Administration

Items

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  Interview Clip: Grad to undergrad minority peer support program

  Recorded in Studio 2 (The Berg) in the Dance Building at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. [00:00:00] TOPPIN: One of the programs, and I'd like you to talk about some of the initiatives, but one of the initiatives that you and I have talked about in the past was the Minority Peer Advisor Program, which as you and I talked about, I was one of them in 1988, I think 1988 and 89, and 90 when I was there. I was that for a couple of years. [00:00:22] And it was a brilliant program, I thought, because it placed doctoral students with the rest of the student population as an advisor and really to be a peer-to-peer ear to help and sort of circumvent any issues that a student was having with classes or personal or faculty. It was just a buffer of another person, but a person who was a peer, but old enough to have some experience. Because, I came into Michigan after having been a K through 12 teacher, so I was used to dealing with students. [00:01:00] And so you picked very judiciously who was paid to do this. And you were telling me that there was an unofficial program. I know Greg Broughton was right before me and Rachel Williams, but then you said there was an unofficial program for years before. [00:01:15] Can you talk about how that came, the whole program? How did this come into being and why you felt it necessary? PATTERSON: For a single faculty member, though devoted and committed, it became a burden the size of which could not properly be maintained. [00:01:43] TOPPIN: You didn't have that many African American faculty. PATTERSON: No, I was only by myself. And I was intended, or, or, determined to maintain the performance expectation of new faculty members. I was determined to maintain the other areas of product and evaluation, because it was at the time, on the executive committee, and I knew how faculty were evaluated. [00:02:31] And I didn't want any of these tendencies upon my time, my energies and time, to cause a diminution of my productive value as a member of the faculty. TOPPIN: Okay. PATTERSON: I performed every year. I performed on concert, on campus, and off campus with my contacts with a manager. I came with a manager, uh, and I responded to those commitments. [00:03:14] It became then necessary to develop, particularly graduate students, who had had some elements of graduates, graduates as minority students in integrated settings, to become convinced that they would lend their expertise and experience to the benefit of undergraduate students. So it was a natural combination of need responding to availability. [00:04:08] And so I, uh, recommended that these students be compensated, in a minute fashion, most often with the diminution of their tuition, and subsequently to the value of remuneration, to give them teaching assignments. And this proved a very effective way of, a need answering, uh, being responded to.
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  Interview Clip: Recruiting minority students and faculty

  Recorded in Studio 2 (The Berg) in the Dance Building at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. [00:00:00] TOPPIN: So many African American students, I mean, or minority students, what did you do? PATTERSON: I had worked with them. I had worked with them in these two institutions. TOPPIN: I see. PATTERSON: Many of them were attracted to an institution which had hitherto, uh not posted itself to be, uh, unfortunately, not posited themselves to be encouraging, except for Marilyn Mason and a few others. But I had worked with them. I had recruited them. I had trained several of them, some of them, in their undergraduate institutions and segregated institutions. [00:01:04] And with faculty, I had become very well acquainted with them, uh, Veronica Tyler. TOPPIN: I remember Veronica Tyler. PATTERSON: George Shirley. Seth McCoy. TOPPIN: Seth McCoy, yeah. PATTERSON: And several others who don't come to my memory at this very moment. [00:01:28] But when I look at the names of those who were prominent in African American music, I then developed an asking form, so to speak: “How would you like to be at the University of Michigan for six months?” And inevitably, the name would be, I would be complimented. So, I went after most of the people in the African American, uh, Music Symposium, which, who were hired to help me to develop the symposium. TOPPIN: Right. PATTERSON: And it was all those—included Eileen Southern, Bill Warfield, any number. [00:02:34] TOPPIN: So you hired them for six months to, well, what was the program? PATTERSON: Almost—the maximum number of months was six months. TOPPIN: Okay. PATTERSON: Some were short of short duration, but they, the enhancement of their joint appointment for even one month at the University of Michigan made, made a, uh, very welcome entrance to their officers at their, at their, uh, previous campuses. [00:03:18] TOPPIN: So you used short-term appointments to bring on African American faculty, which also helped with the recruitment of other students and faculty. Oh, very interesting. PATTERSON: And it gave us a coterie of experts in African American music. TOPPIN: Did the program have a name? PATTERSON: No. [00:03:43] TOPPIN: Okay, so it was just an initiative that you did, which is, which is, really interesting, because I know when I came as a doctoral student, Michigan was touting that they had the largest number of African-American graduate students in the country, and that was their statistics. PATTERSON: It was not an exaggeration. TOPPIN: No, I know it wasn't. [00:04:04] PATTERSON: The others were not, the other institutions were not all that anxious to become involved with what it took to recruit, retain, and support African American students the way the University of Michigan did. TOPPIN: Yeah, it made a serious commitment to it.
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  Interview Clip: Being an example of possibilities for Black music

  Recorded in Studio 2 (The Berg) in the Dance Building at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. [00:00:00] PATTERSON: I wanted to make sure that the persons at the University of Michigan did not look upon me as an exception. TOPPIN: Right. PATTERSON: Uh, but looked upon me as a representative of the persons who were composing and performing, um, music, African-American music, of every kind. Not enough, because they weren't encouraged enough. But I wanted them to look upon my experiences and the support I received as a possibility for what they could experience and what could be contributed uh, from the body of—an existent body—of composers, performers of all kinds. So that's... [00:01:05] TOPPIN: And I noticed that in Voice, after you were hired, Seth McCoy, George Shirley, Earl Coleman, Shirley Verrett, were all of these hired while you were... PATTERSON: Yes. TOPPIN: Were you integral in bringing them on? [00:01:25] PATTERSON: I think, I must say that Paul Boylan was at that time associate dean and eventually grew into the deanship, And his role is not to be underestimated. His support and, of the on the campus presence of not only performers, but, uh, academitions [sic] in the discipline of music.
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  Interview Clip: Committee work as advocacy

  Recorded in Studio 2 (The Berg) in the Dance Building at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. [00:00:00] PATTERSON: I must say that I undertook a zeal. I knew the situation in Ann Arbor— TOPPIN: Okay. [00:00:14] PATTERSON: —I knew of the absence, numerically absence of a sizable, a reasonable core of African-American students. I knew of the absence in their training—because I'd been subject to it—to music of their own. And I undertook a zeal to make myself a self-designated awakening of my colleagues at the University of Michigan. TOPPIN: Okay. [00:01:02] PATTERSON: This sounds like, maybe an exaggeration, but it is not an exaggeration. I made myself available, as a musical force, to all the committees that wanted to have a representative from the School of Music, which meant a, a undertaking of many, many committee assignments, which exposed me to the remaining few numbers of faculty colleagues of color. [00:01:50] And I visited them, and I chatted with them, and I come to find out that there was a concealed zeal on their part, which was awakened by my, uh, pledge, self-pledge, to do what I can, not only for the University of Michigan, but the city of Ann Arbor. [00:02:24] And I don't want to, I don't want to sound, uh, over-committed to this zeal, but it did indeed overcommit me. I made myself a um, a non—a hesitant, let me say, a hesitant performer of music.
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  Letter from Willis Patterson to Abraham Venable

  Patterson discussed the funding situation for the Black American Music Symposium, including a report of the projected budget and the grant proposals that have been submitted. He requests Venable's assistance in bringing his needs to the attention of General Motors Corporation resources.
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  The Top 100 Black Businesses List

  A list of the top 100 Black businesses, copied from an unknown publication. The list is annotated with addresses and some check marks. This appears to have been Patterson's source for his form letter sent to Black businesses to solicit donations for the Black American Music Symposium.
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  Letter from Arnold Shaw to Willis Patterson

  Shaw requests to be included on the Black American Music Symposium program as a researcher and writer with pertinent experience.
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  Letter from Willis Patterson to Herman Hudson

  Patterson seeks to confirm Hudson's participation in the Black American Music Symposium. Enclosed is the tentative schedule of symposium events.
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  Letter from Herman Hudson to Willis Patterson

  The letter declines Patterson's invitation for Hudson to participate in the Black American Music Symposium.
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  Letter from Willis Patterson to Sandy Feldstein

  Request for the Alfred Publishing Company, Inc. to send materials for display at the Black American Music Symposium.
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  Letter from W. J. Drummond to Willis Patterson

  A letter complaining of Karen Hutchinson and Drummond's (as her manager) lack of notice about the Black American Music Symposium.
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  Letter from Willis Patterson to W. J. Drummond

  A letter regarding Karen Hutchinson and the Black American Music Symposium.
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  Note and SROP Information Packet from Marilyn Gordon to Willis Patterson

  Gordon sent Patterson an enclosed information packet about the SROP program and application. On the routing slip, Gordon's note mentions "that we want especially to encourage young men to apply to SROP" and that funds can support the continuation of existing projects.
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  Memorandum from Marilyn B. Gordon to Faculty Mentors regarding Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) Awardees, Gerald Cleaver

  Notification of 1988 SROP award for Gerald Cleaver.
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  Memorandum from Marilyn B. Gordon to Faculty Mentors regarding Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) Awardees, Angela Jones

  Notification of 1988 SROP award for Angela Jones. Program guidelines and a copy of the student's notification letter are enclosed.
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  Memorandum from Willis Patterson to Marilyn Gordon regarding Letter of Support - Gerald Cleaver

  This letter of support was intended to accompany Gerald Cleaver's SROP application.
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  Memorandum from Willis Patterson to Marilyn Gordon regarding Letter of Support - Yvonne Perry

  This letter of support was intended to accompany Yvonne Perry's SROP application.
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  Letter from Margaret Ann Riecker to Willis Patterson, August 2, 1990

  Riecker, president of the Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation, notifies Patterson of his successful application for $40,000 of grant funding for the School of Music Afro-American Music Collection Symposium, which was being planned for 1992.
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  Letter from Paul Boylan to Louis Toppin, August 7, 1990

  Willis Patterson received a carbon copy of this letter, which is a response to Toppin's report on her SROP students and notification that she has accepted an appointment as an assistant professor at East Carolina University. A copy of Toppin's original note dated July 31, 1990 is enclosed.
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  Letter from Willis Patterson to Marilyn Gordon, July 7, 1987

  A request for funding to support Summer Research Opportunity Program students Alicia Hunter and Angela Jones.
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  Letter from Ralph B. Lewis to Paul Boylan, May 3, 1988

  Lewis writes a positive report about the Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP), including the news that five student research contracts were awarded to School of Music faculty. Enclosed is a letter of appreciation from James S. Jackson.
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  Letter from Willis Patterson to Charlotte Heth, September 12, 1988

  A letter of commitment regarding Heth's KCP visiting professorship, along with some details of the visit's agenda.
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  Letter from Percy Bates and Elizabeth Mimms to Willis C. Patterson, October 15, 1987

  A note from representatives of the Program for Educational Opportunity thanking Patterson for attending a luncheon with Reginald Wilson, Director of the Minority Concerns Office of the American Council on Education, and apologizing for a miscommunication about its location.
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  Memorandum from Willis Patterson to Misc. University of Michigan Administration

  Patterson writes to Interim President Fleming, Vice-President Johnson, Associate Vice-President Swain, Provost Duderstady, Vice-Provost Moody, Dean Boylan, and Dean John D'Arms to report about the expenditures for the April 3, 1988 MLK Memoriam Concert, and to request that funds be made available for the concert to become an annual event. The budget sheet for the 1988 concert is enclosed.
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  Memorandum from Willis Patterson to Paul Boylan regarding Several Matters

  This memorandum mostly concerns ways to use minority alums and state legislature requests to increase minority student recruitment and retention at the School of Music, or, "our efforts to locate quality black students who might be attracted to come here."