Were there any particular challenges you encountered during your career?
Fraternities and sororities on the campus, um, a lot of people have
different views about fraternities and sororities, um.
They're probably one of the most complex.
Student types of activities to work with on the campus, um, at the, at
there's about 50 different organizations in in the fraternity system. Um,
each of them have their own alumni, each of them have their own
organizational, uh, components each of them have their own national
organizations, um, and so you're trying to work with that. In addition to
that, there's a governing body to each of the councils. There were 4
councils. Um, and there's judicial procedures tied into all that. You're
working with probably close to 5000 students, um.
And a lot of times there there was housing in in areas uh there wasn't a
lot of direct supervision and, and as sometimes college students will, uh
, they, they had sometimes they, they made poor decisions. Um,
And um became uh or were recognized as I think a liability to the
institution as well as to maybe other fellow students, um.
Unfortunately what isn't recognized is um.
The great point average of most fraternity sorority members versus the
average student, uh, the number of hours that they contribute to the
community and service to the community, the amount of money that they
raise for different projects throughout the community, um. The the
standards that if they keep their standards, the the standards and the
ritual that they go through related to oaths of of keeping those standards
are, are of the highest level and, and if anyone keeps those standards
they uh it provides uh a true foundation for success, uh, after they leave
the college environment. Uh, in the, uh, Interfraternity council area.
How do you think the moving of fraternities off campus has? Change things.
Well, that's, that's an area that probably, um.
I personally was very saddened to see it happen, um.
I, I believe ASU is a unique institution in that from the beginning, not
necessarily the very beginning, but practically the beginning we did
provide housing, um, opportunities for our men and women and fraternities
and, and, and even stories, um, it's just that So chose not to participate
, um, back when the fraternity houses were built but instead went to uh
they were housed in poverty, Maine. So poverty remain didn't happen by
accident. It was actually created to house the sororities at the time
Alpha Drive was created and the Delphi Drive was created for the
fraternities, um, by special federal, uh. Budget funds that became
available, um. Where where things broke down, I think really related to.
The university's expectation that the fraternities pretty much be
responsible and govern themselves. And
And that's a high expectation for national offices that are 2 or 3 1000
miles away to be involved in a daily operation of 18 to 2223 year old
people on a campus, particularly the campus our size, um.
There was a failure to provide, um, adult supervision, um, through an RA
system or or or some kind of house mother system, um, later in the year,
although early in the years most of the houses had house mothers, um, the
kitchens failed to. Um, they, they were eventually given up because they
Um, just cost a lot to run and, um.
I, I,
having the fraternities out in the neighborhoods unsupervised to me is
more of a problem than having them on campus, but if they're on campus,
they, they do need to be supervised and they do need to be in somewhat of
a controlled environment, you know, and I, I hate to say that 18 to 21, 22
year old students should be, um, supervised. But we we supervise them in
residence halls. Why wouldn't we supervise them in a, a fraternity house
that cost a million dollars to build. So, um, I, I, I, I truly believe in
, in the value of a fraternity sorority system. Um, it was founded for all
the right reasons. I am I do belong to a fraternity, so I have obvious
bias in those ways, um, in that belief, um. But uh my own personal
experience with them has been that that I wouldn't trade my days. For
anything in the world, and it really helped to develop me as an individual
and I still remember the oaths that I took in that fraternity. I, I almost
on a daily basis try and keep that oath, um.
Uh, the friendships that I made are exist even to today, um, the, the
service. And the experiences that I had in that organization and in the
larger organization, not just the the fraternity but the fraternity system
so that you're working and competing with other clubs, organizations or
fraternities and sororities and um the social aspect of it as well as the
service and the fund raising um it it can be a very valuable asset to an
institution. So your successor uh has a bigger problem I guess with trying
to supervise uh off-campus uh locations that could be scattered all over
the place. Uh, do you think this would cause friction between the
university and the city of Tempe?
The fact that, uh, you know, I'm not employed by the university so I
really can't address that, um, specifically, all I know is what I read in
the paper and, and there does seem to be some tension particularly between
the, uh, university and the city related to. Um, fraternities and
fraternities, the sororities pretty much, uh, you know, they're still
housed in the Delphi Commons, and, and they're not as much of a problem at
this point, uh, when you're talking about panolinic sororities, there's
also stories that belong to MPHC and stories that belong to the Hispanic
Greek Council that. They aren't housed as a sorority, but they, they have
members that live together. No, they're, they're totally social.
Of all your accomplishments and all your work at ASU, uh, what gave you
the most, um, satisfaction?
Probably the relationships that I developed with um people and students
over the years, um, particularly those that were kind of related to
devil's advocates, um.
We had a student body president, John Fees, who used to refer to the
university as the, the smallest large university in the country, you know
, and, um. And I just felt that during my time period that's what it was,
uh, it was the smallest large university in the country that uh we went
out, we recruited the students, we stood by the students, we had students
come in and see us, uh, maybe not every day, but they were not afraid to
come in and visit with us if there was a problem or if they needed, um,
advice or needed to be pointed somewhere, um.
That would probably be the.
The main thing
As your career progressed, what changes did you see at ASU? But Jesus.
Wow. Um.
Well, my, my career, you know, if, if we begin in '66, is one thing. In
'77, there were even some changes in that time period, but um the the
changes were just immense. I, I mean, we started as a campus of around
20,000, 22,000 students when I um first came to issue and, and began
working. Um, we were primarily just a four year local institution, um,
serving primarily Arizona. Um,
Not a lot of graduate work and not a lot of research, but mainly, um, just
the basics. Um When I left Uh, we had become one of the largest, well, I
believe at that point we were the 2nd or 3rd largest institution in the
country on a single campus, um, with over 60,000 students. Um, we were
recognized as a major research one institution. Our athletic program had
totally advanced, uh, to, um, huge. Um, numbers and, and attendance as
well as budget and facilities, um, the academic reputation of the
institution, uh, was totally different and, and international, um.
Those were probably the biggest changes. Is there any particular event in
your career that stands out in your memory?
Any particular event, um.
There's so many events that I was a part of that it's hard to tell, you
know, um, things doing with the stadium, things doing with Gam, things
doing with alumni, things doing with different presidents, um, orientation
, convocations, um. The thing that probably most sticks out is hosting the
1985 National Orientation Directors Association conference. Um, it was a
national conference hosted by us. It took 3 years to plan. Um, we held it
at the Sheridan Plaza resort. Um, which was just finishing up as a
property at that point. I mean, literally they were painting the walls and
installing the landscaping during our conference, um.
There was about 500 professional orientation, um, people from around the
country and, uh, an equal number of undergraduate and graduate orientation
leaders that that attended the conference. Um, I think they truly enjoyed
the Western hospitality that we provided, um. And I was just very I, I
just felt that we had really accomplished something with that conference.
Can you tell us about an individual at the university that had a
significant impact on you?
Um, I've never shared this with that person, um. But it would probably be
Don Dodds. uh, Don gave me the opportunity to be myself, um, and during my
whole career here on. The campus really supported and encouraged me at
every step of the way um in his position uh professionally and also
personally you know he was always there to um provide opportunities that
he could and uh. Um,
And was always kind enough to uh provide a phone call or a note
occasionally letting me know um something that he had observed or
witnessed and um so there was a. Um, quite a bit of that. I mean, Don was
the first person I worked for Don as an undergraduate. Um, and, uh, then
Don came down and, and offered me the position because of that, um, he
helped me grow and recognize. My uh Passion for student development as
well as written journalism at that point and publications, um, he
supported.
He supported the move of undergraduate missions and, and, um, Bradley
provided the opportunity for campus tours and speaking engagements and
devil's advocates to move from his operation over to undergraduate
missions, which I, I think was probably a, a big sacrifice on his part,
but, but, uh. He had the vision to to see that that's probably where it
would be best placed, um. And uh during my time in orientation and in
Greek life, he was always supportive of, um, well, alumni association
co-sponsored devil's advocates and was the primarily budget person or
budget office behind devil's advocates for most of my time at ASU, and
much of that is attributed to Don. Um, And then when I moved into Greek
life, Don is a former president of IFC, uh, And a former campus adviser to
his fraternity, um. Helped me um personally and and served on an advisory
board for the office. So Uh, I, I would like to say also, if you don't
mind at the time. Don had the greatest impact on me, probably the mentor
that. That helped me. Define better who I am and Um, how to be successful
in what I do was Christine Wilkinson, um. You know, uh, Christine and I
started, she started about, we started about the same time, um, she began
in student affairs. I was an alumni, then we kind of came together in
undergraduate admissions, um. She just was always there for me. Um, she
allowed me to pick her brain. She picked my brain a lot. Um, we, we
created, I think a lot of very, very good programs that are still long
standing with university, um. She obviously uh advanced much more higher
than than I did or that I even wanted to um and uh. All along her path she
was always very supportive and encouraging.
She worked with me related to details. She worked with me relating to
organization. She worked with me related to um.
To really appreciating people, um. And who they are and what they do and
the efforts that are put into a lot of things that happened that that
sometimes I used to take for granted. So she was a tremendous mentor.
Thank you.
Um, question is, how are you and Doctor Mason, uh, connected, uh, at the
university?
Marilyn came to work in undergraduate admissions as, as a student
assistant helping Christine Wilkinson um as a reentry adult student um and
I believe it was back in the early 80s. I can't remember the exact year,
but uh and from there she just kind of never left. She um was always doing
something with undergraduate admissions and um. And during my time there
primarily worked with um student relations and publications and um parent
programs. Where were you located and I had some of the best offices on
campus and, and I've been very fortunate, you know, and then I sound like
I'm bragging, but, but I am probably, I mean, um.
My, my first office was in the old president's home, which is now the
archives building and um overlooking Palm Walk. And and you know that that
was just an incredible experience to begin with with something like that.
Then, uh, the old Sands Hotel was bought by the university and alumni
association moved over to Mariposa Hall at that point. I got to design my
office, um, it's like the furniture, design the light table and just do
everything, um, for that, and that was a great experience. Once I moved
into undergraduate admissions, I, I moved to several different offices,
but that was in the Moore building, um. And uh so there was a lot of
history there, um.
Uh, most, most of my offices I, I had there were very, very good offices
overlooking Kitty Kitty's Mall fountain, um. And the administration
parking lot so I could see who was coming and going almost all the time,
um. From there we we moved in the student services building, um. With some
nice offices, but I, I did end up at one point with the an office on the
2nd floor, a corner office, all glass overlooking Gammy auditorium. Um,
just an incredible view, very relaxing, very, very beautiful view, um. And
from there I, I moved to the MU, um, had an office that was almost like a
closet, um, but from there moved into another corner office on the second
floor overlooking, um, the business courtyard and the recreation fields
and. Um, so those were my offices and, and I, I really, I, I think I'm one
of the few people on campus that can say that I've had that quality of
offices during my career. Bob, what kind of advice would you give young
people today in choosing their majors and their careers?
To follow their passion. Um,
My experience has been that Um, well, obviously I, I found my passion
early enough, although I didn't recognize it, um. And it carried me
throughout my, uh my whole career, but it wasn't until the end of my
career I realized that my true love was really in publications and in
student development, um.
Working with students. Um, I, I, I truly believe that if you can find your
passion that you will be successful, um, that in today's world, no matter
what your passion is, there will be a way to support yourself somehow. Um
, technology has advanced to the point where, where you can make money
doing almost anything, you know, and, and, and enough money to support
yourself and your maybe your family, um. So I, I really believe that. I, I
would encourage them to try and find their passion, follow their passion.
Bob, now that you're retired, what occupies most of your time? When I
retired, I adopted two sons, one in 2002 and one in 2005. They're not
related. Um, they both have some challenges and, uh. And my, my time
nowadays is, is mainly spent. Um, trying to meet their needs and help them
with, um, Some of the challenges that they have, um. And then I like to
putter around the house and, um, I bought a cabin up at uh near Flagstaff
at Muns Park and, and I like to spend the summers and what I can from
April through October, um, up there. Um, I worked with the ESU retirees
Association for a while and, uh, enjoyed that. Um, but then I had a couple
of surgeries that caused me to uh. Kind of be sidelined for a couple of
years and and now I'm back and ready to go and just enjoying life. Very
good. Do you have anything to add?
A No, we, we've covered so much. I, I'm not sure. Um, you know, even why I
would be selected for this, uh, because my career changed so much and I
did so much, but in conclusion, I'd like to thank you for your service to
ASURA. You were the 2nd. Chairman of the Video History Project and Linda
inherited that job from you and uh. Thank you for continuing it because
it's uh grown and uh doing quite well. And now Linda is handing over the
chairmanship to me, so I heard that congratulations and and Linda's done
an excellent job. I appreciate the invitation to be able to visit with you.
Um, I hope the information I provided was. I think you filled there's a
lot of uh voids we have in the history. Thank you. You're welcome.