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Lindgren, Raymond (audio interview #1 of 1)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This single interview with Raymond Lindgren was conducted in the CSULB Oral History Resource Center. The audio quality is good. 3/23/1981
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- 2021-08-31
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- *** File: uhrlindgren1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-3:59)... Brief introduction Lindgren came to Long Beach in 1961 and served as Dean of the College, Acting Academic Vice President, Resident Director for International Programs, and professor of history. When he arrived at Long Beach, he found the administration and the faculty divided as a result of faculty revolts against President Peterson in 1952, 1956, and 1958. Although P. Victor Peterson was forced to resign from the presidency as a result of these revolts, some of the people who worked in his administration remained in their positions and a negative political climate persisted on the campus. The faculty wanted to participate in campus governance and this let to the creation of the Academic Senate in 1961. He retired from CSULB in 1980. (3:59-6:15)... Prior to coming to Long Beach, Lindgren taught history and was Chair of the History Department at Occidental College. He decided to leave Occidental because was working long hours and decided if he were going to do that, he might as well get paid as an administrator. There was also a sense of adventure in coming to Long Beach. (6:15-11:46)... Occidental's president, Dr. Arthur Coons was a member of one of the committees that investigated conflicts at Long Beach. Coons viewed Lindgren's decision to go to Long Beach as evidence of disloyalty to Occidental and didn't tell Lindgren about the conflicts here. Although some Long Beach faculty members tried to warn him, Lindgren arrived at Long Beach unaware of the seriousness of conflict between the administration and the faculty. He believed that a new opportunity awaited him. (11:46-15:47)... Born in Kansas City in 1913, Lindgren was raised in a Swedish community in Kansas and attended elementary and high schools in Kansas City. He attended Kansas State Teachers College in Pittsburgh, Kansas. In 1932, he and his brother come to Los Angeles to see the Olympics. He decided to stay with his sister who was already here. He Los Angeles Junior College and then transferred to UCLA where he got a BA. He worked for 2 and a half year before returning in 1937 to get his doctorate in history. In 1942, he joined the faculty at Occidental College. His specialization at UCLA was Scandinavian history, which interested him because both his parents were immigrants from Sweden. (15:47-22:22)... Lindgren's father was a farm boy who didn't want to farm so he went to work for the railroad. Lindgren's mother worked a maid and a cook for some younger members of the Swift family. His parents strayed from the conservative Lutheran Church and attended a Swedish Baptist Church in Kansas City, which is where they met. After trying to make a living in several different jobs, Lindgren's father returned to farming in 1919, when there was a farm depression. After about about 6 unsuccessful years on the farm, Lindgren's parents moved to Lindsbergh and purchased a home where Lindgren was born and raised. He has 7 siblings, two of whom earned bachelor degrees and one who earned a masters. (22:22-30:20)... Lindgren wrote his doctoral dissertation on an obscure Danish diplomat. Between 1942 and 45, there were 2 full time professors in Occidental's History Department, Lindgren and Glenn Dumke. They both taught various courses in history and divided the curriculum according their area of specialty. In the fall of 1945, Lindgren left Occidental when Osgood Hardy returned and took a job at Vanderbilt University, where he taught until 1949. Between 1949-51, he took a leave of absence and taught 1 year at the University of Minnesota and spent the second year in Norway as a Fulbright scholar. He returned to Vanderbilt University and taught there for another year. In 1952, he accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin to teach Scandinavian studies. Then he returned to Occidental in 1954 and taught there until 1961 when he came to Long Beach. (30:20-38:48)... Lindgren was unfamiliar with some of the majors offered at Long Beach, such as Industrial Technology, Nursing, and Engineering. Some faculty members were suspicious of Lindgren because he came from a small, liberal arts college. Others, he believed, wanted to build a liberal arts program and viewed his presence as a beneficial. His objective was to improve the educational program and expand the curriculum. The head of the Education program was was initially hostile towards Lindgren, but became congenial over time. Lindgren came into conflict with Education professors over the interpretation of the Ryan Act. Lindgren saw it as an opportunity to broaden and strengthened the curriculum and provide teachers with an academic education. He worked with the Curriculum Committee to set up a curriculum that followed the provisions of the Ryan Act and provided potential teachers with broad, academic training. Some faculty in the Education program did not accept this solution and conflicts continued. (38:48-41:27)... An important part of Lindgren's job as Dean of the College was to work with the Academic Senate and developing policies to establish academic departments. These policies had to be approved by the Chancellor's office. Later, while he was Dean of the College, the campus developed plans to organize the departments into schools. Ultimately, 12 academic divisions were consolidated into schools. (41:27-46:24)... The decision to change the name of the campus from Long Beach State College to California State College, Long Beach occurred during this period of reorganization. Many in the local community opposed the name change even though the campus community overwhelmingly favored it. The debates over this issue were often heated during meetings of the President's Advisory Council. Assemblyman William Grant was a leading opponent of the name change. President McIntosh acknowledged the community members concerns, but made it clear that their efforts to oppose the name change would not be successful. Lindgren believes that the Advisory Council was a useful tool for establishing communication between the university and the community. Llewellyn Bixby and George Taubman were among the founding members of this committee. End of tape *** File: uhrlindgren2.mp3 (0:00-3:25)... Tape begins abruptly with a discussion of campus reorganization. When Lindgren arrived at Long Beach, campus reorganization had begun and he assisted in the transition, which was completed by 1967. The establishment of an Academic Senate made the campus more like a university. Part of this reorganization involved transforming the campus from a teachers college into a university. This change was mandated by the law that established the California State College system and its Chancellor's Office. (3:25-8:02)... Campus policies related to faculty research and graduate programs were also reorganized. The new the Board of Trustees and the Chancellor's office in 1961 and 1963 decided that scholarly research would be among the criteria for granting tenure and promotion. In 1961, Lindgren inherited the position as coordinator of the graduate program and organized a committee of 5 faculty members to recommend policies to govern graduate programs to the Academic Senate. The MA degree had belonged to professional educators and, at the time, departments took over graduate programs and some decided to grant MS degrees. And then a Dean of Graduate Studies was appointed to carry out the programs. (8:02-13:36)... The debate concerning the development of an Honors Program was linked to the development of the general education requirements in 1963. Lindgren had been involved in honors programs both at Occidental and Vanderbilt. International programs at the California State University system began at San Francisco and Chico in the early 1950s. Trustees adopted a state wide policy to support these programs and Lindgren supports Long Beach's cooperation in establishing an International Program at Uppsala. In 1963, the summer program was established and Uppsala became Long Beach's first resident campus abroad. (13:36-19:08)... Lindgren supported an expansion of the curriculum in the fields of Physical Therapy, Nursing, Engineering, and Industrial Technology. These programs were developed during the 1960s when the campus was expanding rapidly. In 1961, there were about 12,700 students and the number increased to about 22,000 in 6 years. Since state funding was based on enrollment, the campus had the funds for development. Other Cal State campuses, where growth was slower, had less money so some changes were made to state formulas for distributing money. Lindgren was a member and then chair of the Statewide Library Committee for 2 years. This committee was charged with with developing strong undergraduate libraries. At Long Beach, a 5 story addition to the 3 story library was built and books, periodicals and other collections were added to the collections. (19:08-26:18)... As Dean of College, Lindgren was involved in allocating resources and funds during the campus' rapid expansion the 1960s. He tried to distribute funds fairly between professional and vocational areas and liberal arts programs without ignoring areas with low enrollment. Physical Therapy, for example, required extra support to get accreditation. The Nursing program had conflicts with LBCC over mixing students from their 2 year program with students from Cal State's 4 year program in local hospitals. Lindgren attempted to meet with LBCC administrators, but they refused. The LBCC administrator Lindgren tried to meet later came to work in Lindgren's campus office, but refused to recognize the irony of the situation. (26:18-28:12)... Planting flowering peach trees to beautify the campus was President McIntosh's idea. People in the local community raised between $8,000 and 10,000 to buy the trees. (28:12-36:05)... Ken Glenn created the idea of the International Sculpture Symposium and President McIntosh supported it. Many people were enthusiastic about transforming the campus into a sculpture gallery. Glenn's enthusiasm didn't extend to saying no to sculptors. The Symposium was committed to paying their expenses and one brought both his wife and mistress. Another had an affair with a student while yet another wrecked a state car that he shouldn't have been driving. Lindgren believes that Glenn finally had a nervous breakdown as a result of trying to manage the sculptors and the controversies that plagued the symposium. The problems ultimately landed on McIntosh's desk and they absorbed an inordinate amount of his time. Local businesses provided support for some of the sculptures, including Craig Shipbuilding and the El Toro Marine Base. Lindgren played only an indirect role. He believes that many faculty members were disappointed by the sculptures, as well as the fact that university funds were being used for them rather than academic programs. (36:05-42:33)... After P. Victor Peterson resigned, the deans he had appointed remained in the administration. David Bryant was referred to as a dean, but he did not officially hold the title after Peterson left. Frances "Frenchy" Flynn was responsible for the campus planning. Robert Rhodes died soon after Lindgren arrived in Long Beach and he was replaced by Gene Atkinson and then Donald Simonsen, both of whom had congenial relationships with the faculty and were very helpful to Lindgren. Wesley Bratton was moved into educational administration. The Dean of Students, Karl Russell, was eventually pushed out of the administration by the faculty. It was difficult to work with Bryant and Flynn because the faculty would not support them and they did not have any responsibilities in the development of academic programs. The battle lines were drawn when Lindgren assumed his position as Dean of the College, and his goal in this position was to maintain peace on the campus. (42:33-46:17)... When Lindgren arrived, the Music Department was split over whether or not to oppose President Peterson. No one could win a 2/3rds vote to become chair. So a committee including Dr. Sam Wylie, James Noguer, and Lindgren was formed to search for a new chair from off the campus. A new chair was hired from Cal State Northridge. The tape ends abruptly with a discussion of the Police Science Department, which is continued on third tape of the interview. *** File: uhrlindgren3.mp3 (0:00-4:51)... Brief introduction. There were 3 faculty members in the Police Science Department and they had trouble agreeing on rules for searching for a new chair. The Academic Senate decided to hire Robert Guthrie from USC as chair. He resigned after 4 years of political hassles in the department. There were also problems in other departments. For example, the Math department didn't like to be in a science building. Science department faculty regarded Math as a service department for the sciences. Math department faculty members were also divided among themselves. For example, they refused to elect someone with a PhD as chair. (4:51-14:13)... There were conflicts among the foreign language faculty over whether or not to divide them into more than one department. James Noguer favored one department. While he was on leave, someone who favored the split replaced him. When he returned so did the problems. Noguer was involved in another conflict when he was accused of giving a student who didn't complete any course work a grade. Noguer didn't actually assign the grade; he just signed the grade sheet. Another Noguer issue concerned the validity of his academic credentials. The Licenciado that Noguer received from Spain wasn't recognized in the United States. Noguer didn't lose his position and 2 other members with foreign degrees were hired in the department. (14:13-24:29)... In the 1950s, there was a dispute between Carl Gregory and Vernon Metzgar. And there were questions about Gregory's qualifications to be a professor. The Academic Senate investigated Gregory and recommended his termination, but this was not possible because he had tenure. Gregory was also charged with teaching courses outside his department before the chancellor's office mandated that all professors be assigned Teaching Service Areas (TSA). Gregory was ultimately assigned a TSA in the Department of Management, where he and Metzgar continued their conflict. This conflict also manifested itself in the "navel" encounter, called that because the 2 men were involved in a physical altercation. There were no blows exchanged, but they argued "belly to belly." There was a hearing at which Metzgar had many supporters and Gregory few. But Metzgar had made threats. The Dean of the Business Division, Austin Reep, wanted to dismiss Metzgar but Lindgren refused to support this decision. (24:29-27:44)... The dispute between Gregory and Metzgar led to a hearing in the Academic Senate but that hearing came to no conclusion. President McIntosh found this an unsatisfactory conclusion and believed he couldn't let the matter go unresolved during the summer. So he suspended Metzgar. Ultimately, Metzger was reinstated, but he kept fighting his suspension in hearings and a law suit. He continued to appeal but the courts, including the California Supreme Court, upheld his suspension. (27:44-31:29)... Lindgren's resignation as Dean of the College occurred as a result of the tensions on campus and the chancellor's office decision to restructure the system. The chancellor's office decided to remove the Dean of the College at San Jose State University, and change that position to Vice President for Academic Affairs. McIntosh argued that this represented a change in the title only, not in the position. A committee was formed on campus to address this issue, and many of its members were people with whom Lindgren had had conflicts. The committee decided that the Vice Presidency was a new position and there should be a search for someone to fill that position. The invited Lindgren to apply. The tape ends abruptly as Lindgren is discussing his candidacy for the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs. *** File: uhrlindgren4.mp3 (0:00-11:30)... Tape begins abruptly with a continued discussion of Lindgren's candidacy for Vice President for Academic Affairs His candidacy was doomed because too many of the members of the search committee were against him. The committee's report was made in McIntosh's absence while Lindgren was acting president. The committee refused to meet with Lindgren so he resigned as Dean of the College in July 1966. In 1967, he accepted a position in Sweden and Donald Simonsen then became Vice President for Academic Affairs. These events were directly related to the Gregory-Metzgar case. As part of the resolution of the case, the Management program was divided in 2 departments, Gregory was assigned to one and Metzgar to the other. The faculty charged the administration with violating AAUP rules by not giving Metzgar a hearing and asked AAUP to investigate the case. Lindgren and McIntosh both believed there was an opportunity for a hearing, but the faculty failed to take timely action. In spite of the political struggles, Lindgren was proud to have been part of the campus community. (11:30-18:40)... Before Lindgren arrived at Long Beach, there was no other administrator between President McIntosh and the faculty. McIntosh gave Lindgren independence in academic development, personnel, curriculum, and in certain budgetary matters. The very few conflicts Lindgren had with McIntosh involved the administrative style of each man, rather than their principals. To a certain extent, McIntosh isolated himself from the faculty because he understood the political issues that plagued P. Victor Peterson. Lindgren was once critical of McIntosh because he did not delegate authority to his administrators. McIntosh, however, confided to Lindgren that he could not delegate authority that he did not have. (18:40-25:26)... Lindgren tried to compensate for McIntosh's limited communication with other administrators and department chairs by spending most of his energy working on committees and establishing a network of communication. While McIntosh often was absent from campus, Lindgren was always available to the faculty . He made ate lunch in the Chart Room and sat with faculty members to discuss campus matters. There were plans for a faculty club in the Student Union, but it was never built. (25:26-30:46)... When the board of trustees mandated that research be among the criteria to be considered in hiring, tenure and promotion, McIntosh hired Hiden Cox to support faculty research and creative activity. McIntosh was particularly supportive of academic research in the areas of science and art. Lindgren was responsible for allocating funds for new equipment to the academic departments. The History Department complained that they were slighted in this area and Lindgren provided them with maps and other things. Lindgren didn't serve on the board of the CSCLB Foundation because he did not have the time or energy to commit to any efforts outside his area of administrative responsibility. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Raymond Lindgren as Dean of the College when the college was growing rapidly and its governing structures were being established, between 1961 and 1966. Lindgren also helped to establish Long Beach's first international student exchange program. In this single interview, Lindgren discusses his childhood and graduate education at UCLA. After graduation, he taught as Occidental, Vanderbilt and other campuses before coming to Long Beach. He served as Dean of the College during the presidential administration of Carl McIntosh. He was a specialist in Scandinavian history and when he stepped down from serving as Dean, he headed an international program in Uppsala Sweden for 2 years before returning to Long Beach to teach history until he retired. This interview was conducted as part of a project to document the history of California State University, Long Beach. TOPICS - professional career; governance politics; internal conflict; Arthur Coons; Occidental College; family background; education; curriculum development; Ryan Act; Division of Education; William Grant; and Carl McIntosh;governance politics; international programs; students; Physical Therapy program; Nursing program; International Sculpture Symposium; Ken Glenn; Carl McIntosh; David Bryant; Robert Rhodes; Frances "Frenchy " Flynn; Wesley Bratton; Gene Atkinson; Donald Simonson; Karl Russell; Foreign Languages Department; James Noguer; and Sam Wiley;Foreign Languages Department; James Noguer; Police Science Department; Mathematics Department; governance politics; Academic Senate; Metzgar-Gregory case; and Carl McIntosh;Metzgar-Gregory case; Carl McIntosh; governance politics; AAUP; and curriculum development;
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