T. Harry
Williams Center for Oral History Collection
INTERVIEWEE
NAME:
Ordell Griffith
COLLECTION:
4700.0462
IDENTIFICATION: [1916- ] Former LSU Director of the Admissions
Office, Registrar.
INTERVIEWER: Everett Besch
and Quinn Coco (on tapes 655, 656, 657, 658)
PROJECT: LSU History
DATES: August 23,
1994; August 31, 1994; September 6, 1994; September 20 1994; September 28,
1994; October 5, 1994.
FOCUS
DATES:
1930's-1986's
ABSTRACT:
T
654
Living
on Plank Road; why her parents chose to build a house on Plank Road; her father
hunting in the Devil's Swamp area; Dr. Fulton Clark founder of Southern
University; the building of Airline Highway; Huey Long; Dr. Prescott an early
Baton Rouge veterinarian; “Easy Town” an area where African-Americans lived; memories
of walking from Istrouma to town during the summer; shotgun houses; George
Scwhab; raising chickens; hog slaughtering as a community activity; her
families icebox and getting deliveries of ice; house ventilation; the streetcar
in Baton Rouge; attending Istrouma public school; her first year at LSU;
working a job through the N.Y.A. the
National Youth Administration; working for the Student Employment Office; the
move from the downtown location of the LSU campus to the present location of
the campus; Dalrymple; the campus as Griffith remembers it during the 1930's;
the building of Middleton Library; Smith Hall; the layout of the campus; LSU
scandals and photo-stating documents; Foster Hall and cafeteria's on campus;
the forming of the LSU lakes; the Cypress trees; the Works Progress
Administration; mosquitoes; the original student record ledgers; Thomas Duckett
Boyd; William Tecumseh Sherman; Dr. Fred Smith.
T
655
The
LSU scandals; Mr. Heidleberg the former director of the Student Employment
Office; George Caldwell; pervious names of buildings on campus; Wilson Thiede
former Registrar; Jordan G. Lee former Dean of Agriculture; James B. Trant
former Dean of the College of Commerce; the start of Junior Division on campus;
sub-freshman; assessment and registration during the 1930's; effect of WWII on
campus; the day after Pearl Harbor on campus; Sergeant Smith; campus placement
tests; campus business procedures; campus procedures and issues regarding
soldiers after WWII; standardized tests: CEB, ACT, GED; memories of Sergeant
Smith; Law School admissions; the confidentiality of student records and the
Buckley Amendment; Griffiths first time going into Audubon; the effort to
record where animals were being kept on campus; sexual harassment; valuable
items on campus including paintings; Clare Chennault, leader of the Flying
Tigers during WWII his time at LSU; Earl Long former Governor of Louisiana.
T
656
The
first Huey Long train trip where he took the student body to Knoxville,
Tennessee for a football game; honesty and student borrowing money; hitchhiking
from LSU to downtown Baton Rouge; buildings on campus during the 1930's; Hill
Memorial; William Bass Hatcher former President at LSU; instituting an
admissions application form; evaluation of transcripts for credit purposes;
producing copies of transcripts prior to computers; grade points and quality
points; switching from the three grade point system to the four grade point
system; equivalency of grade points; evaluation of foreign student transcripts
and qualifications; the influx of foreign students; fines for faculty turning
in late grades; rules for determining residency; disciplinary action that was
placed on the transcript; the Mickie affair a former Dean of the Graduate
School suspected of murder; General Middleton's impact of the acceptance of
integration at LSU; bestowing the emeritus title on Theodosia Jones Gates
former Registrar of LSU; the 1950's on the campus;
T
657
Albert
Clary former Registrar; campus administration changes; Peg Crow; recruitment of
students; changes in hour requirements for full time student status; racial
integration of the University; Griffith providing court testimony; problems
associated with the admission of foreign students prior to integration; federal
funding and racial counts of enrollment; Mr. Hopper former LSU campus post
master; location of campus post office; Ray Sommer former director of Records
and Registration; getting computers; selective admissions; standardization of
credit hours; James F. Broussard former professors of French and Chairman of
the Athletic Council; former Dean of the Graduate School Charles Wooten Pipkin;
Former Dean of the Graduate School Richard Russell; admissions to the Medical
School and Law School; the General College; Stephen Caldwell former Dean of the
Junior Division.
T
658
Griffith
senior trip from Istrouma High School to LSU with Arden French as a guide; YMCA
on campus; Arden French former Dean of Men; Ira Nabors former Superintendent of
Buildings and Grounds; Ellenroy Jolly former buyer for the LSU purchasing
office; Agatha LaCroix former director of the Highland Hall cafeteria; George
Deer former Dean of Junior Division; Charles E. Smith former Dean of the
University; academic bankruptcy policy; admission of students with felony
convictions to LSU; dismissal of students for dishonesty on application forms;
scholastic certification of athletes; the Board of Supervisors scholarships;
Bill Frye the first Chancellor of the Medical School; Joe Reynolds physicist;
Louisiana Senator Allen Ellender; Arthur R, Choppin former Dean; Earl E. Klein
former director of the School of Social Welfare; Helen Gordon former Dean of
Women; the establishment of the School of Environmental Design; Gerald McLinden
first dean of the School of Environmental Design.
T
687
Milton
Harrison assistant to President Middleton; Dean Herbert's death; asking
students on the application if they had ever been involved in a felony;
application procedures regarding race and felony convictions; interviewing
students regarding their involvement with felonies; committee appointed by the
Board of Supervisors; determining a student's eligibility for consideration for
admission; pre-trial investigations; expunging incidents from the school
records; behavior problems; working with Student Health Services regarding
psychiatric readmits; letters of recommendation; the Buckley Amendment;
consideration of students with multiple in-state degrees; grade inflation and
assessment of grades from other universities and colleges; application fees;
non-traditional programs for women and starting a women's study program;
lawsuit by the Board of Supervisors against the U. S. Justice Department;
Carolyn Hargrave former Associate Dean of the Graduate School; aspects of the
establishment of the LSU System; changing the name of LSUNO to University New
Orleans; the effect of the establishment of the system of admission
requirements; campus hippies and Chancellor Taylor.
TAPES:
654,
655, 656, 657, 658, 687. TOTAL
PLAYING TIME: 9 Hours
#
PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 494
OTHER
MATERIALS:
Interviewer Release Form; Interviewee Release Form; Correspondence.
RESTRICTIONS: None.