Governor's Day records

Shortly after the Governor's Day events as described in the Administrative History Note, the Oral History Program began interviews with administrators, faculty, observers, and students. The interviewers, Mary Ellen Glass, Ruth Hilts, and Marian Rendall, prepared the following list of questions:

1. Name. 2. Home town. 3. For student: major, class For faculty or other: position 4. Why do you think you were chosen to be interviewed? 5. What was your reaction to President Nixon's decision to move troops into Cambodia? 6. In what way do you think the Cambodia decision was related to what happened next on the UNR campus? (Maybe several ideas of what happened next --meetings called, demonstrations arranged, etc.) 7. What was your reaction to events in other parts of the country related to the Cambodia decision (Kent State, others)? 8. Regarding the Governor's Day activities at UNR: What did you think of the arrangements for the observances? What was your reaction to the demonstrations? Did you feel it was necessary to participate in any of the activities or demonstrations? What do you think was the most effective part of the demonstrations/observances? What should have been the reaction of the ROTC/demonstrators/university administration to the conflict that developed? 9. What was your reaction to the violence that followed Governor's Day (bombing of ROTC building, bombing of Hobbit Hole)? 10. What category of participant (student/faculty/outsider) do you feel was most effective in fomenting the violence that erupted? Do you think outsiders were important? 11. What actions do you feel were most effective in preventing more violence or in cooling off the situation that developed from the bombings? 12. How do you think events on campus affect the university's image with outsiders? 13. What function should the university have in focusing public opinion? 14. Do you feel that issues of academic freedom are involved in participation in demonstrations? 15. How can students/faculty be effective politically? Should they attempt to influence political or governmental policies? 16. Where is the peace movement in this area headed? 17. What other comments would you like to make? 18. What restrictions would you like to have placed on this interview? The plan is to deposit all tapes, untranscribed, in the UNR archives. They will be either open for research or closed for a period of time.

The interviews were conducted using two formats: reel to reel (48) and cassettes (8). It should be noted that the tapes were previously used and interviews were recorded over previous interviews. Quality and completeness of the interviews vary. Cassette copies were made of each interview for preservation purposes.

In addition to the tapes, there is the proposal, a list of people solicited for interviews, the questions asked, and copies of letters stating restrictions.