David E. Green Collection, 1977-1977 | Oberlin College Archives

The David E. Green Collection encompasses oral histories he conducted as research and the final paper on the college presidential term of Robert W. Fuller (1970-74), “The Politics of Reform: Oberlin College in the Fuller Years.”  The records consist of sixteen oral histories on nine 7-inch reel-to-reel tapes, two copies of Green’s paper and a letter from College Archivist Bill Bigglestone to Green concerning the content of the paper.

Green’s analysis beginning with the end of President Carr’s term (1960-70) offers an in-depth look at Oberlin’s increasingly volatile political atmosphere into the late 1970s.  In also exploring the period before President Fuller arrived, Green highlights faculty and administrators’ reactions, rather than those of the (relatively louder and more visible) student body, to the reform efforts of President Carr’s administration.  Green’s oral history interviews with Oberlin College professors, administrators, and trustees document the context for Fuller’s presidency and his decision in 1973 to resign in the face of widespread opposition.  Green states on pages 2-3 of his paper that:

"The tragedy of the Fuller years, I believe, was not that their [interviewees] conceptions of what was in Oberlin’s best interests were different.  It was that the basic trust between factions of the community broke down to such an extent that they could no longer agree to disagree rationally, and to try to work out a reasonable solution.  Instead, issues were transformed into the personalities that embodied them, disagreement evolved into suspicion and then into hatred, and the entire community was the loser."

Green’s paper, written for a history course taught by Geoffrey Blodgett, and the interviews on which it is based, provide rich sources for understanding campus unrest during the Vietnam War era and changes in higher education in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly in the Oberlin context.

INVENTORY

Box 1

            Letter from College Archivist Bill Bigglestone to David E. Green, August 8,

                        1977 (copy)

            David E. Green, “The Politics of Reform: Oberlin College in the Fuller

                          Years,” student paper, Spring 1977 (2 copies)

            Oral history interviews on 7-inch reel-to-reel audiotapes, March-May 1977

                        (conducted by David E. Green)

                        Tape 1

                                    Ellsworth Carlson (Professor of History, Acting President

                                              1974-75)

                                  Robert Neil (Professor of History)

                      Tape 2

                                    John Hobbs, Professor of English

                                    Bayley F. Mason (Vice President, 1971-74)

                        Tape 3

                                    Norman Care (Professor of Philosophy)

                        Tape 4

                                    George E. Langeler (Dean of Students)

                        Tape 5

                                    David Love (Professor of Philosophy and part-time assistant to

                                                President Robert W. Fuller)

                        Tape 6

                                    Herschel Kasper (Professor of Economics)

                                    Jim Powell (Education Committee Member, Provost)

                        Tape 7

                                    Charles Mosher, John Brown, and Paula Newberg, 4/9/1977

                                                (Board of Trustees)

                        Tape 8

                                    Robert Fuller (President, 1970-74)

                                    Ron Suny (Professor of History)

                        Tape 9

                                    Emil Danenberg (President, 1975-81)

                                    Norman Henderson (Professor of Psychology)