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UNCG CENTENNIAL ORAL HISTORY PROJECT COLLECTION
INTERVIEWEE: Emily Whitney Ross
INTERVIEWER: Missy Foy
DATE: May 12, 1991
MF: And if you could start with some general information like where you're from and when you attended UNCG [The University of North Carolina at Greensboro] and—
ER: Sure. Before I came to UNCG, I was living in Annapolis, Maryland and I'm currently living in College Park, Maryland and I attended—you wanted to know when I attended?
MF: Yes.
ER: I attended UNCG in 1983 to 1987. [interruption redacted]
MF: And what was your major?
ER: My major was organizational communication, which was a concentration within speech communication or communication studies.
MF: Oh, okay. And then after you attended UNCG, you went to graduate school at the University of Maryland. Is that right?
ER: Right.
MF: Okay, and got your master’s. Coming down to UNCG, why did you pick UNCG?
ER: I don't recall how I first learned about the university, but once I did learn about it I came down to visit it with my parents. And I visited several other universities, so I had some point of comparison for other campuses. And I really liked the size of this as well as the distance from home. The price was right, and they had a major that I was very interested in that I wasn't able, unable to find at other universities.
MF: Okay. They do have a pretty large communications department now here, don't they? Yes.
ER: Organizational communication was rather new at the time, and there weren't too many universities offering it.
MF: Okay. What's the communications department—what was it like when you were here, generally? I guess just some descriptions of—maybe some of the coursework and—
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ER: It seemed to be pretty close knit group of people in that you followed the courses with quite a few of the same people all along, which was really nice because there was always a lot of support from your fellow students. The faculty, I was very impressed with, especially in comparison to other schools because we always, almost always we had full, all professors teaching the courses as opposed to teaching assistants or graduate assistants, which is the case at most other universities. I was very impressed with the coursework. I don't know. I was really glad I was in the department. The coursework was both theoretical and practical. There was a lot of application. I thought that they had a really good mix of courses. There was always quite a variety, and I found that when I went to grad school I had one of the best backgrounds of the grad students there. A lot of people had never taken any research theory classes or research processes classes. Not too many people had as much application as I had had. I mean, we actually went out and did communication audits, which is something that people in Or[ganizational] Com[munications] typically don't do until they get to grad school.
MF: Okay. Of course, coming so far to go to school you lived in the dorm room.
ER: For three of the four years.
MF: Yes. Which—what dorm did you live in?
ER: My freshman year I lived in North Spencer, an all-freshman, all-female dorm, which I did on purpose so that I would be with a lot of freshmen who also needed to find friends and go through the same things. And then my sophomore and junior year I lived in Mendenhall. I heard the call. [laughs]
MF: And then you lived off campus?
ER: Yes.
MF: What kinds of things would you say about dorm life?
ER: Oh, it was fun.
MF: Like, for instance, North Spencer being a freshman dorm, it was a little more—well, I'm assuming it was a little more—
ER: Restricted?
MF: Restricted, yes, than perhaps—
ER: Very much so. [laughs]
MF: Okay. How so?
ER: The nicknames for it were the campus convent, the nunnery. [laughs] We had—the dorm 3
director was—she had formerly worked at a women's prison so there were always a lot of jokes about that. I mean, she was very, very high on discipline. It was very restrictive in the sense that all rules were followed. Whereas, you know, the rules were always there on paper, but they're not always followed. I mean, they are sort of ignored in a lot of other situations. Hours were very restrictive, the hours that you were to be in and out. Silly things like phone calls—I mean, you were only—. There weren't any telephones in each room. I think we had one pay phone on each floor so there were two, I think there were two, maybe as many as four pay phones in the entire dorm, and then there were just on-campus phones and on the on-campus phones you were only allowed to talk for five minutes. If you talked for more than five minutes, you caught major grief. The dorm director would get on the paging system and tell you to get off the phone. People would come and tell you personally, "Get off the phone." Just silly things. There were room inspections.
MF: Oh, really?
ER: Yes.
MF: What were room inspections for? I mean, what did they inspect?
ER: I don't even remember. Probably—I don't ever remember. To make sure that all the rules were followed. Like you only had things tacked on the walls, not taped on walls or, you know, that things weren’t a total pig sty.
MF: Yes.
ER: That there wasn't anything in the room that shouldn't be in the room.
MF: [laughs] And then when you moved to Mendenhall, of course, it was different than North Spencer.
ER: Yes, it was much more wild. North Spencer girls were really silly. Mendenhall girls were much more wild. There was a lot more partying and people running up and down the halls to each other's rooms more. There was a greater sense of freedom and at North Spencer everybody felt they were being babied, like they hadn't left their mother behind.
MF: Yes.
ER: When you got to Mendenhall it was like, "Okay, you're on your own," which is how it should have been.
MF: At the time that you got here in '83 there were some changes that were happening with reference to alcohol on campus. The age was changing for drinking, and also I think that was the year that Spring Fling started to—I think they—
ER: Go dry? 4
MF: They stopped kegs at Spring Fling or maybe it was the following year.
ER: I think it may have been the following year that kegs were—well, I think the rule changed so that no alcohol was allowed on campus. Wait. I'm not sure if it was no alcohol was allowed on campus or no alcohol was allowed to be consumed anywhere but in your room and you had to be 21. I'm not sure which it was. I think it was totally on campus.
MF: I'm not sure either. I'd have to check. But that didn't deter—[laughs]
ER: [laughs] No, it didn't deter too many people.
MF: I know that Guilford Dorm had a reputation for a lot of keg parties and ever since the—ever since, I guess, since Residential College opened up, it had had a reputation. What do you remember about that?
ER: About Guilford?
MF: Yes.
ER: The truth?
MF: Yes.
ER: [laughs] I remember always having an open-door policy. The doors were always opened. There was never any problem with—it was more of a coed dorm, unofficially. And all the other dorms, you know, guys were only allowed in the—until midnight or whatever and if a guy was caught in the room, heaven forbid the things that would happen. Guilford, I guess was our home away from home for a while. There was always a lot of partying. There were a lot of fights. Mike Bravakis [Class of 1988] was always breaking down doors. I don't know. It was like a constant picnic also. People were always coming in and out, like hanging out on that patio in the front. What else do I remember about Guilford? There was always something to do at Guilford. If you were looking for something to do, you could always go over there and find something, find somebody and something. The rooms were gigantic. They were really bright. People got really creative with the things that they would do in the rooms over there. Guilford was, more than any other dorm I think, the dorm that people were always yelling up at the windows to and yelling out of the windows from.
MF: Yes.
ER: There was a big battle between North Spencer and Guilford at all times. And Guilford was always doing panty raids on North Spencer, and North Spencer was always trying to get Guilford back in one way or the other.
MF: And—hang on, let me pause this.
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[recording paused for background noise]
MF: You were saying about North Spencer versus Guilford?
ER: Yes, there was always a big battle going on, and the year that I was in North Spencer, we kept score. And we got them back by—God, I don't even remember how we got them back. We got them back by doing things like stealing their underwear and hanging them up like they would hang panties up. Water balloon fights and toilet papering—you know, typical stuff.
MF: [laughs] Yes. Also, something that—from the time that UNCG became coeducational, one of the things that comes up all the time is the importance of Tate Street to campus life. And I've heard some people say that more than the classroom, that Tate Street and some of the surrounding areas was the focus of their college experience.
ER: Tate Street. Tate Street has NYP [New York Pizza]. Tate Street has Friars [Cellar] and Hong Kong House and had the Night Shade Cafe with Bob Margolin [blues guitarist and singer] and Glen Phillips [vocalist].
MF: Yes.
ER: Good bands. When I think of Tate Street, I think of eccentrics and I think of Bohemians [those who practice an unconventional lifestyle]. Tate Street's a cool place to go and just watch everything going on. It had the only grocery store that we could walk to. [chuckles]
MF: [chuckles]
ER: So it was our source of food and beer for the most part. And then, later, like towards the end of college, it was filled with skateboarders, and there were always a lot of skateboarders hanging around and little kids getting in the way and running out into the street. It was kind of scary. Tate Street was the social life part of college, which is the part that everybody remembers. You remember the classroom experience, but social life is what defined the good memories.
MF: Oh sure. Also with respect to Tate Street, some people will say that it had a really infamous reputation and that before they came to UNCG that they were always told about a big drug scene on Tate Street and—
ER: Yes, the college warned people to stay away from Tate Street.
MF: Oh, okay. Like when you were a freshman coming in or?
ER: Yes, at orientation. We were warned to basically stay away from Tate Street. The kind of people—they said something to the effect of the kind of people hanging out on Tate Street, they probably aren't in your best interest to be hanging around with. 6
MF: So that, of course, attracted everybody there even more.
ER: Oh yes. [laughs]
MF: [laughs] Had to go check this out.
ER: Why don't they want us hanging around with? I mean, and also, there were always a lot of drunks on Tate Street because Tate Street was also the place where people would get drunk. I mean, it wasn't uncommon to see people passed out in the street [laughs] and on the islands between the street, to see people stumbling up and down. But actually I don't know of anybody ever being hurt there. I don't know of anybody having ever been robbed or molested or anything.
MF: Yes.
ER: There was a flasher around there at one point.
MF: Oh, really.
ER: [unclear] was accused of being a flasher.
MF: Oh, I heard something about that, yes. So, basically, the same thing I've heard from other people is that the reputation was sort of unwarranted.
ER: Yes, from a student's perspective.
MF: Maybe not from a parent's?
ER: Yes.
MF: [laughs] What were some of the other places around the area that were part of the social experience?
ER: Well, the rugby team was always a big part of my college years. The rugby team was always having parties at the white house and the blue house on Aberdeen Street and up on the other side of Lee Street. So those were real big places. And, I mean, everybody in school that would be here for the weekends, and a lot of people go home for the weekends, which was a real problem as far as social life goes, but people that were around on the weekends very often were at the rugby parties. Then Ale House was a big place. NYP on Tuesday nights was a big place. NYP on Tate Street; they always had $2 pitchers. Yum Yum's for ice cream was always pretty neat. People would go there after classes in the evening, like after night classes in the business building. Those were some of the main places, I would say. Oh, and Piney Puddle.
MF: Oh, yes, Piney Lake. [laughs]
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ER: If you had a car.
MF: What about with some of the commuting student population? There's such a large commuter student population here. Do you have any sense of recalling how they seem to fit into the overall picture of the university?
ER: The commuting students?
MF: Yes.
ER: Well, supposed—statistically they say that only ten percent of the student population are out-of-staters but—therefore, ninety percent are in-state and a lot of those seem to be actual commuters, not just people who live there. And on the weekends, I guess you get a lot of the out-of-staters because commuters—I think what it comes down to is it seemed to really hurt the school spirit, and we didn't have half of the school spirit that a lot of other schools have. With all the commuters it doesn't help bond the school together at all. It's almost like being a part-time student, I think. And there were always a lot of complaints. And I had it my first year, well, my first semester. There were always complaints from all over the place. People saying, "Well, there's nothing to do here."
MF: Yes.
ER: And if you were forced to stay here on the weekends, you always found more than enough to do, but if you didn't stay around on the weekends, it didn't appear as if there really was anything to do. I don't know.
MF: What about the—with the—during the time you were here, some of the rapid growth of the university was occurring as far as physical building and so forth. Do you think that's good or bad or indifferent?
ER: No, I think it's really good. I mean the school will only become bigger and better because of it. Some of the things that are traditional—for in the most part, no traditions or landmarks were really hurt other than The Rock, the rock outside of the cafeteria.
MF: Yes.
ER: And that was moved, which I don't know, for something as silly as a rock, it really seemed to give something to the school and people didn't seem to use The Rock as much anymore. Yes, I think all the progress is good.
MF: What about the sports program with athletics? Of course, there's the proposed move to [National Collegiate Athletic Administration] Division I. What do they call it? "Division I in '91" or something like that.
ER: I'm not real familiar with it. As long as it doesn't take away from the scholarship aspect, the academic aspect of the school, I think it will be good because—I think it will be good 8
for the students as far as giving them something to help bond them together, promote school spirit and maybe bring money into the school also. But I just hope that it doesn't take away from the scholarship aspect or the academic aspect of the school. That's what I like. You know I've been to two schools—to this school and the University of Maryland. And at the University of Maryland the academic aspect is really downplayed, and the research and the athletic aspects are really promoted, which don't benefit the students at all. It only benefits the institution.
MF: Yes. How would you rate UNCG academically? I'm not asking for a number rating but—
ER: Yes. Well, I'd say a nine out of ten.
MF: Okay.
ER: And we have people here that can give us the education that we want if we want it. And I think that kind of goes back to the fact that undergraduates on all levels are exposed to the professors, not to teaching aides and graduate students.
MF: What about student services, which are also another aspect of the campus catering to the students?
ER: I think they are okay, but not the best that they could be. And I think that's where money coming in from the athletic program might help.
MF: Okay.
ER: There's a tremendous parking problem, and one thing that would help that would be a shuttle bus or a shuttle system. And that type of thing would help the students. The costs of some things are a little high, like parking, I think.
MF: Yes.
ER: And I think that's—they're trying to find money and that's one way they’re getting it. Student services are okay, but I think they're downplayed and they need to be promoted. Low priority.
MF: Right. What do you see for the future of UNCG?
ER: I hope it only gets bigger and better. I don't know if it will or not. It's a place where I'd be perfectly happy for my kids to go. If they're going to become much bigger and better, I think they may need more real estate.
MF: Yes.
ER: Because if the student population gets much higher and they don't have a place to expand the students into. I'm afraid that the academics may go down. 9
MF: Okay. Is there anything that you can think of that I'm forgetting to ask or anything that you just want to make sure you get a chance to say?
ER: I loved my school. [laughs]
MF: [laughs]
ER: No, not that I can think of offhand.
MF: Okay, well, thanks very much.
ER: Sure.
[End of Interview]
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