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Umoja Kwaguvu
Title
Umoja Kwaguvu
Description
Umoja Kwaguvu was the Coordinator of Student Activities, a long time staff member and a Family Institute Adjunct. He was involved in organizing many events in the early college years. Timestamp summary of interview [Follows Gil Muller interview on VHS tape]: (41:37) Professor Umoja Kwaguvu began to work in LaGCC in 1972, starting in the Veterans Program teaching English, and then moving to Student Services in 1974. (43:40) Covers organizing theatre shows, student parties and flyering the college buildings for events (45:03) “The Main building was like a factory and there was a little room there they called Student Activities.” (46:00) Talks about all night movie festivals that were organized, the mix of students and faculty at the events (49:33) “We could do almost anything we wanted to do. Bureaucracy had not set in yet.” (51:12) Describes African American Reading Marathon – President Shenker said we were to do something for the 1976 Bicentennial. The event had people continuously reading from February 1st-8th for 200 hours straight. [Archivist Note: Institutional Archives has photographs of the African American Reading Marathon in the photograph collection] (58:38) Became fulltime Coordinator in Student Activities in 1976. (58:53) Describes organizing trips to: Stratford, Connecticut; Montreal, Canada; Jamaica; Brazil; Europe (London, Paris, Rome). Trips were focused on opening students up to the world, many who never left New York City before (01:02:53) Student Services had a performing arts Marathon in the late 1980s/early 90’s. LaGuardia was a regional representative at the Bob Hope Talent Show in 1977/78 [Archivist Note: Institutional Archives also has photographs of the Bob Hope Talent Show in their photograph collection] (01:05:30) Talks about having prominent figures visiting the college including: the comedian Dick Gregory, Judge Bruce Wright, Yolanda King (Dr. King’s daughter), and Attallah Shabazz (Malcolm X’s daughter). (01:13:29) Direction and guidance for events and programs came from the Director of Student Activities – Leo Newball (01:16:20) Talks about the change of events that happened when Student Activities became Student Life (01:80:00) Describes his experience working with students and the changes in the student body, and political in. (01:21:31) Covers the 1989 student takeover and other protests, where students occupied parts of the campus in protest over rising tuition. Describes the students as militant but non-violent during these events. (01:23:40) He discussed what he thought made LaGCC different – "Students get training fit for work – see them professionally doing their work – anywhere you go you find LaGuardia people" (01:25:10) End
Subjects
Kwaguvu, Umoja, Kwaguvu, Umoja, 25th Anniversary, 25th Anniversary, Oral History, Oral History
Publisher
LaGuardia Community College (New York, N.Y)
John Hyland
Title
John Hyland
Description
John Hyland was a professor in the Social Sciences and an early faculty member. He was very involved with the PSC Union (0:28) John Hyland is a long time member of LaGCC. He started at LaGCC in 1972. (0:42) Professor Hyland discusses the faculty in the beginning of LaGCC. Says it was a very lively faculty and there was a sense of LaGCC being a different college (2:48) Professor Hyland speaks about past faculty of LaGCC. He mentions Tom French who was involved in the student movement of the 1960s and John Cato involved in civil rights activities. Talks about his past as a priest and involvement in community organizing and the welfare rights movement. (4:16) Professor Hyland did his PhD on the formation of LaGuardia Community College. (5:11) Mentions Prof. Lenny Saremsky, (Leonard Saremsky) who was in the Math department. (7:47) Discussed the curriculum, the notion of innovation in the college, and Intensive courses related to the urban environment. He also spoke about the Main Building and about the surrounding area of businesses and companies. (8:43) Professor Hyland described how Intensives were taught. (9:37) Speaks about Social Science department and early faculty interest. (10:28) Talks about the organization of academic departments. The Social Science department started as Personality and Behavior and then became Social Science. (11:58) “LaGCC was established as a Cooperative Education College and [it] was, in some ways, one of the defining characteristics of the college.” (13:09) Talks about how faculty worked collaborated to coordinate teach courses and the Satellite College (14:49) Discusses a course on community control of public education for paraprofessionals. (16:33) Speaks about the curriculum for the Social Science department and Introductory courses. Talks about creating textbooks to fit student’s needs. (24:21) Discusses the fiscal crisis in 1975 and how the college shut down for two weeks. (27:19) Speaks about the late 1980s and 1990s fiscal crisis and it effects. (29:42) Discusses student enrollment and diversity in the early years and the 1980s. (34:06) Says there was a strong population at LaGCC of female students, women going to college and women and the workforce. (34:44)Says there was a variety of programs and Cooperative Education was a very strong component at the college and very community oriented. (36:20)Goes over student internships. (41:52)He said the fiscal crisis had taken its toll on innovation at the college, and how that makes the college distinctive.
Subjects
Hyland, John, Hyland, John, 25th Anniversary, 25th Anniversary, Oral History, Oral History
Publisher
LaGuardia Community College (New York, N.Y)