The 100th Anniversary of the Central Marching Band

by Bryan Whitledge, adapted from a 2014 post by Casey Gamble

100 years ago, in September 1923, the students of the Central Normal College were hustling around in a frenzied attempt to register for classes (Central State Life, 9/25/1923, p. 2). The only peace to be had on campus was coming from the newly formed school band. It was the band’s duty to lighten the atmosphere and remind students that their first days in Mount Pleasant were the start of an exciting chapter of their lives. A century later, the CMU Marching band is still setting the tempo of the return to the Mt. Pleasant campus. The drum line’s infectious beats pulse through the air while the Leadership Safari participants explore their new campus. The blare of the trumpets in unison is the soundscape for students moving back into residence halls. And while friends meet up after three months of summer vacation, the Marching Chips are on the practice field and the tick-tick-tick of the metronome sets not only their cadence, but the cadence of all of those in earshot.

Central Marching Band, 1923

The first mention of a “school band” goes back to January of 1922, when the idea was “referred to [Central’s] Ways and Means Committee." It seems that they hoped to organize by that fall, but their plans didn’t come to pass until the next year. In the first issue of the Central Normal Life of the 1923-24 school year, the headline, “That Umpah Band an Assured Fact” triumphantly announced that Central would have a “real Normal band, instruments, uniforms, and even a drum major.” And that week, the band, which was organized by the Department of Music and lead by Mr. Powers (the man for whom Powers Hall – the old music building – is named), was lightening the mood around the Central campus with their music.

By November of 1923, the band had new uniforms and were ready to be a formidable 12th man for the football team when Central squared off against Alma College down in Alma later that month: “The new maroon and gold uniforms … are to be donned on that occasion, and a formal army of musicians will appear upon the Presbyterian battlefield* in the colored garb of war.”

CMU Marching Band, circa 1980

100 years later, the Marching Chips are still the loudest supporters of Central’s football players when they take the field. And getting to gameday involves quite a bit of practice and hard work. During band week, which happens right before the start of classes, the band members are on the practice field all day, every day, whether in the blazing heat or the pouring rain. Throughout campus, the Marching Chips break into sections that work on the songs and routines that will be on display for thousands of fans throughout the fall. All of the musicians put in hours of work to learn the songs for football halftime shows in addition to the dozens of pregame tunes, stand times, and of course, the CMU Fight Song.

Marching Chips, 2014

But the work doesn’t stop after band week—members of the Marching Chips are first and foremost CMU students. Once classes start, many of the music majors will be taking 10+ classes, and they combine that with marching band practice a few hours in the afternoon, except for game days when some sections will be practicing by 7:00 am. Graduate students and senior section leaders will help the younger marchers keep each foot together and each note in sync until the formations are performed to perfection.

And what is the payoff of all this hard work? After 100 years, the Marching Chips still brings cheer to the students of CMU when they need an upbeat song to get them through their studies. They continue to uplift the football team and entertain the crowds at halftime and throughout the game. The members hand down beloved traditions across multiple generations of band members. And the Marching Chips make lifelong memories and learn some of the most important lessons of their college experience in terms of discipline and perseverance. 

*Alma College was founded as a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1886 and remains so to this day.

Celebrating Major Moments in CMU's Homecoming Traditions

by Magdelyn Gipe

Break out the gold, ruby, and silver! 2022 marks the milestone anniversaries of a few major events in Central’s Homecoming traditions.

Connie Wilson, Queen, 1972

This year is the 50th anniversary of Connie Wilson being crowned Homecoming Queen. Ms. Wilson was the first Black woman to be elected Homecoming Queen at Central. In Fall of 1972, Ms. Wilson, an elementary education student from Saginaw, was a sophomore and the Towers executive council sponsored her as a candidate for the Homecoming Court. Involved in both the Organization of the Black Student Union and in the Black Voices of CMU, she had a great deal of support across the campus. In addition to being the first Black woman honored as Central’s Homecoming Queen, she was also the first Homecoming Queen crowned in the new Perry Shorts Stadium, which was dedicated during Homecoming of 1972.

Jodi Urban and John Nader,
Queen and King, 1982

2022 also marks the 40th anniversary of having a Homecoming King join the Queen as part of the Homecoming Court. Although, the first Homecoming King wasn’t elected until 1982, it wasn’t the first time that men threw their names in the hat for Homecoming royalty. Beginning in the 1950s, there were regularly men, like Edna in 1950 or the perennial also-ran, Elvira Scratch, dressing up in costume vying for the title of Queen. Many people got a kick out of the novelty candidates, but the men never ascended to the Homecoming Court. That changed with Central’s first Homecoming King, John Nader. Nader was a senior at the time of his election and was sponsored by the Woldt-Emmons residence halls. Nader was reported as wanting to be a presence in the community as part of his role in the Homecoming court, saying that he planned to “take an active part in speaking with off-campus groups to represent CMU.”

Jocylin Stevenson and Todd Price,
Gold Ambassadors, 1997

Finally, this year is the 25th anniversary of the removal of Homecoming royalty and the creation of the Maroon and Gold Ambassadors. The Gold Ambassadors effectively replaced the Homecoming Queen and King, and the Maroon Ambassadors replaced the Court. Since 1997, all of the Homecoming Ambassadors have been nominated based on merit, particularly students' leadership, campus involvement, and community service. In 1997, Todd Price and Jocylin Stevenson were elected as the first ever Gold Ambassadors. Both were leaders on campus: Stevenson was a senior criminal justice major, minoring in drug and substance abuse prevention, and Price was a senior interpersonal and public communications major, minoring in journalism, advertising, and marketing.

Since the first Homecoming in 1924, the traditions at Central have evolved and grown. Next year, 2023, will give us a chance to mark milestone anniversaries of the cardboard boat race and the medallion hunt, and the year after that will be one century of CMU Homecoming. Fire Up, Chips!

Celebrating CMU's 130th Anniversary

by Magdelyn Gipe

As we embark upon a new academic year, Central Michigan University celebrates the 130th anniversary of its founding. On September 13, 1892, the Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute (it wouldn’t be known as Central Michigan University until 1959) opened its doors for the first time. Of course, the doors that were opened were in downtown Mt. Pleasant, about one mile north of the current Central campus. 31 students were in attendance that day, with classes taught in rental rooms upstairs in the Carpenter Building, which sat on the southeast corner of Main and Michigan streets. Work on the first campus building started six days later, on September 19, 1892. The building, known as “Old Main,” opened in 1893, when students first attended classes on what is now the Central campus. 

Central's "Old Main" Groundbreaking, September 19, 1892

From the beginning, Central largely existed to train and educate teachers. As such, Principal Charles Bellows organized the school into five departments: Normal (training teachers), Academic, Commercial, Industrial, and Music & Art. The Commercial Department is what gave the school the name, “Central Michigan Normal School and Business Institute”; at that time, “business” often meant basic accounting, ledger-keeping, stenography, and penmanship. Bellows is personally responsible for the Music & Art Department, using his own funds to organize a Conservatory for Music. 

Most students who attended Central that first year were from rural areas in and around Isabella County, and often were eighth-grade graduates. In the early days of the institution, it was not uncommon for students to attend for a short time before obtaining a teaching certificate by taking a county teaching exam that allowed students to fill teaching jobs in rural one-room schoolhouses throughout central and northern Michigan. Whether some of those in the first class of students left Central because they passed a county teaching exam or because of another reason, twenty of the original 31 students graduated from Central that first year.

In the 130 years since that historic day, Central Michigan University has substantially changed. Instead of 31 students on the first day of classes, there are over 15,000 students at Central this fall. Classes aren’t held in rental rooms in downtown Mt. Pleasant anymore, but in any of the more than 25 academic buildings. Campus has grown from an initial investment of ten acres and $25,000 to a world-class university sitting on nearly 500 acres with an annual operating budget of over $400 million. What has not changed over the course of 130 years are the fired-up attitude, the can-do spirit, and the genuine kindness Central’s students bring with them each fall.

CMU Students in Kelly/Shorts Stadium at Leadership Safari, 2022

Help the Clarke Historical Library and the Museum of Cultural and Natural History Preserve CMU’s Pandemic Experiences

To document and preserve the various experiences of the CMU community during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Clarke Historical Library (Clarke) and the Museum of Cultural and Natural History (Museum) encourage CMU members, students, faculty, and staff, on- and off-campus, to share their documented personal experiences during COVID-19 and contribute them to the Clarke and Museum. When future students, scholars, and researchers seek to understand what it was like at CMU during the pandemic, these materials will provide a first-person account.

Submission process:

If you are a current CMU faculty, staff or student please fill out this form. A CMU email is required. Your email will not be shared or sold. You will be required to sign an agreement allowing the Clarke to preserve your submission, and you will receive important information about copyright and the use of your content. The Clarke and the Museum are not obligated to keep everything that is submitted. You can submit materials and the form as often as you like. This project is focused on submissions from individuals or small groups of people.

If you work for a CMU unit and have questions about preserving your office's records, please contact Bryan Whitledge.

If you are a Mount Pleasant, Michigan, community member who is not a current CMU student, faculty, or staff member, with relevant information you wish to donate, please contact clarke@cmich.edu before submitting material.

If you have physical artifacts or object, please contact the Museum at cmuseum@cmich.edu.

Materials in the following formats that could normally be uploaded to Google Drive will be accepted: Images (jpg, png), Videos (mp4, mov), Audio (mp3), and Text (txt, pdf, docx, doc) files. If you want to donate a physical printed or written item, please submit a digital image, and indicate that you wish to give it to the Clarke in the description field of the form. Clarke staff will contact you.

If your submissions are works you created with others, such as interviews or group project, the Clarke requires permission from everyone who contributed to the work, including co-authors, whether students, classmates, friends, and family. We will not retain the material if we do not receive all relevant forms. Only one person needs to attach the files to the form.

Materials will first be reviewed and processed by Clarke staff, so they will not be available to the public immediately.

Campus resources:

For CMU’s updates on the pandemic and available resources, visit https://www.cmich.edu/about/covid-19-information-and-resources.

For informational resources on the United States’ response to COVID-19 see https://libguides.cmich.edu/c.php?g=1010890&p=7517036

What to submit:

Here are some examples of what you may wish to submit:

Students:

• Course assignments you completed related to the pandemic
• Images or videos from moving off-campus due to the pandemic
• Communications with your family about what was happening when campus closed
• Communications with administrators or faculty negotiating issues related to travel, internships, visa status, living arrangements, or food and dining
• Student organization activities that may continue over a distance or volunteer work done in response to the pandemic
• Reactions to campus events being canceled or delayed, including but not limited to: graduation, sports, theatre or musical performances, Study Abroad, or trips
• Your remote learning experience or how your classes changed when they went virtual

Faculty:

• Redesigned course materials for remote delivery, new assignments, or syllabus changes
• Communication with your students and colleagues
• Plans for pausing or adapting research projects while campus was closed

Staff:

• Work you did on-campus as essential employees
• Experiences in student services such as dining halls, dormitories, and other services that shut down
• Messages of encouragement from co-workers and the community
• Changes to your job due to working remotely

Health Care Providers and Patients (CMED and CHP):

• Your experiences preparing for or treating COVID-19 patients
• The effect on your work with patients who need medical care unrelated to COVID-19
• How your workplace, schedule, or job duties have changed
• Your experience being treated for or recovering from the virus

General:

• Journal or diary entries about the impact of the pandemic on your life
• Interviews with friends or family members
• A description of your schedule or routine during quarantine
• Images of your new work space
• What it’s like to work at an essential business or organization

Acknowledgement:

Aspects of this project were adapted from similar efforts by the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library, Michigan State University Archives, University of North Carolina Charlotte Special Collections and University Archives, and the University of Virginia Library Digital Collecting Toolkit. Thank you to Katie Howell of J. Murrey Atkins Library, University of North Carolina Charlotte for allowing us to use text and ideas from UNCC’s “Contribute Your Stories of the COVID-19 Outbreak” website.

Happy Holidays from the Clarke!

Clarke Historical Library Christmas Exhibit

By Gillian Macdonald

As exam week fades into the distance and most head home for the holidays, we are approached by the holiday season. The weather is threatening to snow, Christmas is around the corner, and decorations are flying up around town and the university campus. While CMU might not be able to compete with the impressive light displays around the Mount Pleasant community, the holiday season has always been special on campus. Past presidents have mounted beautiful displays, the university has thrown Christmas balls, the Clarke Historical Library displayed an impressive collection of Christmas books, students and faculty have carroled and dorms and departments alike have donned decorations for the season.

These traditions have spanned CMU’s lifetime. Let’s take a look back at some of the older traditions on campus:

Dorm Window Decorations

Dorm decorations have certainly not been relegated to the past. Students in 2021 have donned their domitories with sparkling lights, Christmas trees, wreaths, and much more. In the 1950s, creative students created Christmas scenes across the windows of their dorms. The scene depicted here shows reindeer pulling a sleigh full of presents. 

Dorm Window Decorations

In another dormitory window, students recreated a winter scene framed by Victorian street lamps from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The scene depicts a gentlement and lady beside a horse-drawn carriage on a snowy day in London. 

Over the years, students often vied for the best door and window displays. Prizes were awarded for the best decorations and displays. Beddow Hall was featured in the CMU yearbook in 1966 for becoming a "fairyland" at Christmas. In the yearbook, CMU Life crowned Beddow the most beautiful Christmas decorated dormitory. 

Departments also took part in decorating for the holiday season. In 1954, the Art Department displayed a Christmas exhibit in Wightman Hall. CM Life reported the highlight of the display to be Gerald Trcka's "Nativity" which used an intricate system of lines over India ink. In 1956, CM life reported that the Art Department under the guidance of Mrs. Millar (Department Head) art classes 101 and 102 displayed a colorful Christmas tree, posters, cards, and a mobile of various wintery scenes inviting all those on campus to visit. 

Clarke Historical Library Christmas Exhibit

In December 1984, CMU press releases reported that the Clarke Historical Library would hold a special Christmas exhibit through December 21 entitled "Tales of Christmas Past." Among the items displayed were several versions of The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore, A Christmas when the West was Young by Cyrus Townsend Brady, The Evolution of Santa Claus an illustrated history of how the figure has changed over the years, and many other classic books, keepsakes, cards, and posters. In 1987, the Clarke donned another Christmas Exhibit titled "A Michigan Christmas" from December 14th through January 16th. 

Christmas festivals and parties have been a staple tradition at CMU. The 1995 CMU yearbook recalled the sixth annual Holiday Festival held at the Bovee University Center. President Plachta opened the festivities by lighting the Christmas tree and the Mayor of Mount Pleasant, Robert Trullinger said a few words. Christmas parties were held around campus to celebrate the season. Presidents--including Warriner and Anspach--often held parties with singers and speeches to celebrate the season.

Here’s hoping for a white Christmas, Happy Holidays everyone!

Lest we Forget: Remembering September 11

 by Gillian Macdonald

As the news media around the US girds itself to mark the somber occasion of September 11, we take a moment to reflect on this tragedy. Twenty years ago, the September 11 attacks sent shock waves through the nation and the world. Thousands lost their lives when four commercial airplanes were used to target prominent US buildings, including the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Here in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, the Morning Sun and Central Michigan Life reported on the tragic events. The Morning Sun’s headline read: “Under attack: Outrageous attacks claim thousands.” Susan Field and Linda Gittleman reported on a Western Michigan University student’s grounding by Federal Aviation officials in Mount Pleasant that Tuesday. Jason Schilling was on a routine flight for his aviation class when he was grounded by the FAA. Entering the terminal in Mount Pleasant, Schilling and his friend were confronted with the unfolding attacks on a television mounted on the wall. Schilling commented “We were up there flying. We couldn’t even believe it.” In Isabella County, the Michigan State Police were on high alert and the emergency management center was on partial activation status.

Heather Sonntag from CM Life reported that senior Kristina Bukoski thought “the devastation on her television was staged,” she didn’t quite know how to comprehend the tragedy. Students from CMU’s campus were left speechless and relied on each other and counseling support to deal with the overwhelming loss. In response, the University organized meetings at the dining halls and Bovee University Center allowing students and counselors to meet and lean on each other. CMU President Rao formed an emergency ad hoc crisis management team in effort to control safety concerns across campus. The attacks themselves had forced the cancellation of classes on September 11; by September 12, President Rao followed President Bush’s lead by urging a return to normalcy on campus. The faculty were also instructed to be considerate of individual reactions to the tragedy; students were not excused from class but allowed to leave campus if they wanted.

Twenty years later, we can still abide by President Rao’s words to campus: “It is important that, in the face of tragedies such as this, humans come together in support of and respect for one another, and I feel sure that this will be the case at CMU because of our long tradition of caring for one another.” Life has never been the same, nor should it be. The first memorials to the attacks came in the immediate aftermath and each year, two bright columns of light shine in New York city near the site of where the World Trade Center once stood. Here on CMU’s campus, the September 11 attacks are marked every year with a memorial flag garden situated next to the Park Library. Lest we forget those who lost their lives.

Hello, CMU Negative Photo Index!

[Monday, August 23, 2021. 8:05 AM. Heard over a crackly loudspeaker from a particularly enthusiastic member of the student body…]

Good Morning Students and Faculty!

This is not a test. This is the new Central Michigan University Negative Photo Index!

Time to slide on down to Clarke Historical Library website, and browse through list of eight consecutive decades of CMU photography. Is it me, or does this project look like it took a long time? That’s right, documenting nearly 32,000 rolls of film so you can have access to a catalog of pictures just in time for the new school year.

Want to find a file? Easy! Just open the Clarke website, and head over to Research materials. Under CMU materials, you will find the new Negative Photo Index. Click there, and you will be taken to a landing site for materials. Photos are separated by year, in five-year increments.

Some classics include:

• 67-416, the Korean Orphanage Drive Greased Pig Race
  
• 70-219, Greeks Pie in Face
  
• 73-419, Clown Headshots
  
• 2002-163, chess match with Smith playing students all at once
  
• 3293, Civil Defense Nuns and others learning to use Geiger Counters
  
• 3700, Students Laughing at EMU threat sign
  
• 4110, Bovee’s Miniature Animals

Is it a little too early this morning for this much information? That’s fine. The Negative Photo Index is here to stay, so you can head there anytime.

While this index may not look like much, there is history in every file. Did you know that Central Michigan University used to have a Most Eligible Bachelor Contest? Or, that Homecoming Festivities used to include a huge bonfire (negative 67-447b, look it up)! Some traditions never die, but these files show us traditions that did. It also shows us how the school has changed over the years. From the Sheep Sheds office where CMLife used to operate from, to the old library located in Ronan Hall, Central Michigan University’s campus looks different every decade (something we can all relate to right now).

Maybe you’re not a person who needs to be at the Clarke? You aren’t a history major, why is this important to you? Well, my good friend, let me tell you why! This is our school’s historical record. That seems cliche, but my point stands. If you’re an activist, the photos here tell the story of all activists before you, what worked and what didn’t. If you’re a student who’s curious about our school’s multicultural history, we’ve got photos of the first celebration of Black History Month at CMU, events hosted by students during Asian Heritage Week, and tons of photos of Office of Native American Programs events such as the Women’s Circle in 2000.

Maybe you’re a more technical major, and need some ideas for your senior project. We have photos of labs, student exhibitions, faculty research, and much more. Inspiration is here. Still not convinced? We have pictures of every single professor on campus. Want to see how they looked in the 80’s? Aquanets and shoulder pads as far as the eyes can see.

Thank you, CMU Negative Photo Index. From your professional purpose as a research tool, to your hidden purpose of giving a laugh to those that need it.

This is Nova Moore, and I am signing off to see 81-205. What is it? Guess you’ll have to come and see.

Greeks Pie in the face fundraiser,
Negative 70-219, 1970

Student in sculpture class,
Negative 82-082, 1982

Homecoming bonfire,
Negative 67-447b, 1967

Professor Smith plays chess against all students at once,
Negative 2002-163, 2002

Clown headshots,
Negative 73-419, 1973

Civil Defense Nun with Geiger counter,
Negative 3293, ca. 1960-64

Korean Orphanage Project fundraiser, greased pig race,
Negative 67-416, 1967

An Archivist’s Friendship with a Former CMU President

by Bryan Whitledge

When I learned that Bill Boyd, former Central Michigan University President, passed away last month as a result of contracting COVID-19, I was truly saddened. I felt that I had lost a dear friend with whom I shared many important moments in Central’s history—occasions like the May 1970 takeover of the ROTC building, hosting the 1975 International Special Olympics Summer Games, and changing CMU’s policies to deem the children of migrant workers in-state residents for tuition purposes.

But when one looks at the facts of my life and when I crossed paths with President Boyd, a glaring gap is visible… when Bill Boyd left CMU to become president at the University of Oregon, I wasn’t yet born. In fact, I wasn’t yet out of elementary school when he retired from working life altogether. Even more, it wasn’t until I was 29 years old and President Boyd was nearly 90 years old and had been away from Central for 35 years that I first heard of him. And to cap it off, I never met the man and only on two occasions where I was in the room when he was on a telephone call with others did I get the chance to talk to him, asking him a brief matter-of-fact question each time to which he replied in a similar fashion… in total, we talked to each other for maybe 30 seconds in our lives. None of this is indicative of a personal relationship.

So why is it, with so much time between his tenure and my work at CMU, and having never met President Boyd and only very briefly talking to him, do I feel such a personal connection with this man? The simple answer is because of the power of archives.

I am not the first person, nor will I be the last, to feel this. Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin has talked about the intimate relationships she has formed with FDR, Abe Lincoln, and other US presidents, even though she never met them. French researcher Arlette Farge wrote a classic of archives literature in 1989, Le Goût de l’archive (The Allure of the Archives), in which she discusses how “she was seduced by the sensuality of old manuscripts and by the revelatory power of voices otherwise lost.” And it is common for budding archivists, while in graduate school, to get a little piece of advice from one of the veterans working with them when the graduate student gets their first assignment processing and arranging a collection: “Hopefully, you like Ms. X, because you are going to be spending a lot of time with her.”

President Boyd and Eunice Kennedy Shriver,
1974 Michigan Special Olympics State Summer Games

In my case, I first “met” President Boyd in 2011, when I joined the Clarke’s team and began researching the history of the university. I was new to CMU and I didn’t know a thing about the history of the university. So, I was advised to start with John Cumming’s book. I still remember reaching the last 50 pages of the book or so and reading about President Boyd. I was immediately intrigued by him. He seemed like a history-making figure and a decent person. I then dug into the Central Michigan Life student newspaper and the Centralight alumni magazine. When documenting events of the late 1960s to mid-1970s, President Boyd seemed to be at the center of all of the action – anti-Vietnam-War activism, the formation of the Faculty Association (one of the first collective bargaining units for faculty at a 4-year university in the country), CMU moving up to NCAA Division I in athletics, the liberalization of residence hall regulations that forced women students to observe an earlier curfew then men students, and more. And in each case, his actions always seemed wise and he often had something intelligent and reasonable to say.

With that research project, I also dug into the archives of previous university presidents—Anspach, Warriner, Able, and of course, Boyd. The folders of speeches, correspondence, and working files gave me an idea of how each of these people approached their job and what they valued. Working with the Boyd records, I began to really like the guy. By January of 2012, when I had wrapped up the research, I was impressed with President Boyd and thought he was a special person.

As time moved on, I learned more and more about him. In late 2012, I mentioned to a colleague in the History Department about President Boyd’s efforts to increase diversity at CMU by hiring Dr. Robert Thornton, a physicist from San Francisco State University, in June 1969. Dr. Thornton was brought on as a special assistant charged with increasing recruitment of Black students and faculty and providing guidance to incorporate Black Studies into CMU’s curriculum. My colleague said, “Do you realize that San Francisco State was the first school in the country with a Black Studies program and it started in March of 1969?” I had no idea! Just four months after SFSU started their program, Boyd was drawing on their experience to try to improve CMU. One more fact about President Boyd’s sense of decency and humanity was added to my knowledge of him.

President Bill Boyd and Professor Jean Mayhew,
"King and Queen of Gentle Friday," 1970

A couple years later, I was invited to listen to an oral history interview between Frank Boles, the director of the Clarke, and President Boyd. Over speakerphone, I listened to President Boyd say that he was most proud of making the Central campus more beautiful, and remark on the May 1970 unrest by saying, “I was surprised and pleased by the good nature of the Central student body.” After a couple years of digging into the archives and answering questions about the history of CMU, it wasn’t a stretch for me to imagine being there as he was making tough decisions during a stressful situation.

Two years after that, I spoke to a group of about fifteen alumni involved in the anti-Vietnam-War movement, and I listened as every single person had something complimentary to say about President Boyd. One of the members of the group contacted him via telephone and the conversation that ensued between the alumni and their former president were, to say the least, very touching. After the alumni expressed their gratitude for his leadership and the lessons they learned from his example some 45 years after those moments in history, President Boyd ended the phone call by saying that speaking with all of these former students that day was among one of the best moments of his life. By this point, I felt like I knew Central’s seventh president.

President Bill Boyd speaks to students
outside "Freedom Hall," May 1970

Over the years, I had many more of these moments in which I learned more about the decency and humanity of President Boyd: when I learned about the change to residency requirements for tuition purposes for the children of migrant workers (pages 6-10 of linked article); when I learned about his plans for his inauguration, which featured a rather subdued ceremony, cancelling classes for the afternoon, and hosting free concert for students featuring activist and folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie; when I learned about Earth Week. I felt proud to “know” the man behind these stories.

After President Boyd’s passing, I read many remembrances including two from Racine, Wisconsin, where he lived for nearly the last 40 years. Both remembrances (Journal Times and Wright in Racine) mentioned a great many things that I never knew about President Boyd—which makes perfect sense objectively because I really only have access to records from the seven years when he was president at Central. But I wasn’t surprised by these wonderful anecdotes because I “know” President Boyd and the stories match exactly the man I know. The same is true for all of the comments on the CMU Alumni Association Facebook page responding to the post announcing President Boyd’s death. In fact, I felt a sense of pride that all of these people respected and admired him—a man who is part of the Central Michigan University family.

The only things that connect me to Bill Boyd are the historical documents in the Clarke and the stories from people who knew him. But, like Arlette Farge and others can attest, those pieces of paper and statements, as seemingly mundane and innocuous as some might believe them to be, hold a great deal of power—enough power to form a relationship. And, knowing what I know about him, generations from now, there is likely to be someone else who digs into the Boyd Papers and forms a friendship with Central’s seventh president.

Homecoming Traditions Turned Upside Down

by Bryan Whitledge and Casey Gamble

Marching Chips, Homecoming 2002

The 2020 Homecoming at Central is not your usual event. With a public health emergency changing many aspects of our lives, Homecoming is changing, too. This year, Homecoming doesn’t involve a football game or a parade or a pep rally. Instead, the Office of Student Activities and Involvement has created the “Fired Up Challenge” with events like virtual trivia, a virtual concert, and a campus photo challenge. Some traditions will continue though, like the Homecoming Ambassadors. Others are being tweaked to fit our physically distant existence, like the virtual Medallion Hunt and the Special Olympics Homecoming Virtual 5K walk/run that participants can complete on their own.

But, 2020 isn’t the first time that the Homecoming traditions changed. With nearly 100 years of Homecomings at Central, there have been many changes to the tradition over the years.

For example, this isn’t the first Homecoming when football wasn’t the centerpiece event. In 1943, 1944, and 1945, World War II put many campus happenings on hold, among them a Homecoming football game. In 1946, however, Homecoming came back bigger and better than ever at Central with the addition of a new tradition—the Homecoming Queen.

Twenty-five years later, in 1971, it wasn’t a global war that shook up Homecoming traditions—it was the spirit of the times. The Student Alumni Association decided to get rid of the parades, dances, residence hall decorations, and even the Homecoming court. It was reported that students didn’t particularly care about the court and that there were simply not enough parade participants to make that tradition worthwhile. The Student Alumni Association wanted to try something new that all students and alumni could enjoy, so they organized a carnival, a bazaar, and a "style show" instead. The only Homecoming events they held onto from previous years were the pep rally and the football game.

CMU President Boyd and Students at the Homecoming Carnival, 1971

This experiment proved both controversial and short-lived. An editorial in CM Life following Homecoming weekend reported that returning alumni were unimpressed with “coming home” to a Ferris wheel ride, and many people felt there was a lack of school spirit. The editorial writer suggested that the next time big changes were to be made for an event such as Homecoming, those changes should be voted on by the student body to see just how many people cared what weekend festivities might be enjoyed.

Homecoming Carnival, 1971

In a rebuttal published two days later, the co-chairs of the Homecoming Steering Committee offered several answers and explanations for their decisions. For example, the co-chairs felt that the Homecoming Queen did not really represent the CMU student body, but rather she represented the group that sponsored her. They said that Miss CMU, a student chosen from among all CMU students in a pageant the previous spring, would be a better representative of the CMU student body than the Queen and her court. And the students in 1971 might have been a onto something in terms of changes to the Queen and her court—in 1997, CMU did away with Homecoming royalty altogether in favor of Homecoming Ambassadors.

As for the parade, the co-chairs declared the bazaar a more than satisfactory replacement. They said that “at least 50 groups requested to build a booth for the bazaar,” which they said meant there was more interest in the bazaar than there was for previous parades. The Homecoming Steering Committee also noted that they did not intend for students to refrain from decorating their residence halls, only that students should decorate lightly and donate to charity the rest of the money that they normally would have spent on decorations. This was another example of the 1971 experiment being more in line with the twenty-first century. The idea of students giving back and supporting a good cause is why the contemporary Homecoming 5K benefiting Special Olympics is such a popular event.

Over the years, Homecoming traditions have faced hurdles, but those hurdles never stopped the events. The cancellation of the football games during WWII didn’t mean and end of Homecoming—in fact, after the War, the tradition expanded. The experiment of the alternative Homecoming of 1971 might not have been popular with everyone at the time, but the spirit of updating Homecoming traditions has lived on—the dances that were popular in 1950s have faded away, while the Medallion Hunt, started in 2003, and the cardboard boat race, started in 1998, have become campus favorites.

Cardboard Boat Race, ca. 2014

In 2024, when Central celebrates the 100th anniversary of the first Homecoming, who knows what new traditions created during the remarkable 2020 Homecoming will live on to be new CMU traditions.

This blog has been adapted from one that appeared in a slightly different form on October 9, 2017.

CMU Professor’s Opera Now Showing Online

 

Nearly 20 years ago, From the Diary of Sally Hemings premiered at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The solo opera was composed by William Bolcom of the University of Michigan with libretto (text) by now-retired Central Michigan University professor of English, Sandra Seaton. The opera is a fictional account of the thoughts and feelings of Sally Hemings, the enslaved women owned by Thomas Jefferson and mother to six children fathered by Jefferson. As Seaton said at the time of the premiere, in the spring of 2001, “I wanted to give Hemings a voice and bring her to life. I wanted her to be more than a slave or a sexual role.” In 2001, Professor Seaton joined an audience that included descendants of Hemings and Jefferson at the Library of Congress for the premiere, which was covered in both the Centralight magazine and the CM Life student newspaper.

Mezzo-soprano Florence Quivar (left), Sandra Seaton (center), and William Bolcom (right) at the Library of Congress Premiere of From the Diary of Sally Hemings

Sandra Seaton (back, center) with descendants of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson

Sandra Seaton (front row, fourth from the right) with descendants of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson 

Now, the opera is again in the spotlight. The piece was scheduled to be part of the line-up of the 2020 Glimmerglass Festival, an opera festival held in upstate New York. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, live performances of the selected operas were cancelled. But that didn’t mean that show wouldn’t go on—the General Director of the festival, Francesca Zambello, decided to create videos of all of the operas to be performed. Professor Seaton’s work was performed and recorded at Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. And now, that recording can be seen by anyone with a connection to the internet. Enjoy the 47-minute video on the Glimmerglass Festival YouTube page.

Scene from Glimmerglass Festival performance of From the Diary of Sally Hemings

Piecing Together History

Archives, museums, and libraries are sometime seen as stodgy, but most are actually highly creative organizations that engage the public with all sorts of fun and interesting programming. During the COVID-19 public health emergency, institutions large and small across the world have gotten even more creative to connect with people. During a meeting with CMU Libraries staff, Marian Matyn, the Archivist at the Clarke, mentioned that some institutions are using images from their holdings to create virtual jigsaw puzzles.

That suggestion sparked an idea for Janet Danek, the CMU Libraries’ Coordinator of Art, Exhibits, and Projects: are there any images from past exhibitions that we might be able to give the “jigsaw” treatment? Janet worked with Bryan Whitledge, the Archivist for University Digital Records, to transform images from the Shaping Memories through Three Lenses exhibit into virtual puzzles. This exhibit, from the fall of 2019, featured the photography of three of CMU’s photographers: Robert Barclay, Peggy Brisbane, and Steve Jessmore. Over the course of nearly forty years, these three documented the history of the Central Michigan University, from big events with nationally known guests to quiet moments of studying, and everything in between.

By transforming their work into puzzles, people have a new way to interact with the Clarke’s holdings and the history of CMU. If you loved seeing the photos before, focusing on detail while piecing the images together will give you a new appreciation for the art of Barclay, Brisbane, and Jessmore. Iconic pictures, like the toilet paper toss, CMU’s Baja car flying over a dune, or Jeff Daniels’ performance in downtown Mt. Pleasant (pictured above) are available to anyone at the click of a mouse. The puzzles have been created to offer up a range of difficulty levels: from breezy, forty-piece breaks that might take five minutes to 200-piece stumpers that could occupy a couple hours.

Each week, the Clarke will upload a new puzzle. So, check back regularly to piece together the history of CMU, one iconic image at a time.

50 Years Later: CMU Activism in the Wake of the Kent State Shootings

by Bryan Whitledge

After Richard Nixon’s April 30, 1970 announcement that military action would intensify in Cambodia, protests erupted across the country. Colleges and universities were a hotbed of activism, including Central Michigan University and Kent State University in Ohio. In Kent, Ohio, things became tragic on Monday, May 4, 1970: four students died and nine were injured after National Guardsmen opened fire on the assembled students.

"Freedom Hall," Click to enlarge

The events at Kent State did not happen in a vacuum and the reverberations were felt far and wide. That evening, in Mt. Pleasant, activist students went inside Central Hall on the CMU campus with the goal of occupying the building. Central Hall was the first gymnasium building at CMU and was the headquarters of the ROTC for many years. After taking over the building, students bestowed the name “Freedom Hall” on the building. Those occupying Central Hall effectively locked out the regular occupants of the building for the next five days. Reports of the number of occupying students in “Freedom Hall” range from 50 to 200. In addition to those in the building, hundreds established a “People’s Park” on the grounds around the building on the Warriner Mall.


On Saturday, May 9, the activist students and the University administration, led by President William Boyd, negotiated an end to the occupation of “Freedom Hall.” They also agreed that the tents in the “People’s Park” would come down each morning and could be reinstalled at dusk. By Monday, May 18, there were no more reports in the CM Life about tents on Warriner Mall.

All in all, the peaceful nature of the reaction of Central’s students and administration to the Kent State shootings was remarkable. Very little property damage was caused (CM Life reports $650 of damage), there were no arrests, and no confrontations between protesters and authorities.

To mark the 50th anniversary of these events, we are sharing some of the memories of those who were at Central during the time. These quotes are from two oral history interviews conducted by the staff of the Clarke Historical Library: one with former CMU President William Boyd (2014) and one with several activist students on campus during the occupation of “Freedom Hall” (2016).

"People's Park" viewed from above, click to enlarge

Central Hall was chosen as the object of the takeover because it was the headquarters of CMU ROTC. Former student Jon Childs remarked,

“They [Ohio National Guardsmen] shot these kids at Kent State, and the next day or that night, maybe, myself and a few other people decided to take over the ROTC building. There was a big -- one of the big movements here at that time was to get ROTC off campus. There was a group called SCAR, Student Committee to Abolish ROTC.”

Several former students remembered the environment in the building. While talking about the ROTC student staff who was in charge of the armory, where the weapons were stored, Dan Manville remembered,

“He [the student in charge of the armory] was not coming out […]. He was scared we were going to take over the weapons […]. He was in there, we had to feed him, he had to use the bathroom, so we gave him a bucket to use and whenever he wanted food, we would go and get food for him. […] He started trusting us, so we ended up taking care of him. So, it's like [the others in the interview] said, we weren't there to do anything [destructive]. It was a protest against the War.”

Ron Barrons said of his time in "Freedom Hall," “I can still hear the rattle of the chains [that padlocked the front doors of the building], and feel the rock hard floor under my sleeping bag.”

Paul Puma also remembered life in the occupied building:

“When you're in a building and the mere fact that you're in the building and you're controlling it, that is your statement, life goes on. So, within that building, relationships were formed, people met boyfriends, girlfriends. […] It was a little society within the society.”

Freedom rally on Warriner Mall, click to enlarge

Jon Childs noted that not everyone had the same strategies for change – some were into peace and love, some were political, some were hot-headed:

“[W]ithin the ROTC building, it wasn't all one big happy family. There were factions in there, too. […] At one point, someone came in to burn it down, brought in gasoline […]. We had a big fight about [strategy]. Where do we go from there? What does that mean, now we're destroyers?”

Rally in front of "Freedom Hall," click to enlarge

As the protest wore on, questions about when and how it would end began to bubble up. Cathy Courtney mentioned a time when she talked with President Boyd about how it would all end and his successful dialog with the students:

“I said, […] ‘it's not going to be much longer, you [President Boyd] don't need to bring in the cops. You're doing really good, you're negotiating just great, but it's going to be coming up because finals is coming up. People aren't going to miss their finals, they're not going to take incompletes. It will be over, and we're going to do freedom school instead.”

In a solo interview with Clarke staff, President Boyd offered a similar take on the events of May 1970, albeit from the administration's point of view. When asked, “In comparison to Berkeley, how did you view these events?,” Boyd answered:

“Well, I was surprised and pleased by the good nature of the Central student body. For example, when they occupied what became Freedom Hall, the ROTC building, they permitted an inspection every day by the administration to be sure that sanitation was OK, etc. I couldn't have imagined that happening at Berkeley.

"When Sproul Hall [at UC-Berkeley] was occupied, for example, it took police to get the kids out. There weren't any daily visits by an administration member.

“So, I was surprised by the good nature of the students who occupied Central Hall -- I mean Freedom Hall. And the same was true for the tent village. At Berkeley the People's Park episode, which occurred after I had left and gone to Central, was a violent episode in which Reagan had called out the National Guard. Our People's Park was really never anything but peaceable. I never felt threatened by it for example, though I did regret it very much because it was ugly. And because of the sanitation problem. And most students got tired of it and agreed to the university's request that they take down the tents.”

President Boyd, standing to the right of the tree, speaking to
students on the Warriner Mall, click to enlarge

President Boyd’s legacy in maintaining calm was a major part of discussion with former students. Almost 50 years after the events, the praise for President Boyd’s handling of the situation could not be overstated. Many former students expressed appreciation with statements like Paul Puma’s: “President Boyd, who… I really loved him, because he was very fair. He wasn't one of the people that would just say, ‘you radical bastards,’ you know? No, no, no. He had an open mind.”

During the 2016 interview, students had a chance to speak with President Boyd by phone and Judy Lewis expressed her appreciation directly to him:

“I was at CMU for two years and how you handled the situation, like they said, kept us out of trouble. We got our point across and it was an amazing two years under your watch, taking good care of us and making sure that we had our -- we could express ourselves but be safe at the same time. So, thank you for that.”

Jon Childs followed up, noting that it took 45 years to tell President Boyd this: “I don't know whether you know it, but I think you may have saved some people's lives during that situation, and mine may have been one of them. Some of us were a little hotheaded. Thank you so much for what you did, I really appreciate it.”

After a comment about the CMU president never losing his humanity while negotiating with the students, Janice Fialka remarked: “People can be skilled, but there's that superficiality, and I think that's why you hear, at this table, such love [for President Boyd].”

"Freedom Hall" and Warriner Mall, click to enlarge

The level-headed decisions of all of the parties involved kept the CMU campus rather peaceful during what could have been a very tense time. Cathy Courtney’s assessment of the events of May 1970 were echoed among the interview participants: “Ours was one of the only schools that had successful, and I mean occupied, educate, activated, tents, campus, occupy, with no violence, no personal injuries. That's considered success.” And Paul Puma followed up, “Yeah, totally, and a lot of the responsibility for that, I think goes back to President Boyd.”

After the occupation of Freedom Hall and the People’s Park, the building and grounds were left relatively undamaged. Things returned to business as usual and the students went mostly unpunished. Although some professors held students accountable for missing classes and President Boyd did not offer amnesty for those who missed class. Jon Childs noted, “My bowling instructor flunked me. I remember that (laughs).”

You can read more about the response to the Kent State Shooting at Central in the in the May 6, May 8, and May 11, 1970 issues of CM Life. And you can view the transcripts of these interviews at the Clarke Historical Library.