In the fall semester of 1998, 13 students in the Higher Education Administration Doctoral programs at the University of Massachusetts Boston, under the direction of Professor Linda Eisenmann, completed a series or oral history interviews with founding faculty members at UMass Boston.
Faculty members were identified and invited to participate by Dr. Paul Gagnon, former dean and professor at UMass Boston, and Mr. Don Costello, the first admissions director of UMass Boston. Students in the Higher Education History course made arrangements directly with the faculty and conducted the interviews. Interviewees were informed that the oral histories would be used first in class, but would later become part of the permanent archives of the institution.
Students followed a defined protocol in conducting the interviews; therefore, questions and topics are consistent across the interviews. Original tape recordings of the interviews are available, as well as transcripts created by the student interviewers and by Ms. Jeanne Selissen, a Master’s student in the UMass Boston Graduate College of Education.
Click here to browse the interviews in this collection.
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