I started reading for pleasure and for information. And I am, sometimes I am reading two, three books at the same time, thanks to my Kindle switching back and forth, and I very much value the time that I have to myself. You know, I did not realize that when I was at school as an undergraduate, but certainly developed that I was I always you know, found myself many times. I found myself doing things by myself, and realized later on that, well, you know, you-you, you know how to be your own best company. And that is, that is a very, very valuable lesson to learn. IG: 44:38 It is a valuable a lesson to learn. I am just wondering you spoke. [crosstalk] Yeah. AG: 44:46 I kind of came late to things throughout my whole life. My daughter was born. I was 49 when I had, when I had, she was an only child. I think that makes you better parent, certainly a mature-mature parents, because you are done building your career and-and have a wonderful relationship with her now. So it is, it is better late than never [inaudible] IG: 45:15 And just-just remind us, well for the record, your career was in development, or um- AG: 45:24 I started out as a New York City school teacher. IG: 45:27 Yes. AG: 45:28 And as I am fond of saying, it was the second to the last place in the world, I wanted to be, as I told you earlier. IG: 45:35 Yes. AG: 45:36 Vietnam was last, and I had a- was in the school, and one of my colleagues in the school got a job at the Central Headquarters of the New York City school system. And he was in the federal- he got a job in the federal aid office. And at that time, I was taking a course at NYU and Intergovernmental Relations. And I said to him, you know, I am taking a course in that sounds really interesting. And if anything opens up in that office, give me a call. I would be interested in pursuing it. And he did, and I went down there. It was a everybody said, "Do not do it. It is a dead-end job." That office was a, I do not, we do not have enough time to explain the city school system to you at that time, but it was a liaison. It was, it was a, really, a glorified clerk of being a liaison between the city school district and the, and the State Education Department for the compensatory education program. So, we reviewed the-the entitlement program applications that went up, they were not competitive then, and if there were anything, if there was anything in that application that the state wanted modified, we acted as liaison. That- I did that for about a year and a half, which brought us to 1975 and there was a- our suit, our superintendent. She was an old-line superintendent, and we were bringing in $400 million in competitive compensatory education at that time in the 1970s. IG: 47:25 That is huge. Yeah. AG: 47:28 And they- there was a there was a recognition that that as a central entity, as a school district, we were not making a great enough effort to go after some of the smaller competitive programs, some of the small competitive grant programs. And they wanted a wanted to form a unit which was sort of like an in-house consultant, grants consultant unit. There were 32 districts and a number of central divisions, and we were there to help them mount competitive applications get more money, as a matter of fact, that is what my dissertation turned out to be. And in terms of competitive- how the competitive grant system works, but in 1975 there was a devastating fiscal crisis in New York City. There was a hiring freeze. Nobody could hire anybody, and so this superintendent formed this little unit, and anybody who could make a paragraph out of two sentences got drafted. We were very small. We started out and we were, we were unsuccessful for three years, and only because she was unwilling to admit that she had made an error, that she let us continue. And then once we-we had some breakthrough, very significant grants that-that-that that unit took off, and we had a wonderful reputation, we- IG: 49:06 State from the state of New York grants or? AG: 49:06 Federal government, state in New York. And then later on, I had, I became the director of that unit, and we started reaching out. We had a new superintendent who new chancellor, who opened up. It was like opening up the windows and waiting the air in. And we started going after private foundation money. And I initiated and spearheaded that drive. I remember I was I got a meeting at it with a foundation executive, and she looked at me and she said, "We would never fund you. I was just so astonished that there was an actual human being who called me up." But before we got done, we were bringing in money from foundations. And I- as I was finishing my doctorate, I was interested in moving on into higher-higher I guess that that was perhaps a holdover from my experience at Binghamton, because all I ever wanted to do in my career was go back and be on a college campus, which I started it I started at Hofstra University, and I have been in and out of education, higher education, elementary and secondary, initially higher education. I had a few jobs in healthcare, long term care, and major medical centers. My foray into healthcare was-was everybody has at least one train wreck in their career. That was mine, and then I wound up back in, back at higher ed. IG: 49:09 Okay, that is, that is very interesting. So, I am just, you know, I am latching on to something that you said in the past, that you, you know, you are a child of Holocaust survivors. Did you connect with any other students at Harpur College who had the same background? AG: 49:09 I did not. IG: 49:09 You did not. You did not find anyone who was like that. AG: 49:09 Most of my friends were very much American. I grew up in a community where everybody was of that background. IG: 50:15 Yeah. AG: 50:15 I was 10 years old. My parents moved to the Bronx and to Riverdale, and I had, a I had one friend that I gravitated to who happened to live in my building, and his parents also- There was a number of families in that building with the same background, but at Binghamton, I did not connect with anybody, nor did I know of anybody who had that background, IG: 52:09 Because they were not first generation like you were. You are first generation American. AG: 52:16 I am. IG: 52:17 Yeah. AG: 52:17 I am. And most of the people that I knew there were not. IG: 52:21 Yeah, that is, that is very interesting. AG: 52:24 American first-first in my family, to go to college. IG: 52:28 Yeah. AG: 52:28 Yeah, immediate family. IG: 52:31 That is remarkable. What you know- what were the most important lessons you-you have learned in life that you would like to share with future Binghamton students who are listening to this recording years from now, what advice do you have to give to them. AG: 53:05 I think part of it is to is to be serious about your studies, but have fun while you are doing it. Again, I kind of relived part of my-my undergraduate experience, and also had experiences that I did not have through my daughter in her and her undergraduate time. Spent a lot of time visiting with her and going to, going to, certainly the first apparent Parents Weekend was-was a highlight, which my parents never did. They dropped me off and dropped me off, and anytime I came home, I made my own arrangements, whereas my daughter we were, we drove up, picked her. She had a car all four years, but there was never enough room in her car for her to come home by herself. So we were back and forth many times. And I cherish that, because I loved it. Matter of fact, when she went to school, I saw the piles building I left, I left home to go to Binghamton with a suitcase. As I saw her collecting the material that she was going to cut the mattress covers the all of the stuff and the bins and things, I said to my wife, I am buying a plane ticket. She said, ridiculous. I said, “I see what you are putting together. I am not fitting into this car. Oh, do not be ridiculous. That is, that is stupid. It is a waste of money.” I said “I bought a plane ticket,” and sure enough, there was. There was no room for me in this car. So I flew up to Portland Maine and rented a car because they drove up, we met and then. My daughter kept the car that she was driving up there and we drove back. But it was, it is just such a totally different experience today. So, somebody who graduated in 1967 I do not even know what I what advice I would have given to my daughter. IG: 55:14 I see, but I mean, you did give advice. Study very hard. Have fun. Yeah, I think, I think those lessons hold true from generation to generation. AG: 55:27 She was always-always a kind of a student who was intrinsically motivated. This is a kid who she graduated, summa cum laude, phi, beta, kappa, Colby College. That is quite an achievement. And as-as self-possessed a person at her age as I never was, and I look at her in awe, because the what she knows about herself and her, her, her goals and her-her ability to pursue those goals. It was not anything that I never picked that up until much, much, much later. IG: 56:11 Well, you had a different upbringing than your daughter. That is very different. AG: 56:16 I never wanted to be the parent my parents were. Yeah, as I think most people would admit to- I do not think you know, there is an old saying, first to become yourself, and then you become your parents. IG: 56:32 Yes-yes, oh, I have never heard that expression that is very good. Yeah. AG: 56:38 When you think about it, it is alarmingly accurate. IG: 56:44 So in which way have you become like your parents? AG: 56:49 I am more overprotective than I should be, and my wife counter balances that, because she is not. She is much more, you know, permissive in terms of what my daughter so there was good balance. You know, we try to keep her safe, but, but she has to learn her-her own. She has to find her own way in life, which-which my parents kind of never got. So she fell in love with Maine, and she decided that all she had, the credentials she could have, she could have pretty much done anything she wanted. And one of the, one of the, one of the things that she did she was on, she was a psychology major. She was on her way to applying for PhD in clinical psych. And I knew, I know the first one of the things that she did at Colby. Colby has what they call Jan plan. You have you take a full course in-in a January semester. You can either make your own class, you can take a standard course. So her first course in January, she became an EMT, and she eventually was one of the one among the leaders of the EMT squad on campus. She was an EMT on the COVID campus for her entire years, and she was going to go and the be a clinical psychologist and get a PhD. I always knew from watching her that she-she was the kind of person who needed to be on front lines, kind of a first responder, not really an academic, and she had her mentor arranged for an internship for her summers. And she had an internship. She went the first summer, and then the second summer, she came home. The middle of it, she said, I do not want to do this seriously my life, which is kind of a wonderful outcome for an internship, because she could have been down the road to a PhD, and then found out she did not really want to. I want to have that kind of an experience. IG: 59:02 She sounds like a girl who knows her mind. AG: 59:05 And she is now at the University of New England. She is pursuing a nursing degree. As I said, we were tearing her hair out because we thought she should go to medical school. She says, I do not want anything to do with being a doctor. That is not what I want. I want to be a nurse practitioner. So, she is in now, in a program, a 16-month program for students who already have a bachelor's in something else, and she will come out with a BSN and an RN, and then pursue a career in as a nurse practitioner. IG: 59:37 You know that Binghamton is starting up a PhD program in nursing. AG: 59:45 I can see her eventually going through. I will mention it to her. IG: 59:53 Yeah. Mention it. I think that this program is beginning in 2020. Third speaker 59:57 Yeah. And I think Binghamton has a. Very strong nursing program. AG: 1:00:02 Yeah, she did not want to follow in my footsteps, IG: 1:00:11 As most children do not. So, yeah. AG: 1:00:14 One of the more amusing things that we when we went to the Colby Information Center session, there was a very engaging student who presented, and he said, "My- I am a legacy student. My parents met at Colby." And he said, "First visit, I hated it. I wanted nothing to do with it, and they prevailed on me to come back." And he said, "My parents realized that they were giving me their experience, and when they went, what they did was they let me explore the campus on my own, and then I enrolled, and I loved it." So, it is again, it is question she-she eventually may seek that out, but, but she does not want to come back to New York. She loves Maine, and that was her criteria for-for a college campus, it had to be rural, it had to be a self-contained campus. It had to be a small liberal arts school need to be [inaudible] all of which she got. AG: 1:00:16 But it is close enough to New York. AG: 1:01:26 Yeah, and none of which I knew about myself at that time. IG: 1:01:30 Do you have any concluding remarks for us? AG: 1:01:35 In terms of-of what you are doing with-with the (19)60s? I do not know I would be interested in seeing how typical my experience is. And I guess some of these interviews, or all these interviews, are going to be available online some point. So, I would hope that you would send out the links for that so that we could, we could watch each other and well, I have not kept in touch with any of my classmates from those days, a few of them on LinkedIn and Facebook, perhaps, but I would like to see what their responses are. IG: 1:02:14 Right. Because in conducting these interviews, there are commonalities, you know, but-but I think that every-every experience is very different. So I think that you will be very gratified to hear the interviews of your classmates. AG: 1:02:33 At Binghamton--you cannot even it is so different that you cannot even call it the same school. Those of us who were there when I was this was an incipient, brand-new school. It was, and I was among, certainly, probably among the first students, first years where it was, where moved from Triple Cities College to the current campus at that time, it was, again, as I said, very small. So if you look at it today, there is, there is no comparison. It is, it is, it is like comparing something like Colby to Penn State, just a totally different [crosstalk]. Harpur College was a small liberal arts institution. Was nothing else. There was no graduate school. There was there was, it was, you know, it was Harpur College. That only happened after I was after I graduated. So that to make comparisons with those with the students of my day and the students who are there today, it is just too different a place. IG: 1:03:42 Well, that is why I think it is- yes, and you experienced the (19)60s, which students today are not. So, it was really, you were a pioneer in-in terms of, you know, being a one, one of the-the first graduating years from this institution. But you were also living in very different times, you know. And that is why we are conducting these interviews, and that is why we are creating this center, virtual center. AG: 1:04:18 If I had to do it over again, I would never, I would not go back to Binghamton. AG: 1:04:22 You would not? AG: 1:04:24 I would have not given my background. I found it; it was- IG: 1:04:28 Where would you go? AG: 1:04:30 -it was, and what I know about myself today. IG: 1:04:35 Yes, AG: 1:04:35 That I did not. I probably would have gone to school in Boston in a more urban environment Boston. And I did not have grades to get into, into the Ivy Leagues, but certainly a Boston University, a school that had much more of-of a social component that Harpur College that I would, I think that probably would have brought me out a little bit more than-than the experiences that I had where there was the sameness of the students in terms of their-their academic aspirations, there was that certainly was partying, but the social component was weak, and I probably could have benefited from a school that had a had a more structured, more extensive social component, not that I wanted to be in a fraternity or anything which was, which was not my thing. I do not know my daughter also we-we went to on our visits. We were we drove up to Colgate. She was one of the schools. She first thing you see when you drive to Colgate is Fraternity Row. And she looked at us, get me out of here. IG: 1:05:45 Yeah. AG: 1:05:46 The reason she chose Colby is because I had eliminated Greek life many years ago. IG: 1:05:58 Right. Well, that is all very interesting, and it is- we will be in touch with you and let you know about the progress of the website of the center and when your interviews will be digitized and put up online. AG: 1:06:19 Where are you at the beginning, the middle, the end. Terms of- IG: 1:06:23 We are I think we think- Third speaker 1:06:25 You are the ninth, the ninth informant that we interviewed so far. IG: 1:06:32 -to do another eight. It is just, Aynur, and me, we are going to do another eight in the next couple of weeks. So, I think that, you know, as soon as-as we are going along, we are going to put up these interviews, each are an hour an hour half long. AG: 1:06:52 Let me know as I sent you an email. I think coming from a development office, as-as given all my years of experience in development, I think that was a deterrent. I almost deleted your message. IG: 1:07:04 Well, what could I do? I mean, I was given this assignment, given my reporting background, and should I write, perhaps, that I am a reporter for, I was a reporter for Fortune Magazine, but I am not anymore. AG: 1:07:18 But I think, I think coming from a development office gives the wrong impression. IG: 1:07:23 I will let the Dean know. I will let the Dean know. I am also, you know, I will. I will, you know, I think that you have a very valid point. IG: 1:07:32 Okay, that-that is a very that is very good advice. I do not know how much I can do about it, but I agree with you. AG: 1:07:32 I have been a VET Development Professional one way or another my entire career, and maybe I picked up on it because, okay, it is coming from a development office. They want to this is a pre solicitation gimmick, and I really do not want any part of it. And then I researched the- I looked up the center online. I saw that it was a legitimate thing, connected with you on LinkedIn. I think yours, your email signature. It should not be coming from a development officer or just my two cents. AG: 1:07:38 Well, you have another title, and that is= AG: 1:07:53 Not here, not here, it is not here. I can just leave it out, maybe the Development Office part, AG: 1:08:25 but yeah, because it is not relevant, [crosstalk] development officer, IG: 1:08:32 Maybe it could come from you. All right, well, we will figure it out, but you have certainly given us food for thought, and thank you so much for a great interview. IG: 1:08:43 All right, thank you. I appreciate you reaching out. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with Dr. Andrew Grant Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni in higher education administration; Harpur College – Alumni at Hebrew Union College; Harpur College – Alumni living in Suffolk County, Long Island Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Grant, Andrew ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource Dr. Andrew Grant is a retired Assistant VP for Institutional Advancement at Hebrew Union College in NYC. He worked as a disc jockey at WHRW-FM. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-02-14 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Andrew Grant.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-08-01 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 69:46 minutes https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/507981549ed7975e64bb7f91d5fb440c.mp3 5544de15fc704988f13922a3eb9e5574 https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/files/original/fa0c602798e8bea6ea32b5c66446a70a.jpg 6825097cbca85f77b53c009858618a06 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Oral Histories Title A name given to the resource Oral Histories from 1960s Binghamton Alumni Description An account of the resource In 2019, Binghamton University Libraries completed a mission to collect oral interviews from 1960s alumni as a means to preserve memories of campus life. The resulting 47 tales are a retrospective of social, professional and personal experiences with the commonality of Harpur College. Some stories tell of humble beginnings, others discuss the formation of friendships; each provides insight into a moment in our community's rich history. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Irene Gashurov Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017-2018 Relation A related resource <a href="https://omeka.binghamton.edu/omeka/items/browse?collection=18">McKiernan Interviews : 60's collection of Oral Histories</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In copyright. Template: Simple Audio Player with Transcription This template displays an audio player by Amplitude.js with a scrollable transcription which is loaded from the "Transcription" metadata field. This template displays an audio player with the first attached image file as the 'cover image'. For its audio source, the template looks for the first attached audio file. If additional audio files exist, they should be combined using audio editing software, or a separate Omeka item should be made for each part. Date of Interview 2018-02-19 Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Irene Gashurov Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed M. David Graubard Year of Graduation 1966 Biographical Text David was an attorney at Kera & Graubard, specializing in bankruptcy, insolvency, Chapter 11, and debtor and creditor rights. He grew up in Monticello, New York. Interview Format Video or Audio Audio Keywords Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in law; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in New York City Accessibility Copy/Paste below: Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Binghamton University Libraries is working very hard to create transcriptions of all audio/visual media present on this site. If you require a specific transcription for accessibility purposes, you may contact us at <a href="mailto:orb@binghamton.edu">orb@binghamton.edu</a>. Subject LCSH Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in law; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in New York City Rights Statement Many items in our digital collections are copyrighted. If you want to reuse any material in our collection you must seek permission, or decide if your purpose can qualify as fair use under the U.S. Copyright Law Section 107. If you think copyright or privacy has been violated, the University Libraries will investigate the issue. Please see our take down policy. If using any materials in this online digital collection for educational or research purposes, please cite accordingly. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound, or alternative text from a visual medium Alumni Interviews Interview with: David Graubard Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov Transcriber: Oral History Lab Date of interview: 19 February 2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Start of Interview) DG: 00:01 And now it is recording. IG: 00:02 Oh, it is recording. Fantastic-fantastic. DG: 00:05 Okay. IG: 00:07 So finally, sorry about that. [laughs] Okay, so um, for the purposes of this interview um, please state your name, your age and where we are and what we are doing. DG: 00:23 Sure. I am David Graubard, 73 years old, in my office at 7118 Main Street in Flushing, New York. 11367, we are here to work on an all an oral history of the 1960s. IG: 00:38 Yes. DG: 00:40 Right? IG: 00:40 Yes. DG: 00:41 Okay. IG: 00:41 Okay, so please tell me, David, where you grew up? Where were you born? DG: 00:47 Born and grew up in Monticello, New York. IG: 00:48 Oh. Um- DG: 00:49 Halfway between Binghamton and New York. IG: 00:54 Yes, yes. I know where it is exactly. So, who were your parents are they- DG: 01:01 My parents were- IG: 01:02 Where did they come from? DG: 01:04 They- my- they were both- I went to the same high school that my both my parents went to. IG: 01:09 Oh, really in Monticello? DG: 01:10 In Monticello. Most of them were raised in Monticello. Cannot say born, but they were raised in months in the Monticello area. My mother was raised in the formative years in White Lake, New York, my father from Monticello itself. IG: 01:25 And were they, you know, second, first, third generation Americans? DG: 01:33 My father was a second generation American. Actually, were first generation American. He was born in the Bronx. My grandparents were born overseas. My mother was actually born overseas. She came very as a one-year-old. IG: 01:48 May I ask, Eastern Europe, or Germany or DG: 01:52 Eastern Europe. My mother was born in a place called Barandovich, which was in Poland, White Russia depends upon the year. IG: 02:00 Right. DG: 02:00 And my father's family came from Romania. IG: 02:06 Very interesting. So um, did your parents go to college? DG: 02:13 No. IG: 02:13 What was their what was their occupation? DG: 02:16 My father was a salesman. He grew up- interesting. He wanted to go to college to become an accountant. And my grandfather, may he rest in peace, said, you have the family business to go into, which was a wholesale food line and in Monticello. And that is what he did. And my mother was a homemaker and a good one at that, and also bookkeeper in my father's business. And she came, later on, she came a dental assistant, and she works- IG: 02:42 Also, in Monticello. They stayed there? DG: 02:43 Oh, yeah. IG: 02:44 Okay, so were- what were their expectations for you about going on to- DG: 02:51 They very much wanted. Heard their children to go to college. An older brother who went to Ithaca college on a dramatic scholarship. He did not graduate, but he got into the computer business way back when, when it was in the early (19)60s, when the late (19)60s, when it was first coming into vogue. He worked for Bank of America. And my sister graduated, graduated from [inaudible] college. And my uncle, may he rest in peace, was a lawyer, and they wanted to- I wanted to be a lawyer like he was. IG: 03:22 The uncle was in Monticello or in New York City? DG: 03:25 No-no, in New York City. IG: 03:27 So, you had frequent contact with New York City. DG: 03:32 Oh, yeah, yes. IG: 03:32 So, education was valued in your family. DG: 03:36 Very much so. IG: 03:37 So, what were your reasons for going to Harpur rather than to City College or, you know, NYU- DG: 03:44 Uh, we had Harpur was I got a state scholarship, which covered the tuition. It was, you know, within a two-hour drive from my home in Monticello. That was it, basically. IG: 03:58 But why Harpur College rather than Albany or Buffalo? DG: 04:03 Harpur has a very, very good reputation, excellent reputation, and guys always fooled around you. If you slur that, people think you said Harvard, but [crosstalk] [laughter] IG: 04:18 [crosstalk] That is very funny. [crosstalk] DG: 04:21 Yes, that was really funny. IG: 04:24 So-so it had- and when did you graduate? Just for the purpose of the interview. DG: 04:29 1966. IG: 04:31 In 1966. So, the reputation of the College was established in the early (19)60s, or was it just- DG: 04:40 Very much so. IG: 04:41 Very much so. DG: 04:42 It was, it was, it was a pearl of the state system. IG: 04:44 And what was it known for Harpur College, before you went there? What-what-what-what did people say about it? It was a pearl of the state system. DG: 04:55 You got a good education. IG: 04:57 You got a good education. Did any of your friends from Monticello go there? Or did anybody that you know- DG: 05:04 Yes. IG: 05:05 -from New York City go there? DG: 05:06 Yes. IG: 05:06 So, you had friends who went there. DG: 05:07 Yes. I had a classmate, Robert Ethel, who went there. We roomed together- IG: 05:11 Uh huh. DG: 05:11 -for a year. IG: 05:12 from Monticello. DG: 05:13 Yes. IG: 05:13 Okay, good. So, when you first- DG: 05:15 [crosstalk] three rooms, we were two of the three. IG: 05:18 Oh. So-so when you first arrived to Binghamton, what was your impression that was there such a dramatic difference between Monticello and Binghamton? DG: 05:30 Well, now this, Binghamton was a city. Was still small townish. IG: 05:34 Yeah. DG: 05:35 But the college itself was off, you know, was investor offset, not offset, set off the highway, and it was a unit by itself. It was not within the city like you had NYU in the city. Was part of the New York City. IG: 05:49 Yes. DG: 05:49 This was a totally, total unit by itself. IG: 05:52 Yeah. DG: 05:53 That was a beautiful place. IG: 05:55 It was a beautiful place. Um, and so maybe, what was your first impression when you arrived there? Do you remember what it looked like to you? DG: 06:06 Remember it looked like. Yes. IG: 06:08 Yeah. So, describe that a little bit to us. DG: 06:10 [inaudible] came in there was the-the quad that they called it because they had the student center was in one place, and the science of science labs were off to the science was off to the right, as you looked at it. And then they had the- there was a there was a roadway that the left were all the dormitories and the luncheon hall. That is what I remember about the quad. And it had that walkway on top then, until you came down into the quad. DG: 06:44 So, it struck you as a beautiful place. DG: 06:49 Yes, physically, very beautiful. IG: 06:52 So um, just tell us you know about your early experience of the academics there. Did that make an impression on you? DG: 07:05 I think academics were very good. IG: 07:07 Very good. So, tell us a little bit more elaborate on that. What classes do you remember? Um- DG: 07:14 I can tell you. I will give you one, one thing that stands out in my mind. Okay, we took Spanish. Those who took- I took Spanish were the ones Spanish I and II, and there was a fellow there. I will not use a name, but he had, apparently, this is his third or fourth time taking this Spanish class, and he needed it to graduate. And he was a senior. IG: 07:35 Yeah. DG: 07:36 -and the professor, doctor, if I remember his name. I could picture his face. Just cannot remember his name. He had--called Rahman this on this, this senior, and when he-he we saw the test booklet of this particular student on this, on his desk after the after the exams, and it was a D with 19 minuses. And I do not think he counted minuses. I think he just gave him a D and then put the string of minuses so they could graduate. IG: 08:14 So, it was a generous place. DG: 08:16 Yeah, it was. IG: 08:17 It was academically a generous place. But it was- DG: 08:19 I mean, that is it was this particular thing, you know, I remember we had Melvin Shefttz. We had- was a very-very tough-tough history teacher, but it was very good. IG: 08:31 American history? DG: 08:33 No, world history. IG: 08:34 World history. DG: 08:35 World history and he gave me back a paper, and I remember it was I am sure it was a B minus or B plus. But he said to me, the comment was, you handled some very difficult material quite well, something along those lines. Think I still have that paper. I kept two or three to my papers that were interesting. IG: 08:58 Was that on your freshman or what- DG: 09:00 Freshman year. IG: 09:01 Freshman year, so you were encouraged in your academic. DG: 09:05 Yes, yeah. IG: 09:05 Did you know what you wanted to study? DG: 09:09 Yeah, I know I wanted to study--I loved American history. IG: 09:12 Yes. DG: 09:12 And I came to the point where I had to decide whether to do graduate work in American history or go to law school. I chose going to law school, which I probably regretted many years later. I really loved American history and, but I thought, but then, after my first year, they went to the trimester system. So, we were- IG: 09:30 After your first year. DG: 09:31 Yeah, after first year. So, we were a little thrown off on calendar wise, but nevertheless, we completed our academic studies within the trimester system. IG: 09:42 So um, just tell me a little- let us stay on the topic of academics and just tell us more about the faculty that made an impression on you, on your fellow classmates. DG: 09:55 Well, for American history, we had, we had one professor who took several times, whose name escapes me now, but yeah, that was the days of when you did your papers. He insisted that footnotes at the bottom of each page, and you had [inaudible] and any student because I typed the type, typing, I got back a paper from him in colonial history, and there was an A and some of the papers were wrinkled, and the only comment he made was, my apologies for the tea stains on your paper. IG: 10:28 Oh. DG: 10:28 I still have that one. IG: 10:31 Yeah, you still have that one. DG: 10:32 I still have that one. And, but I had a friend who was American, who was a history who was a history major, and he managed to avoid taking that professor, I remember, but it was interesting because he did. He- because that professor took- did the period histories mainly colonial and-and civil war, but he [inaudible] IG: 10:56 So, did you find the classes stimulating? DG: 11:01 Yes, yeah [crosstalk] IG: 11:02 You have discussions? DG: 11:03 I think the class were very good. And I remember it took- I had for history [inaudible] I had Professor, Colonel House [Albert House]. I remember that-that. And one thing he taught me, he says, he says, 'When you are middle of a project and you have to go to supper, or you are going to lunch or you have to do something else," he says, "Do not say, in your mind, wait until I get the end of something. Stop where you are. It will be much easier to pick it up and remember where you are we were from that point and go forward if you middle of something." And I have used that- I have used that quite-quite successfully in my professional career. You do legal research when they would have to go somewhere, stop in the middle of something. It is easier to pick up. IG: 11:44 It is easier to pick up than- DG: 11:46 Start and then stop and going to [crosstalk] IG: 11:48 It down to some symbol conclusion, or? DG: 11:52 Let us say, at the end attempt in the middle of a case, reading something. And instead of going to the end of the case, if I had to, have to go somewhere. I will stop there. I will come back, come back to it. I am coming back in the middle of something. It is much easier to pick up than they have said, "Oh, at the end of that case-" [crosstalk] IG: 12:08 How do you remember that where you left off? [crosstalk] Okay, that is very easy. Um, so describe your classmates. Where do you think that the majority, I know that the majority were from Long Island and New York City, and so who were, who were your friends at Harpur? Did you gravitate more to the people from New York City or from upstate? Did it make a difference? DG: 12:39 Well, I was, I was a member of the Adelphi men's club, so I had friends there. IG: 12:44 Yeah. DG: 12:44 Where I would say, mostly from the city, but there were from upstate, upstate as well. Not as many, but. IG: 12:52 Not as many. Do you, do you- did you feel any cultural differences because you were really straddling [crosstalk] DG: 13:01 Guys told me, "Graubard, we really consider you [inaudible] city guy." IG: 13:05 Yeah, because- DG: 13:07 I spent a lot of time in the city. DG: 13:09 My grandparents lived in Crown Heights, spent a lot of time as children. IG: 13:12 Exactly. IG: 13:12 So-so you were really comfortable in both cultures. DG: 13:16 Yeah. IG: 13:16 Do you feel that there were cultural differences between the- you know, students from the New York metro area versus the upstate students? DG: 13:27 [crosstalk] differences there were. IG: 13:29 And were these differences bridged, you know and- DG: 13:32 Yeah, I think there were guys who, guys who started, you know, going-going-going out with girls who had-had friends in, in the social clubs there. IG: 13:41 Yeah. DG: 13:42 That the-the Upstate downstate did not. IG: 13:44 Right. So, what did you do in this Adelphi club? What did you- DG: 13:48 It is just a matter of guys, yeah, they had social clubs there because they did not allow fraternities- IG: 13:55 Yeah. DG: 13:55 So, they allowed social clubs. So, it was- IG: 14:01 What did you do? DG: 14:03 I just had friends there. But not that- to me it was not a big deal. IG: 14:07 It was not a big deal. Where did you meet? At the Student Union? DG: 14:11 In the Student Union. IG: 14:14 So, who were your, you know this, this was a time of the, you know, the beginning of great change in America. And, you know, how did you really, how alive were you to the events outside of [crosstalk] So tell us about that. DG: 14:38 Well, being of draft age. It was Vietnam War. I remember at one point they offered they offered some in the geology department. They offered a course, a new course, aerial photography, which nobody wanted to take. They wanted to have it on their record- the draft board. IG: 14:57 That is very interesting. DG: 14:58 Yeah, I remember it, specifically. IG: 15:01 So, did you feel that the faculty sort of encouraged, or did it protect its students? Do you feel against being drafted to- DG: 15:13 I think there was one professor I remember who was willing to give, who's suddenly became more lenient with giving out A's. I think I remember that. IG: 15:26 Yeah. DG: 15:26 One-one particular problem, his name. I remember who he was, but I remember some discussion on that-that he was and that was to keep-keep students in school. IG: 15:37 Yeah, so-so. Oh, um, you know, so-so there was this encourage, there was, you know, a desire to protect, maybe this [crosstalk] DG: 15:50 I think [crosstalk] from that one professor. IG: 15:53 From that one professor. Did you feel that a lot of your classmates had the intention of going on with their study to avoid the war or? DG: 16:04 No-no, I think it was an academic- it was a state school was an academic place, so that most people intended to go on to further professional studies. IG: 16:13 Anyway. DG: 16:14 Yeah. IG: 16:14 Anyway. DG: 16:15 Yes. IG: 16:17 So, when you discuss the Vietnam War with your friends, what kind of things did you say, apart from being afraid of- DG: 16:24 You know, the most thing, it is terrible- the most thing I can remember is, you know, guys making comments like, "Okay, so I will take my master’s at Ho Chi Minh, university," or "University of Phnom Penh, " "Are you going next year to University of Phnom Penh? It became, not the joke, but- IG: 16:46 Yeah. DG: 16:47 -it was one way to alleviate the seriousness of the situation. IG: 16:51 What other ways did you alleviate the seriousness of the situation? DG: 16:54 I do not think there was any other way. I mean, I guess I was a little had a little less tension because my where I lived, there were a lot of guys who came out of high school and volunteered so that the quotas and my draft board were-were-were-were were filled up. They protected me a little bit more. IG: 17:17 Yeah. So, you know, but you do not remember any political discussions. Did you- do you remember whether, you know- DG: 17:29 Oh, listen, there were, there were a lot of, there was a lot, there were a lot of peaceniks, yeah, there were a lot of peaceniks on the campus. A lot of the peaceniks on the campus, you know, and they, and they had made banners, and they had sat ins and demonstrations. IG: 17:43 Tell me a little bit about that. DG: 17:45 Against-against the war. IG: 17:47 Yeah. So where did they sit in and do they go? DG: 17:51 They would have us not, not to obstruct. But you know, they were demonstration in around the campus. IG: 17:57 Around the campus, around the campus, and was this covered by the student papers or by local papers? DG: 18:06 Yeah-yeah. and what about the [crosstalk] of this covered by students, certainly by student papers. IG: 18:10 Did anybody march on Washington or- DG: 18:13 I think there were people. IG: 18:15 There were. So, did you participate in any of this? DG: 18:19 No. IG: 18:21 No. Why not? DG: 18:24 Because I was crazy. It was not for the war, but it certainly was. I thought it was something that unfortunately had to be done. It is unfortunate we had to get that with the way we got into it, with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, and- IG: 18:35 Right. DG: 18:36 They expanded it. DG: 18:37 And that it turned to be a bog. It was me, a bogged down affair. IG: 18:37 Right. DG: 18:42 But it was, it was a sad situation, but, yeah, I guess I believed in the government and-and that is the thing that would was not from Harpur, but the thing that affected me most was at home. There was a fellow at the end of my block who wins in the army, and he came back, who was a changed person, and he would not go anywhere where his back was not against the wall. Or if he went into the restaurant, he made sure that he sat in a booth with his back again, and he was always protecting his back. IG: 19:15 You knew him after the war. Or when did he come back? DG: 19:19 He was younger than me, but I saw, I saw. IG: 19:22 What, when? During your college years. DG: 19:24 Yeah-yeah. IG: 19:25 What kind of impact did that have on you? DG: 19:28 It just brought home the reality of the-the unfortunate consequences of the war. IG: 19:40 Of the war. But it did not change your mind about America's involvement in the war. DG: 19:44 Not too much. I thought it was, I feel it was sad the way they ended, you know, that they could not come out, that they got bogged down and they could not it was, it was, it was, to me, it ended to be a useless event. IG: 19:58 A useless war. DG: 20:00 A useless war. IG: 20:01 But when did you realize that it was a useless? DG: 20:04 Halfway through. IG: 20:05 Halfway through. So, what year? Tell- remind me, were you in college or? DG: 20:12 I might have been in law school. IG: 20:13 In law school. Where did you go to law school? DG: 20:16 George Washington University Law school. IG: 20:18 So, and was that right after graduating from Harpur? DG: 20:23 Yes. IG: 20:24 So, what- how did you decide on that? Did you have encouragement from your direction- from your professors, or who advised you? DG: 20:33 No-no, I- we had to go to GW or? IG: 20:33 Yeah. DG: 20:35 Well, I applied to, I think eight law schools, got into four of them. I thought GW was the best. IG: 20:42 I see. I see. Did you have guidance from your professors or not much? DG: 20:47 I do not think much. IG: 20:53 What other courses did you take? You taught you took history courses, you know- DG: 20:59 Social science. IG: 20:59 -social studies, science. DG: 21:03 The one required science course, and then never walked into the science building after that. IG: 21:12 Any literature or language courses? DG: 21:15 English, literature, I remember a language of Spanish. I took two courses in Spanish. IG: 21:20 Do you feel that- DG: 21:21 And also, they introduced- Dr. Levin started a Hebrew course and Arabic course. It took Hebrew courses. IG: 21:29 When was it- there was a Semitic languages department. DG: 21:34 He started it. IG: 21:35 He started it. Uh- DG: 21:38 A language lab that they tested. And [crosstalk] IG: 21:44 I remember language lab. DG: 21:45 -tested with Dr. Levin. We took it seriously. Everyone else, it was a joke. IG: 21:51 Do you feel that you got a well-rounded education, or was there something lacking? DG: 21:56 No well rounded. IG: 21:59 How did that influence the future of your life, of your intellectual career? DG: 22:05 It broadened my horizons on how to approach things. IG: 22:13 Okay, so you know, how do you think- well, how do you think that Harper prepared you for your future career? DG: 22:22 A good academic basis. IG: 22:25 Uh, huh. Okay. So, we talked a little bit about the Vietnam War, and we talked a little bit about your involvement. You were not involved in any student activism? DG: 22:41 No. IG: 22:41 Really. Um, but around you, was there anything- what you know were, was there student activism about, you know, the civil rights movement? That was- DG: 22:53 Yeah, they, yeah, they had a [crosstalk] The Civil Rights was big at the time, and there was I mean, there were people who were active, who were active in the civil rights movement, I think. IG: 23:10 And how did that manifest? Was it on campus, or did they go to Washington? DG: 23:15 Both-both. I think, I think some guys might have gotten involved in the South. I am not sure. But, I mean, they had clubs, they had groups like that, that were [crosstalk] IG: 23:17 Was this sort of, you know, part of the conversation even, did it reach your circles? DG: 23:31 I do not think so. IG: 23:32 No, not so much. Were there any students of, you know, who were not from New York City and essentially white middle class, you know or upstate. Were there any people, any students of color or international? DG: 23:48 Yes. IG: 23:49 At the time? DG: 23:50 Yes. IG: 23:50 You remember? DG: 23:52 I remember one fellow from Nairobi, [hos phone rings] and he lost his-his hat in the winter. [he is talking on the phone] Hello. Yeah, okay, I am in the meeting now on and then have to go Lauren. So, I will be back at about 11:45 but then I have [inaudible] with my grandson, so I will have to speak to you about, you know, 12:30 or so. Okay, all right, okay, thanks. Bye. Bye. IG: 24:27 Okay-okay, so we were talking about a student from Nairobi. DG: 24:33 Yes, he was a short fellow, and he lost his-his hat. He had a hat with flaps, and I remember he drew a picture of it; he put his name underneath it, and he put lost, and he put it on the board. IG: 24:43 Was it ever found? DG: 24:48 So, I remember seeing it on the board IG: 24:51 Was-was, you know, you-you had traveled to New York City a lot. So, you know, seeing people of international, of different backgrounds [crosstalk] DG: 25:01 -was that much so also. IG: 25:03 You had that in Monticello, because Monticello was a summer resort, right? DG: 25:08 Summer resort, a lot of transients came through the and that was they opened up the racetrack, also [crosstalk] IG: 25:14 I see, I see. So-so that was not- um, but there were not any international or students of, you know, color, any Hispanic students that you remember? DG: 25:28 [inaudible] IG: 25:29 Yeah, no-no, not really. DG: 25:32 Hispanic? IG: 25:33 Hispanic, Black. DG: 25:37 Black, a few, a few. IG: 25:38 A few. DG: 25:38 Yeah. IG: 25:39 Yeah. DG: 25:40 But it is [inaudible] than I do not remember. IG: 25:43 No, okay, so did they, did they- did you have, you know, occasions to sort of mix as a larger group, or did you just stay in the class, you know. DG: 25:57 In the classes, and in the and in the student-student lounge, the cafeteria, not the dining hall, but the cafeteria in the in the Student Union. People are always getting together. IG: 26:12 How about, you know, women's rights, that probably was too early, [crosstalk] right? Do you remember that expectations for women at Harpur were different than they were for men? Were um- DG: 26:31 Nothing, no, nothing. I recall. IG: 26:32 Not that they were, you know, treated differently, necessarily, but were the women on campus? Did they aspire to the same sort of, you know, careers that- DG: 26:43 I think there was [inaudible]. I think there was no difference. IG: 26:46 No difference. DG: 26:47 There were a lot, here were a lot of women there. They were aspiring to the same thing the men were [crosstalk] IG: 26:47 They wanted to become lawyer [crosstalk] DG: 26:49 -education, yes, [inaudible] education. And professionals, yeah. IG: 26:57 And professionals. Okay, so, you know, tell us a little bit about your free time, free time on campus was- do you think that Harpur was a party school? DG: 27:11 I would not say it was a party- no, not a party school. I mean, there were, you know, the guys in geology, there was always a trip, a field trip. IG: 27:23 Right. DG: 27:24 You know and that was a that was always a big joke, because, you know, guys were buying beer, and that was always looked at as a as a fun thing to do, as opposed to an educational trip. IG: 27:33 Right. But you did not, you know, I mean, how did you spend your time socializing? You know, were there- did you just keep to your group of boys? DG: 27:45 They had- there were social events on campus. IG: 27:49 Like what? Describe for- DG: 27:52 I think, full weekend, spring weekend, [crosstalk] IG: 27:55 Yeah. So, what happened? I, you know, tell us. DG: 27:59 I was it was not I was not a big social guy. IG: 28:02 You were not a big- so you never attended any social events. DG: 28:05 I cannot remember most of what they were. But things changed at the end too. Trimester had a big effect on some of this stuff, I thin., IG: 28:13 Tell us about that. DG: 28:14 Well, through the calendars of Harpur were off the calendars of other college., IG: 28:19 Right. DG: 28:20 So, people who would want to go somewhere else, you know, find it difficult to synchronize, except-except for Thanksgiving. And for instance, we have right and then we weekend, those were the same all over. IG: 28:32 So-so these the trimester had a disruptive effect on your social life. DG: 28:37 I mean, when you if you had to interact with people, friends at other schools, in that in that manner. IG: 28:42 I see, I see. DG: 28:43 Internally, it was, you know, there was no difference. IG: 28:46 So, you know, after studying, did you spend time in your dorm room, or did you go to student union? Where would you spend your free time, even in your first year, you know. DG: 29:02 [inaudible] mostly just, I think, just staying the room sang about hanging around the student union. IG: 29:08 Did you date girls? DG: 29:10 Yes. IG: 29:10 Yeah. So, tell us, tell us, where would you go on these dates? Did you have a car? DG: 29:15 No, oh, I not, no, not the first year. Wait a minute. No, not the first I had the older Amber. I do not remember if I had that the first year. IG: 29:30 Well, maybe the second year you had a car. So-so, okay, so where would you go with your dates? DG: 29:37 There were not a lot of them. IG: 29:38 Yeah. laughs] DG: 29:39 For sure. That is for sure. There were not a lot of them. There were movies in Binghamton, Vestal. IG: 29:46 Yeah. So, you would go to a movie. Were there any cafeterias or restaurants that you would go to afterwards? Just to the movies? DG: 29:54 I did not do a lot of dating there. Anything was mostly geared towards, if the- towards events on campus [crosstalk] weekend. IG: 30:03 So, there were events on campus for students, like the whole, you know, I mean, but that is just once a year, right? DG: 30:10 Yeah, yeah. IG: 30:15 Were you were- what about the curfews? You know, a lot It has been said about the curfews for girls. DG: 30:23 You tell people, these days, students these days, you know, tell, I have. Tell my-my granddaughter is of college age now, and we talked about my-my wife tells she went to Stonehill College. And every single school in the country had curfews for women. You know, you said that you said it to girls now, and they look like you are crazy. IG: 30:46 Yeah, and the curfews were earlier than curfews for- DG: 30:50 Yeah, curfews were, I do not know if the men had curfews. I think that was when upon the contention. But I think the girl, I think the girls like the curfews. I really do, I think, because, again, it may, it gave them an excuse for being, being. IG: 31:10 They liked it. DG: 31:11 I think the girls liked it. IG: 31:16 That is very interesting, actually. DG: 31:18 During the week there was, I forgot what was, it was eight o'clock in the weekend, I think was 11 o'clock, maybe midnight. IG: 31:26 Would you go? How frequently did you go home during the semester? DG: 31:31 I went home for the Jewish holidays. I went home for if something happened. It was occurred in the family, a family event, it was easy to get home. So of course, before all the regular recognized weekend, holiday period., IG: 31:47 Right. Did you have anything like Hillel on campus? DG: 31:51 There was, there was a Hillel, yes, there was a Hillel. And I was a member of the Hillel and that was not, there was not a religious aspect to it. There was more social at that point. IG: 32:08 So, you know, where during the trimester period you had, you know, big breaks in the summertime, did you work? DG: 32:18 Yes. IG: 32:19 Did you pay for your school. DG: 32:21 Yes. IG: 32:21 Yourself. That is very impressive. So, what type of jobs did you have during this summer? And where were these jobs? DG: 32:28 Well, for two summers, I worked, I drove a bread truck for stomas bread, which is a bread company in the city, and in the summer there a lot of their customer base moved to the mountains. So, they had five routes in the mountains of two summers, I drove there. Oh, and then they worked in the men's store in Monticello, Jack brands men. So, he had the, he had the men's store there, and then the men's store at the Concord Hotel. Oh, so I worked in the two summers. I worked at the in the men's store in Monticello. IG: 33:10 Have you stayed in touch with any of your classmates from Harpur? DG: 33:17 Yes, one, particularly Martin Kera and you know, I became, became law partners after several years. IG: 33:22 Oh, wow. DG: 33:23 And to this day, to this day, we are in touch because we still have a common business interest. IG: 33:30 That is right, that is right. I think I reached out to him as well. So, were there any faculty that you stayed in touch with? IG: 33:40 How do you think your fellow classmates would remember you from that period? What would they how would they describe you? DG: 33:40 No. DG: 33:54 The Upstate Jewish boy, I guess you know. IG: 34:02 What does that mean, what does that mean? DG: 34:06 I was upstate, you know, came from Monticello. A lot of them knew Monticello had been up there in the mountains for the summers, worked in the summers. IG: 34:15 Okay, so that is one description. But would they have said that you are industrious, that you are funny, that you are the class clown. What? How [crosstalk] DG: 34:23 I think it is just maybe a nice guy. IG: 34:25 A nice guy. DG: 34:26 Always help, trying to help people. IG: 34:31 Any-any stories about how you help your classmates? DG: 34:33 One-one in particular, I do remember, and I tell my wife [crosstalk] there were guys who took, who would not take a Tuesday night class. In this in the in the spring, in the autumn semester, because they did not want that. They wanted to leave early for Thanksgiving vacation. I had a Tuesday night class, and I had an old Rambler, 1962 Rambler had to push button drive. And this was my-my, probably my sophomore year, I think. And you know these people around who would give rides home, and it was a bitterly-bitterly cold night, really cold. There was snow on the ground, and it was very-very cold by wind chill was probably close to zero, very cool. And I- the girl Beth, I forgot her last names. [inaudible] cut the back road. She was [inaudible] arriving. The [inaudible] was feeling a ride. We had a full car, I think Irene and a young couple with a baby who were going to Newburgh, so the car was full, and it was freezing cold, and it took a long time I let the car warm up even before I would let that baby in the car. So, it took a while, but we packed in. We all came to my house, and then they made calls as to where there were no cell phones in those days, as to people really picked them up at particular times. And my parents made sure they had something hot to drink, something to eat, until they all got picked up from where we were. IG: 34:34 That is very nice. So, um- DG: 35:20 Oh, one other time. IG: 35:48 Yes please. DG: 35:51 [crosstalk] Ronald Nathan, he was okay, and he called me in a panic that he-he had to do, finish off his social- a paper for a course, and he let it go to the last minute. "What should he do?" So, I typed with, if he, if he, if he wrote it out, could I type it right? I said, "I will be over in the minute." I was over this room with my typewriter. I sat down, I looked him and said, "Talk." He talked his paper. I said, “What are you doing?” I said, “You talk. I am going to type right." We did his paper that night, the whole time we finished, but he talked, and I typed. We got it done. IG: 36:43 That is fantastic. And you spend the whole night? DG: 36:46 Probably most of the night, doing that. IG: 36:48 until [crosstalk] DG: 36:50 Three in the ming. IG: 36:51 "That is great. Did you help organize his thinking? DG: 36:55 No. I just- IG: 36:55 You just typed. DG: 36:56 I just typed. IG: 36:58 Well, that is, that is still, that is a big help. What did you think? What lessons did you learn from this time in your life at Harpur College? I mean, you were at a very formative period, you know, then you stepped out into the adult world in the- in law school, I would think, in a different state and but so how did this form you? What were some of the lessons that you learned from this period? DG: 37:29 Well, that there are it just it built on what I learned in Monticello that went to public high school, that there were a lot of different people this world that have views and thoughts different than you, and you have to get along with them, and that you can build on your own strengths. I was on the swimming team, and I was not a stupid swimmer, and I remember judge-judge, trying to think the first, the first, the freshman year the coach, Dennis. Last name was Dennis, and he said, "You want to learn to dive?" I said, "Okay," so do it. I was not great at anything, but so he would try and say, when you, when you, when you went to a swimming meet, you had five required dives and then one optional. And they took the optional by putting the five categories in a hat, and they picked one out, and that became the optional dive. So, he, you know, we were not a big athletic school, and we did not go the big athletic schools. St Bonaventure was about the biggest name around from that we went. And he would always say, talk to the other coach and say, you know, you know, "Can we fix the optical dive at the at the easy one going forward?" So, some judges said, "Fine," it was okay. And I remember, one said "No." And I remember St. Bonaventure, the swimming pool was in, was in a downstairs area where the ceiling was, I think, lower than this. When you came off the board, you had to push your hands off the top in order to do certain dives. It was crazy, but-but I remember one particular time he said to me, he says, "David. "He said, "I am putting you in the individual medley." I said, "You know, I cannot." He said, "There were," he said "They are only put there were usually four swimmers, two from each side, and three got points. The fourth one got nothing. He said, "They only have one swimmer in the I am individual middling." He says, "All you have to do is finish and you get third place." He was, "Just finished," and it was, I remember, it was butter, back, breast, free. That was how they ran the butterfly stroke, breaststroke, the backstroke. And I could not do the backstroke to save myself, but I did, and it was, it was fun, but I remember, I swear I must have finished about three minutes after everybody, the second guy. IG: 39:54 So, what did that particular episode teach you? Did- DG: 40:01 Just perseverance. IG: 40:02 Perseverance-perseverance. So you know, and you know, for posterity, for the you know, future students and others listening-listening to these tapes, what do you think what-what were the most important lessons that you have learned in your life that you would like to share with these students who are considering Binghamton or who are at Binghamton? And maybe- DG: 40:37 I take a very different- I bring a very different perspective. I came from a very strong Jewish background, and I leaned more towards orthodoxy halfway through and I was going to transfer out, and things did not work. It just did not. And so that the last two years at Harpur, I restrict myself to a lot of things in within the Jewish religion that [inaudible] accomplish, such as not going out Friday night. I had a connection with Rabbi Bernard Brazil, who was the author the rabbi orthodox jewel in Binghamton. I told her son, he got me teach a Sunday school class there for a couple of years, which I did, and-and I connect with some of the people in the neighborhood who were, who were helpful to me. And so, I had a different ask- a different view of college the last two years that a lot most students that did not have. IG: 41:38 But that is wonderful. I mean, you really had a very full life and maybe a more adult life because you were so involved in the community- DG: 41:51 Yeah-yeah, I was. IG: 41:52 -in-in really ministering to this community. Could you talk a little bit more about this? Because this is very unusual, I think. DG: 42:01 Well, it became my own personal journey back to orthodox roots. And so, you know, I did not go out Friday night. I was a dorm counselor. If I had to be on duty on Friday night, I sat and I tried not to do things that would infringe. I restricted my diet there, even in the mess hall, very and supplemented it with my own food for cautious reasons. And just geared myself to going to guiding my life in the future based upon these religious attendance that became more important to me as I went along. IG: 42:46 And what- why do you think that that happened midway during your undergraduate career? What happened in your thinking? DG: 42:55 My brother got married, and he was not very you know, he did not have any religious influence. Had very little religious influence in his life. And I said to myself, I went to, went to the wedding in the Bronx. He said, "David, you can get married one day also." And, you know, thinking of my grandparents and their- my grandfather, Rabbi the [inaudible], who's a, I mean, who that is a ritual slaughter of animals. And I said, “You know what? They are really right. That is where I have to go,” and I did. IG: 43:31 So that is a very- so-so what? What would you tell these young people listening to your interview. What-what is important about that experience? DG: 43:45 Experience is that for me, as an Orthodox Jew religion, became a very paramount issue, and had to deal with it in the time constraints. I had a Harpur, and I did to the best-best I could. And then once I left and went to law school, I was able to broaden my religious life because I had a lot more freedom as to, as to where I was living, what I was eating, what I was doing. IG: 44:14 So do you think that the message might be, you know, sort of stick to your guns and do what you feel is important. DG: 44:22 That is if you want, if you want to generate, if you want to generalize it, yes, that would be a-a generalized comment. IG: 44:31 Where did you meet your wife? DG: 44:34 In synagogue in Washington, DC. IG: 44:36 Okay, that it was not at Harpur. DG: 44:38 Right. IG: 44:40 Have any of your children or grandchildren considered Harp- Binghamton? DG: 44:48 No, not in their scope. IG: 44:52 No, because it is- they are a different generation. DG: 44:54 Yeah, my three girls, my three girls, two went Stonehill College. One went to Queens. College. All went to seminary in Israel for a year. IG: 45:02 Oh, wow. IG: 45:02 Any of them- DG: 45:04 They are all married, and they are all really- IG: 45:07 Any rabbis in your family? DG: 45:10 I have two sons and [inaudible] the rabbi. IG: 45:12 Oh, wow-wow. DG: 45:12 Yeah, but-but they are not pulpit robbers. They are education rabbis. One is, one is head of a school in California, Los Angeles, the other is Dean of Students at Magen and David [Magen David Yeshivah School], which is a Sephardic school in Brooklyn. IG: 45:26 Wow. Well, do you have this is- it is, it is really a very interesting interview, and I think that we have gotten a very different perspective on Harpur College, you know, experience during the (19)60s, and anything that I have heard from other- DG: 45:48 I will tell you the-the one of the greatest things about Harpur College was not the college itself but was it stepping on the coat cement ceremony. IG: 45:58 Tell us about that [laughs] DG: 45:59 Because it was just wonderful. They had and Richie Walters, you know, and I, you know, to get up there to understand how they did things. Richie got up and he said, you know, we have this, whatever was that great Greek-Greek poet Testiclēs, and that is how that kind of stuff that they were. But it was, it was, it was a fun ceremony. It was the official end of winter, the beginning of spring. They stepped on the one with the coat they brought up ceremoniously up the stairs outside the Student Union, and they put it down. And Kestrel came over, and he stood up, you guys, very seriously, stepped on the coat. You look back and-and, yeah, people were laughing. It was fun, but it was nice. It was, it was a good hearted, fun thing to do that did not step on anyone's toes. You know, it was not, was not race oriented, it was not religion oriented. It was just something that someone thought of and carried out. IG: 46:56 And kind of brought unity to [crosstalk] DG: 47:01 Oh, everybody liked it. I you know the faculty too, though everyone, there was not anyone who did not like it. IG: 47:08 Yeah. Are there any concluding remarks that you have? Do you want to share anything? DG: 47:18 I can only say that there were turbulent times in the (19)60s. And, you know, we, as far as I know, we all survived. There were guys at Harpur, and I look back now, and there are people who took different directions, because some kind, some guy, some guys could handle being away, and some guys could not. Some guys could handle a breakup with a girl more than others. And was, there were turbulent times, you know, in the whole country, and Harpur was, was part of it. IG: 47:54 But just-just you mentioned something that, you know, some, some guys could handle breakups and these difficulties, others could not. You know, were there any support systems for this outside of, you know, maybe that that is why, you- DG: 48:15 I say that because I remember one particular guy, and I think he eventually, I do not think he graduated. I think he had difficult times. Eventually left school. I remember one situation, and he was having a very difficult time, because he was going out with a girl, and something happened, they broke up and-and he took a very-very difficult, very poorly. But, you know, there was no, was no, you know, support system. You know, some would say, of course, see the school psychologist. I guess there were some people. I do not think they had a system at that point, but there were people who felt closer to me, to some professors that they could talk to on a friendly basis, as opposed to academic basis. IG: 49:04 I see, I see. And maybe they did not have, they did not think of, you know, religion as a support system. Maybe. So- I David, unless you have some, some other gem that you want to share with us. I thank you so much- DG: 49:24 One thing I do remember Professor, I think his name was Roma. He had a baby face-face, yeah. And he was like a philosophy- philosophy professor, and he looked so young. And one thing he said in class was, you know there was some guys who did something about running, I do not know a woman's garment at the flagpole, but not on, not on campus. I think off campus somewhere. And he said, "Now, if someone like me did it, you know, they throw the book on them, but if the students do it is a prank." IG: 49:53 [laughs] DG: 49:53 Yeah. So, I will just leave my closing remarks are. Uh, make the best of your, of your, of your, of your education. Live with your convictions and go forward. IG: 50:08 Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. (End of Interview) Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interview with M. David Graubard Subject The topic of the resource Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in law; Harpur College – Alumni from Upstate New York; Harpur College – Alumni living in New York City Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Graubard, M. David ; Gashurov, Irene Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource audio/mp3 Description An account of the resource David was an attorney at Kera & Graubard, specializing in bankruptcy, insolvency, Chapter 11, and debtor and creditor rights. He grew up in Monticello, New York. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Binghamton University Libraries Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2018-02-19 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource In Copyright Language A language of the resource eng Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context David Graubard.mp3 Date Modified Date on which the resource was changed. 2018-02-19 Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni Extent The size or duration of the resource. 50:12 minutes