UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM

Interview #1086
MYRAH, STEPHEN

MYRAH, STEPHEN (1938-2013)
Undergraduate student; Assistant Director of Student Financial Aid (1964-1992); Secretary of the Academic Staff (1992-1999)
At UW: 1956-1960 [as student]; 1964-2002 [as academic staff]

Interviewed: 	April 14, 2010
Interviewer: 	Charlene Tortorice
Index by: 	Stephen Pierce
Length: 	52 minutes
Series:		Campus Governance

Abstract: In his April 2010 interview with Char Tortorice, Stephen Myrah reminisces about his over 4 decades of service to the University of Wisconsin as part of academic staff. He explains how he came to UW as a student and member of the financial aid staff, how he worked his way up the ranks of the staff, and how important issues of academic staff governance have been to the university. He offered his perspectives on a number of key issues and personalities in his roles in the financia aid department and as Secretary of the Academic Staff. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the UW-Madison Oral History Program.

Key Words: University of Wisconsin-Madison; academic staff; National Defense Education Act (NDEA); the Cold War; Wally Douma; Fred Harvey Harrington; Academic Staff Executive Committee (ASEC); Bob Miller; Madison Academic Staff Association (MASA); Student Personnel Association (SPA); Academic Staff Professional Representation Organization (ASPRO); Donna Shalala.

First Interview Session (April 14, 2010): Digital File

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

00:00:12	Question: Undergraduate education? Answer: He related that he did his undergraduate history degree at UW-Madison, after which he received an MA in history and then spent 2 years as a quartermaster in New Cumberland PA. He then returned to work on a PhD in history.

00:01:28	[no question] After a year as a full time student, he remembered, he took a part-time (and then full-time) job in the financial aid division, and switched to trying to get a part-time PhD in Educational Administration. Follow up: Did you teach at all? Answer: Yes; he TAed in Legal Aspects of Education.

00:02:48	Question: Your dissertation? Answer: He explained how his dissertation looked at the Anti-Student-Riot Acts of the late 1960s, which threatened rioting students with loss of federal aid. Later struck from the books, the acts nevertheless kept Oshkosh students expelled for rioting in 1969 from coming to Madison. He described how the deans’ offices and financial aid office dealt with these acts. He briefly observed how “these were different times,” explaining how the National Defense Education Act had just come into being and how these control measures were completely unique in the history of the US.

00:07:25	Question: You were in financial aid for your entire career? Answer: 25 years. He discussed starting as a student worker (because he didn’t want his wife to have to work to put him through) at financial aid, which moved from the Administration Building (where Humanities is now), then to “poverty palace” on Murray Street (where Vilas Hall is now), then to the University Club. He reminisced about regis-tration week at the UC and the way Wally Douma became the head of financial aid.

00:10:20	Question: What was your status? Answer: Starting as a student hourly employee, he would have been called a “specialist” at the time, governed not by separate policies and procedures, but (he discovered) by faculty rules.  Thus it was possible for a person to become a full professor without ever having taught a student. Follow up: Did you have the same rights as faculty? Answer: Under the rules, yes.

00:12:14	[no question] He recounted how this system of specialists governed by faculty rules, which he thought made no sense, was eliminated by Fred Harvey Harrington and left academic staff in “limbo.”

00:13:08	Question: What was campus like when you started? Answer: Not much different from his school days in the 1950s, though it quickly got tenser after 1964.  He wasn’t at first very sympathetic with the students, since he thought it disrupted the educational process. After sharing his memories of tear gas being used on campus, he noted that over time he became radicalized by the realization that the students’ views were right.

00:16:41	Question: What was the faculty relationship with specialists? Answer: He said he heard a lot of complaints from those who had interactions with faculty, though his division didn’t have much contact with faculty. 

00:19:39	Question: Total university service? Answer: He explained that after finishing in financial aid, he transitioned to the division of academic services, where he was personnel officer.

00:21:11	[no question] From being personnel officer, he continued, he got onto the Academic Staff Executive Committee, after which he became Secretary of Academic Staff. Follow up: How did the Secretary’s office start? Answer: It started after academic staff got governance and realized that they needed a position to look out for their in-terests. Bob Miller was the first secretary, but his physical condition led him to retire.

00:23:18	Follow up: Talk about your activities pre-governance. Answer: He related that before MASA or ASEC was SPA (Student Personnel Association), which was instrumental in bringing about academic staff awards. He also participated in the Angry Young Administrators Association (AYAA) and “the Bridge,” but didn’t think that these groups had much effect.

00:26:56	[no question] He related how MASA came about, when after merger, UW System required rules for academic staff. In this process, he said, Cyrena Pondrom “just sat down and wrote some rules,” to which Madison’s academic staff protested. 

00:28:04	Follow up: Memories of the early days? Answer: Despite all MASA’s activity, he felt that little progress was made until 1985, when academic staff were given governance. Follow up: Lobbying for governance? Answer: He remembered first going to educate the Regents and then to the legislature, both of whom had no idea how academic staff were different from classified staff. He and Tortorice talked about the first lobbyist they hired, how he was funded, and how ASPRO was eventually formed.

00:33:38	[no question] Continuing to talk about lobbying the legislature for academic staff, he recalled trying to influence Governor Tommy Thompson (who made the budget), especially regarding titling and salaries, and constantly having to fight to have academic staff salaries linked to with faculty in the state budget.

00:35:34	Follow up: How effective has academic staff governance been in the past 20 years? Answer: He thought it had been effective, citing the example of the way UW Hospital needed academic staff influence to become a public authority.

00:37:19	Follow up: How is participation in academic staff governance perceived? Answer: He related some faculty who didn’t think their staff should be given time to participated, citing examples.

00:39:24	Follow up: What was the most serious issue you dealt with on ASEC? Answer: He discussed the potential “dustup” that resulted from some misdealings on the part of the head of the libraries. An investigation was only averted by the personal intervention of then new chancellor Donna Shalala.

00:42:48	Question: What are you most proud of? Answer: He said unquestionably his years as Secretary of Academic Staff were his best years, and felt that he’d accomplished a lot in that post.

00:43:50	[no question] Continuing to talk about his role as Secretary, he discussed Donna Shalala’s “kitchen cabinet”—if someone continually told her she couldn’t do things, they were moved to another position. He also talked about Shalala’s desire to play NY politics with the “Dane County delegation” of legislatures.

00:46:52	[no question] He and Tortorice talked about the Secretary of the Faculty position, who did not have to do any lobbying. He related how different the jobs of Sec Fac and Secretary of the Academic Staff were.

00:48:24	Follow up: Anything you’d like to add? Answer: He talked about his involvement in associations of financial aid administrations while with the financial aid office. In this capacity, he was appointed to the Higher Education Aids Board advisory committee, on which he proposed that institutions should be allowed to return to doling out the Wisconsin higher education grant, but this was very unpopular and he was later defeated in his run for president of one of the associations as a result.

00:51:35	End of First Interview Session

End of Oral History #1086