Dr. Charles Lucas (interview); Creator: Lucas, Dr. Charles ; Interviewer(s): Jeffery Tarantino and Alex Barmashi; Interview location: Ruth Haas Library; Running time: 40 min., Apr 26, 1992

Coverage: 1969-1986
Topics discussed : (side A): Background; came from Oswego, NY where he taught for 8 years; decided to come back to his home state of CT; Start at WestConn; began teaching at WestConn in 1969; they wanted someone to start experimental psychology courses; Psychology department; office located in basement of White Hall; Psych Club; student club to which he was the advisor for; Committees; graduate advisory committee, building committee for Westside; Behavior science building; the Westside building initial use; he was in charge of furniture; the architect's design of the building was to have it look native to continent, like an Aztec temple; business department moved in there later; Vietnam War; not many protests; Echo covered it; Dr. Haas; first person to interview him; her office is where Dr. Steinkrauss office is; open door policy; very pleasant woman; Growth of Psychology department; no problems; as chair, a lot of administrative problems; perhaps greatest problem was getting people to teach at night; Chair of the department; a two year title; elected by other members of department and administration; chair from 1977; 86; Size of the department; had about 7; 8 full; time faculty; offered variety of courses; never saw a decline; being in basement of White Hall has limitations; Dr. Feldman; never had any discussions w/ him; he dealt primarily w/ Dr. Steinkrauss; spent more time w/ public relations to get more money for university; used his business influence; Dr. Bersi; never had much conversations w/ him like he had w/ Dr. Haas; Psychology department improvements; the expansion of the department helped improve it; year after he was hired, the department hired two more faculty; His effect on the department and the department attraction; didn't recruit students into the department; many non; trads came into the program; Psychology of Women courses; idea came from the department itself; initially not here when he first began; Background of department; most in department upon his arrival had backgrounds in ed or child psych; his was in experimental/research psychology; Rewards of teaching; many go into graduate schools and medical schools; Library; was here when he came to WestConn; "Do; Day"; wasn't here when he got to WestConn; Dr. Janick did place the trees and shrubs around library; he wasn't involved w/ such activities; Sports; Student attitudes; most students were commuters and not on campus 24 hours per day; Events and activities; many were held in the student union; Alexander Haig; came to speak at WestConn; impressed by the amount of FBI present