Cecil A. Partee Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

yourself and so forth. Whereas, in contradistinction, if you had college in
you, then the school itself became a method by which you enlarged your own
perceptions, in which you elasticized your own mind and where you prepared
yourself to make a contribution to society. That was the concept of the
differential.
Q: And he really liked that?
A: Oh, he really liked that, yes. He said that was "deep." He said, "NOW
that's deep. I like that .I1 (laughter)
Q: How large a staff did you have for the newspaper?
A: We had about eight or ten people.
Q: Are you still in contact with any of those eight or ten?
A: No, I don't think so. As a matter of fact, I can't even remember who they
were, to tell you the truth. (pause) Got it out once a month, I suppose, 1
don't really remember.
Q: How did you get to be editor of this? Did you actively go after it?
A: Well, I think the paper was commissioned through the student council and I
was president of the student council. The student council had to make a
judgement as to who should be the editor and I suppose I just kind of got it
shoved at me, really. I had taken a couple of journalism courses and I had
done fairly well, so . . .
Q: What were your functions that you performed in the student council?
A: The student council was divided into four components. We had two freshman
representatives, two sophomore representatives, two juniors and two seniors.
I had been a member of the student council since my freshman year. Mostly, we
were a liaison between students and the faculty and the administration; you
know, to articulate the needs, the requests and so forth, of the student body.
From time to time, disciplinary problems that arose would be given to us by
the administration to make recommendations as to what should be done in a
particular instance. As I look back on it, I think that the disciplinary prablems
that they gave us were ones that they found it difficult to deal with and
they felt that if we gave our version, our impact on it, then it sort of
covered their behinds a little bit, you know; so it could be a student decision
rather than an administrative one.
Q: Do you remember any instances of . . .
A: I remember one that I thought that we got shafted on. I suppose that's
why it sticks in my mind. There was an extremely, I mean extremely, attractive
young lady who came from St. Louis who said that one of her parents was baack
and the other was Chinese. She was a beautiful person physically and notitoo
bad mentally. She was absolutely exquisite. She could have been a movielstar.