Richard Cyr (interview); Creator: Cyr, Richard; Interviewer(s): John Caldwell and Shawn Curioso; Interview location: unknown; Running time: 62 min., May 8, 1991

Coverage: 1969-1991
Topics discussed : (tape 1;side A): Streaker incident; Union; wasn't one when he first started; there was a CT State Employees Association; not a union, all paid dues, had no rights; could be fired w/out notice; Dr. Haas; good person, ran school like "Mom and Pop Store"; Dr. Carl Robinson; Vice president of university; he was a "tyrant"; AFL; CIO; he called for someone to come down to see what Robinson was doing; man named Mike Furucci came down to talk w/ Cyr; Cyr basically started the union; Dismissal; he was fired on trumped up charges; took several members of the university to court for lying, including Robinson and Dr. Mel Goldstein; Mel Goldstein; almost went to jail on perjury charges; changed story afterwards, said Robinson told him to lie; Union strength; got stronger after this; he was hired back; everyone began joining the union; stronger VP got, more "tyrannical" Robinson; Relation w/ administration; got along well w/ most; Robinson afterwards always backed Cyr; State employees; it became hard to fire a state worker w/out just cause; Collective bargaining; was given to them by Governor Ella Grasso; could bargain for salary; changed union to another union; Relationship w/ Dr. Goldstein; at time Goldstein was up for chairmanship of his department, but lost it because of what he did; Dr. Groff prevented him from becoming chair; Goldstein refuses to look at him in the eye; buried his car in the snow during the 1978 Winter Storm; Maintenance of school; used to do it by himself; set; up for the football game at field at Osborne; did the announcing for game, picked up the officials, and cleaned up after the game (Club Football); Football; first game was in 1971; minimum of 2,000 people came to that game; played at the field on Osborne Street; Al Thomas; athletic director (but w/out that title); they wouldn't give him that title, so he quit and left for California; Haas Library; just finished when he got here; White Hall; he put the name on Ives Hall (did sandblasting); Dr. Burke; meet him while he was sandblasting name on White Hall; it was summer and Cyr was watching the girls sunbath; Burke told him he couldn't, but Cyr asked him if he was his age if he would be doing the same (Burke said probably); he and Burke became friends after that; Addition to Higgins Hall; Charges against him; there were three charges against him; he was night supervisor at the time; filing false reports, insubordination, and demanding orders; only one that stuck was the insubordination charges to which the firing turned into a 60; day suspension; Dr. Robinson today; retired and went to North Carolina; they formed a good relationship afterwards; they played golf together and bowled together; Dr. Sullivan replaced Robinson; OSHA; he brought them in because unsafe working conditions; the workers were getting sick from the boiler room chimney; WestConn was fined and forced to take down chimney; Outcast; after the OSHA incident, everyone was encouraged not to talk to him; clerical staff primarily the ones who didn't talk to him; Beginning of Collective Bargaining; set WestConn back initially; the "Blue Book" had rules for collective bargaining; he was called the "Philadelphia Lawyer" because he had one of these books and would always know what was going on; Union and administration; relationship today is very good (tape 1;side B): Helping others; he saved many people's jobs by plea bargaining for them; Relationship w/ the WestConn presidents; always had working relationship w/ all of them; had the first meeting w/ Dr. Feldman after he became president; was on first name basis w/ both Bersi and Feldman; Importance of having a good maintenance; clean campus attracts students; broken campus doesn't; Dr. Haas; he went w/ Al Thomas to Hartford and heard her say they didn't need to purchase the field on Osborne Street; surplus of money she always gave back to state; Westside; Haas began push for it, but Bersi was the one who ultimately got it; Relationship w/ Haas; told her that she should go ask the students herself what the school could do to make the college better; believes she didn't want the college to expand because she might lose control over the school; New field house; thinks it is a good thing for the university; believes the football games should move to Westside; Football field; the turf is going to be replaced w/ Astro; turf; the current field is in terrible condition because of the amount of activity that has been done on that field; it would take at least a year to bring it back up; Astro; turf is cheaper; most of the use of Astro; turf is by colleges and universities; Change of direction of college under presidents; Haas changed towards end of her presidency; Bersi cared about WestConn, but was always in Hartford trying to secure money for the college; Goals of administration; all administrators are the same, better opportunity offered they will take it; primary concern is to make money; Abundance of administrators; there was only one vice president in beginning, now about 3; 4; college didn't get that much bigger to justify the increase in administrators; Too much administration; waste time having meetings over nothing; those who suffer most are the students; Support services at WestConn; Creating jobs; placed people position because of nepotism and patronage; many are given jobs because of who they know; Cost; cutting; it is affecting the lower paying jobs; executive level are never affected; Student life change; late 1960s; early 1970s was the "Flower Era"; no swearing on campus, no drugs evident, little drinking; by 1980s, swearing was used often, drinking was abundant; "Pinkerton Police"; went w/ them to Fairfield Hall to care for a girl who had drank too much alcohol and did a lot of drugs (she tried to kill herself); Dorms; only girls lived on campus in beginning; when guys came in, then chaos came in; guys would destroy the dorms and nothing was done about it (tape 2;side A): Dorms (cont.); the establishment of football brought these guys here; these types were "macho" and passed on this image to other guys; WestConn changed w/ the coming of football