Search

Thomas Ehrlich was born in Massachusetts and attended Harvard Law School. Despite his legal background, he held a variety of jobs including assistant to the undersecretary of the state, president of the Legal Services Corporation, and head of the Foreign Aid program. He became president of Indiana University in 1987. Ehrlich discusses his presidential agenda, preference for a "responsibility-centered" management style, Indiana University's Indiana University regional campuses, the financial situation at the university, and the conflicts over teaching versus research.

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 April 13, 1939, Jerry Tardy came to Indiana University as an undergraduate student in 1957 and ended up staying on as an employee for the majority of his career. In 1971, he became the student foundation director and a few years later he rose to the position of director of the alumni association. In this interview, Tardy discusses the activities of the alumni association, Hoosiers for Higher Education, and the Indiana University Foundation, especially in the face of budgetary constraints of the past few decades. He also speaks of the Little 500 and the making of Breaking Away, a movie about the Little 500. Tardy describes his relationships with Bob Knight, John Ryan, Joseph Sutton, Elvis J. Stahr, Thomas Ehrlich, Bill Armstrong, and others.