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Title
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Interview Clip: Recruiting minority students and faculty
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Description
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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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Identifier
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PattersonToppininterviewclip7
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Creator
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Louise Toppin; Willis Patterson
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Date
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07/25/24
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Subject
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BIPOC platforming; administration; supporting students
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Type
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moving image
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Format
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mp4
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Relation
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—
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Source
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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre, & Dance
