Oral Interview with Frank Esposito (transcription)
1 transcript
Oral Interview of Frank Esposito (transcription) taken by Nancy Morris at the Danbury Ethnic and Cultural Festival.
1982
Arconti, Gino, parts 1 - 2 (tape #11, sides A/B)
Tape stock length: 90 min
Running Time: 55 min
Label Contents: 10/5/1976
Transformation of WCSU from that of a teacher's college to the liberal arts college that it is today; Race relations at WCSU as well as in the city of Danbury and the mutually beneficial relationship between WCSU and Danbury.
1976
Running Time: 55 min
0-10 Min: At Tomasiello Insurance agency, Danbury; Arconti was mayor of Danbury; involved with growth of the university and college; talks about relationship with Ruth Haas; fond of Dr. Haas; served on board of alderman and town council; remembers WCSU as primarily a women's college; WCSU played an integral part in moving Danbury from being a "mill" town; met with resistance to expansion of college due to lack of available land; began a citizens petition to expand WCSU and sent it to the governor
10-20 Min: Drawing students from New York; Haas' community service; benefits of having a college campus in a town- money the college spends in town and/or that the students spend; no protests during the 1960's, but several little incidents
20-30 Min: WCSU under Haas-specifically about co-ed dorms; talks about music program; WCSU growth at the graduate level; establishing J.L.A. programs; talks again about the financial pros/cons of WCSU for Danbury; talks about physical size of Danbury as an asset
30-40 Min: Development of Westside campus and how the programs will be split between the two; how expansion of White Street campus would have been prohibitively expensive; member of the WCSU foundation board; talks about why the board exists-financial reasons; talks about the class of 1906 containing a black girl and subsequent lack; then talks about discrimination at WCSU when it was a teacher's college; discrimination in Danbury; expresses resentment at Danbury being considered a racist city; refers to Danbury as a little America due to its diverse population
40-50 Min: Refers to WCSU being a traditionally conservative school; commends WCSU for allowing greater access to a college education; explains that Dr. Haas was integral in the transition from a teachers college to what WCSU is today
WXCI Spectrum: Places Rated Almanac
1 Cassette (60 minute stock)
Radio segment hosted by Herbert Janick and Barbara Obeda, of the WCSC Center for Urban Studies; David Savageau (author of Places Rated Almanac) interview.
1982-11-13
Herb Janick Papers, MS012
Janick, Herbert F., Obeda, Barbara
Savageau, David
25 Minutes
0-10 min.
Places Rated Guide to New England, Why did you write it?, economic ratings, how did you research, Rand McNally, census material, standard metropolitan statistical areas, controversies with book release, avoided law suits due to raw data, why people move to cities.
10-20 min.
Top rated cities, comparing crime rates and pollution of major metropolitan areas, New Haven and West Haven, forecasting New England’s future based on Harvard and MIT studies, strengths of New England, higher education in New England.
20-25 min.
Outcomes of the book, what students should look for in living situations, push for development from east to west, closing words.
Don Thoren (Interview)
~25 min; 1 cassette
Herb Janick Papers; MS012
Jason Nesbitt and Richard Butler
Don Thoren
~25 min.
0-10 min: Background; Pacific University in California; came to WestConn in 1973; worked for Pitney Bowes and for a New Rochelle hospital before WestConn; began as an accountant at WestConn; Computers; first terminal at WestConn was about 1979; did everything by hand; FRS; Client Server will be the future; WestConn involvement; had worked for Pitney Bowes Alpex, which closed in 1973; they found jobs for all who lost jobs; Campus; talk was about a new campus at Westside; owned it at time, but nothing there for a while; Name change; was known as Western CT State College when he first came; 1983 becomes Western Connecticut State University; Student population; was smaller; Campus changes; the Quad is perhaps the biggest change; Dr. Haas; she retired in 1975; she was very nice and knew everybody who worked at WestConn; Athletic Field; wasn't here in beginning; games played on Osborne Street; built not too long ago; Roberts Ave School; WestConn owned it for many years; turned it over to the city of Danbury; trained teacher's there; Westside; two campuses always will exist; Fairfield Hills; would have been perfect for a college campus; Improvements at WestConn; many in beginning didn't know it was a 4 year college; Dr. Feldman; got WestConn name in newspapers;
10-20 min: Major programs; school began as Danbury Normal School in 1903; has evolved over the years; His job; spending plans for the college; State support; has kept going down over the years; has almost become self-sufficient; Tuition; in 1973, $150 per semester; higher tuition has brought down state support; Distribution of money; most goes for salaries; rest goes to supplies, etc.; Money for improvements; comes from public works (not from student fees); Salaries; Unions; 5; 6 unions at WestConn; AAUP the teacher's union (he was in an administrators only union); WestConn qualities; affordable; top teachers; Student response to world events; Protests; few on campus in early 1970s; remembers streaking; main protests have been students going to Hartford; no major social protests; Commuters; school involvement is effected due to college being commuter school; Financial aid; increased over the years; Student Center; supposed to open in May (1998); Governor Rowland going to be here;
20-30 min: Old Main; plan is to put all student affairs (registration, financial aid, etc.) on 1st floor; University Hall; the president will have office there; Alumni Hall; houses child care center; Feelings about WestConn; great place to work; less stress than private sector; WestConn relation w/ Danbury and other schools; good relationship overall; competition between the two year schools, but not major; Variety among students; coming from various places
Frances Travoska (Interview)
~60 min; 1 cassette
Herb Janick Papers; MS012
Tammy Thiboutot; Nancy Andreasen
Frances Travoska
~60 min
(Side A):
0-10 min: Background; came to Danbury State Teacher's College in 1936; had been teaching in Brooklyn, but wasn't happy there; heard about position at DSTC and applied; Dr. Jenkins; was president of college at time; great man and worked for him; Dr. Haas; she was the Dean under Jenkins; set up program and interviewed students; she took over as acting president when Jenkins died; later permanent; Inauguration of Haas was a great ceremony done on a Sunday afternoon; she was very popular; Working w/ Haas; she came to her and said she needed her help because she knew nothing about business (which was Travoska's background); worked w/ her a lot on budgets; she was great to work for; kept Dr. Haas well informed and conferred w/ her about things; explained to her about insurance and retirement issues; worked under Dr. Haas until about three years before she retired; Working under Dr. Robinson; Vice President of Student Affairs; she worked under him for three years;
10-20 min: He was difficult to work for; Male enrollment; 1936 was first significant enrollment; girls were happy to see men come in; Mr. Durgy was the custodian at time; not thrilled about it; dipped during WW II, but increased after war; did well in studies; Marriages between students; wasn't problem; many of male students were or did get married; when she felt began, few women were married; some districts required women to stay single; Housing problems; men weren't allowed to stay on campus; had five living in her home at one time, did this for two years;
20-30 min: Growth of the school; tuition was $10 per semester, which was hard for some students during the Depression; parking has always been a problem and run into many hassles; students resented paying fines for illegal parking; faculty had assigned spaces for parking; faculty had own classrooms, but as student body increased they had to share rooms; Interaction between state schools; felt all got along nicely; she was the only woman at the meetings; Closing WestConn; the state attempted to close both Western and Eastern at various times; since both were the smallest, they were the targets; Physical growth of college; bought about six houses where Litchfield Hall now is; some were moved across from athletic field, which are still there; moving the houses was expensive;
30-40 min: Westside; purchased before she retired; Campus expansion; just Old Main and Fairfield in beginning; Higgins Hall came later; White Hall; was Danbury High School; opened in 1928; she was part of first class that went there all four years; high school had been on Main Street prior to that; Faculty; didn't go to faculty meetings; Relationship w/ Dr. Haas; great person and talked w/ her about every morning; got along great; every once in a while she did something she didn't agree w/ but everything would get back to normal; Dr. Janick; was one of her favorite faculty members; wish they were all like him; Retirement; she decided to go and wrote letter of resignation; she gave it to Dr. Haas; Dr. Haas didn't want her to go, but she eventually accepted it; Dr. Haas retired not long after; Reason for retirement;
40-50 min: changes at the college (faculty, students, etc.); her age also a factor; Changes in faculty/students; seeing facial hair on faculty was shocking; changes in clothing styles; Dr. Haas initially didn't allow it in beginning; reprimanded a girl once for wearing pants; Men in dorms; before Dr. Haas allowed it, she wrote to the parents about it; most were against it, but it eventually happened; Curfew for girls in dorms; doesn't remember too much about it; Student problems; most of them were financial problems; (Side B):
0-10 min: Dealing w/ school funds; much more easier when school was smaller; Accounting role; had to do it for the school right up to just before she retired; Financial difficulties; would try to work something out for students who had difficulties paying; Dr. Haas and budgets; used all if at all possible; sometimes would send un; used money back; Expansion of the school; had most significant impact on college; from one building to where they are now; felt they should have expanded into city, not country; it made it more difficult for students to get back and forth; Dr. Haas felt the same way; final decision to expand was by state; Danbury; city and school were separate; very few students in beginning; state had own procedures that prevented Danbury from benefiting from the college being there; Male housing; many lived in homes in Danbury area; Growth of school; wasn't bad; Dr. Haas supported growth
Hebrew lesson with Rhoda Malino
45 mins
A basic Hebrew lesson. Class is a mixture of children and adults. The tape is unplayable past the 30 minute mark. Rhoda Malino received her Master's degree from DSC in 1963, was a teacher, and the wife of Rabbi Jerome Malino.
1980s
0h002_01_36a_malino
Walter Gordon Merritt (interview)
~42 mins
In 1902 Walter Gordon Merritt entered the national labor scene as counsel for the hat companies in reaction to the hatters' union membership's boycott of non-union hats. The recording contains a pro-management perspective on the Danbury Hatters Case (Loewe v. Lawlor, 208 U.S. 274 (1908), 235 U.S. 522 (1915)) and Danbury of early 20th century. Tape contains interview and appears to have previously contained a recording of Sikora reading aloud.
1964
Walter Gordon Merritt Papers (WCSU), MS014
Oral Interview with Julius Tulipani (transcription)
Transcript, clippings
Oral interview of Julius Tulipani by Nancy Morris, as well as newspaper clippings about Mr. Tulipani.
1982
Vincent Sheridan Interview
60 mins, 1/4 in reel
Sheridan was a WCSC student who joined the US Army in his Junior year. Enrolled in OCS and served as an officer in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. Sheridan was in the 362nd Signal Company. Sheridan speaks mostly about political issues around the conduct and perception of the war. The interview was conducted as part of the History Research Seminar at WCSC.
1970-01-14
Sheridan, Vincent
00-10min: Introduction; OCS; length of deployment 11 months starting October 1967; Army Signal Corps; Stationed in the mountains near Bao Loc in the central highlands of Vietnam; 362 Signal Company; long range communications; traveled all over the country; responsible for maintaining communication systems; Vietnamese troops used as military support; lots of interaction between Vietnamese; Bao Loc 180 miles north of Siagon directly inland from Cam Ranh; Enabled long range communication necessary; signal outposts were set up on mountains; needed to be defended; was there any press presence, one person; battle of Khe Sanh; Communications GIs get no USO; rotten job; Coverage doesn't reflect what is really happening;
11-20min: Tet offensive was painted by the press as being worse than it was; Censorship necessary in wartime; 2 GIs arrested for being critical of the military censoring too much news; Everything is censored; No censorship of the Kennedy assassination and riots; On top of a mountain asked to fire mortars; misfire blew up mess hall; the story was clamped down; not against clamping down on the story; My Lai Massacre; never heard of any massacres; not shocked that civilians were killed; Why did the whistle blower wait so long?; Who are the enemy?
21-30min: People get killed; Civilian casualties necessary; never heard of massacres first hand; morale level of Vietnam soldier high; Wanted to be there; Most American soldiers wonder "why me?"; They do their job; They know the military is a necessary evil; I don't think we should have been there in the first place; how do we get out; I went over because friends got killed; I knew my job; I didn't like being there; Didn't effect morale; Missed being home; How do we get out; Anti war is a good movement; I'm not in favor of moratoriums; Action in May of 1968; Interrogation of prisoners revealed that North Vietnamese believed that anti-war protesters were going to overthrow the US Government;
31-40min: Prisoner wouldn't be fighting if he didn't believe in the rise of the anti-war movement in the US; North Vietnamese soldier was 27; There are good points to the Moratoriums; One point of violence created propaganda; American soldier does his job; Small minority are anti-war?; Can US democracy work in South Vietnam - more so now than in 1967; Vietnam is a new country controlled by a number of countries; It will take time for Vietnam to become Vietnam; French influenced elite pushing for democracy; The government in Vietnam was trying to reach out to the people more; Vietnamesezation should have been done 10 years ago; Vietnamese soldier has improved; Some officers good; Nepotism big issue; Older soldiers corrupt; Good young soldiers; Corruption;
41-50min: Americanizing Vietnam?; Robbing its identity, no; Tokyo is New York; Nixon administration Vietnam policy; Nixon has the right policy; Johnston's policy flawed; Kennedy said it was Vietnam's war; How to pull out troops; Pull out slowly; We will be there a long time; 3 to 4 years to pull out; Win that war for us but put too many limits on soldiers; We should invade North Vietnam; China wouldn't fight us; Politics of limited war; Vietnamese view a single country; Ho Chi Minh; Civilian told of confusion about being shot at by VC;
51-60min: Tet created a change in Vietnam; American soldiers now good at guerrilla combat; Take the strings off and we would win; They lost Tet; Communism in North Vietnam unknown quantity; if they want Communism, they can have it; Some Buddhist prejudice and tension with Catholics; North Vietnam is Catholic; Prejudice is a funny thing; Not a military man; Offered to stay in Army; Coming home; Wanted to teach; GIs do a lot of work teaching; Wanted to go to school; Happy to come home; Junior at WCSC and signed up at Vietnam; Sorry I didn't go right after high school; World is different from WCSC. END
Ted Hines (interview)
Tape stock length: 60 min
Running Time: 10 min
WestConn coach Ted Hines recounts his personal experiences during World War II.
1990
0-10 Min: Wartime remembrance; Dec. 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor); was listening to the newsflash about the attack on the radio; heard President Roosevelt; Father fought in WW I; Feelings about the war; great American pride and support shown at home; hope for it to end quickly; Involvement of those personally known; uncles and cousins; one cousin was a major in Guadalcanal, another a fighter pilot and col. In the Marines; two uncles fought in Sippan; 1st cousin fought under Gen. Patton, but his squadron was killed fighting Rommell, he survived but never the same and died an alcoholic at home; War to him; too young to know much; Holocaust was a tragic event as was the dropping of Atomic bombs; Wartime economy; factories made money making supplies for war; food shortage and rationing