Yellow Woman's College Gym Suit
36 x 15", linen, gym suit
This is a one-piece yellow (with belt) gym dress or suit worn by a student, Barbara Jane Moessner (married name Menegay), worn for physical education classes at WestConn, then known as Danbury State Teachers' College. The garment was made by the Alex Taylor company - a purveyor of sporting goods that was headquartered in New York City.
1949-1953
Collins, Francis (tape #4, sides A)
Tape stock length: 90 min
Running Time: 29:16 min
Recording starts with interview in progress with Mr. Collins recounting his childhood memories of WCSU, as well as his time as a student at the University. He speaks of his work in the state legislature and how he and several others would help WCSU and all state colleges obtain better funding
Label Contents: 9/22/1976
1976
Collins, Francis
Friel, Jack
0-10 Min: Mother and sisters all graduated from the Danbury Normal School; tuition for Mr. Collins was 10 dollars a semester in 1951; his wife went to WCSU while he was in the army; WCSU was viewed as a local college for those who could not get into any other college; recalls a three week interim program in which WCSU closed down and had its students work at internships; refers to the quonset huts being used as permanent facilities at WCSU; recalls male/female ratio was slightly tipped in favor of females; talks about Neil Wagner and the expansion of WCSU sports; Do day: a day when all the students would help to clean the campus;
10-20 Min: Describes associations with projects initiated at WCSU; served in the State legislature starting in 1967; minority leader in 1971; majority leader in 1973; State legislature having a great respect for Dr. Haas; West Side campus plans formulated in 1969 with the first appropriations of state funds to find a location; from 1969-1974 budgets included steadily increasing dollar amounts for WCSU; In 1974 several of WCSU's key advocates left the state legislature - one for congress - another was appointed a judge, and Mr. Collins decided not to run again; as a result of the plans for the West Side campus, WCSU administration opted not to improve the midtown campus
20-30 Min: Reputation that Dr. Haas fostered between Danbury and WCSU; Athletics programs at WCSU; Dr. Haas was an advocate for the whole state college system not just WCSU; until 1971 there was only a nominal tuition fee throughout the state; Addition of a higher tuition resulted in marches on the capitol; Race situation at WCSU
Donnelly, Dr. Alice part 1 (tape #3, side b)
Tape stock length: 90 min
Running Time: 40 min
The development of the athletics program both in scope and amount of resources devoted. How the changing student body affected the college
Label Contents: 12/1/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Donelly, Dr. Alice
Running Time: 40 min
0-10 Min: athletic program problems; where she was educated and how she came to be at WCSU;
10-20 Min: when she started in 1947 there were only two physical education offerings, health and safety, and the regulation of teaching phys ed in elementary schools; WCSU's close relationship with the Robert's Ave. and Locust Ave. elementary schools; describes the gym in Old Main in great detail;
20-30 Min: use of quonset huts for student union building as well as for physical education class and office space; sometimes a dept. was made up of 1 faculty member; F.I.T.S. & S.I.T.S.;
30-40 Min: the benefits of the F.I.T.S. & S.I.T.S. in advising and guiding students; influx of male students and how that affected the school, particularly in the curriculum; the new and improved gym in Berkshire Hall;
Fusco, Sharon part 3 (tape #31 sides a)
Tape stock length: 60 min
Running Time: 23 min
Ms. Fusco continues her descriptions of the alumni association's various responsibilities to both WCSU and the alumni. She talks briefly about how donations are received and distributed
Label Contents: 12/6/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Fusco, Sharon
Running Time: 23 min
0-10 Min: cites small size as reason for attending WCSU; more personal nature that the size affords WCSU; less than happy alumni responses to mailings; rebukes idea that the small size of the school affects the competency and depth of program offerings at WCSU; beginning with year of interview WCSU is trying to keep track of prominent alumni;
10-20 Min: the amount of support that the Alumni association receives from WCSU administration; athletic program and how its viewed by individual alumni and the association; two unofficial associations the W. A. A. and the M. A. A. (women's alumni association and the men's alumni association); athletic program mission statement
Haas, Dr. Ruth A. parts 1- 2 (tape #1)
Tape stock length: 90 min
Running Time: 75 min
Dr. Haas opens by explaining how she came to be at WCSU, her original job title, and the duties that it entailed. She then talks about what she accomplished during her time as president of the college and what she wishes she could have completed before she retired.
Label Contents: 09/15/1976, 09/20/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Haas, Dr. Ruth
Running Time: 75 min
0-10 Min: started at WCSU in 1931 as dean of women; appointed president in 1946, first women in the U.S. to hold such a position; took job here because as a political science major in 1931 she did not have much of a future in that field; fond memories of living in Fairfield Hall with the students; one of her duties was to find suitable off-campus housing for students who were not living on campus;
10-20 Min: anxious to always be expanding to attract a larger variety of students; wanted from very early on to make WCSU a co-ed college; wanted the earlier male students to act as if every woman on campus were his little sister; recalls that WCSU got a decent amount of students who were originally bound for the ivy league but could no longer afford it due to the depression; state would offer a complete free ride to any student who promised to teach for two years in a rural area after graduation, this again was a by-product of the depression;
20-30 Min: intensive training program, a program devised for college graduates that took one year of schooling to become qualified teachers; around 1960 WCSU began to attract a portion of students from New York because it was easier and cheaper to commute to Danbury rather than New York City; addition of more technical two-year programs created to serve the changing industrial needs of the greater Danbury area; familial nature of the student/teacher relationship and how it influenced the creation of do-day;
30-40 Min: origins of do-day continued; Dr. Haas made it a point to interview every potential student and teacher to determine if the person would be a good social fit for WCSU; felt she needed this level of personal contact to allow her to perform her job effectively; origins of the music program at WCSU
40-50 Min: Dr. Haas began to realize that WCSU would fail to exist if they merely offered liberal arts and teaching degrees; such areas as nursing and business administration; difficulties in placing black teachers in rural areas; lack of diversity was due to lack of applications; her college baseball career and the development of the athletics programs at WCSU
50-60 Min: her motto on the athletic programs was that if it could not be fully funded and supported by the school then WCSU should not advocate a sport;
60-70 Min: memories of staff that made impressions on Dr. Haas; the construction of the new campus is an issue that Dr. Haas feels needs to and will be completed;
70-80 Min: touts the amount of curriculum expansion that WCSU has engaged in over the years; laments the speed with which WCSU has outgrown its current facilities;
Isham, Dr. Charlotte parts 2-3 (tape #23 sides a/b)
Tape stock length: 60 min
Running Time: 30 min
Dr. Isham continues to reminisce about her days a a student at WCSU, drawing similarities and differences from when she was a student to her current students at the school.
Label Contents: 11/10/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Isham, Dr. Charlotte
Running Time: 30 min
0-10 Min: normal schools were across the board based on educating students on how to teach the three basics (reading, writing and arithmetic);
10-20 Min: personal history,family ties to WCSU
20-30 Min: athletics program development; basketball being one of the first to be instituted; Dr. Higgins and what he taught at WCSU
30-40 Min: basketball court in Old Main; even as student teachers, the women were provided lunches when they went out to student teach; even though New Britain Normal School was established first, Danbury Normal School had the reputation of the best job placement;
Isham, Dr. Charlotte part 1 (tape #22 side b)
Tape stock length: 60 min
Running Time: 30 min
Dr. Isham talks about how she came to have three degrees from the same school, her various teaching jobs around the state, and how she first came to be employed by WCSU.
Label Contents: 11/10/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Isham, Dr. Charlotte
Running Time: 30 min
0-10 Min: reviewing Dr. Isham's degrees; she got a two year degree from Danbury Normal School, as well as a three year degree and finally a bachelor's degree from Danbury State Teachers College; born in Woodbury; talks of her parents running a impromptu boarding house and Dr. Haas offering her a job as a house mother at WCSU;
10-20 Min: there was an interim dorm while Fairfield Hall was being built; the social life of the dorm life in the Danbury Normal School;
20-30 Min: Dr. Isham's time as president of the athletic association, as well as being on the basketball and softball team; her various teaching jobs in between getting her degrees, making $1000 a year in 1935 teaching in Harwinton, CT
Tufts, Dr. John parts 1-2 (tape #25 side a/b)
Tape stock length: 60 min
Running Time: 60 min
Dr. Tufts talks about his time as the school's head of pr and the finer points of how the state colleges interacted with each other as well as the state. He also talks about Dr. Haas, her reputation and the sports programs at WCSU
Label Contents: 11/15/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Tufts, Dr. John
Running Time: 60 min
0-10 Min: Public Relations officer for WCSU
10-20 Min: began as a high school teacher in New York then joined the navy, came back from the war and taught in Texas for two years then went back to Columbia to finish his education; talks about the growth of WCSU in every way and focuses on the steadily increasing drawing power that WCSU has; the various changes in scope that occurred at WCSU
20-30 Min: the operations of the faculty associations;
30-40 Min: the CSU system and how it interacted with state legislative boards as well as with each other
40-50 Min: sports at WCSU and how the lack of male students affected the development of the sports program; when Dr. Tufts took over public relations for WCSU in 1952 Dr. Haas was the only woman president of a co-ed college in the country and she refused to let him ever publish that fact; credits for common courses were supposed to be completely interchangeable, but each college should be allowed to have control of their individual area of specialty; Dr. Haas as her open door policy and long hours;
50-60 Min: each of the four state colleges had a public relations officer as did the state board of education and all five of these people would meet once a month;
Wagner, Neil parts 1/2 (tape #05 sides a/b)
Tape stock length: 90 min
Running Time: 90 min
Mr. Wagner goes into great detail about every aspect of life at WCSU from both his time as a student and as an employee. He looks back with great fondness on his time as a student, and stresses the importance of maintaining those aspect of the college that made his experience here so memorable for future classes.
Label Contents: 9/24/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Wagner, Neil
Running Time: 90 min
0-10 Min: Dean of extended services, which includes career and co-operative education programs; Captain of the WCSU basketball team in 1952 when he was a student; Co-operative education program that lets students work full-time jobs or internships for course credit; also beginning to offer classes that are not specifically geared towards a degree program, but rather are geared towards classes that help professionals hone their skills set; seminars for retirees to provide learning and activities not necessarily geared towards a degree program;
10-20 Min: evening program has an estimated enrollment of 3300 students; programs that were not previously offered at WCSU are being offered in concert with such schools as UCONN and Univ of Bridgeport at the WCSU campus to better service the region WCSU serves; recalls having to go through a series of interviews and exams to get admitted; once he was admitted he was mistakenly given a dorm room because administration had assumed that he was in fact a women;
20-30 Min: while going to WCSU Mr. Wagner lived with a family on Beaverbrook Road who's matriarch was the first women in Danbury to vote as well as the first one to get a hunting license; recalls that on the first day of classes he went to the Registrar's office and was simply handed a complete schedule of classes for the semester; recalls roughly 60-70 men in his freshman class; recalls the do-days he participated in during his time as a student;
30-40 Min: do-day led to a larger production called spring weekend that saw larger projects and Broadway play productions rather than just simple skits; the interim was program for freshman and sophomores for four weeks in February was an exploratory intern program;
40-50 Min: recollections of playing basketball for WCSU; the extent of the sports programs at WCSU; at the time football started up at WCSU Mr. Wagner was athletic director; the initial proposal was for a football club, which the board was not in favor of due to lack of administrative control; in the following spring the board began to build itself a legitimate football team;
50-60 Min: the ethnic make-up of Danbury, its large pockets of Portuguese and Syrian immigrants, WCSU has had an exceptional soccer team; at the time all of the varsity sports were financed by a $9 per student per semester fee;
60-70 Min: alumni association and funding of it, the alumni assoc wish to further increase the amount of scholarship money they can make available per semester; recalls receiving a 32 page booklet upon graduating that outlined every guideline and expectation for the first year teacher; anecdotes about Mr. Durgy the janitor at WCSU during the first part of the 20th century;
70-80 Min: feels that in order for WCSU to physically expand they need to provide for the community in such a way that the community demands expansion and not the college itself; the impact of the explosion in student populations, talks about the university attempting to institute a carpool among its commuter students;
80-90 Min: personal banter
Donnelly, Dr. Alice part 2 (tape #7, side b)
Tape stock length: 90 min
Running Time: 40 min
Health education professor who came to the school in 1948 and stayed until the early 1970's (most of the interview is inaudible)
Label Contents: 12/1/1976
1976
Friel, Jack
Donnelly, Alice (Dr.)
Running Time: 40 min
0-10 Min: Interview is barely audible - origins of the name "Old Main"; Student attitudes in 40s and 50s; teacher do's and do-day;
10-20 Min: athletic program development; intramural programs;
20-30 Min: the nature of the lack of athletic program development;
30-40 Min: West Side campus; gym uniforms;