Oral Histories

Interview of Rosemary Park

UCLA vice-chancellor.
Subtitle:
Liberal Arts in the Modern University
Topic:
UCLA and University of California History
UCLA Administration
UCLA Faculty
Biographical Note:
UCLA vice-chancellor.
Interviewer:
Rothschild, M. Cecilia
Interviewee:
Park, Rosemary
Supporting Documents:
Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
Language:
English
Copyright:
Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
Abstract:
Family; New England influences; decision to attend Radcliffe College; choosing German as major; women administrators at Radcliffe; exchange student, University of Bonn, 1929-30; teaching German at Wheaton College; taking graduate courses at Harvard University; German instruction at Radcliffe; summer 1932 in Tübingen; the Nazi presence; working on Ph.D. in Germany, 1932-34; counseling freshmen at Wheaton; instruction at Connecticut College; developing a new German course; appointed freshmen dean; combining teaching and administrative work; liberal point of view at college; decision to accept Barnard College presidency; dean, Columbia University; Barnard students; attempt to involve students in administrative affairs; slow emergence of feminist viewpoint; administrative style; marriage to Milton Anastos; offer of vice-chancellorship at UCLA; recruited by Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy; joint appointment as professor of education; firing of President Clark Kerr; motivation in accepting UCLA offer; Milton Anastos and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies; duties as vice-chancellor; Murphy's educational plans for UCLA; evolving role of students in university administration; appointment of Donald Hartsock as university ombudsman; campus architecture; impressions of Murphy; involving the university in urban problems; circumventing the university bureaucracy; CIA and Dow Chemical recruitment on campus; student takeover of the administration building; dealing with student demonstrators; Vice-chancellor Charles E. Young as mediator; resignation of Chancellor Murphy; shift of responsibilities in Young administration; administrative role in academic reform; vice-chancellor for student and curricular affairs; murders of Black Panthers on campus, 1969; establishing centers for minority groups; attracting minority students; project to decentralize student services; Council on Educational Development (CED); various university programs; task forces on student concerns, summer 1969; decision to resign as vice-chancellor; assessment of tenure in UCLA's administration; Academic Senate membership; give-and-take between administration and faculty; course assignments in Graduate School of Education; professional educational activities; governmental board service; looking back on developments in higher education; rise of women's concerns in academic life; erosion of the liberal arts tradition.