This interview is one of a series conducted concerning the history of Marshall University. In this short interview, Dr. Elaine Baker addresses the political and social atmosphere at Marshall University. She describes the changes that she has seen occur since she began teaching at the university in 1972, and discusses her involvement in various faculty committees, including the Institutional Board of Advisors.https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history/1261/thumbnail.jp

Baker, Elaine

English

Marshall University

Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar 0064: Marshall University Oral History Collection Digitized Manuscript Collections 1986 Oral History Interview: Elaine Baker Elaine Baker Follow this and additional works at: https://mds.marshall.edu/oral_history Recommended Citation Marshall University Special Collections, OH64-292, Huntington, WV. This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Digitized Manuscript Collections at Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in 0064: Marshall University Oral History Collection by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact zhangj@marshall.edu. MARSHALL UNIVERSITY JAMES E . MORROW LIBRAR,· HUNTINGTON . 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Q I'\ · kJm:i I 31 l~&: <, /c.Y.._ o, .J-J,..J... {b ~ "csiinature - Interviewee) DATE_/1..J-"--'w::...><-...:./---::<.5_, __ /9_8_G __ 7 liim)liilml 1170324797 / • . ' l. I \ \ I ·. I I REVIEW RELEASE I, -~~·_,._._.i_. __ ~( ___ r~! -~---~--~~ -_l_( _.(_·--~\ _____ , have reviewed by oral history interview made on / ) - .1 3 -siJ --'----------- and with my signature below give permission for the use of my interview as agreed upon in the release agreement. (DATE) (SIGNATURE) ADDRESS: ( _ (, . I '- t -l e " /, )_r ,,, -. \ ------------------ ., i ' ,i \ \_ t' , , -... -- {__ ...  _ { 1 1: \ ~: PHONE: To be completed by interviewer or sec~etary. OHAP Number: Morrow Library Number: --------Interviewer: -------------ADDRESS: - --------- -----PHONE: DATE SENT TO LIBRARY: -----------------MUH - 39 MARSHALL UNIVERSITY HISTORY AN ORAL INTERVIEW WITH: Dr. Elaine Baker November 13, 1986 CONDUCTED BY: Annette Chapman TRANSCRIBED & TYPED BY: Gina Kehali Kates Chapman: Could you state your f ul I name 7 Cha□ man: Where were you born? ~h aoman_: Uh, when was that7 Cha□ man: Okay , what were .. . wn at d i d your parents do? 8.::\ ket~.: Uh, my mother \'125 a ·ful I ·-time homemaker .::i.nd my -i'.::i.ther wa:=:; uh, Personnel Manager and Vi ce- President of Labor Re l ations of a ,=.,m.:;! I 1ndu::;try tha.t 1s I ocate,j in that town. ChapmaQ: Okay. Uh, you unriergraduate, did you? undergra.duate·"' didn't come to Marshall as an (no! Where did you do your Baker: At a. l1bera1 art:; school in northern Dh10, called Heidelberg College. Chapman: And then •.. well , we ' ·1 I .just ... wr,at brought you to i'1ars\-1al 1 initially-::-· Baker: A job. (laughter) We l l, no1,, I fini:;;hed my degree, my Ph.D. from Miami University of Ohio, and had taught for a year at .::\ [!u2.ker ·:oc\-1001 , 1n :;;outhern Oh 10, and wa·:; not real 1 y sure that that was the ... the size of an institution that I wanted; it was a very small schoo l . lmmm-hmml And uh, I became aware of a job here at Marsha 1 ·1 , and they hired me. Chaoman: And what year was that ? Baker: l 972. Ch .;.pman ; When you came to l'1.::i.r::;\-1a i ·1 1 wha.t was your 1 mpre·:;s 1 ons, or what was the itmosonere of the campus like? <un ..• 1 Or the 5CrHJO l 1n genera. I • Bak ec_: It wa·;; a •••• I guess the schoa I I wou 1 d compare the most to was the one where I did my graduate work, and compared to Miami, Marshal i 1s smaller, it has a much larger commuting population, students an;j of course, when I wa·5 i.n gradua.te school? 1t was through the real turmoil of the late '60 ' s and uh, compared to what I had seen then and Marshall was a much quieter campus uh, because a lot of students were commuters, they ... they Just didn't seem to get involved 1n things that were going on on campus. Now 1t was a very relaxed feel 1ng, a very comfortable f eel 1ng, but uh, I think also a relaxed feel 1ng and a comfort that could be described as slow . - l -Chaoman: Uh ... when you began teaching . . . okay, did vou think that ·y-Du. 1tJerE:• gc.:,1nq to ~::> ta-./ lie!--e Chapman: And now that you're here ... Ch.3.pm.=1.n: Uh 1 we! 1 , do ·you Ju:::;t 1rJant to gD on itJl t;-, yDur hms1 ycu found 1t and when you began? Ba ►,:er: Uh, J., •• you. mentioned peoq: e ·:.har1r1g ott 1,:e::; anr.1 telephones and things 1 when I was hired, and that was 1n 72, the Psychology was on the 3rd floor of Old Main, and we did have faculty sharing offices. I got my own l ittie cuc1cle. What they had done was taken a long narrow room and put up kind of clapboard dividers (uh-huhl, and uh, out of this long narrow room t hey crea.ted ma.ybe sD: or -:::;even n++ ices a:::. we ·11 as a. ha l i 1;Jay, and uh, the woman who had the office next to mine had a telephone and I did not. And so, what they did was cut a hole 1n this clapboard wa! I in between the offices and we shared that telephone with hole cut 1n the wall. So, course you could never have privacy because you could look right into the office next door, and you could hear everything that was being said. So uh, the +ac1I it1es were stil i a bit old. Uh, I always have enJ □yed the students uh, and have alwavs enJoyed teaching here. So, that has certainly not changed since the very beginning. Uh, r never fe l t there were very many r1gorous demands placed upon me as a f aculty member, t~at 1f l was going to produce or 1f I was going to do anything, 1t primarily was self-motivated. Uh, 1t was a very easy campus to move into and do nothing as far as a faculty member, except meet your classes and then go home again. And a lot of faculty did that. Uh, you wouldn't see many and that's not true 1n the Psychology Department, but uh, we knew of many other faculty 1n many other departments who would teach and disappear. And I think that is slowly changing , although there are still some faculty on campus who teach their classes and they are never seen again. That was very common then. And uh, that a.llowed you know 5 that ' s not so much a goad thing, but it was a nice atmosphere to work in, ' cause nobody was ever looking over your shoulder, nobody was ever ;aying, "you mu;t do tt-;is, tt-iat or the other thing." (un-huh> Chapman: What do you think accounted for the uh, faculty exodus? Baker: P.=1.rt of it may h.:1v·e been •.• I think Mars.ha!·, has been historically been under funded. And so there never was a quality office or a qua! ity 11brary. In fact, the I 1brary has been greatly improved sincei you know, at one point I guess 1n the accred1at1on prior to this last one, the accrediting agenc y said the library nas to be improved, and so a lot of money went into the 11brary. And uh, but uh, you know, so when I +1rst came the 1 i.br,1ry wa.s ,,t1I I very ;;;mall +or a school this 51Z•='· iou didn't have tne research fac1! 1t1es, you didn't have equ1 □ ment. And so 1 think a l ot ,Jf racu! ty ju·5t :.=.a1d 1 "what 1s there for m,2 to do~) l mi::1· .. : a :3 we ·l l go !-HJm~ .3.ncJ re-=ld th2re Dr take another· ._1e;t:i .::f.nd f'.:1-3.rn same mar~ money or you know, why sn□uld I give al ! oi this time and energy when there's not anything ce1ng gi ven back to me. Chap;,:;=-..n; I ::;ee, Uri, one tr11ng l've , .. l would l1 k2 to d1·:;cus ·5 is t he home-grown versus the imported (right) , uh, I understand that at the late ~ .. end □+ the 60's there were a l ot of people hired from Marshall but you know ... do you think this contributed ba.ker: lt';; po55i tJ i e, ye=::., it's. pos::;1ble. lt'•;.:; ... whether it ' =· the terminal degree that' s cr1t1cal I don ' t know, but I think that it 1s extremely important for peop le to ... to have ha□ a broad range of experience. I don ' t think it's good for a un 1vers1ty to educate it's own teachers, and then hire those peop l e. But you know, you see that same argument i n the community, there are always these enormous fights when they need to hire a school board super1ntedent because and you know, you hear these two battles of we need to hire one of our own people as superintendent versus let ' s go outside and bring someone in. And I think that you ... I personally feel you can never go wrong with new ideas and a fresh out look on ! ife, and people who have experienced things elsewhere. I think that 's critical to the energy and the viabii ity of a ::;chool . Chaoman: Okay uh, do you feel 1 i ke this has led to tension between the faculty in an y way? Cnol No. b.aker: \ou meail beb-Jeen outsider·::; an,j insider·::; c1.nd the i ikE'~ No, I've never, never noticed anything I ike that. Chapman; Ukay. Uh, talk about the two years you Advisors7 Baker: l"lmm-hmm 1 5ure. says you want to relate . Can we ::;pent an the Institutional Board of Chapman: Okay, do you want to explain a 1 ittle bit about what the board does-:7'\ 8c1.ker: Uh, it's ... it's an advisory b,Jard tt-1at 1s essentially supposed to review al I of the ma.Jar decisions that come out of the university uh, that are ... it doesn't look at everything, like there's an academic planning and standards committee that deals with curriculum, and that never goes to the institutional board of advisors. That's seen as a faculty matter, and only the university you know, should have those kinds of dec1s1on-making things. But the budget, uh, a number of the decisions about physical facil ities ... are we going to build a stadium, are we going to ••• what are we going to do with the fine arts building, uh 1 tnose k in,js of issues that. are the g 1 oba l 1 :;sues the universit y deals with do go through the 1nstitut1onal board. Now, I have ... 1n the two years 1 was there, I never saw t he institutional board disagree with anything the universit y did. Chapman: Uh, what two years was that? baker; Uh, this past year, wh1cn would have been '85-'86, and the year before that, '84- ' 35. Chapman: Okay, and the issues you were Just ment1on1ng, the stad1um, anc.i ·f 1ne ,':\r- t ·5 center 1 iaHnirr-hmm,i, tr-1u:,;e are wha.t c:ame before the board? mean there are a lot of th 1ngs, but those are examples of the kinds. Chapman: What ... 1+ the .... okay. 1f the board consists □+ peoole from Hunti ngt on a re the businesses represented that want t □ save their-' c1t v'? Baker: Uh .... \ Chaoman: That obJect to the stadium being built? Baker: l\la, no, nm-.i ,.:1. number of the bo.;;.rd peep 1 e are not from Huntington; they are from Charleston, from Beckley, from Logan, maybe not Logan, but some c:ity down there in the southern part oi the state. They are .. . they are people from all over. Now, in terms of the Huntington representation, uh , there 13 one phys1c:1an, one ... there has always been one person from Ashland iJil, 1•1ho ma.y or may not live in Huntingt,::in, but i•mrk;; witt-1 an industry that's outside the city. Uh, I'm trying ta think if there's anyone else from Huntington on the board. So, it's ... out of the total number o+ board members who are not Marshall employees, a . •. only a portion of them are from Huntington itself. And there aren't any specifically from these businesses that are c I ose t"J 1r·. Chapman: Who chooses the board or asks them to serve? 8aker_; I don·t r,::?ally knm~. Uh, the ... ,~he ~1a.rsha\ ·1 representatives are elected. <mmm-hmml And the staff elects a person, the faculty elects a person and the administration elects a person uh, it ' s 1nterest1ng. I don't know 1f the president nominates the other people. f knaw ... someone new came on while 1 was on the board and the board wasn ' t involved i n choosing that person. So, there must be legislation that te l ls how you do it. Chapman: Yeah. S0 1 you basically you went to t he meetings and heard what was going on and nodded. (right) Okay . Uh ... Baker: In fact, at one point I raised a question about something that uh, I had been uh, approached by severa l -faculty people who are really concerned about something that was happening on campus. And when I raised that issue in the board meeting, 1 did this fairly early, uh, several board members es;;entially sa id to me very strongly •... now they didn ' t do it directly, but it was very clea~ that uh, those were not the kind of issues this board was to deal with, and that we were net really there to cr1t1c 1ze. Uh, so a+ter- that, I said, Okay, l won't sav anvth1ng. Chapman: Yeah. Uh ... are there other organ1~at1ons that you ve been involved 1n, government argan1zat1ons, un1vers1ty .... t;a.ker; I've been on a number of t he =::.tand1ng com;1nttee·::;, wh1c:·1 are .... wn1ch 1s the form of faculty governance that we have·r1ght now. (mmm-hmmi Chapman_: How do .... how 1s that working, as a form of facu!ty governance 1n your □pinion? Baker: Dh ... l ... 1 am E•3•~er to ser0 a change, =·□ i w11 I per:;:.ona·1 I y vote for the =::.enate (mmm-hmml 1 uh, there are some problems with the current system that mavbe the senate can change, maybe not. Uh, some of the problems have to do with the maJ □r of Marshal I, .:;nd that i:;; tr1c1.t on i y a :Sma.l : number of fa.cul t·1 g 1 ve ·=- I ct of energy to governance, and so you see the same people over and over and ovet-· aga1n unmm-·hmnmi, and ... and second1y, uh, 1•ie·1 I, l don't know 1f there 1s a secondly. lt Just seems that many of the decisions that we deal with are rather ins1gnif1cant things (uh-huh ). Chapman: What sort of s1gn1~1cant tn1ngs do you think that they ' re unable to deal with? Ba.ker: Wel I .... for e:<ample, the is·;ue of the stadium. We'l I take the hottest one that 's around. Uh, faculty have had no .... students have had no input on whether they want a new stadium. And .•• and i think that's really interesting 'cause so much of the student activity fee goes to Athletics, and we've Just seen all these letters written to the Parthenon about why aren't students going to the football games, all these letters from the townspeople , chast1cising Marshall students for not supporting their football team. And I don ' t think anyone ever asked the students, why don't you go? Do you want a new stadium? How important i=::. footb,,d ·1 i.n your I i+e here at Ma.r ·:Sha.l i --;:· And uh, you know, those issues are ... 1t's Just assumed that the students want a new stadium. 8ut that would be an example of ... of a really ... what has become a very controversial dec1s1on, the faculty did not have much of a part in. Uh, and there are a lot of dec1s1ons that go on an campus that are controversial. You know, most of what we do 1s ••• should this course be taught? How do we, you know, make these kinds of decisions. But uh, I ..• the governance system just seems to take up a lot of time, and that without seeing a lot of progress coming out the other end (um-huh),and I'm never rea1 ·1y :Sure what the problem 1s. Chapman: Uh, how do you see the faculty relating to President Nitzschke, and his administration? E:;aker: It's proba.bly the best relationship that I've seen and I have only been here for three presidents, 1nclud1ng Nitzschke, but he is •.. he is uh, he has a style that 1 think relates well to people. And l think his energy and his enthusiasm and what he's trying to accomplish appeal to a lot of faculty members. i.:: - ._J Chapman: Uh .•. you're involved with the Women's Center, or the women's 1 s5ues on C-::u11pu·5 qu 1 te a bit on c.a,npus, aren't yo'u? Uh 1 how 1s that developing for .... l assume it's a pretty recent thing that we've got, the Women's Center .. ,? BBJ::;.;,i-·~ We1 ·1, 1t 1:._::. {a1r ·,y recent uh 1 - ✓ ou know, s1nce 1··ve come, at !east; it's been 1n the last maybe 10 years or so. (mmm-hmmO It's one of those programs that l think 1s vital but doesn't seem to get the student support that would really make 1t an important change or an important force on campus. And so uh, you know, the women's issues and ... and the Women's Center Just keep plodding along. That means I mean 1t don ' t mean that 1n a negative sense, 1n terms of a running ... I mean 1n terms of an extremely hard working woman, she runs the Women's Center. But because stucents don't turn out in droves for the programs and things uh, the center remains very low {unding uh, it doesn't, .• it doesn't have a change to grow because the students don't seem to be behind 1t. Chapman: In relation to like the administration or within your department, are ... is 1t pretty even handed treatment, like towards women {aculty? Do you say .... or? Baker: Oh ..• in some way··=.;, yes, in some ways, no. Uh, several years ago a study was done comparing salaries and 1t was found that some women were in +act being paid less than men, you know, who had the same amount of experience and rank, and most of those salary inequities have been taken care of. And I think the university 1s now very conscientious about making sure that there aren't salary inequities uh, among men and women. There stil I are some I think, some ways in which inequity occurs. If you look at the number of women 1n all administrative positions an campus, uh, we are ..• we are greatly outnumbered by males. And women are not represented at the same proportion in admin1strat1on that women exist in the faculty. And uh, one of the things I ' ve Just been looking at that's kind of interesting is if you loo~ at what people have been promoted, either from faculty to administration, or from low-level adm1n1strat1on position to another low •. .. to another higher administration position; not hiring somebody new, but who 1s being promoted within the university, it's almost all white males. And that ••. you know, is an example of where women remain with less power, because they're not being given Jobs that allow them to exercise power. Chapman: Okay. I'm kind of running out of topics, from what I know of you (yeah, yeah), activities •... is there other things you'd 1 ike to bring up? Baker: I really don't think so. You. know, when you ask me about change, from t~en to now, there has been a lot of change 1n physical facilities. We've gotten new buildings, the campus 1s - tJ -expanding, it looks much nicer, people are planting flowers now, you know, (mmm-hmml 1 making sure the grass 1s growing and those kin,js of thing·;;. u1-i ·1, and slowly i,Je're ... we're ... I t11ink we··re gaining 1n stature and status, 1n terms of our reputation, both 1n the state and out of the state~ And in a lot of ways Marshal I remains the same. It ' s an easygoing campus, there isn ' t a lot of pressure on faculty members to perform uh, that same kind oi comfortable feeling I think 1s still here. And that's true both in the students and in the faculty. Chapman: Okay. Thanks. END OF I NTi:::Jil) I El•J I REVIEW RELEASE I, C· (1__;_ n._ I . -~l ___ . _· ___ .,_-\~'-_.l:±tl~-~A-b,_~---' have reviewed by oral history interview made on / / -/ 3 -0& and with my signature below give -~--------permission for the use of my interview as agreed upon in the release agreement. (DATE) (SIGNATURE) ADDRESS: Ps Lr~--lu"--tD~'? O~:rzJ ~)._A_, ~-LLCLtJL_ PHONE: To be completed by interviewer or secretary. OHAP Number: f1}-,~ ~ - _J 9, , • Morrow Library Number: ______ _ Interviewer: H(Uunf[[cU 10pma-n,_ .. ADDRESS: PHONE: DATE SENT TO LIBRARY: ---------------

Oral History Interview: Elaine Baker

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Oral History Interview: Elaine Baker

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