UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #335
SCHOENFELD, CLARENCE A. “Clay”

SCHOENFELD, Clarence A. (1918-1996)
Undergraduate Student; Professor of Journalism
At UW: 1937-1941; 1947-1985

Interviewed: 1987	
Interviewer: Laura Smail
Length: 2 hours

Writing history of WARF; Network among those living in University Houses in 1940s.
 
(The interview is about the writing of the history of WARF--The WARF Story.)

[The Schoenfeld interview consists of two cassette tapes that were recorded in 1987. An index exists for this interview and has been processed by the Oral History Program. There are six more cassettes for an interview with the dates 1982 and 1985 on the label. This interview has not been processed by the Oral History Program. In May 2009 Oral History Program Director Troy Reeves decided to hold off on obtaining permissions for this interview, and thus processing it, in light of Schoenfeld’s death and the unusual circumstances in Schoenfeld’s family. The tapes are located in the cabinet housing the oral history cassettes, at the end of the series. Please disregard the oral history number affixed to the tapes, as it is not accurate.]

Tape 1/Side 1 

00:00:00	Interviewer’s introduction. 

00:00:08	The invitation to write the history.  Given total access.  Librarian helped.  Hopes will get official history.

00:03:32	Files include current negotiations, have to be restricted.

00:04:45	UW consultants he used.  John Jenkins, Hove, Bock, Baldwin, Kearl, Shain, Harrington, Young

00:08:19	Board's reluctance to be in public eye.  
00:09:38	The sanitized pamphlet.  Thinks changing administration might change policy.  UW might bring out a history.  Nothing by WARF since 1936--Russell.

00:12:19	1946, WARF asked Wisconsin Alumni Association to defend.  1948 The Readers Digest story.

00:14:44	Evjue disliked WARF from beginning.  UW periodically wrote encomiums.

00:17:22	CS saw minutes.  There were real contentions.

00:18:03	Effort by Jan Vansina to get history done.  Carstensen to write.

00:19:25	Ross wanted biography of Link.  1928, first grant.  1988, 60th.

00:22:45	Q. re issues in history of Steenbock-Link controversy.  CS considered it peripheral.  The University Houses story.

00:29:20	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:29:22	University Houses story continued.  The fields of first residents--not all in natural sciences.  Poor construction, design of buildings.  The poor qualifications of the first manager.  

00:36:27	CS's story on location of University Houses.  Deal made with Shorewood re water, schools etc.

00:39:45	Impact of University Houses on recruiting.  The UW interdisciplinary mix resulting from friendships among first residents: Suomi, Crow, Epstein, Thiede, Herriott, Cutlip, Kearl--the UW power structure.  John Jenkins doing history of Housing.  LS asks about Ingraham comment re black candidate.

00:48:05	CS went into embargo on WARF funds to social sciences and how it ended.

00:58:39	End of side. End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

00:58:40	Board's resentment of intermingling of funds.  1982, Shain talked to board.  Legislature restive.

01:01:14	Only two occasions when board insisted on own views: (1) 1932, new department of game management.  Aldo Leopold to be on faculty; (2) Nutrition.  Bock extra sensitive to WARF meddling.  He was one who dragged heels.

01:06:24	CS points out not everything decided at full meeting so may not show up in minutes.  Points out presidents' files deal only with problems.  Real story is sixty years with minimal problems.

01:09:20	Luck that Graduate School Research Committee was set up when WARF began.  How it happened.

01:14:50	A bit on the UW Press.

01:16:08	Steenbock tough guy to deal with.  Brittingham also.  CS doesn't think appropriate to history.

01:18:27	Q. re outside studies.  Sherry Epstein.  Given access to everyone except managing director and files.  Board decision.  She talked to CS, Shain, Cronon, Frautschi, Bock.  Worked in archives.

01:21:16	Q. re organization of history (LS hadn't seen).  Not chronological.

01:25:08	The history out just as WARF coping with "desperate suits".  Not time for publicity.  UW also leery that legislature will hack off $7 million a year.  Happened twice--the threat.

01:27:43	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

01:27:49	(From beginning of tape.)   Other foundations might not give.  How CS felt about failure to publish.  Spent two and a half years on it.  But has written 23 books.  Doesn't need another title.  And understands.  Estimates for printing already in when decision was made.  Wouldn't have affected his work even if he had known wouldn't be published.  Spent 33 years in army.  Knows a direct order.  Not a professional historian.  Would print it himself if not restricted.  

01:33:11	End of interview.

END