JMC 'GROUP MEMORY'

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Funny... I don't feel dead!

If you've forgotten JMC - You weren't there!

1965

1979

An academy for wandering minstrels

Equipping lifelong learners to pursue personal and professional interests in art, activism, law, education, business, medicine, international affairs, social services, science, management, media, and more.

* Michigan State University's first, most experimental, and most innovative residential college *

JMC GROUP MEMORY

Topical Reminiscences
Collective reminiscences about particular aspects, events, and elements of JMC.
Personal Reminiscences
(Evolving...) A collection of personal reminiscences on experiences in JMC.
Call for Reminiscence
Some brief comments on the need to remember so that JMC is not forgotten.

This Webpage is the entry point for exploring Justin Morrill College from the perspective of its participants' reminiscences.
This is intended to be distinct from 'Evidence' (objective traces of what was and what happened back then) and 'Legacy' (objective and subjective traces of JMC's outcomes and persistent effects).
In other words, this 'Group Memory' category concerns what we veterans remember about JMC and JMC experiences per se.

If anyone has additional 'reminiscence' contributions on JMC, its operations, its history, or its outcomes, please Contact the Editor.

TOPICAL REMINISCENCES

This section provides an index for reminiscences focused on a given theme or topic rather than by authors' personal experiences per se.

JMC's History (In General)

During the first decade of the College's existence JMC Dean D. Gordon Rohman wrote two retrospective summaries of JMC's operations and history which have been preserved, transcribed, and now made available here in the JMC Webspace:

Fred Little has contributed two wonderful summaries on the overall course of JMC's history....

Justin Morrill College: A Ridiculously Brief History (by Fred Little)
A Capsule Timeline: 1973-1980 (by Fred Little)

In addition, you might want to check out documentary materials on the JMC Evidence Page as well as photographic materials available in the JMC Image Gallery.

Dormitory Life in Snyder-Phillips: 1975 Reminiscences

On the occasion of JMC's 10th anniversary (April 1975) a tabloid was published and distributed. For an overview of the tabloid as a documentary artifact, check the information on the JMC Evidence Page.

The tabloid articles cited below concern dormitory life in Snyder-Phillips during the JMC years. They are comprised of comments and responses from JMC veterans and then-current students about life in the 'Sny-Phi' environs.

In addition, you might want to check out documentary materials on the JMC Evidence Page as well as photos of Snyder-Phillips available through the JMC Image Gallery (Miscellaneous).

Dormitory Life: The Snyder-Phillips Grill

The tabloid includes a personal profile of Muriel Arwin - the most ubiquitous MSU Food Service person staffing the Sny-Phi Grill. You can see a transcription of this article (and a photo of Muriel) at:

The Muriel Arwin Page

In addition, you might want to check out documentary materials on the JMC Evidence Page as well as photos of Snyder-Phillips available through the JMC Image Gallery (Miscellaneous).

Inquiry & Expression (I & E) Movies

One of the core requirements of the JMC Curriculum was "Inquiry and Expression (I & E)" - a multi-term sequence emphasizing analytical, critical, writing, and presentation skills.

Some of the I & E work involved discussion and analysis of selected films typically shown once per week throughout a term.

The I & E 'movie night' quickly became a general College event, and it was common to see a loose-knit mass of a hundred or more JMC folks migrating across the MSU campus to Anthony Hall. We'd gambol down that dour agriculture building's main hall past the display case holding the world's largest bovine hairball and populate an auditorium for the evening's entertainment.

SHOW ME the list of movies known to have been screened for JMC Inquiry and Expression.

A Justin Morrill College Glossary

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of terminology and nomenclature peculiar to Justin Morrill College and its times.

Beginning in summer 2002, the Editor has begun compiling a list of the such JMC-specific terminology. If you can come up with any other JMC-specific terminology, please Contact the Editor.

SHOW ME the JMC Glossary.

JMC Courses

JMC's unique character was both the cause and the outcome of its unique course offerings. Unfortunately, documentary evidence for these JMC-specific classes is very rare. Of the circa 56 MSU quarters during JMC's existence, only some 5 or 6 JMC Course Descriptions are known to exist (from personal and University archives).

A representative sample of what JMC courses were like is now available in the form of a listing compiled from Morrillite reminiscences and the course description publications for Fall 1973 through Spring 1974 (the only full 'academic year' for which such documentation exists).

This listing is presented on the JMC Courses Webpage.

If you have any further documentation or memories of JMC classes, please Contact the Editor.

JMC MIA's (People Still Unaccounted For...)

In the course of the ongoing conversations among JMC veterans, it is only natural that others' names would pop up. Some of these names are for JMC students, staff, and other relevant folks whose eventual outcomes and current whereabouts remain topics of speculation.

Beginning in summer 2002, the Editor has begun compiling a master list of the 'MIA' names cited by JMC veterans.

This listing is limited to those JMC veterans not otherwise 'accounted for' in (e.g.) the JMC Veterans Directory, membership in the JMC Yahoo Groups forum, etc.

If you have any other names of as-yet-unaccounted-for JMC veterans, please Contact the Editor.

SHOW ME the current list of JMC people cited but as yet still 'missing in action'.

JMC Folklore: Tales Told the Innocents

Beginning in September 2002, this Webspace includes an evolving compendium of tales, legends, and other possibly true / possibly apocryphal narratives that made the rounds during JMC's existence between 1965 and 1979.

SHOW ME the JMC Folklore collection

In Memoriam: JMC Veterans No Longer With Us...

Beginning in summer 2002, information about deceased JMC veterans (faculty, students, etc.) is being collated onto a special 'Memoriam' page.

SHOW ME the list of late JMC veterans known to have passed away.

PERSONAL REMINISCENCES

This section provides an evolving set of pointers to reminiscences, reflections, and/or other materials relating to how one or another individual experienced Justin Morrill College.

Collective Reminiscences from JMC 10th Anniversary Tabloid (1975)

"As part of the celebration of JMC's 10th birthday, a group of JMC students interviewed alumni and faculty this past winter to find out what JMC was like in the past. The following is a compilation of some of the things that alumni and faculty described in the interviews, in their own words."

The articles cited below are presentations of the responses gathered...

Alumni Talk about JMC (Front page of tabloid)
JMC: In Our Own Words (6th and 7th pages of tabloid)
JMC - The "Middle" Years (10th page of tabloid)

An Editor's Reminiscence about the JMC 10th Anniversary Tabloid (1975)

R. Sue Dodea (then Smith) was one of the key players in compiling and publishing the tabloid distributed during JMC's 10th anniversary celebration in April 1975. This is R. Sue's reminiscence of the process through which the tabloid was created.

Take me to R. Sue's Reminiscence on the Tabloid's Production

Reminiscences from Individual JMC Veterans

A Few Observations on Justin Morrill College (by David ("Ace") Brigode)
Memories of Extracurricular JMC (by Deborah De Haan [Sullivan])
Another View Entirely (by Jill Harrison Ellsworth)
A Reminiscence on JMC's Earliest Days (by Robert Hawkins)
Justin Morrill College: A Ridiculously Brief History (by Fred Little)
A Capsule Timeline: 1973-1980 (by Fred Little)
JMC: Smartest Thing I Ever Did (by Phil Nash)
A JMC Instructor's Reminiscence (by Pam Holcomb Oestreicher)
A Testimonial: What Justin Morrill College Did for Me (by Randy Whitaker)

Call for Reminiscence

In accordance with the intention that they pursue lives of diversity, JMC alumni are scattered to the four winds. In one sense, their diffusion can be considered testimony to the Justin Morrill experience. Many of the core JMC faculty members have gone on to other pursuits, retired, or (sadly) died.

This aggravates the problems in locating sources of information on JMC. Given the relative deficiency of documentation and the number of years which have passed, one must conclude that to the extent there is (or there can be) a Justin Morrill College 'tradition' preserved, it will be a tradition that is primarily 'oral' (as in dynamically construed / constructed / disseminated).

...And that makes the situation funny, in a way. That an 'oral tradition' appears primitive is consistent with the oft-purported aboriginal nature of the Justin Morrill community during the period of its existence.

Such a tradition can be seen as content wholly dependent upon the continuance of its particular vehicle (in this case, the JMC 'community'). This further reinforces the necessity of tapping into the remainder(s) of that community should anyone wish the tradition to survive (even if only for the purposes of nostalgic reflection).

This Web site was established in response to a perceived enthusiasm among the JMC participants attending the October 1999 JMC reunion. The exuberant conversations during the reunion only made it obvious that:

We were once so close, and it has been too long.

If there really is an untapped pool of interest (and interested parties), we can hope that through means such as this WWW site we can constructively recapture some of what JMC was to us, as well as what we reflect of it.

OK.... End of sermon.... Now what are we doing about it?