Collections : [Indiana University, Center for Documentary Research and Practice]

Robert Gates attended Indiana University as an undergraduate from 1938 to 1942 and then received his law degree in 1949. He began practicing law but remained involved with university life, serving as a trustee for twenty-one years and as president of the Union Board. Gates discusses the challenges of funding and maintaining state schools, the development of programs, and the impact that the nineteen sixties had on Indiana University's campus.

Born on August 23, 1945, Guy R. Loftman is a 1967 alumnus and graduate of the Indiana University School of Law. A self-proclaimed hippie, Loftman recalls his days as a student at Indiana University in the turbulent nineteen sixties. Very active in campus politics and student government and a former student body president, he crusaded for the abolition of women's hours and was strongly against the Vietnam War. Loftman speaks of racism and its appearance in Greek life and the state of Indiana in the nineteen sixties. Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan, Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, and the Progressive Reform Party play large roles in Loftman's characterization of the nineteen sixties in southern Indiana. In addition, he speaks of the draft and his experiences as a attorney in Bloomington.

Cecilia Hendricks Wahl, a 1938 Indiana University alumnus, returned to Bloomington in 1953 when she and her husband became employees of the university. In this interview, Wahl describes her coming of age in the town of Bloomington, her mother and aunt's faculty positions at the university, her undergraduate years, and interest and involvement in the Department of Speech, specifically the theater aspect of this department. She speaks of the impact of the Great Depression and World War II on her life and her jobs, including radio station manager and secretary to the Indiana University board of trustees. In addition, Wahl recalls her participation in the Association of Women Students, or AWS, and, later in life, the Bloomington Hospital, and the Annuitants. She speaks of the changes manifested by fraternities and sororities over the years and the rapid changes of the turbulent sixties. Finally, she fondly recalls members of the Indiana University Department of Speech, including Lee Norvelle and Bill Kinzer.