UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

Interview #1089
FRAYDAS, MAY

FRAYDAS, MAY (1942-present)
Undergraduate student; Distinguished Advisor (and later assistant director of Career Advising Services)
At UW: 1960-1965 [as student]; 1977-2000 [as academic staff]

Interviewed: 	June 17, 2010
Interviewer: 	Joe Corry
Index by: 	Stephen Pierce
Length: 	1 hour, 6 minutes

Abstract: In her June 2010 interview with Joe Corry, May Fraydas reflects on her more than three decades of service in career advising at the University of Wisconsin-Madison through the 1970s, 80s and 90s. She recounted how her advising of students was influenced by her own experiences as a student and teacher and how career advising changed through the years. She offered her perspectives on major figures and programs at UW, such as Ed Weidenfeller, Tom Johnson, SOAR and minority student issues. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.

Key Words: New York City; University of Wisconsin-Madison; UW-Extension; the 1960s; Vietnam; Sterling Hall bombing; Office of Career Advising Services; Ed Weidenfeller; Frances Sundene; Thomas Johnson.

First Interview Session (June 17, 2010): Digital File

Time	Keywords
00:00:00	Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

00:00:19	Question: Background information? Answer: Fraydas talked about growing up in New York City the daughter of Holocaust survivors and then coming to UW as an undergraduate. She loved going to school at UW, though it was a turbulent time.

00:01:17	[no question] She said that after UW, she went back to NYC, got an MA in education from Hofstra, and taught for 3 years on Long Island. During one summer, passing through Madison on her way to San Francisco, she found that it was like “coming home” and got a job at UW-Extension doing adult education preparing adult students for the GED. She shared what she learned in this job—that one needed to set goals that one could reach. She did this job for 9 years, but as funding became scarce, she enjoyed it less and less.

00:04:11	[no question] She reflected on the value of being unemployed for six months, which allowed her to understand what identity and security having a job meant.

00:04:40	Question: Talk about your experiences as the child of a Holocaust survivor. Answer: She observed that her father, drafted into the Army in the 1940s, observed the segregation of African-Americans in the dining halls and was appalled. This story being told over and over instilled a sense of responsibility in her for making her world a better place and gave her sensitivity toward minority students later on.

00:07:38	Question: Student life? Answer: She reflected on her undergraduate life, which she remembered as one of the happiest times of her life. Discussing life in the dorms, she mused on how much of a change it was coming to the Midwest, but how beautiful the Lakeshore dorms were.

00:10:20	[no question] Continuing to reflect on dorm life in Madison, she talked about being stimulated by the political events of the day, coming from a home where politics mattered. She cited going to see George Wallace and hearing about John Kennedy’s assassination.

00:12:06	[no question] She reflected about how, if you got a college degree in the early 1960s, you didn’t even think about whether you’d be able to get a job.  She also noted that women generally didn’t pursue academic careers, but it was a time of real hope. 

00:13:35	[no question] She talked about how this time of hope changed quickly when she returned as a teacher in 1967 as the Vietnam protests ramped up. She shared anecdotes about experiencing tear gas, trying to teach through protests, and the Sterling Hall bombing. Though it was a tumultuous period, she said these years were still a period in which she felt she was making a difference.

00:17:22	Question: Your career at Madison? Answer: Fraydas felt that her experience had been valuable to her as a career advisor, because she was an example of how one doesn’t have to “literally look like” what one ends up applying for. She talked about landing an interview with Ed Weidenfeller in career advising services, who recognized that she had a sense of the relationship between a career and teaching. She reflected on being relaxed in the interview, since she was so sure she wouldn’t get the job.

00:19:56	[no question] She recalled learning the job by doing, one critical moment coming when she realized that she didn’t need to know everything. She talked about the staff that was in the office when she started—her, Weidenfeller, Fran Sundeene, and a part-time receptionist--quipping how there was only 1 ½ student advisors for all of L&S.

00:24:09	[no question] When Ed Weidenfeller died during the summer of 1977, both a personal and professional blow, she became a full-time advisor and a new director, Tom Johnson, was hired. 

00:25:43	[no question] During the same summer, she remembered, when McDonnell Douglas was on campus hiring, a student protest pushed into the building and put the recruiter “on trial.” She vividly recalled the conflict she felt when the campus police arrived and asked her what should be done—because while she thought students should have the right to protest, she also felt the recruiter shouldn’t have to be intimidated.

00:30:26	[no question] Fraydas talked about the move from Science Hall to 905 University Avenue, quipping about how Nancy Abraham marveled that she moved her own plants from the one office to the other and talking about why this was significant to her as part of the relationship between classified and academic staff.

00:34:37	[no question] As the staff grew, she observed, the mission of the office changed from an emphasis on placement to exploring what a student’s values and interest were so that the office could better interface between students and the outside world.

00:36:53	[no question] Continuing to talk about the office’s new role, she discussed the amount of reeducation they did, of departments and even parents, regarding what a successful trajectory would look like for a liberal arts student. She emphasized the importance of relating the more global changes in the world of work, which was becoming more mobile, to parents who grew up during a different time, and shared anecdotes from the SOAR program that reaffirmed this conclusion.

00:42:05	[no question] She discussed the growth of the staff at the office of career advising services—hiring a part-time advisor, an associate director, a full time recruiting director, and other.

00:44:05	Follow up: Coordination? Answer: Fraydas explained that, with so much on-campus recruiting, it wasn’t practical for a single office to coordinate recruiting—each school’s advising office did this function and the computer revolutionized this role. Follow up: Were businesses asking for L&S majors—how would majors know this? Answer: She talked about having “major meetings,” meeting with each major department and coordinating when important companies would be on campus far in advance. Some employers were interested in targeting certain majors, and some wanted to see all L&S majors.

00:48:57	[no question] She emphasized the “preparatory work” involved in an undergraduate succeeding in the interview/hiring process, not only of making a good resume and interviewing well, but of knowing who you are in certain fora. She also mentioned that working with advisors from many areas of L&S, each of whom knew individual students, was meaningful for her and beneficial for students.

00:51:42	Question: Minority students? Answer: She recalled how the Five Year Program brought in many of the minority students who were at UW, and there was a lot of collegiality and cross-pollination with them and with CCAS. She recounted an incident in which she sat and listened to a minority student’s complaint as a way of “reprogramming” her own perceptions about race.

00:57:45	Question: Were you able to have meaningful interactions with businesses? Answer: She related the unique opportunity her office had in sitting down with businesses to talk about their expectations and the trends in business, and especially the opportunities available to minorities.

01:00:00	Question: What parts of your career were enjoyable or not? Answer: She expressed her frustration with the chain of command at the university, which tended to place an artificial separation between faculty and academic staff, but she described this as only a small complaint.

01:03:31	[no question] She added that she felt she had tremendous freedom at CAS to be who she was, citing her gratitude that when she left small group meetings she didn’t have some of the same complaints as many women and minorities on campus.

01:06:22	End of First Interview Session

End of Oral History #1089