UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #693
LADINSKY, JACK

LADINSKY, Jack (1932- )
Professor, Sociology and Law School
At UW: 1961-1996

Interviewed: 2004	
Interviewer: Charlotte Frascona
Length: 1 hour 10 minutes

Educational background; Industrial Relations Research Institute (IRRI); Affirmative action and student recruitment; TA strike; Decline and fall of the IRRI.

Interview Session (October 20, 2004): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:11	Jack Ladinsky relates his educational background at Harris Teachers College, the University of Missouri, and the University of Michigan, where he achieved his PhD in sociology.

00:01:51	He came to the University of Wisconsin in 1961.

00:02:24	JL became associated with the Industrial Relations Research Institute (IRRI) because of his interest in the sociology of occupations.  He goes on to list his committee service for the IRRI, which included graduate student selection.

00:04:06	He feels that the sociology department never viewed his participation in the IRRI as particularly important.

00:04:30	Faculty commitment to the IRRI and its courses was an "Achilles heel" of the program from the 1970s.

00:07:31	JL saw the IRRI as offering a unique course of study that was not available in either the Business School or College of Letters & Science departments.  He thinks that the priorities of the university and of government have discouraged funding for industrial relations programs nationwide.  Most funding now goes to more quantitative types of research.

00:14:28	He continues to talk about the split between quantitative and qualitative research, which typified the growing distance between economics faculty and IRRI faculty.

00:16:25	JL notes that a weakness of the IRRI was that it never became a department.  Departmentalization would have made the program more marketable to students and thus more institutionally stable.

00:21:15	He argues that the IRRI could have been more effective by offering courses to undergraduates.

00:25:45	He talks about affirmative action and the recruitment of students to the IRRI.

00:31:02	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:05	Jack Ladinsky talks about the closure of the Industrial Relations Research Institute (IRRI).  He thinks that money was always a problem for the program; but, in addition, there was no natural constituency on campus to support the IRRI.

00:32:49	The only support for the IRRI came from its faculty and some of its joint appointments.  Neither they nor the School for Workers were visible in state and national politics.

00:37:48	The strength of the IRRI was that it presented an alternative to the masters program of the Business School.

00:40:30	JL thinks that the TA strike had no long-term effect on the administration's perception of the IRRI.  He goes on to talk about the tough-mindedness of L&S deans.

00:41:17	He contrasts the costs of institutes with those of departments.

00:49:39	He thinks that the IRRI had to build demand for its courses, beginning with undergraduates, in order to build its visibility on campus.

00:55:05	JL addresses some of the attempts to save the IRRI by moving it to the La Follette Institute or the Business School.  He goes on to talk about some of the deficiencies of the UW Business School.

01:01:39	Had the IRRI been a "wrap-around" program--that is, if it could offer an undergraduate major in addition to a masters and PhD program--the IRRI would have survived.

01:01:58	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:03:56	Jack Ladinsky traces the vulnerability of the Industrial Relations Research Institute (IRRI) within the university to the program's lack of tenure-granting authority.  The IRRI never received this authority because it failed to cultivate demand for its courses.

01:06:20	He talks about the relationship between the University of Wisconsin and the state government.

01:09:45	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview.

END