In anticipation of the 125th anniversary of the founding of Michigan State University, a project to record the institution's recent history was first proposed and formulated in the office of the Vice President for University and Federal Relations in the summer of 1978. In deference to the centennial history of Michigan Agricultural College, which had been published in 1956, the project mission was to focus on the major areas of transition over the succeeding quarter-century, during which the school had become a broadly-based university. The objective was to be reached by interview key individuals who were personally acquainted with the most significant accomplishments of the school in that time. These testimonies were to be transcribed, edited, and compiled into a book that was to be issued as a commemorative publication in 1980.

Funding of $5,000 was secured for the planning and implementation phases of the Oral History Project. Publication was dependent upon securing additional support in the following fiscal year. A committee was formed and began meeting to plan and implement the project in the fall of 1978. Planning completed and personnel hired, the interviews began in January of 1979 and concluded in the fall of the same year. Transcription was completed simultaneously and submitted to the narrators for release as completed. All paperwork was finished by the end of January, 1980 (although instruments of gift had not been executed on all transcriptions), but publication funds were not forthcoming.

Project Principals

Robert Perrin, Vice President for University and Federal Relations. PROJECT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN Frederick Honhart, Assistant Director, University Archives. PROJECT COORDINATOR Nancy Dixon, INTERVIEWER