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Shirley Spork, Oral History Interview, 2021, part 1
Matt Jones
1949 Michigan State Normal College graduate and co-founder of the LPGA Shirley Spork has led a life uniquely her own, balancing her love of the game of golf with her passion for teaching and leaving the game of better place for those who come after her. Despite the lack of a competitive women's golf program in the 1940s, MSNC saw Spork emerge as the brightest star of the game as she won the 1947 Women's National Collegiate Golf Championship and was Tam o' Shanter All American Amateur Champion in 1948. She was runner up in the National Collegiate Golf Championship, and won the Michigan State Women's Amateur title. Spork was one of the top ten Money winners of 1951 and toured Europe as the first LPGA pro to conduct clinics in foreign countries. Following the whirlwind tours of the early LPGA, Spork became widely recognized as a teaching professional and it was written that Spork's "gregarious grin and golf know-how made her exceptionally effective in nurturing the potential in junior golfers. Spork has been awarded the Joe Graffis Award for Outstanding contributions to the teaching of golf, the LPGA Teacher of the Year Award and was inducted into the Michigan Athletic Hall of Fame in 1968, and the EMU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981. Spork is the namesake of the annual Shirley Spork Invitational. This interview covers Sporks experience at Michigan State Normal College as a student. Part Two describes Spork's time as a professional golfer and co-founder of the LPGA.
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Steve Spencer, December 10, 2018
Rachel Burns and Matt Jones
Steve Spencer graduated from Eastern Michigan University in 1975 with a degree in speech and education and was an active member of the Black Student Association during his time on campus. After attending Valparaiso Law School, Spencer worked for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for 38 years.
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Ted Ligibel, Oral History Interview, 2019
Matt Jones
Ted Ligibel was director of the Eastern Michigan University Historic Preservation program from his arrival in 1991 until his retirement in 2019. Already a recognized figure in Historic Preservation prior to his tenure at EMU, Ligibel speaks on his upbringing in Toledo where, as a child, he worked in his father's butchery grinding hamburger and dining on raw hot dogs. Ligibel describes the state of Historic Preservation under the Reagan administration and his battles with the mayor of Toledo over the nomination of historic sites. Ligibel also describes the "losing side" of historic preservation and the fact that those losses serve as valuable learning experiences. When Ligibel was appointed director of the EMU Historic Preservation program in 1991, he immediately set out to raise the visibility of the program, reflecting the concept that in the broader field of Historic Preservation, visibility is key to the success of any preservation project. Ligibel discusses the evolution of the Historic Preservation program throughout his tenure, describing the implementation of field school, the creation of graduate assistantships and student orientation, and the importance of vigorous networking even in the earliest stages of student involvement in preservation. Ligibel also speaks on several colleagues including Marshall McLennan, Nancy Bryk, Andrew Nazzaro and Chris Mayda, whom he credits with breathing new life into the Department of Geography and Geology before her death in 2016.
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Terry Auten, Oral History Interview, 2022
Miaire An’Jané Price 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. Terry Auten was a student at EMU during the late 1960s and early 1970s who travelled to the National Student Conference on Vietnam, held at Cornell University and brought back to EMU his perspective on the War and increased student activism on campus.
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Tony Martin, Oral History Interview, 2020
Matt Jones and Alexis Braun Marks
During the course of his tenure with EMU, Martin served as University Police Officer, Associate Director and then Director of the Center of Regional and National Security and Library Assistant 3 in Halle Library among other things until leaving for a job at the University of Michigan School of Nursing in 2019. In this interview, Martin discusses his upbringing in Chicago and Detroit, his pathway to EMU, and his initial forays into law enforcement. Martin details other jobs he has held of campus, including working in Circulation at Halle Library.
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William Shelton Oral History Interview, 1998 April 3
Laurence Smith
William Shelton served as President of Eastern Michigan University from 1989 until 2000. In this interview, Shelton discusses the importance of good faculty/administrator relationships, marketing the university, and university fundraising. Shelton also evaluates his presidential predecessors on their merits and what he saw as their shortcomings. This interview is the first in a series of two interviews. 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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William Shelton Oral History Interview, 1999 April 19
Laurence Smith
William Shelton served as President of Eastern Michigan University from 1989 until 2000. In this interview, Shelton details his upbringing in the Mississippi Delta and the hardships his family endured in his youth. Shelton details his experience as a student at Memphis State University, and as vice president for Institutional Advancement at Kent State University. Shelton also speaks about changing the controversial EMU logo and mascot. This interview is the second in a series of two interviews. 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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William Shelton, Oral History Interview, 2021
Susan Wentz and Matt Jones
William Everett Shelton (b. 1942) was president of Eastern Michigan University 1989-2000, and is universally recognized for his work to do away with the EMU logo and mascot, seen as culturally insensitive to many inside and outside of the university. In this interview, Shelton recounts his rise to higher education administration from his roots in segregated southern schools, and the turmoil surrounding the change of the EMU logo and mascot. Arriving on the heels of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission recommendation that all Michigan schools with culturally insensitive logos and mascots make changes to those depictions, Shelton was thrust into the spotlight as a brand new university president grappling with painful institutional growing pains. This interview centers around the values espoused by Shelton in his recommendation to the Board that EMU should, in fact, change the logo and mascot, that change is inevitable, and that it was the responsibility of universities to encourage growth and change along with the rest of American culture. Shelton also wrestles with his legacy at EMU as he describes the backlash from alumni unhappy with the logo change and the longterm effects of the Board's decision to drop the Huron logo.
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William Stephens Oral History Interview, 1998 May 13
Laurence Smith
Colonel William Stephens served on the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents from 1996 until 2001, serving as vice chairman and being named EMU Regent Emeritus in 2001. In this interview, Stephens details his experience as a black student in a majority-white college in the 1950s, his extensive military service, and his involvement with the United States Republican Black Caucus in Washington D.C. Stephens also discusses his service on the EMU Board of Regents, and his desire to ensure that Board members act as honest brokers for the University. 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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W. Scott Westerman, EMU Roles and Perspectives Interview, 1972
Robert Hoexter
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 interview, Hoexter sits down with W. Scott Westerman. Westerman served as Dean of the Eastern Michigan University College of Education from 1971-1992. Westerman’s commitment to quality education brought EMU national recognition for outstanding academic programs and a national reputation as one of the largest producers of quality educators in the U.S. In this interview, primarily about bussing in public schools, Westerman discusses the effect of bussing on the integration of public schools, and the rise in academic performance amongst disadvantaged students when placed with high-achieving students.
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Zaria Spidell, Interview, 2023
Finn Vincent-Fix
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 Zaria Spidell talks about growing up and coming out in a Christian household, balancing religion and identity, and finding solace in the library.
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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