T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection
ABSTRACT
INTERVIEWEE NAME: Cecil Taylor # 4700.0071
IDENTIFICATION: French professor (1936 - 1949), assistant to President Campbell Hodges
(1941 - 1943), dean of Arts and Sciences (1949 - 1965), first chancellor of LSU (1965 - 1974)
INTERVIEWER: Pamela Dean
PROJECT: LSU History -- Administration and Faculty
DATES: 10/8/91, 10/15/91, 4/8/92, 4/22/92, FOCUS DATES: 1930s - 1970s
4/29/92, 5/12/92, 2/18/93, 3/3/93
ABSTRACT:
Tape 81
Family background; early education; growing tobacco; family outings; games played as a child;
learning French and Spanish in high school; meets Mr. Carnahan (editor of French text used at
Chapel Hill); attending University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; living in dormitory; working
for faculty members to pay for college; professor of Victorian Literature Johnny Booker; Chapel Hill
opens women's dormitory; encountering Catholic church for first time; becoming a social creature;
financial difficulties while a student; writing masters' thesis; roommate during graduate school
Archie Shields
Tape 82
Influenza epidemic of 1918; ancestor Eli Taylor served as courier during Civil War; Taylor family
heritage; parents' educational history
Tape 83
English professor John A. Thompson recommends him for position at LSU; playing poker with "old
guard" faculty members at LSU; boarding with French professor H. A. Major; changes in Baton
Rouge since 1930s; changes on campus since 1930s; establishing requirement of Ph.D. for
professors; Huey Long's impact on LSU; LSU football in the 1930s; impact of Depression on LSU;
The Southern Review; flourishing of LSU's Music School; Henry Howe's role in developing School
of Geography; development of School of Geoscience; Marcus Wilkerson as founding head of the
LSU Press; entering administration in 1943; bringing French films to Baton Rouge; Maison
Française; Dean of Agriculture Jordan Lee; James Monroe Smith as LSU's president; LSU
Scandals; English professor Robert Heilman's review of T. Harry Williams' Huey Long; James
Smith's methods of acquiring funds; restructuring the university following the scandals; attempts
to establish Phi Beta Kappa chapter at LSU
Tape 84
Role of Paul M. Hebert (interim president and dean of Law School) at LSU; Dean of Arts and
Sciences Fred Frey; served as assistant to President Campbell Hodges from 1941 - 1943; Dean of
Men Arden French
Tape 156
Student criteria for inviting speakers to campus; controversy surrounding speaker Paul Boutelle
(Communist Party candidate for president);appointment as assistant to President Campbell Hodges;
James Broussard's ( head of Romance Languages) role in securing the appointment for Taylor; finds
James Monroe Smith memorabilia in his office; duties as assistant to Hodges; describes co-workers
in president's office; Paul Hebert as policy maker; joins Navy at outbreak of World War II; describes
Dean of the Junior Division Ben Mitchell; attempts to discontinue the Junior Division; conflict
between Dean of Arts and Sciences Wendell Stephenson and Dean of the Junior Division W. B.
Hatcher; Junior Division separated from Arts and Sciences; role of the Junior Division; low status
of introductory (general) courses and difficulty finding professors willing to teach them; opposition
of different colleges to the Junior Division; demise and rebirth of The Southern Review; efficiency
of Board of Supervisors secretary Kitty Strain; loyalty oaths; faculty of the Department of Sociology;
switch from department heads to chairmen; imminence of Botany professor Claude Edgerton;
Department of Botany; tie in selecting chairman for the Department of Speech; problems with
Department of Philosophy's head Peter Carmichael; difficulty attracting philosophy professors to
LSU; strength of the History Department; reviews of departmental chairmen; ability of chairmen to
resign their position; term limits for deans
Tape 163
Decision to study French in college; describes graduate and professional careers while a student at
Chapel Hill; receives American Field of Service Fellowship to study in France; dissertation defense;
socializing with professors at Chapel Hill; describes studies in France; recommended for job at LSU
by English professor John Thompson; shipboard romance on the trip back to the United States;
describes the members of the Department of Romance Languages at LSU; French courses offered
at LSU; French in Louisiana absorbing other cultural groups; Cajuns taking French courses; class
divisions in Pointe Coupee parish; Maison Française; James Monroe Smith fleeing Baton Rouge;
masters' theses on French in Louisiana; variations of Cajun French; directing master's candidates;
describes course that he taught; teaching French at the Naval Academy during World War II; reaction
of career Navy to academicians; training translators; return to teaching at LSU after the war;
describes his course load; describes his teaching assistants; appointed dean of Arts and Sciences in
1949 by President Harold Stoke; switch from teaching to administration; creation of CODOFIL;
formal vs. informal in French; inferiority complex of Cajuns; French writer Maurice Denuzière
awarded honorary degree from LSU; Center for French and Francophone Studies at LSU
Tape 165
Decision to become head of the French Department at Emory; Harold Stoke as president of LSU;
selection committee for dean of Arts and Sciences at LSU; LSU as an oligarchy; offered job as dean
of Arts and Sciences at LSU by Stoke; inability of Department of Political Science to attract top
scholars and/or keep; discusses botany professor St. John Chilton; sugar cane diseases; decision to
accept position of dean of Arts and Sciences; creation of Honors Program; association of deans of
Arts and Sciences; influence of this association on his decisions as dean; family history; Arts and
Sciences faculty meetings; slashing budgets to meet state appropriations; attempts to convince
faculty members to stay at LSU; university budgets; termination of the Department of Books and
Libraries; controversy over expanding stadium rather than building a new library; anti-athleticism
at LSU; ROTC; agricultural thrust of LSU in the 1940s; importance of the College of Education;
attempts to get a Phi Beta Kappa chapter; role of Tulane in preventing LSU from being awarded Phi
Beta Kappa chapter; Honors Convocation to acknowledge outstanding students; selective
admissions; role of agriculture at LSU; establishing high school honors programs; setting up the
chancellorship and its duties; President John Hunter's willingness to support Taylor's initiatives;
compares Presidents Hunter and Martin Woodin; trip to Latin America with John Hunter; Taylor's
weekly meetings with his vice chancellors
Tape 170
The order proposals were presented to the Board of Supervisors (minor items to important items);
duties as assistant to President Hodges; Paul Hebert as policy maker; Hodges' staff; integration of
LSU's graduate and professional schools; Director of General Extension Walter Brouillette's pro-segregation statement; meeting with federal officials about the integration of LSU; Theo Cangelosi's
attempt to thwart the Justice Department's attempt to force integration; eloquence of Theo
Cangelosi; role of the Board of Supervisors; James Monroe Smith and the Board of Supervisors;
Kitty Strain as secretary for the Board of Supervisors; board member Thomas Leigh's opposition to
discontinuing The Southern Review; increase in administrative positions at LSU; Harambe (an
African American student organization); Black Student Union; Dean of Student Affairs James
Reddoch running interference between Taylor and student activists; administrators' relationship with
black students; EEOC; discusses his view of African Americans and segregation; in loco parentis;
role of colleges in development of young adults; English professor Waldo McNeir's run-in with state
legislature over issue of school desegregation; President Troy Middleton's view of African
Americans; Middleton's relationship with Dan Borth of business affairs; describes Middleton's
personality and influence on LSU; 1958 anti-school segregation petition signed by faculty members;
being called before the Joint Committee on Segregation; his view of integration; resignation of
Waldo McNeir; legislation requiring teaching course on merits of democracy versus evils of
communism; role of state politics in university; importance of discussing ideas (including
communism) in the classroom
Tape 171
LSU forcing Waldo McNeir to resign; Middleton's view of role of the professor; Forestry professor
Paul Burns's support for civil rights
Tape 320
James Reddoch's knowledge of laws pertaining to students; Reddoch's role as buffer for Taylor
during period of student protests; handling student and employee grievances; Board of Supervisors
attempts to censor the Reveille; Middleton's integration policy; allowing communist Paul Boutelle
to speak on campus; university's view of segregationist state senator Willie Rainach; conservatism
at LSU; 1958 anti-segregation petition signed by faculty members; discusses chairmen of various
departments in Arts and Sciences; Louisiana history professor Walter Pritchard; lowering American
flag on the day Martin Luther King was killed; setting precedents as chancellor; Carl Maddox as
Athletic Director; Board of Supervisors insolvent in running athletics; ending compulsory ROTC;
faculty committees; meetings with vice chancellors; Vice Chancellor of Business Affairs Daniel
Borth; liberalizing rules governing women's housing; grooming standards for students; student
protests; meetings with hostile community groups; liberal professors in the English Department;
communism; member of John Birch Society speaks at his church
Tape 373
Athletic Director Carl Maddox; role of athletics at LSU; LSU gymnastics; use of "chancellor's box"
at football games to woo financial support; athletic career of his father-in-law John G. Albright;
School of Music; creation of LSU System; President John Hunter as an administrator; faculty
appointments and salary; faculty members working outside jobs; weekly meetings with vice
chancellors; writing budgets; selecting Bernard Sliger as vice chancellor for academic affairs;
selection of Paul Murrill as vice chancellor for academic affairs; animosity between Sliger and
Murrill; James Reddoch as vice chancellor for student affairs; ending compulsory ROTC;
conservatism of Board of Supervisors; parents' complaints about assigned reading corrupting kids;
Jimmie Davis as member of Board of Supervisors; Ella V. Aldrich Schwing as board member;
Schwing's course Books and Libraries; Theo Cangelosi as board member; Cangelosi on segregation;
describes board member Red Swanson's support for athletics; George Mickey (dean of the graduate
school accused of murder) case; secretary for the Board of Supervisors Kitty Strain's efficiency;
making the Agricultural Center a separate campus ; problems caused by creating the Ag. Center;
conservatism of Department of Agriculture; Director of the Agricultural Experiment Station Doyle
Chambers; reasons for making the Law School a separate entity; Dean of Women Margaret
Jameson's relationship with students; discusses qualifications for a good dean of women; Director
of Social Recreation Jean Quaw and his duties; Free Speech Alley; Director of the Union Carl
Maddox and the offensive art show
TAPES: T81, T82, T83, T84 T156, T163, T165, TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 14 hours
T166, T170, T171, T320, T373
# PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 590
RESTRICTIONS: None