Group Memory

A JMC Instructor's Reminiscence Pam Holcomb Oestreicher

I was an instructor in anthropology specializing in Native Americans, 1975-77 (or was it 76-78?) I think the latter. Attended MSU as an undergraduate from 1965 to '69; graduate student from '69 to '81, with various sojourns. I was fired from my TA-ship in history for assisting in the Kent State strike (by the prof., not by the department - was paid all semester and never had to complete my incompletes.) Thus, I am of the same generation as the first classes at JMC and witnessed/participated in most of the same events.

I taught a course in which students explored culture through re-creating artifacts using "original" methods; they had to choose a tribe, research its culture and life prior to or at the time of white contact, and then make something to represent that culture using techniques and materials as close to "period" as reasonably possible. I still have beadwork, a carved beaver bowl, and a wood-cut print made by some of the students. I taught a course on native american biography and autobiography, exploring themes of culture change which later formed the core of my own dissertation. Only there could I be freed of surveys, standard intro to anthro courses, and permitted to invent creative ways to involve students in the important themes of culture and history.

During the two years I was there, the atmosphere was dispirited, as it was clear that the college's days were numbered. I was by no means the only one let go in that period - there was a revolving door of temporary adjunct faculty as the administration had long since stopped permitting hiring full-time, tenurable core faculty. (a sign of the times, which has continued in academia at large for 30 years; at many universities, most teaching is done by teaching assistants, part-time adjuncts and/or by untenurable full-time lecturers. Tenure is reserved for the relatively few high status research positions, most of whom teach far less than their junior colleagues.) By the time I left, there was only one year left. We were all caught up in the emotional, fraught atmosphere and while I don't remember much about details anymore, I do remember the pain.

Even then, though, the (few) students were great: open to weirdness, eager to try anything, intellectually engaged. What a great group to learn teaching from!