Interview with Judith Ramaley

2016

2005

Like many institutions of higher education, Portland State University (PSU) has engaged in initiatives to promote a more equitable and democratic society, from curricular changes to institutional policy implementation. In the late 1980s, PSU required students to complete a certain number of “diversity” credits as part of its general education requirements. During the 1990s, PSU radically revised its approach to general education, creating the University Studies Program that places diversity awareness among its core goals. Most recently, current President Daniel O. Bernstine has instituted a comprehensive “Diversity Initiative” as part of a series of initiatives aimed at improving the quality of university life for students, faculty, and staff. This paper recounts the institutional context for the University Studies Program’s emphasis on diversity, provides an overview of the University Studies general education curriculum, which is designed as a series of interdisciplinary learning ...

1996

No venture of this nature is ever accomplished in isolation. There are numerous individuals I must acknowledge, beginning with my family. I would like to thank Verne, Robert, Leann, Victoria, and Carolyn for their support and encouragement during this process. Like good friends, on many occasions, they had the graciousness to look past the lawn that needed mowing to see the flowers growing in the window box. A special thanks goes to little Jenny, who sat with me for hours as I worked on the computer. My extended family, the other 17 doctoral students of cohort two, must also be acknowledged. They have shared a great deal of the trial and tribulation, excitement and joy of the process. The months we met at Silver Creek Falls hold a special place in my memory. Clearly, the bonds we created are unprecedented and lifelong. All the doctoral faculty in the Community College Leadership Program at Oregon State University have been extremely giving of their time, knowledge,

2010

WZ: Good afternoon, today is Wednesday May 12. My name is Wenxian Zhang, Head of Archives and Special Collections. With me are two students, Alia and Jennifer. We are going to interview Cynthia Wood, Vice President Emerita of the Institutional Advancement, right? That is the official title? Cynthia, I understand you are a Southerner. Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up. CW: Yes, I'm very defiantly a Southerner. I was born in and raised in West Central Alabama, which is in a small town, and I guess I have a lot of small town values, appreciate the positive things about the South: the warmth, the caring, and the hospitality. I think that when one grows up the South and they leave-I guess Florida still in the South, but I don't think Florida's considered the South anymore-and I think you feel apologetic on behalf of people who had some beliefs that you didn't share or some attitudes, but overall, I really value the foundation that I had as a Southerner, and I'm still very much a Southerner at heart. I just hope the good things about the Southerner and being Southern. WZ: I read that your father is the superintendent of Dale County? CW: He was. Well, my father was superintendent of schools during a very interesting period of time-in the sixties-well actually for thirty years. That was during the integration, when they were integrating the schools. It was very hotbed politically and my father was-well he certainly was a very traditional Southerner-but he was very much a moderate, so he really had a lot of pressure on both sides, because neither side thought that he was on their side. But I think that one of the things that he was most proud of was the fact that in many of the counties around where he was superintendent, they had a total white flight from the schools and he was able tounder his leadership-the schools remained pretty much intact. I think there was only faculty member that left in the whole county and he was able to, under court order, to do the integration and make it satisfactory. So, the school system still survives today as an integrated school system. WZ: That's very impressive. Tell us about your educational background, your grade school, your high school. CW: I grew, as I said, in a very small town. I attended kindergarten, which, back in those days, we didn't have public school kindergarten. I attended kindergarten once a week because on Thursdays, back in those days, the county's seat where my dad's office was, they could leave at noon. So, one day a week I got to go to Ms. Annie's kindergarten. Then I went to grade and high school. And high school was a very small school in Akron. I had some really good teachers and then I went to a big university. I went to Auburn University, which was a very large university, and I studied speech pathology there and I thought I wanted to be a clinical speech pathologist. Then I decided rather than taking time off, I would go straight though to graduate school. There was some mix-up and a fire at Florida State, and so my records somehow between getting misplaced, so that wasn't going to be. I wanted like a partial scholarship, so they said I could have one, but it would start at midyear. Out of the blue, I received a call from a woman who was head of the hearing impaired department at Florida State and offered me a full fellowship. So I ended up going to graduate school and getting a Masters in Hearing Disabilities. And that right after rubella epidemic, so there was a lot of federal money for funding, so I got my masters there. I really feel like-I think I really am, I know I am-a lifelong learner. As having worked at Rollins, I really appreciate the value of a liberal arts education. I feel like I got my liberal arts education as an adult, kind of here, and not formally. I've taken classes and a lot of leadership training, but I've also just taken classes just to learn. I regret not having a liberal arts education but I bet you can always think that because it's never too late to do it on your own. WZ: So what brings you to the Central Florida area? CW: I came to the Central Florida area not long after graduate school. After graduate school, I lived in Jacksonville for a year, where I worked with hearing impaired children, preschoolers, and then had the opportunity to move to Orlando. Their program was a little bit more sophisticated. I received a job offer here, and was also dating someone who lived down here-of course he promptly moved to Ft. Lauderdale, when he got transferred, but I ended up marrying him, so it all worked out-but I moved down here for that opportunity. So that's how I got to Central Florida, and that was in thegracious-the early seventies. WZ: Okay, so I read that you were also involved with the Orange County Public School System. Tell us about that experience.

Educational Gerontology, 2021

Using the theory of continuity, and based on quantitative and qualitative data collected from an online survey and one-on-one interviews from a nonrandom sample of retired faculty, this exploratory study examines guiding considerations for transition to retirement at a mid-sized University in the Midwest. Abolition of mandatory retirement requirements in higher education institutions since the early 1990s has put the senior faculty at the helm of deciding when to retire. Findings indicate that the post-retirement period is part of a lifetime continuum-both during the "contemplation period" when respondents plan their retirement, and when most share with ease their final decision to retire with colleagues and administrators. Furthermore, transition to retirement for most is a non-traumatic experience, with involvement in diverse activities including working in their areas of expertise ("bridge employment"). However, respondents' overall expressed sentiment was to have limited post-retirement contact and involvement with the University and campus-related activities, including serving as mentors for junior faculty or students. For some, heavy teaching loads was the reason for their reluctance to contribute to campus life (the "burnout" factor). But their lack of enthusiasm to reconnect with the institution may also be an indication of the presence of an implicit, yet unresolved conflict between some retired faculty and the administration.