UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #250
LINDQUIST, MILDRED

LINDQUIST, Mildred (1908-1987)
Manager, University Club
At UW: 1933-1979

Interviewed: 1982	
Interviewer: Donna Hartshorne
Length: 2.5 hours

Background; Coming to University Club; Rules for women; Formality of Club; Social program; Meals; Laundry and supplies; Club during WWII; Issue of black graduate student; Matrix and patrix dinners; Membership requirements; Board of Directors; Changes in food service; Faculty; Roomers; Crises with residents.

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:01	Born in Revoke, Iowa.  Her father was a travelling man so they ended up moving many times.  After graduation she went to New York State and worked for newspaper there for two years.  Returned to Iowa and father was transferred to Madison.  She got a job here at Packard Motors, which later went bankrupt.

00:01:43	ML heard that Dora Busch, manager of University Club, was looking for a receptionist.  ML got job, and she worked there for forty-six years.

00:04:12	She took on more and more responsibilities as time went on.  Ed Thomas became manager after her third year there.  Since he liked to do maintenance, he left most public relations work to her.

00:06:43	University Club always had a big social program and University Club was hub of faculty social life.  It was very exclusive; you had to be a member or registered guest to get into dining room.  Strict dress code, no cash policy, one signed for meals.  Hostess, waiters, silver, china--very formal.  Women were not allowed to sit in front of dining rooms alone--there was a separate partitioned section for women without escorts.  Women were not allowed to sit and read in men's reading room.  Cloakroom was for men exclusively.

00:10:02	Men were extremely disturbed in 1970 when club was opened to larger University public and women began using cloakroom for their hats and coats.  Men threatened to take over women's lounge.

00:11:15	Served breakfast in smaller dining room downstairs.  Stopped serving breakfast sometime before WWII.  In 1969-70, they stopped serving dinner because people stayed away from center of campus due to rioting.  This was a major turning point.

00:12:53	Used to have dinner lectures, dinner musicals.  Took up to two hundred reservations, which were sometimes filled in ten minutes.  Very formal.  Women usually wore long dresses, men wore tuxedos or dark suits.  Dinner dances.  Women's discussion groups once a month were very popular.  Always had a children's Christmas party and then a movie.  This was good until television. Ed Thomas. 

00:18:38	[Tape slows down and then rapidly speeds up.]

00:19:36	End of side. 

Tape 1/Side 2

00:19:42	Matrix dinner; town and government once a year.  Men had a patrix dinner; a disaster.

00:21:32	Club had membership of six-hundred when ML began working at University Club. Costs percentage of salaries.  Later paid by rank.  Other cost details.

00:23:14	Lists membership requirements.

00:24:52	Same guest allowed only twice a year.

00:26:15	Decisions made over lunch.

00:27:00	Brown bags not allowed.

00:28:03	Graduate students could live at University Club.  Reasons for evictions.  One man stayed for 45 years.  Bathrooms.  Telephones.

00:33:03	Maids cleaned rooms and made beds, except on weekends; elevator shaft.

00:43:02	Board of Directors.

00:47:25	Staff.  Anecdotes.

00:52:20	End of tape. 

Tape 2/Side 1

00:00:04	Story of someone who was yelled at by G. Howard Matthews, Chemistry professor.

00:01:10	Purchased meat and other goods from local Madison companies.  Sometimes bills were late being paid.  A new manager from Union was an accountant who made sure bills were paid on time.  Many members didn't want to spend much on food.  Depression was tough on all.  Students were paid 20 to 25 cents per hour.  Discusses self-supporting student who put self through medical school.

00:04:17	Quaffe Laundry handled laundry for years.  Used lots of linens, dining linens, bed linens, towels, etc.  Used white linen tablecloths until ML left in 1979.  Began using paper napkins in 1960s.  Also it became difficult to obtain tablecloths as they were worn.  All floors were cement, so they had small rugs in rooms.  Very well built, solid building.

00:08:35	Asked to take over bookkeeping duties when bookkeeper left in 1949.  When manager was drafted in WWII, ML, dietician, and bookkeeper ran club themselves; divided managerial duties among selves.  Leonora Jacobson was bookkeeper and Genevieve Sawdy was dietician.  It was difficult, because there were no male students who could wait tables and lift heavy trays.

00:11:20	University decided they needed space for ASTP trainees.  They gave residents 48 hours notice to vacate.  Rooms not all filled because there were already many in Army.  Every single had two people on it, doubles had four.  Telephones were removed.  Trainees were not permitted to use any of University Club.

00:13:08	Army offices were in ladies' lounge.  It was quite a change having 200 residents.  University painted and renovated rooms after Army moved out.  Club used as hospital during WWI influenza epidemic.

00:15:52	Club started in 1907, building built in 1908.  It was built in three different stages.  Completed in 1923.

00:17:00	Music clinic group also used rooms but was not as large as ASTP group.

00:17:38	Discusses issue of blacks in University Club.  A black graduate student at Howard University applied for room during WWII.  ML wrote him a letter indicating that he could share a double.  When he arrived, desk person called House Committee chairman.  They were terribly upset, asked him to leave, and he moved out.  People protested and membership meeting was held.  There was nothing in constitution or by-laws about it.  Voted to accept blacks.  He returned next semester.  ML's letter promising accommodations was published in The Capital Times and there was an article in Time Magazine.  Everyone was upset and embarrassed.  House Committee chairman was prejudiced.

00:23:00	Some faculty members got quite upset.  There was a man living at Club a few summers who was partially black, but no one knew it.  ML was very upset and is still upset by incident.  ML did not know man, Arthur Burke, very well.  Discusses group of faculty who pushed for admittance of blacks.  Cast of a black touring company dined at Club, but in one of rear dining rooms.

00:28:10	Discusses possibility of moving Club to where Helen C. White is, or on top floor of building.  Neither land nor building belonged to Club, University owned it.  They were allowed to use building as a club until University needed it for other purposes.  In 1969, University began using residence rooms as offices.  One side of a wing is still residence rooms.

00:31:24	End of side. 

Tape 2/Side 2

00:31:33	Questions on food service.  Difficulties in getting help, hours.  Arranged with Union to cater food.  Still lost money.  Stopped having waiters.  Became buffet.  Still needed a lot of student help.

00:35:42	Arrangements with Union.

00:36:37	University took over in 1933, consequences.

00:38:35	Questions on particular people whom ML remembers.  Helen C. White, other anecdotes.

00:43:29	Phil Fox.

00:46:34	Ben Elliott and Roe Merrill Heffner.

00:49:17	Max Otto.

00:49:54	Henry Pochmann; others.

00:52:25	Not town people; use of first names.

00:54:35	ML discusses party she gave.

00:55:49	Oliver Rundell.

00:57:28	Weavers.

00:58:10	Professors in the Journalism Department. Club publicity.

00:59:59	Others.

01:00:36	E.B. Fred came frequently.  Exclusiveness of Club.

01:02:18	Art exhibits in dining room.

01:02:57	End of tape. 

Tape 3/Side 1

00:00:03	More on people attending Club.

00:04:00	Questions regarding crises period.  Suicides, mentally ill boarders.

00:10:15	Approach used when asking someone to leave rooming facilities.  

00:12:57	End of interview.

END