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John W. Porter Oral History Interview, 1999 May 7
Laurence Smith
John Porter was the 17th president of Eastern Michigan University, his term lasting from 1979 to 1989. Major improvements and upgrades were made to the University during Porter’s tenure. In this interview, Porter discusses his upbringing, professional life, and the many structural and educational changes which took place during his time as president. This interview is the second in a series of two. This interview was conducted for the purpose of gathering primary research for Laurence Smith’s book, Eastern Michigan University: A Sesquicentennial Portrait (1999).
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Joseph Gurt, October 3, 2019
Matt Jones and Luis Peña
Dr. Joseph Gurt was a professor of music at Eastern Michigan University from 1967 until his retirement in 2000. During his time at EMU, Gurt was renowned as a teacher with students coming from all over the world to study under him and also as a concert pianist performing in the U.S, Israel, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and on stages from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center.
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Juanita Reid, Oral History Interview, 2021
Cheyenne Travioli and Matt Jones
Juanita Reid served EMU for 28 years in vital roles such as Vice President of University Relations, Executive Associate to the President and Secretary of the Board of Regents. Reid's integral roles gave her a front row seat to the workings of upper administration and her view of the EMU logo and mascot change reflects this close, professional proximity. Explaining the rationale of the Board of Regents and the president in changing the mascot and logo, as well as the reactions from the community both on and off campus, Reid paints a uniquely vivid portrait of a university enmeshed in the thorny process of altering the identity of a university and committing itself to the cause of inclusivity and social justice.
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"Kayla" and "Jamia," Interview, 2023
Brooke Boyst
On October 7, 2023, students from the EMU Archives and Oral History Program recorded the stories of EMU students past and present. Using the EMU Aerie, the Archives’ mobile oral history recording booth, student oral historians captured the formative experiences and perspectives of EMU alums from a variety of campus eras. Here, EMU alums and longtime friends “Jamia” and “Kayla” discuss their formative experiences on the campus of EMU, including shopping at the Quick Fix, where students could “buy anything from candy bars to condoms,” and the Meijer Midnight Madness grocery shopping trips hosted by EMU. Both interviewees discuss courses and faculty who were influential, and both express hopes that their children will also attend EMU.
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Ken Moon, Oral History Interview, 2022
Chyelle Pitts-Chatman and Matt Jones
In the Fall of 2022, Matt Jones’s Oral History Techniques class conducted a set of interviews documenting the stories behind the student unrest on Eastern Michigan University’s campus from 1966-1972. Ken Moon was a Black administrator at EMU during the lates 1960s and early 1970s, and an important mediator between the students and the administration. Moon was an influential figure on campus and supported students academically and personally.
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Kenneth Stevens, August 21, 2018
Matt Jones and Alexis Braun Marks
Kenneth Stevens served with the Communication and Theater Arts Department -currently Communication, Media, and Theater Arts Department- from 1973 until his retirement in 2014. During that time, Stevens created the graduate and undergraduate programs in Arts Management, directed hundreds of plays and musicals, was a ten-time winner of the faculty recognition awards, received the EMU Gold Medallion Award, and the Teaching Innovation Award. Outside of teaching at EMU, Stevens has also served as Associate Director of the Cherry County Playhouse in Traverse City, producer at the Red Barn Theater in Saugatuck, MI, as well as Director of the Actors Repertory Theater in Las Vegas, and President of the Michigan Theater Association.
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Kurt Hill, October 18, 2018
Rachel Burns and Matt Jones
Kurt Hill is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University, active member of the Black Student Association, and Campus Service Corps, as well as present during the take over of Pierce Hall take over of February 20th, 1969.
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Larry Smith, Oral History Interview, 2021
Connor K. Ashley and Matt Jones
Former Vice President for Marketing and Student Affairs Laurence Smith, worked at Eastern Michigan University from 1975-2000. Smith worked in the capacity of Vice President for University Marketing and Student Affairs where he had overall leadership responsibility for strategic University marketing, communication and media relations, as well as student affairs. Smith played an important role in campus life and served on the EMU Logo Review Committee and Logo Selection Committee. In his interview, Smith describes the state of higher education thirty years ago compared to now; how alumni and community placed value in the institution vs. a symbol; and the selection process for a new logo. Smith speeks in broad strokes about higher education and their role in social justice causes and does not speak to the specifics of the committee's work.
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Lean Adams, EMU Roles and Perspectives Interview, 1972
Leah Adams
EMU Roles and Perspectives was taped television program broadcast from the campus of EMU, and produced by Robert Hoexter (1930-1978). Hoexter joined the faculty at the EMU School of Education in 1964, and served as Coordinator of Graduate Advising from 1969-1971. A member of the Faculty Senate from 1973-1976, Hoexter was elected vice-chairman from 1974-1975, and chairman, 1975-1976. In this episode of Roles and Perspectives, Hoexter interviews Leah Adams. Dr. Adams served Eastern Michigan University from 1969-1999 as a professor in early childhood education with the EMU College of Education. In this interview, Adams, a strong supporter of the growing preschool programs in the United States, defends the practice of preschooling children by saying that the emergence of preschool fits perfectly within the changing society in which it resides. With the emergence of widespread automobile use, families were able to begin isolating themselves from their neighbors, yet they wanted ways in which to socialize their children. This need for socialization, coupled with the nation’s recent “Sputnik Complex,” lead to parents wanting children to learn faster and sooner. The woman’s role in the household had changed as well, from that of homemaker who was seen to be shirking her motherly duties if she left her child at a daycare center, to that of professional, career-minded woman.
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Lee Hassenzahl, Interview, 2023
Katie Delahoyde
On October 7, 2023, students from the EMU Archives and Oral History Program recorded the stories of EMU students past and present. Using the EMU Aerie, the Archives’ mobile oral history recording booth, student oral historians captured the formative experiences and perspectives of EMU alums from a variety of campus eras. Here, alum Lee Hassenzahl (class of 1972) recounts meeting her husband at EMU, working toward her degree in Education, her grandmother’s graduation from Michigan State Normal College, her work with Vietnamese refugees during the War in Vietnam, and the disparity in pay between men and women.
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Leonard Posey, Oral History Interview, 2018
Matt Jones and Rachel Burns
Leonard Posey is an alumni of Eastern Michigan. He graduated from Eastern Michigan with Bachelors in Business Administration with an emphasis in Management. Posey was an active student on campus, serving in the student senate all four years. Additionally, he was a member of the Black Student Association, during his fourth year as a student here on campus, Posey was elected student body president becoming EMU’s first African American student body president. The last year of Posey’s academic tenure was met with some difficulty when it was squeezed between students and faculty over issues with the student senate, allocation of funds and a clerical workers strike. After graduation, he took a job at the university in the Personnel Department then became interested in educational activism becoming the first Black Wayne-Westland School Board member.
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Linda Pritchard, Oral History Interview, 2018
Matt Jones and Rachel Burns
Linda Pritchard served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Eastern Michigan University from 2002 until 2005. Pritchard then joined the faculty in the History Department, and later played a vital role in the formation of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department, which she headed from 2008 until 2012. Returning to the classroom, Pritchard taught with the History Department until her retirement in 2016. In this interview, Pritchard begins by giving an account of her formative years in Lansing and Bakersfield, California, before summarizing her time at Arkansas State University as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Pritchard extensively discusses her time at EMU, detailing the duties and hiring process of a College Dean, the success of particular programs she was involved in, and her philosophy of education, in which the importance of letter grades pale in comparison to the development of student communication skills, and a sense of empathy for the subjects and people around you in the greater world. Pritchard also discusses the economic hardships and personnel turnover of the early 2000’s, and the effects this instability had on the faculty’s ability to carry out job functions.
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Linda Yohn, January 23, 2020
Matt Jones
Linda Yohn is said to have done more for jazz in Southeast Michigan than any other single person in her 30 years with WEMU. Six-time winner of the jazz programmer of the year award, frequent panelist at national conventions, and universally recognized for her commitment to all things jazz here and everywhere else. Yohn was given Emeritus status by Eastern Michigan University when she retired in 2017.
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Lisa Green, Interview, 2023
Christopher Durden
In November of 2023, Eastern Michigan University’s LGBT Resource Center hosted an event in collaboration with the University Archives’ Oral History Program during Transgender Awareness Week where students could share their experiences with being part of the LGBT community on and off campus. EMU student Lisa Green talks about the importance of the Resource Center on campus, growing up as a queer child, and their journey to EMU.
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Mable Jones, November 5, 2018
Rachel Burns and Matt Jones
Dr. Jones is an alumna of Eastern Michigan University, graduating in 1972. Her time is characterized by heavy involvement in student activism that included being a member of Campus Service Corps, the Black Student Association and discussions with administration after the take over of Pierce Hall in February 1969. Dr. Mable Jones came to Eastern as an Upward Bound student. Jones became the chief executive officer of Upward Bound at Wayne State University, and, since retiring, continues to serve the greater Detroit area in the field of child development.
BlackStudentAssociation,CampusServiceCorps,Ypsilanti,EasternMichiganUniversity,studentprotest,demonstration,civilrights,takeover,AfricanAmericanStudies,
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Marshall Jennings, October 22, 2018
Rachel Burns and Matt Jones
Marshall Jennings is an alumnus of Eastern Michigan University. Jennings was a highly involved student activist, serving as a member of Campus Service Corps. Jennings was an instrumental figure in discussions with administration on bettering conditions for African American students on campus, Jennings began his professional career at Eastern Michigan University working for admissions through recruiting and counseling. Jennings worked for two years as a counselor and recruiter for Eastern before going on to a long and successful career in higher education administration.
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Marshall McLennan, Oral History Interview, 2019
Matt Jones and Alexis Braun Marks
Dr. Marshall McLennan arrived at Eastern MIchigan University in 1971 and served the Department of Geography and Geology until his retirement in 1999. In this interview, McLennan details his upbringing in California, Nevada and the Philippines before serving in the U.S. military, stationed in Munich, Germany. After a brief flirtation with becoming a Hollywood actor and studying cultural geography at the University of California - Berkeley under the tutelage of Carl Sauer, McLennan settled in at EMU and, in 1979, co-founded the EMU Historic Preservation program with Dr. Andrew Nazzaro. As director of the program, McLennan initiated a study of mill sites along the Huron River with Nazzaro, and worked to create working relationships between the Historic Preservation program and state historic preservation agencies. Instilling in his students the concept that historic preservation has been long associated with the psychological wellbeing of a place, McLennan worked with colleagues and students to successfully prevent the destruction of EMU’s Welch Hall. McLennan also discusses how working for large preservation agencies like the State Historic Preservation Review Board and Heritage Interpretation International can inform your teaching.
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"Marty," Interview, 2023
Brooke Boyst
On October 7, 2023, students from the EMU Archives and Oral History Program recorded the stories of EMU students past and present. Using the EMU Aerie, the Archives’ mobile oral history recording booth, student oral historians captured the formative experiences and perspectives of EMU alums from a variety of campus eras. Here, alum “Marty” (class of 1991) speaks of his first experiences on campus, mentor Carl Ojala, his work as a student employee at the Olds-Robb Recreation Center, and the importance of impactful management.
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Mary Ellen Riordan, EMU Roles and Perspectives Interview, 1972
Mary Ellen Riordan
EMU Roles and Perspectives was taped television program broadcast from the campus of EMU, and produced by Robert Hoexter (1930-1978). Hoexter joined the faculty at the EMU School of Education in 1964, and served as Coordinator of Graduate Advising from 1969-1971. A member of the Faculty Senate from 1973-1976, Hoexter was elected vice-chairman from 1974-1975, and chairman, 1975-1976. In this episode of Roles and Perspectives, Hoexter interviews Mary Ellen Riordan, President Emerita of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, Local 231, AFL-CIO. Riordan blazed the trail for collective bargaining rights for teachers. This action resulted in the Michigan Legislature adopting the 1965 Public Employee Relations Act that gave teachers and all public employees the legal right to collective bargaining. Detroit was second only to New York in obtaining collective bargaining rights for teachers, a trend that would sweep the United States five years later. At her retirement, Ms. Riordan was president of one of the largest local unions in the nation, totaling more than 12,000 members. Before Riordan, no other union headed by a woman had exceeded several thousand members. In this discussion, Riordan answers the public perception that unionized public school teachers simply show up at 8:30, and leave at 3, exhibiting no passion for the job. Riordan details what it is that teachers are going home to: grading papers, contacting parents, organize lesson plans, making dinner for their families, etc. The aggression shown by teachers’ unions is not necessarily a reality, but more a fixation by the media to generate headlines, claims Riordan. While the media wants to talk about teacher salaries contributing to the struggling US economy, Riordan claims that what they should really be talking about are the enormous class sizes, lack of supplies, lack of textbooks, poor lunch programs, and the safety of students walking to and from school in Detroit.
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Maya Walker, Interview, 2023
Brooke Boyst
On October 7, 2023, students from the EMU Archives and Oral History Program recorded the stories of EMU students past and present. Using the EMU Aerie, the Archives’ mobile oral history recording booth, student oral historians captured the formative experiences and perspectives of EMU alums from a variety of campus eras. Here, Early College Alliance student Maya Walker talks about her first day on campus and the initial shock of seeing such a large campus for the first time. She speaks on the importance of her Queer Literature class, and the usefulness of onsite testing during the pandemic.
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Michael G. Nastos, March 28, 2019
Matt Jones and Alexis Braun Marks
Longtime broadcaster, music critic, and jazz aficionado Michael G. Nastos is best known for his work at WEMU-FM, the NPR affiliate station making its home in King Hall on the WEMU campus. Emeritus Senior Producer, Music Librarian, Assistant Music Director and full-time evening broadcaster at EMU for nearly thirty years, Nastos has written for Downbeat Magazine, Cadence magazine, Coda Jazz Forum, Swing Journal, and a host of other local and national music publications.
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Nancy Halmhuber-Navarre, Oral History Interview, 2020
Matt Jones
Serving the students of EMU from 1979 until her retirement in 2004, Nancy Halmhuber-Navarre advocated for many changes in the teaching of exceptional students, was recognized for excellence and instruction and authored A Century of Excellence with Lynn Rockledge, the history of the EMU Department of Special Education. Halmhuber-Navarre received Emeritus status upon retirement.
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Nancy Ross, Interview, 2023
Elizabeth Allen
In November of 2023, Eastern Michigan University’s LGBT Resource Center hosted an event in collaboration with the University Archives’ Oral History Program during Transgender Awareness Week where students could share their experiences with being part of the LGBT community on and off campus. EMU student Nancy Ross talks about their first introduction to queer identities, switching majors, and gender expression through roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons.
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Natalia Payne, Interview, 2023
Brooke Boyst
On October 7, 2023, students from the EMU Archives and Oral History Program recorded the stories of EMU students past and present. Using the EMU Aerie, the Archives’ mobile oral history recording booth, student oral historians captured the formative experiences and perspectives of EMU alums from a variety of campus eras. Here, current student Natalia Payne talks about her long association with EMU beginning with her involvement in the Early College Alliance when she was 14 years old. Payne also speaks on the fear of school shootings and the drills carried out by students in preparation for such an event.
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Pat Fry, Oral History Interview, 2022
Marian Feinberg and Matt Jones
In the Fall of 2022, Matt Jones’s Oral History Techniques class conducted a set of interviews documenting the stories behind the student unrest on Eastern Michigan University’s campus from 1966-1972. Pat Fry was an EMU student in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was a member of the Student Liberation Action Movement, wrote for underground newspaper The Second Coming, and Communist activist. Pat dedicated her life to fighting for equality and justice for all, continuing to be an advocate until she passed away in 2023.
An initiative that began in 2017, the University Archives has begun to digitize items from the Historical Audio Recordings collection and other collections. We have sorted these recordings into four categories: Lectures and Presentations, Oral Histories, Performances and Speeches.
At present the category of Oral Histories is the only category that we are actively adding to. With support from the Office of the Provost, the University Archives has been interviewing current and emeritus faculty, staff and students on their experiences at Eastern Michigan University.
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