UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #657
TIBBETTS, NORRIS

TIBBETTS, Norris (1921- )
Graduate student; Professor, School for Workers
At UW: 1953-1983

Interviewed: 2004	
Interviewer: Maurice Better
Length: 2 hours

Education; Work with unions; Hiring by School for Workers; Teaching; Traveling; Staff; Titles and benefits; Reflections on career at UW.

Interview Session (January 28, 2004): Tapes 1-2

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:38	Norris Tibbetts grew up on the south side of Chicago during the latter years of the Great Depression. 

00:01:51		His father was not a union member, but he did have experience working in a cotton mill in Massachusetts. 	

00:02:25	NT majored in sociology at Harvard College.  He began graduate school in 1956 at the University of Wisconsin, pursuing a MS degree.

00:03:52	He discusses some of the influential professors he studied under at Harvard.

00:05:08	NT’s undergraduate education did not prepare him for working in a union.  Some of his graduate course work helped, but at the time he was already involved in labor education.  

00:05:48	After graduating from college, NT spent four years in the army.  After he left the service, he took a job with the Committee for the Extension of Labor Education in Washington, D.C.  He talks about working with Hilda Smith.

00:08:10	He later went to work in a silk mill in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  He was also engaged in organizing and was appointed educational director of the Allentown District Joint Board.  

00:09:17	When NT joined the UW School for Workers, he thought he would stay for only a year.

00:12:10	At that time, the School for Workers was housed in the football stadium.  The offices were later moved to the extension building.

00:14:49	NT talks about some of the courses he taught.

00:16:35	NT discusses the School for Workers Summer Institute.

00:19:16	He describes the winter classes held in workers’ home communities.  Classes in Madison were very rare.

00:20:22	NT reads a letter he wrote to his family about his teaching experience at UW.

00:22:21	He discusses his experiences traveling for his job.  He primarily used his own car for travel, as he felt that state cars were unsafe.  He relates an anecdote about a disputed expense account from a trip to Eau Claire.

00:27:40	NT lists some of the locations of the classes, including union halls, junior high classrooms, fire stations, and a grocery store basement.  He did not mind traveling for the winter classes.

00:31:22	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:31:34	The classes NT taught most frequently were collective bargaining, steward’s training, advanced steward’s training, grievance arbitration, union administration, and time study and wage incentives.  He talks about the time study and wage incentives class.

00:34:32	He describes his approach to teaching union members.  He varied his techniques according to the topic of the class.

00:38:45	NT discusses the course materials he used in the classroom.  He had to prepare most of his own materials.  Instructors shared materials and added their own revisions.

00:45:07	In teaching working adults, NT believes it is especially important to demonstrate that the class has something useful to offer them.  Jokes, visual aids, and films are important in keeping students’ attention.

00:52:16	NT discusses changes in the students who attended his classes.

00:57:40	He explains the importance of the certificates students received upon completion of the classes.  

00:58:18	A number of his classes had a large percentage of women students.  While there was a significant number of African Americans in classes held in Racine, Janesville, and Milwaukee, there were few in classes in other parts of the state.  The labor classes seemed to foster inter-racial friendships.

01:02:43	End of side.  End of tape.

Tape 2/Side 1

01:03:04	NT lists a number of unions that made an impression on him.

01:05:03	Everyone on the School for Workers Staff mentored NT when he first arrived.

01:07:25	NT describes director of the school Robert Ozanne.

01:10:32	He reads a poem he wrote about Ozanne.  He explains why the staff was diverse.

01:14:40	NT discusses the introduction of academic titles within the School for Workers.  He also discusses salary increases.

01:19:59	He talks about some of his memorable colleagues.

01:22:29	NT describes what he would do if his students complained about their union.

01:25:46	He discusses significant changes in the school, including the development of the Milwaukee office.

01:27:18	The school did not have any particular political affiliations until the Vietnam War.  The staff had pro-labor politics, but there were left- and right-leaning individuals.  NT mentions a university decree prohibiting the staff from engaging in political activity while on company time.

01:30:25	He talks about the TAA strikes.

01:33:56	End of side.

Tape 2/Side 2

01:34:03	NT comments on the implications of teaching his classes during strikes.

01:36:41	He discusses faculty governance in the school.

01:39:20	NT talks about Robert Ozanne.

01:41:17	He mentions some economics professors who were pro-labor.

01:42:46	NT served on the extension committee on aging, from which he resigned.  Later he was chairman of the extension building committee.

01:47:02	The School for Workers was often criticized as being “snobbish” because the staff members were too busy to attend national conferences.

01:48:38	NT discusses the importance of publications and research.  

01:50:48	He relates several anecdotes about arbitration.  

01:54:20	NT talks about some of the office staff.

01:56:08	He describes the department recreation director.

01:58:46	NT characterizes his time at UW as the best years of his life.

02:02:00	Some of the summer institute courses were co-taught with union representatives.  He mentions union education committees.

02:04:55	End of side.  End of tape.  End of interview.

END