UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #216
RUTH B. DOYLE

DOYLE, Ruth B.  (1916- )
Undergraduate Student; Assistant to Dean of Law School
At UW: 1934-38; 1961-79

Interviewed: 1982	
Length: 2 hours, 30 minutes	
Transcript: 62 pages
Interviewer: Donna Hartshorne
Indexed (time code) by: Elaine Ayers

Background; Undergraduate life in 1930s; Daily Cardinal; Election to Legislature; Campaign; Problems of women in politics; Dane County Board of Supervisors; Work at UW; Faculty-Student Committee on Human Rights; Housing discrimination cases; Black student movement; Efforts to increase number of American blacks on campus; Riots; Resignation; Work in Law School as assistant to dean; Financial aid program; Women law students; Issues in Law School; Center for Public Representation; Law School deans; Law students during protest era; Law School rating.

Tape 1/Side 1     

00:00:03	Early background.  Grew up in Wausau, Wisconsin.  German-Irish heritage.

00:00:55	1934 Came to UW as freshman.  Four years here stand more vividly than any.  

00:02:03	Major in history and interest in education. Her educational interests and their role in politics.  Madison Board of Education.  Burdens of teaching.

00:02:55	Extracurricular activities.  On Board of controllers of Daily Cardinal.

00:03:28	Strike of Cardinal.  Rose from a question of anti-semitism.  A "strike Cardinal."  Lasted six weeks.  Some of effects.  A planned stock holders meeting.  President Dykstra.  Dean Garrison--redrawing of Articles of Incorporation for Cardinal.  A rich experience.

00:08:23	Teaching career.  Regression to marriage, "baby buggy brigade".  

00:10:00	Government work during WWII.  Patent office.  Went back to Wausau to have baby.  1944 back in Washington.  Husband had job with Secretary of State.   

00:12:03	Husband's job.

00:12:42	Going to White House.  Fall 1940.

00:14:55	Family's involvement in state politics.  Wisconsin legislators for four generations.  Hopes daughter doesn't do it as well.

00:16:01	Coming back to Madison.  Why.

00:16:31	Active in Democratic party.  Gaylord Nelson, Lucey, others.

00:17:28	1948--surprise election of RD to legislature.  Hadn't counted on a political career.  Campaigning was fun.  Talks of party disintegration.  RD's husband managed Carl Thompson's campaign same year.  Total expenditure--$5000.  Makeup of legislature then.  Bill Proxmire's campaigning techniques.  Democrats generally just a thorn in people's sides then.  Some of things worked on.  

00:23:07	Women legislators. An incident where the sergeant-at-arms sought her out in the women’s restroom.

00:24:35	A feminist "battle."  A young female law student who couldn't get on sergeant of arms staff because of her sex.  A lost battle.  At this time it was "decided" that there were two places a woman couldn't work--with criminally insane and in legislature. 

00:26:22	Only served two terms.  Some reasons why.  1952 campaign.  Another loss.  RD's philosophy on life and in politics.   

00:28:14	Went on to be member of Dane County Board of Supervisors in 1953.  How this came about.  Resigned when moved out of ward.  Was only woman.  Talk about this time.  Her responsibilities.

00:31:39	End of side.    

Tape 1/Side 2    

00:31:56	More on responsibilities while on Dane County Board of Supervisors.  Reorganization of Juvenile Courts.  RD wrote an article about this.   Changes of juvenile justice system.   

00:35:26	Other responsibilities.  County budget.  Talk about re-elections.  Importance of having an outlet away from home.  Reason for leaving Board.   

00:39:18	Running for School Board.  Talks about her unsuccessful teaching experience in village of Oregon.  Her duties on School Board, a job she liked.  Was first viewed with suspicion.  Why.  Isolation of school boards.   

00:47:10	In 1961 RD started working for University.  In Martha Peterson's office.  Later job with Faculty Student Committee on Human Rights.  Patty Hamilton incident.  UW non-discrimination policies.  Housing discrimination.   

00:52:40	Study of students not in organized housing.  A comparison of students' lives before drastic change.

00:55:06	Back to interviews.  A story of one student.  Student involvement in Madison.

01:00:12	Getting involved with black movement. Increasing number of African Americans on campus.  Ways this was done.  Process of approving applications.  People on committee.

01:01:11	Efforts to increase numbers of African-American students.

01:03:57	End of side. End of tape.

End of Mp3 File.

Tape 2/Side 1     

00:00:02	Where power lay in accepting people.  Setting things up for the arrival.  Silas Parnell.  His involvement.  Where Wisconsin residents came from.  An enriching experience.

00:05:45	Tutors.  How they were selected.  The troubles encountered.

00:08:39	About program.  Tie-in with Selective Service.  Sorts of fields these people settled on.  A success story.

00:11:58	Willy Edwards.  How he "did in" RD.  Beginnings of uprisings.  What started riots here.  

00:15:33	An incident in Edwin Young's office.  A demand of a strike by black students.  An after-Thanksgiving meeting.  Sam Proctor.  RD had to resign.  Went to work at Law School.  About Sam Proctor.  RD wants to write about this period. 

00:22:41	Changes in program after RD left.  Is still a functioning one.  More stories about when RD ran it.  Strike time.  Enrollment changes.

00:31:28	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2     

00:31:42	Working at Law School.  When started, how long there.  RD was Assistant to the Dean.  RD feels very much at home among lawyers.  Job description.  Financial aids for students-- scholarships and loans.  A pre-law advisor.  Stories of people RD came in contact with.  The Gargoyle, its reception, what has become of it.

00:36:41	Gargoyle enabled RD to do many things, one an interview with W.J. Hagenah.  Other things in publication.  A wide variety of subjects.  Some reactions to magazine.

00:41:41	About financial aids.  Always in trouble.  Most came in loans.  How Reagan's proposed budget cuts will affect law students.  Job market has held up well.  Why this may be so.  Most students careful about loans.

00:47:33	Relationship between campus Financial Aid Office, and RD's operation.  Other programs that dealt with financial aid.  Minority program.

00:53:31	Women law students.  Not much of a minority now.  Accounts for jump in enrollment.  Changes in views of a "woman's role".  Stress on married women, especially those with children.  Single parents.  Married men students.

01:01:40	RD's opinion of law students; compares to medical students.

01:02:21	Internships.  A general practice course.  Very popular.  Clinical placements also popular.  Why programs like this have been dropped from some law schools.

01:03:23	End of side.    

Tape 3/Side 1 

No audio exists for this portion of the interview.
Tape 3/Side 2    

00:00:01	Emphasis on exams within Law School. 

00:02:53	Law School almost lost its accreditation.  Inspection process.  Financial squabbles, lack of space cited as reasons.  Never actually a threat.    

00:06:49	Some schools in a class by themselves: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Michigan, Chicago, Columbia.  Why this is.  Wisconsin in next group.  
   
00:08:33	Extra library wing.  May add yet another wing, or move school from Bascom Hill.  Attempts at keeping enrollment down.  Talk of night school.  Another whole school.

00:15:10	RD enjoyed Law School, students.  RD thinks now she should have been a lawyer.  Why she never did it.   

00:16:46	What aspect of law RD would go into if doing it now.   

00:18:42	RD's "lawyer family".   

00:22:33	End of interview.

END