Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

A: Beautiful. I stayed in the dormitory and they had nice dormitories and
excellent food. They had a cafeteria style service and the food was
exdellent. Very much unlike many of the colleges in that day where they had
the boarding house style where they put the platter on the table and you
would pass it around. We didn't have that at all. We had cafeteria food and
it was excellent food.
Q: It didn't get worse as time went on by?
A: No, sir. It was beautiful.
Q: Was this in the dormitory that you ate?
A: Well, there was a cafeteria; the cafeteria was in its own building,
separate building.
Q: Let's see, Tennessee State, now, was that en entire black school?
A: All-black school, yes.
Q: Is it still today? Presumably not, I guess.
A: It is now a part of the University of Tennessee system. That's been a
big problem. They have made it a part of the system and have just merged it
with a predominantly white school, which was in downtown Nashville, which
came into being since I left. It still has a black president. It's not a
black school anymore because there is a lot of white people there. The
school's still in existence, but as a merged school.
Q: What courses did you take that first year?
A: Well, I took typing, I took business mathematics, English, world history,
geography. Also art and music appreciation.
Q: Were there any organizations on campus that you joined that first year?
A: Yes. Yes, there were four fraternities and four sororities on that campus
and I joined the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity,
Q: Did they have a fraternity house?
A: No fraternity houses, no.
Q: Whdre did you meet, then?
A: We would just meet in a designated room in the dormitory.
Q: Was there a rush period for that?
A: Yes, they had a rush period, where they had what they called a "smoker
They would have a smoker in which you would be introduced to the varlous