ANDREA BOWMAN

1989-2003

We are recording audio and video.  Anytime, Jean.

JP:        This is February 2^nd, 2005, and this is . . .

AB:      Groundhog Day.

JP:        Yes.  This is Groundhog Day, and this is a part of the CWU Living History Project.  Uh, we are interviewing today, Andrea Bowman, and I am Jean Putnam, the Interviewer.  I’d like to start, Andrea, by, uh, asking you first, if you could give us a brief personal history.  Uh, actually, you can start back when you were born.

AB:      Oh, I was born.

JP:        Yes, you were – and then moving all the way through to how you got to Central.

AB:      Okay.  Well, it’s kind of a full circle story, so – I was born in Everett, Washington, raised in Marysville; and, uh, when I was, uh, in high school, our family moved to California – Santa Barbara.  So, I went to high school in Santa Barbara and then went to college the first time, at San Jose State and majored in music and then did a fifth year in education – elementary and middle school education.  Um, I taught in San Jose for several years and in Fresno, California…

JP:        Was that in music?

AB:      Actually, I ended up teaching sixth grade.  Yeah.  Good – good question.  Yes.  No, I never did – I didn’t teach music there.  And then, I was in Fresno for a year and then, uh, I got married and moved to Flagstaff, Arizona, where I got my Masters in Special Education; and then got a job teaching music.

JP:        Oh, I see.

AB:      Yes.  So then I taught General Music – kindergarten through eighth grade for several years.  And so I taught for, uh, - in the public schools for – I think it was thirteen years, altogether.  And then went – so that was Northern Arizona University where I got my Masters; and then went to Arizona State for my, uh, Doctorate in Education and, uh, the emphasis was curriculum in instruction and secondary education.  So, by the time I got through with my Doctorate, I was pretty much a generalist in education – knew a little bit about a lot of things.  Um, and I taught at Arizona State as a Graduate Student and then, uh, my first job after that was at the University of Northern Iowa, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  And I was there two years and planning on staying there, except that one day, I was reading the Chronicle – good old Chronicle – and I saw an ad for Central Washington University, and they needed a, uh, Director of Educational Field Experiences, and I had been supervising student teachers at – in Cedar Falls.  And, uh, and in the meantime, my parents had moved back to Washington – back to Marysville; and I thought, “Hmm, well, I’ll apply for it - see what happens!”  And it’s one of those times when – you know, you apply for one job – oh, you never get a job by applying for one job.  I applied for one job and I got it (chuckle).

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      And, uh, and so I came here. 

JP:        What year was that?  Do you remember?

AB:      That was – Yeah, I actually do remember.  It wasn’t that long ago.  1989.  I can still remember that far back.  Um, I did a lot of – not a lot – but a little bit of checking things out, because what I had learned in my couple of years at Cedar Falls is that, um, sexism was rampant on university campuses and other kinds of discrimination.  And so, I – one of the things I checked out before I came was, uh, in fact, I’ll – I guess I can name names – I called up the only person I really knew here, and that was Patty Bjorn, because we had been in the doctoral program together at Arizona State.  And I called her up and I said, “Now, I’ve read through the university catalog – the back where it says faculty and it doesn’t show a whole lot of women; and looking at, at names, last names, as best as I could do, it doesn’t look like there are a whole lot of people of color or other minorities, other than nice Anglo-Saxon names; and, uh, I want to know if you have noticed, in your time here, Patty, an increase in women and minorities.”  And she said, yes, that she had seen some; and that she thought it was – thought it was changing.  And the other question I remember asking her was, is there support for women faculty by other women faculty.  Is there enough – is there enough of a group of women there that – that I’m going to find support if I come there.  And she said yes, that there would be.  And, indeed, I found – I found both of those things to be true and when I came, indeed, sexism was rampant – other kinds of discrimination rampant, but, uh, I participated in, as well as many others, in trying to help that to change.  And over the course of years – of the years, it has changed.  It still needs to change more, but that’s true of our whole country, and, uh . . .

JP:        Well, that’s interesting that you took the time to research that particular facet –

AB:      I know.  I sat at my bed in the – in the motel, counting – counting names in the back of the catalog (chuckle).

JP:        Right.  Right.  Um, you - when you came then, you said that you came into the Department of Education – it was called the Department of Education at that…

AB:      It was called the Department of Education at that point, right.

JP:        And what was your official title?

AB:      I was, uh, Assistant Professor and, uh, Director of Field Experiences, so my – the position, itself, was, uh, full-time, as Director of Field Experience, coordinating all of the Student Teaching experiences around the state.

JP:        How many did we have at that time?  Do you know how many students we…

AB;      You know, it – it seemed to me like it was about five hundred – four or five hundred a year.  Uh, you know – uh, four or five, that’s a hundred different…

JP:        How did you get around to five hundred people?

AB:      And I didn’t (chuckle).  No, I didn’t.  I helped the – I helped coordinate and supervise the supervisors who are all over the state.  And, also, uh, during that time, there was quite a – a statewide project going on called, The Student Teaching Pilot Project, and, um, it was a cooperative agreement with – state funded – with each of the ESD’s.  And so, um, how it worked was that, um, the ESD’s would hire a supervisor, we at Central would contract with that ESD to supervise student teachers in areas of the state where we did not have, um, did not have student teaching supervisors.  And it really – it served rural and remote areas of the state or underserved – I remember that was another, another word.  So, Central Seattle was considered underserved as far as student teachers go and so, um, that was fun for me.  I got to serve on the – I don’t know – whatever it was – the Board that got together, I don’t know two or three times a year and talked about how it works and so – with the other um, Field Directors around the state from the other universities; and we would sit and we would talk and plot and plan and – so it was really quite a good project.  It was not well supported here and so that was a fight on my hands (chuckle).

JP:        In what way – you say that it was not supported – was this administratively, financially, by…

AB:      Administratively, yes.  Well, it didn’t need to be supported financially, uh, because it was supported by the state.  Um, it was, uh, I was not encouraged to have our students go to these remote parts of the state; and I truly believed that if students wanted to spend their teaching career in Omak, Chewelah, wherever, um - that they ought to be able to student teach in a situation like that.  And, um, but that meant that we didn’t have – we at Central didn’t have our supervisor there and, um, while the students might not get as good a supervision was kind of the perception.  And that – and it was a – um, that was an administrative attitude and many of the field faculty had the same attitude.  But I continued to support it, in spite of, um – and it’s still going on, um, but it’s funded differently – I believe the students pay for their own experience in those places now.  The state doesn’t fund it anymore.  And I – I honestly can’t even tell you how – how it’s run anymore, but I know that students are able to still do student teaching through the ESD’s.

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      It was never a large percentage.  I remember keeping track of the numbers and it seemed to me, out of – you know, out of the four or five hundred students, maybe thirty would be enrolled in remote areas.

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      But they truly wanted to stay in those.  Yeah.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  Now, uh, you say you came in 1989 as the, uh, Field Experience Director.  How long - Did you do that throughout your entire realm at Central or did your responsibilities change?

AB:      I asked to be, uh, reassigned to the classroom, since I was granted professorial status when I came, I asked to be, uh, assigned to teach, uh, curriculum classes, uh, after three years.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  So you did mostly – you were in the classroom and teaching in the curriculum area…

AB:      After – after ninety-, what would that be?  ’92.

JP:        After ninety – about ’92?

AB:      Yeah.

JP:        And someone else took over the, uh, Director of Field Experience at that point?

AB:      Well, um – Yeah.  I’m – I’m trying to remember how it all worked.  For awhile, uh, the person who had been Field Experience Director before me was asked to step in and take over it again.  Eventually, they stopped that position, and then they reconfigured the position to be a – I’m trying to say college-wide – it was – it was in the same office as the Dean – so, I guess that would be college-wide Field Experience Director.  And that was Frank Carlson that we, uh, that we hired to do that because, um, well we have a very interesting situation on campus – still do – and that is that we’ve got student teachers – particularly in the secondary fields or in, um, K-12 fields like music and P.E. and so on, where we needed to have and education supervisor, as well as a major field supervisor and the decisions were made in the Department of Education; and decisions needed to be spread out, uh, to a wider area.  That still, uh, that still is a bit of a bugaboo (chuckle) it really is, and may always be.  Uh, but Frank’s position only lasted about – I don’t know – a year or two, three, and then that position was pretty much done away with.  Uh, in fact, about the time – about the time that we became the College of – let’s see we were – what were we – the College of Professional –

JP:        Professional Studies.

AB:      The School of Professional Studies.  We became the College of Education and Professional Studies.  Uh, at that point, we – the Education Department, because it was so large, was split into two, and it was the bright idea of a few that those would be named Teacher Education Programs, which took care of all of the majors like, uh, Special Ed and Early Childhood Ed and Elementary Ed, uh, Bi-lingual Ed; and then the other department became Curriculum and Supervision, which was the student teaching supervisors and those of us who taught in the, um, professional sequence – the general methods classes and - and, uh, Multicultural Ed and so on and so forth.  And so that all happened – and I think it was just about that time that the Director of Field Experiences position stopped.  The – and was transferred – those duties were transferred to whoever the Chair was of Curriculum and Supervision, so that that Chair had a dual job, not only running the department, but also, uh, taking care of – of the student teachers.  We had had a full-time – well, I was full-time.  I had a full-time administrative assistant at the time I was doing it and it took all our time.  We now had a Chair who had to do dual duty and a person called a secretary who had other things to do besides student teachers and, uh, I think that was a mistake.  Still do.  And now, ironically, the department is back together.  They’re now the – I asked them what they were going to be named and they said, “Well, we’re thinking about Department of Education.”

JP:        (chuckle)

AB:      And I said, “Oh, I think that’s a really good name.”  Anyway, so, I’m a little off the track there, but . . .

JP:        No, that’s – that’s interesting – uh, the whole, your –

AB:      And, of course, we’re relying on my faulty memory here (chuckle).

JP:        Well, (inaudible) it’s your perception of how things came about.

AB:      Right.

JP:        Well, let’s take it back again.  You mentioned that you came to Central.  You had done a little background check on, particularly the racism, the sexism, whatever; uh, what other first impressions did you have when you first came to the campus, uh, and to the town?  Did you have any first impressions?

AB:      Yeah, I did.  I did.  Well, I had lived in Flagstaff for many years and I went, “Ah, another cowboy town.”  I mean that was my first impression.  I thought, “Oh, I can get along in a cowboy town.  I’ve done it before.  I can do this again.”  And, um, so that was – and it was warm.  It was August.  And I went, “Oh, I like this.”  I didn’t know how cold it was going to get, but I had lived in Flagstaff and I had lived in Iowa and I, you know, I could handle – I didn’t – I had been warned about the wind and it was windy.  In the summer it is windy here.  So, it was windy when I was here and I went, “Okay, I can handle wind.  I’ve been in wind before.”  I didn’t know it was going to be quite so constant.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  Uh, let’s talk a little bit about some people – uh, people that you remember, uh, from your beginning through your tenure.  Um, what are some of the people that you found to be the most influential, uh, or unforgettable, uh, either in terms of your relationship or their relationship to the campus and the direction it was going?  Do you have any names or people that might pop up into your mind?

AB:      Yeah, I do, but they’re – I’m not sure I’ll mention names (chuckle).

JP:        Well, you can mention any names, you know, that you remember, and –

AB:      Well, there’s – you know, one kind of notorious person and I would say he’s responsible for me deciding not to be Field Experience Director anymore.  Um, Con Potter, very, very notorious – what can I say – famous and infamous, and, uh, didn’t – uh, he didn’t want to have a woman as Director of Field Experience because, in essence, that position was an Assistant Chair.  And, um, and I remember him asking me, when I first – actually, it wasn’t when I first came, but it was when he took over for a year as an Interim Chair.

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      Um, he said – he asked me, “Were you hired for this position or were you assigned to this position after you got here?”  Well, fortunately for me, I’m a keeper of everything (chuckle) every piece of paper I ever have used, I keep it.  And I pulled out the file and I said, “Here’s the job description.  I was hired as the Director of Field Experience.”  And that disappointed him because he said, “I would rather have a man in this position.”  Uh, somehow that didn’t surprise me, but – that was, um, that was the beginning of a really long year of – of a lot of pain for me.  And in the – oh, I don’t know when it was, sometime, uh, either winter quarter or early spring quarter that year, uh, they decided that – they being, um, the powers that be, probably the Dean and whatever – uh, decided that instead of searching for a new Chair, that maybe we would ask Con to be the Chair for another year and so the – and the faculty actually voted to have him be the Chair and before, um, - and there was also a position open in Curriculum and Instruction that they were advertising for, and I just very nicely said to Con, “I’d really like to be transferred from this position to that position.”  And he did it – I mean it was done – very quickly.  And, um, and then as it turned out, the Dean didn’t approve of him being selected Chair again for another year; and they went ahead and did a search, really quickly.  And that’s when we got, um, - I don’t remember – was that Fred?

JP:        Yeah.  I think so.

AB:      I think that was Fred.  So, yeah, that was painful – that was a painful experience, but, uh, a lot of good, uh, a lot of good therapy (chuckle) I got out of that one.  I paid a lot of money (chuckle) for my therapy.

JP:        Well, were there – were there – can you think of any other influential people that were more positively influencing with you while you were here?

AB:      Yes.  The women – the women really were.  Uh, Nancy Jurenka was hired the same time I was and she was very – we were supportive of each other.  Uh, Laura Appleton was very supportive in, uh, Sociology.  Uh, Ann Denman, uh, Patsy Callaghan, um, - I’m trying to remember.  There were just a – I wouldn’t want to leave anybody out – but there were a lot of women who were very supportive and we were supportive of each other.  Uh, Nancy Howard.

JP:        And many of these people were really supporting the, uh, concept of the Women’s Center.

AB:      Yes.

JP:        Uh, as it came into being (inaudible)

AB:      Yes.  Christine Sutphin.  I got to know Christine.  And, uh, - yeah, so there was quite a goodly handful – yes, and it was – it was the people who, um – and, uh, Dorothy – Dorothy Sheldon, who was, uh, with me – Dorothy Sheldon.  I can’t remember what her name was.  At that point, I think it was Sheldon-Schrader still, at that point, but, uh, she was, uh, she was always very encouraging and she was on phased retirement when I came.  So, I got to work with her and, and, uh, actually supervise her as Student Teacher Supervisor.  And she told me a lot about the history of the Women’s Center and so on.  And I served on the Women’s Studies Minor Advisory Committee for awhile.  That was fun, until they found out that people in Education don’t count (chuckle), but that’s another story.

JP:        Well, let’s – let’s move on.  I mean, if you think of any people that you’d like to talk about as we go along, feel free to do that.  Um, what about – I know that campuses always have political problems and, and certain things.  Uh, were you aware of any political problems that occurred during your time here?

AB:      Yes.

JP:        Yes.

AB:      (chuckle)  Do you want me to expound?

JP:        There are always political problems, but I thought maybe you’d like to identify what you perceived as a problem during your time.

AB:      Yeah.  I remember being interviewed by the, um, - what was it called?  I think Campus Climate, something or other – they were doing a study of campus climate – what is it like for various people on campus to work here.  And, um, and I know that at home, I had a whole list of things that bothered me (chuckle).  Um, and part – I think, in essence, they were about being discounted as a woman and being discounted as, uh, a person in the climate of education.  That somehow we weren’t real academics; and if you were a woman in education, you were even less a real academic.  Um, I think, as I recall, that was kind of the essence of my complaint; as well as, we as women, knew we weren’t being paid as much.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  Other than…

AB:      And that there really was some, um, - I remember being told, “Now, negotiate your salary.”  And I remember trying to negotiate when I came in and, uh, Jimmy Applegate was the Dean then and he just said, “No, this is it.  Take it or leave it.”  And, uh, with a salary decrease.  I actually had been given an increase at Cedar Falls and – and the Dean now made me quite aware of what he was going to pay me if I stayed.  And I remember telling Jimmy that (inaudible).  So (chuckle).  But I wanted to be here badly enough, (chuckle) anyway, so it didn’t – it didn’t matter.  But then I found out later that the men could negotiate – and that they had and that we were all over the board as far as salaries went; and that was a political thing that was certainly – and still is trying to be taken care of.  I remember just – just a couple of weeks ago, talking with one of the professors who is still in Education and, and she said, “Oh, I have to justify why I need more money; and somehow I keep saying the same thing year after year after year.  I haven’t been paid as much as the men since I got here.”  So, it’s still going on, but there is some attempt to keep adjusting it every single year.  So at least, it’s being dealt with now.  It wasn’t for awhile.  We were laughed at, almost, like there’s no difference.

JP:        Right.  Yeah.  Uh, let’s talk a little bit about some of the changes that occurred on campus during the time you were there, such as, uh, - well, you’ve mentioned changes in the Department.  Uh, you can continue with that, um because (inaudible), or programs or buildings or, you know, any – any changes that were occurring at that time, do you recall any of those?

AB:      Well, one of the – yeah, one of the highlights was, was, uh, the renovation, uh, whatever it was called – the remodel?  Uh, remodel I think is the word they used for Black Hall.  I mean that – that was truly a building that was a joy to work in, and, uh, what was – what was even more fun about it is that we got to be in on the discussions of what we wanted in it and they actually tried, as much as they could, to give us what we wanted.  Uh, but the ability that we had to tape students as they did their practice lessons and – and, uh, the wonderful, um, AV equipment that we had in each of the classrooms was great to work in.  I mean we could just call up whatever we wanted at the touch of a button and, and, uh, have multiple things going on at the same time.

JP:        I forget – now when did – when did you move into …

AB:      That was in ’98.  I want to say it was ’98.  It was around then. 

JP:        Oh.  Okay.

AB:      Yeah.  And that was – I mean, still is – it’s a lovely building.  I did go back last summer and teach a class and I noticed that they had changed the computers and I already didn’t know how to work them.  So, they’re continuing to update that and one of the things that we talked about when – when we were, uh, planning the building was we know that technology’s going to continue to change.  Let us make sure that when we create this building that there is sufficient, um, flexibility to rewire and to redo and to, you know, to reconfigure what we need to do, um, as technology changes because we know it’s going to change.  We can’t just fix things and have them be there forever, like we’ve done in the past.

JP:        Right.  Oh, who is it that, um, - who instigated the, uh, the opportunities for the faculty to give their input?  Was that the builder?  Was it the Department Chair, the Dean, the – how did you get yourself involved in this process?

AB:      I think it was all of those, actually (chuckle).  Uh, and I don’t - I can’t remember if we volunteered or if we were nominated, but there were several committees.  There was a Building Committee and there was a Prospectus Committee, which was what I was on.  What are our academic needs?  And if we – if we – you know, what, uh, what would we want to support the academic needs and I, I got to teach in some rooms that I knew I had helped design (chuckle).  That was fun.

JP:        Right.

AB:      Uh, but who instigated – it was really on several levels.

JP:        Okay.

AB:      And when I first got here, there was talk about a new – a new building and – or at least a major remodel and everybody was very discouraged and it kept – the building kept being, uh, preempted by some other project on campus and so some of us weren’t really – didn’t really quite believe that it was going to happen when it did.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  Wonderful.

AB:      So – and I’m not sure how many years that went back because I remember some of the – some of the, um, older faculty talking about how many years they’d been trying to get that building changed.

JP:        And so you were in it for how long?  You retired in what year?

AB:      A year ago, in ’03 – at the end of ’03.  The end of the calendar year.

JP:        You had an opportunity to be in there for three or four years – four or five, maybe.

AB:      Five?

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      Something like that.

JP:        Right.

AB:      Right.

JP:        Um, let’s see what else I can ask in here that might be of importance.  What – what were some particularly important or proud moments you could say for the university?  What were some things that you felt that the university and/or your department, uh, did that were, uh, gloatable or outstanding?

AB:      Outstanding.

JP:        Or that people were proud of?  Um…

AB:      Well, I think – you know, I think, um, one of the things that we were really proud of and continue to be proud of is that we are able to maintain our (inaudible) accreditation.  Now, there was a time when we supposedly failed and lost it and - or didn’t meet the standards or whatever.  Um, but as it – you know, as it turned out, really, it was a paper keeping problem and we were able to turn it around in a matter of months and get it back.  Unfortunately, it had already hit the press and, uh, you know, made us look like we were a bad school but we have and continue to have, as far as I know, the highest rate of hires for students coming out of our – out of our university, going into teaching.  That we can be proud of our graduates.  Um, and many of them come back to work on their Masters and, uh, and I really have enjoyed working with the Masters’ students the last few years, in fact, I’ve – almost more than the undergraduates because I – you know, I could see the growth, and it was really – really fun.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  Well, I remember the NCATE – so many people were involved with that, uh, attempting to get the paperwork, the reports and deal with all of that. Uh, I remember, uh, your early Department Chair was Bonnie Brooks – was our first woman, uh, Department Chair in Education.  Um, came in the ‘80’s…

AB:      Right.  She had just – she was gone by the time I got here, but I remember hearing about her.  Darryl Lefevre was the Chair when I was hired.

JP:        And then, um, Lynn, uh, (inaudible) Ladine Douglas.

AB:      She was in the department, teaching special ed at that time.

JP:        Okay.  And then she, uh, she was the Dean when you moved into the new building, correct?  Or was she?  Maybe not.  I can’t remember whether she was still there or not.  (inaudible) several years.

AB:      I think – I think she was.  Yes, she was still the Dean – she was the Dean when we moved in.  Yes, she was.  And then, uh, and then for a year, the one who had been there a year or two – I can’t remember his name anymore, and then they brought in Rebecca I think, after that.

JP:        Right.  Well, I guess I’m saying this because there have some significant contributions made by women – some of the women in, uh, Education.

AB:      Yes.  Many, and then, Lynn went on to work at the state level at, uh…

JP:        At OSPI.

AB:      At OSPI.  And I think she’s retired now.

JP:        Partially.

AB:      Or partially.  (inaudible)  Uh, but there – yeah, and many of our, uh, women faculty in Education have done, uh, fine publications, uh, - Nancy Jurenka has done a lot with gardening and reading instruction; and, uh, I’ve had a couple of math students now who have done their Masters’ projects on creating school gardens, and then, how they used the creation of that – uh, those gardens with young children to teach them about math and about growth and about health and about (chuckle), you know, across the curriculum.  And it’s – and Nancy really got a lot of students inspired in her classes, so, uh, - and she’s had books published about them.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  That’s great.

AB:      So we have had several who have made some fine contributions to the field.

JP:        Uh, let’s talk a little bit about the students over the years, as you saw them in student teaching.  Do you see or did you see any changes in their abilities to carry on as a new teacher, uh, or did you not see those changes?

AB:      There were some, uh, - and I don’t remember what year we changed, um, the grade point that they needed and the test scores that they needed to have; but at one point we said it’s got to be this and not less than this in order to get into the program.  You’ve got to have some initial entry level skills.

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      And I did see a difference in the seriousness of the students after that.  Uh, major difference, no, but enough that I noticed it.  And we have some excellent students.  So many of them have wanted to be teachers all their lives.  Uh, we have students who are second and third career, uh, retired military, um, people who’ve had careers in law enforcement, uh, C.P.A.’s – I mean we’ve had a whole bunch of different kinds of backgrounds, so it’s not just, uh, twenty-two year-olds that we’re dealing with.  And I saw that.  I saw the number of – I think they’re still called non-traditional students – a number - I saw that number increase over the years.  So it – I don’t know if it’s quality of students, I saw the experiential background change over the years – and fun, fun to work with.  Many of them wanting to give back – they had been successful, they wanted to give back to, to, uh, their communities and society.

JP:        And I imagine that might have influenced, uh, the younger students, uh, in the classrooms, uh…

AB:      Oh, it was fun.  It was great fun and, and the students would work together.  I mean, it didn’t really matter.  They seemed to get along well together, the fifty-five year-olds and the twenty-two year-olds, and they would all bond.  And, uh, yeah – I really enjoyed watching – watching that and being a part of that.

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      Sometimes, it was just standing back and letting it happen.

JP:        Right (chuckle).  Uh, what about – how do you feel, or do you feel that Central has provided ample cultural enrichment, um, things other than working in their major field?  Uh, do you feel that the university has provided those kinds of offerings to students?

AB:      I think the university has tried to.  Um, well, there certainly have been a lot of committees, and I’ve been on some of them, trying to, uh, encourage recruitment of diverse students – students from all kinds of backgrounds.  Uh, there’ve been, um, attempts to go into middle schools and high schools to try and, and, um, help students do well at that level so that they can get into the university.  Uh, I think that there have been a lot of efforts made.  I don’t know that the percentages have changed.  I don’t think there’s been a lot of change – and who knows, I mean, it’s so complex why.  Um, first of all, you know that that’s true in most universities.  Um, we should have a higher Native American population.  We should have a higher Hispanic population in this neck of the woods than we do.  We know that.  It’s been - you know, because of the proximity.  And why we don’t, um – you know, it’s been analyzed up one side and down the other (inaudible),   What do we need to do?  What do we need to have?  What kind of a center?  What kind of courses do we need to offer?  You know, we’ve tried a bunch of things.

JP:        Mm-hmm.  Well, uh, I would ask you, um, what do you feel – what were some of your personal contributions to, uh, your department or the university, or what do you feel that you have – what kind of a contribution do you feel you have made?

AB:      Well, I’ve worked hardest at, um, at diversity – at trying to increase diversity.  Um, I’ve taught, uh, multicultural ed classes, uh, and then any other classes I had, I tried to, um, infuse all of that into – just to increase awareness of our inherent biases, so that – okay, so what do we do to become aware of, uh, of our biases and then how do we run our classrooms so that they’re fair and equitable and inclusive and so on.  And – and that has been my biggest um, - I don’t know if it’s a contribution, but it might be considered my biggest effort.

JP:        Mm-hmm.

AB:      And, uh, and my – the research, any research projects that I did involved that and, uh, presentations and so on at, at conferences.

JP:        Well, in terms of, first you, are there any topics that I have not covered today that you feel you’d like to comment?

AB:      Yes.  Yes, there is one because it – because I – there’s an opportunity that we had a few years ago that – that I think that just left me encouraged.  I loved it and hated it at the same time because, uh, - well, let me tell you.  Uh, in the, uh, I don’t know – probably about 1993ish, we had some people from the Washington Center, something like that, talking about learning communities, and, uh, trying to get groups of students together as cohorts, um, to take classes that were linked.  We called them linked classes – linked courses.  And much of it – what we decided to do, um, on campus – or a few of us – we decided to combine the writing requirement, uh, English 301 I think it was, which is no longer required, but it was at the time – uh, tried to link the writing with various disciplines around campus and, uh, Christine Sutphin and I decided that we wanted to try to work with some of our Education students, English students who were becoming, uh, who were becoming teachers, to try and combine that writing class with Education Classes.  And so we taught – and I don’t know how many sections of this we taught, but maybe – maybe three sections of the writing class which was Argumentative Writing and, um, it was English 301 because it was Ed 301 also, which is the foundations class, the entry level class.  So we took the issues around education and then – and then combined that with Argumentative Writing; and we would – we would schedule the courses so that they were in the same room, uh, back-to-back hours, and Christy and I would be there for the, the full time.  Uh, and it was fun.  It was great fun.  We enjoyed it.  The students enjoyed it.  The problem was the logistics and we got no support from the university.  We had to, uh, you know, practically do handstands to get those courses scheduled with back-to-back hours in the same room.  Uh, there were certain pre-requisites that they needed for both and, of course, we were told by those who schedule, “Oh, we can’t do that with our computer system the way it is.” And, “Oh, we can’t do this and we can’t do that.”  And it took an inordinate amount of work.  Um, we asked, since we were doing double duty on our teaching, if we could have a stipend for that and, of course, that wasn’t possible.  So, if we wanted to link classes, we did it on our own.  And, um, - which I didn’t it mind as much as the logistical problems of trying to arrange the rooms  and the times, and…

JP:        Did you find…

AB:      And it fizzled.  It truly fizzled.

JP:        Did you find that the students – the experience of the students, uh…

AB:      Positive.

JP:        It was positive.

AB:      It was positive.  They really enjoyed – they all had favorable comments.  And – and there were several of these going on – there was, uh, English 301 and Anthropology and Sociology and, and other basic in breadth-type courses too, that many of the English Professors were – were, uh, teaching along with their colleagues in the other Departments.  And Bobby Cummings…

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JP:        Do you have a final statement that you’d like to make, Andrea, concerning Central – your experience here – your feelings, uh, as you…

AB:      Well, certainly my experiences have been more positive than negative.  Uh, it’s a good place to work.  It’s a better place to work now than it was fifteen years ago, and, um, and I’d like to think that there are a lot of people who have worked really hard to make that happen.  But it didn’t just happen, I think it happened by intent of both faculty and administrators.  I think we’ve seen some hiring changes in administration that have made a big difference and I hope that continues.

JP:        Well, we thank you very much for coming today and sharing your ideas.

AB:      You’re very welcome.

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