Editor's Note: Eastern Michigan University celebrates
its 160th anniversary this month. FOCUS EMU talked
to some longtime EMU employees about their reflections
and the changes they've seen on campus from the 1960s to
the present.
Today, Sally McCracken reflects and sees Eastern Michigan
University as a choice school for high school students
in southeastern Michigan, especially the Detroit suburban
area.
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McCracken |
But when the commication, media and theater arts professor
first came to EMU 40 years ago, ssaw dollar signs. She
initially came to EMU because the university offered $300
more than The University of Southern California-Long Beach.
"Isn't that awful," she laughs. "I was mercenary."
In recognition of the university's 160th anniversary,
some longtime faculty and staff shared their reflections
on their EMU experience, how the university has changed,
and even how it hasn't.
"We're regional, and that's never changed. What has
changed is we're comprehensive now," McCracken said. "We
offer everything with the exception of a medical school
and a law school. You can come here and get everything
else."
McCracken, who teaches conflict resolution, has watched
the university double in physical size and roughly triple
its student population during her time at EMU. But, the
campus has never been homogenized. Department still have
their own unique cultures and personalities. Students still
get to communicate directly with professors, though — in
an age of e-mail, cell phones, texting and instant messaging — they
may do it a little differently.
"I'm still a bit old-fashioned," McCracken said. "I like
to see people face-to-face."
When McCracken accepted that so-called "mercenary" offer
to teach at EMU, she figured she'd stay a few years and
move on. Now, she's come to see what she does not as a
job, or even as a career, but as a life. Her friends are
here, her social life, her cultural life. She even moved
from Plymouth to Ypsilanti Township just to be closer to
all of it as she approaches retirement.
"I got rooted and I started growing," she said." I like
my colleagues. I like my students. They represent, to me,
the United States of America. They work, they come to school.
They have a lot of dreams and goals, and it keeps feeding
my roots."
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England |
Bob England, Rec-IM director
When Bob England, an Ypsilanti native, was a kid, the
Detroit Lions used to conduct training camp at EMU. As
a 10-year-old, he would hang around the practices and carry
the players' helmets from the old football field (now the
Oakwood Parking lot) back up to Briggs Hall, where the
locker room was located. There was a big pail of ice and
sliced oranges, and he'd hang around with the Lions players,
eating oranges and collecting autographs.
England went on to play football at the University of
Michigan. When EMU hired him in 1968, England had no staff.
He ran all of the programs — primarily traditional team
sports — and hired and trained all of his officials.
Today he has the same title, but a staff of nine, including
someone who hires and trains the 170 or so student officials
intramural sports hires each year. In addition to old standbys
like football, softball and basketball, there's a kayaking
club, martial arts, weightlifting, aquatics, aerobics,
etc.
 |
GLORY DAYS: This 1944 aerial photo shows
EMU's
old football field located where the Oakwood
Parking Lot stands today. Bob England, director of
the Rec-IM, recalls childhood days watching the
Detroit
Lions conduct training camp there. |
Coming to EMU also gave England the opportunity to
oversee the construction of EMU's Olds-Robb Recreation
Center, a $17.25 million project that opened in 1982.
That experience, in turn, opened opportunities to consult
on other recreation centers. Last spring, he consulted
on a new, $140 million recreation center at Ohio State
University.
"Originally, I was essentially a programmer of different
sports activities," said England, who also served one year
as EMU's interim athletic director. "Then, we built a rec
center. And now, it's more like running a business. When
I started, we didn't raise any money. Now, we raise more
than half a million dollars a year (in memberships)."
Lois Whitehead, library associate
“I think (being around 160 years) shows stability,” said
Lois Whitehead, a library associate in Halle Library. “(EMU)
has drawn many people and they can (afford to) attend.
It's not as expensive as the one down the street. When
I was in high school at Willow Run, I used to have student
teachers from Eastern and student teachers from (the University
of) Michigan. I found the teachers coming from Eastern
to be of better quality. Producing better teachers, I feel,
is really nice and it makes me proud to say I work here.”
 |
OLDER THAN PORTER: Many current
longtime
EMU employees refer to Porter
when they talk about
the old library on
campus. But there was a time
when EMU's
library was housed in Pierce Hall (above).
|
When Whitehead came to EMU 41 years ago, the library
was in the process of reclassifying all of its books from
the Dewey Decimal system to the Library of Congress system.
Either way, card catalogs ruled the day.
Today, she works
in the state-of-the-art Bruce T. Halle Library, where she's
pretty sure there's not a card catalog to be found.
In the
old Porter Library, students would re-file the cards when
books were returned, and it was part of Whitehead's job
to make sure they did it correctly. That meant hours standing
at the drawers, checking the cards to make sure they were
correct, in good shape and in the right order.
Whitehead can
now do all that sitting at a computer. She compares
the entries from one database to another, and makes sure
they are in sync.
“You're the final eye,” she
said. “You've
got to make sure (the information) is correct. It's
still the same. Except now, we're doing the final check
on the computer and, if there's something wrong, we can
go in and fix it.”
Paul Bruss, English language and literature professor
Paul Bruss started teaching at EMU the year Mark Jefferson
and Pray-Harrold opened. He remembers the classrooms in
these huge new buildings, packed and humming with energy,
even in the late afternoon and evening.
 |
KENNEDY AT EMU: Paul Bruss, a professor
of English
language and literature who came to
EMU in 1969,
recalled that era as one
of explosive growth on
campus and students involved
in social issues and
rebellion. Here, Sen. Bobby
Kennedy visits EMU
during 1966. |
"Eastern had expanded so much during the '60s. The growth
was nothing short of explosive, really," he said.
The energy is different now: students and faculty are
uneasy, concerned about the economy and climate
change, Bruss said.
"I think many of my students are aware that the world
they're moving into is profoundly different than the world
their parents moved into. The solutions are not as straightforward."
Bruss is deeply immersed in the present. He teaches recent
trends in literature, a course that, each year, captures
a slightly different moment in time. His reading list is
always from the last 10 years.
"I got the department to get rid of the class — Literature
1885-1914 — I was hired to teach. I was afraid I'd
end up old before my time," he said. "You have to think
about all that was going down in the '60s and '70s, how
much rebellion was in the culture. Many of the students
and faculty didn't want to do the old stuff."
"It has been the greatest thing in my life to walk in
and teach this class where students are discovering what
really great literature is actually being written right
now," Bruss said.
Max Plank, music professor
Eastern Michigan was booming when Plank arrived to teach
saxophone in 1967.
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Plank |
The Tower dorms were under construction, the music department
was about to add 11 faculty and the athletic department
(whose programs were still in NCAA Division II at the time)
had great ambitions, but little money.
"It (EMU) was a big place then, but it felt like a smaller
place," he
said.
Plank became assistant band director in 1968. Each summer,
he and band director Thomas Tyra would go over to then-EMU
president Harold Sponberg's house and hash out the marching
band's football travel schedule.
When EMU's football team played in the 1971 Pioneer Bowl,
Plank traveled with the band to Wichita Falls, Texas. About
two-thirds of the band students had never flown on a plane
before.
There were the typical bowl-game events, including a parade
and an alumni reception. The night before the game, the
band had a big party at its motel, Plank recalled.
 |
HOMECOMING PARADE: The EMU Marching
Band leads the 1968 Homecoming Parade in
downtown Ypsilanti, the same year Max
Plank came to EMU. |
"It was this raucous party and, by golly, who was the
most raucous person at our party but president Sponberg," Plank
said. "After the alumni reception, he came and partied
with the marching band."
The boom faded and the music department, which topped
out at 44 full-time faculty, has now shrunk to 29. But
now, as then, the department hangs its hat on music education
and is made up of people who — regardless of their performance
aspirations — are truly happy to be teaching undergraduates.
"I've been fortunate to supervise student teachers for
more than 20 years," said Plank, who served as director
of bands from 1979-2002. "Professionals in the field like
to have our student teachers. Our students graduate and
do well out there. And it serves us well because those
people tend to send their students here."
Ray Cryderman, manager of technical operations/chief engineer,
WEMU
The day Cryderman came to EMU for a job interview in 1969,
it took him 20 minutes to find a place to park. Some things
never change.
"I came here to ride out Mr. Nixon's recession, and I
thought I'd be here a couple of years," he said. "Now,
some would say I've been institutionalized."
Cryderman has seen dramatic changes in office technology.
Workstations and servers have replaced the nine typewriters
that used to sit in the WEMU newsroom. And computers bring
constant change, new software, new hardware and new upgrades.
Campus is wired and networked, and it's much, much easier
to share information.
But the biggest change, from Cryderman's perspective,
has been on the student end. With the GI Bill and six years
of night school, Cryderman earned his bachelor's degree
while working at WEMU.
"The most dramatic difference is in admissions
and enrollment," he said. "It's this online enrollment
and not having to stand outside of old Briggs looking for
(punch) cards."
