Gus Nolan:
00:00
It’s February, […] this is another famous thing. That's Marist
college in its embryonic stage, just a chapel. […] And remind me
that you have to sign this release later or you’ll get through and
you’ll say “I’m not gonna to sign it” [laughter]. Today is Monday,
February 25
th
, and we have the pleasure of interviewing Linda
Pisacano from the registrar's office. Good morning Linda.
Linda Pisacano:
00:46
Good morning Gus. Nice to see you.
GN:
00:49
Okay. I'm sorry it's such a cold, windy day to have you out here
doing this. But, for some time I've been trying to get you free to
come over and your schedule and my schedule didn't mix, but
today is a happy day that we were able to do it. This interview,
as we mentioned, is for the historical records here, the archives
and its oral now, but it will be transcribed into a written form
when we have time and students available to do it. For
ourselves though this morning we’re dividing it up kind of into
five or six pieces, before Marist, Marist, and then situations at
Marist while you're here. So briefly, Linda, could you give us a
small kind of a thumbnail account of the major events in your
life before Marist? Where were you born, and you don't have to
tell us when, but [laughter] what schools you went to, the
neighborhood, et cetera.
LP:
01:47
Sure […] I was born in Dutchess county. I was born actually in
beacon and I lived most of my life here in the Wappingers-
Hopewell area. […] I graduated from high school and then went
to two years at Dutchess community college. And once I
graduated from there, I moved to the state of Virginia and I
lived there for five years. And then in,
GN:
02:18
Could you tell us a timeframe? About what years were you in
Virginia?
LP:
02:22
Sure. I was there from […] 1980 to 1985. I came back to
Dutchess county in November of 1985 and then I started work
here at Marist college January of 1986.
GN:
02:41
Let's hold on up a bit, let’s go back to the school. Let's talk
about your school years. While in school, what are the
particular interests that you have? Did you write well, [do]
poetry, foreign languages, music? Were you on the stage with
talents for plays or working with crews? Anything in particular
we can put down?
LP:
03:06
No, actually I had a very quiet high school. I took a few years of
French and I actually took French with Barbara Carpenter’s


husband. [Gus utters a remark in French]. Yeah, [laughter]
many, many years ago. And I actually went to France and I spent
three weeks in France when I lived in Virginia. And I went with
my roommate whose grandmother lived in France. So we went
to visit her for three weeks. We took off and we had a great
time. It was along the Riviera. And then when I came back the
restaurant that I had worked at actually closed within a couple
of weeks after I returned. So I was jobless at the time. So I did
get another job and I stayed for like another year. And then I
headed back up to New York because I knew I needed to do
something more with my life. I needed to go back to school. I
only had a two year degree and I needed, I thought, to get a
bachelor's degree and to advance. I wasn't really doing anything
in Virginia. I was working different kinds of jobs, so I went, I
moved back-
GN:
04:15
What drew you back to the Hudson Valley? Do you have family
here?
LP:
04:17
I have family. I grew up here, and my mom and dad lived here at
the time. And I have a brother that lives here to. And when I
moved to Virginia, I actually moved in with my sister who was at
the time married to a military person. And that's why I moved
to Virginia. I knew somebody there, so which like I said, I stayed
there for five years and then knew it was time to move on
because I was not going anywhere with my life.
GN:
04:48
When you came back, when did you first hear about Marist?
And, when were you interested in applying here? Was there
some reason or connection?
LP:
04:59
Actually, when I came back, it was right around Thanksgiving,
right before Christmas time. And I started applying to jobs,
various jobs, I needed to get a job. But what impressed me
about Marist is I knew I could get my education and my plan
was I would, you know, get my education and then move on.
But as you see, I'm still here at Marist, but at the time
everybody was working for IBM. That was the place to work. So
back in early 1986, everybody was applying to IBM or working
for a number of years at IBM. And I remember when I had my
interview, Rosemary Malloy worked in the registrar's office and
she was part of the interview team. I think only two people had
interviewed for the position that I had applied for, which was a
clerical position. Now, whenever we advertise a job, we get
easily over a hundred applicants that are applying. So it's a big
difference. And at the time, Marist had much smaller
enrollment and it did not look at all like what it does today. It
was, I’m gonna say-


GN:
06:16
Okay, we're going get to that development as that goes on. So,
you applied [to] Rosemary Malloy. And the clerical job included
typing, filing? What were the kinds of things [expected of the
clerical position]?
LP:
06:31
It was processing all the transcripts, the outgoing
transcripts\Marist transcripts, and being sent to different
employers or different schools. And I also did all their
enrollment verification. So I did that for I think two years. And
then I moved to another clerical position in the same office. So,
in the registrar's office I stayed, but at the time we had a prison
program and I did all the verifications and the transcripts for the
prison program. And then after that, I had since obtained my
degree and then I applied for the administrator's position.
GN:
07:17
Did you finish your degree here?
LP:
07:19
I did. I actually finished two degrees. I finished my bachelor's
degree in business and then in 2009, I completed my master's in
psychology.
GN:
07:29
You got a psychology master’s degree, very good. I really didn't
know that. I'm happy that we were able to bring that out here
because it's part of the evidence. So, the point that you just
touched at briefly, and that is, Marist has changed in the time
that you've been here. So, what would you say strikes you as
[having changed]? How do you think it changed? Physically, of
course.
LP:
08:02
I think, definitely physically, the different buildings that they
have created, but also the population of students that we are
getting now. Marist, the name has become a bigger name than
it was when I first applied here. Marist was known but it was
more like a small liberal arts kind of-
GN:
08:28
Regional College in the Hudson Valley
LP:
08:32
Yeah. And you know, now I think when you say Marist College,
people know, they know the name. And people are impressed
by what they offer here at Marist. The opportunities, I mean
with the internships alone, or say with the fashion program or
even with the business program. The internships that the
students are able to do while they're here at Marist are very
impressive.
GN:
08:59
When you first started, were all the dorms up? That is the three
principal [dorms]. Was Sheahan, Leo and Champagnat in place?


LP:
09:07
Yes. Those, yes, those three were here. And then also […].
What's the little building that’s […]? [GN: The Foy complex?] No,
none of that was up. Nothing across the street, across campus,
that was not up. It was those basic three dorms. [GN: The
Gartland apartments?] They went up after, I think, I was here.
GN:
09:31
Okay. I’m just trying to get an idea of the growth physically.
And Dennis Murray is president when you arrive?
LP:
09:39
When I arrived Dennis Murray was president, yes.
GN:
09:43
That was the mid-eighties, I guess, is that right? When you
arrived?
LP:
09:49
I arrived January 13th, 1986.
GN:
09:53
Okay. And he came in ‘77, I think, or ‘78. [LP: He was here a few
years before myself.] About the changes, […] let's talk about
your office for instance. What kind of changes have taken place
in your [office]? Numerically it has grown. There are more
people in your office then maybe twice or three times what it
used to be. Would that be right?
LP:
10:17
It's probably about double of what it used to be. I remember
when I first started […], gosh there were-
GN:
10:24
Who was the director?
LP:
10:27
At the time when I came it was Elizabeth Ross, [who] was the
registrar. I only worked with her maybe about a year and a half.
And Rosemary Malloy and Ellen Jetto, they were here. And Ellen
and Elizabeth, they left probably after about a year and a half
after I had arrived. And then Rosemary Malloy stepped in as the
registrar, as acting registrar. And then Judy Ivankovic became
registrar probably in ‘87, ’88. She was, bursar, and then she
applied for the registrar’s position. And I've worked with her
since, I think [GN: She’s still here?]. She’s still here, yeah-
GN:
11:13
Not long ago […]. I have no doubt she's changed somewhat
from what I remember of her [LP: laughter, looks the same]. But
[she has a] great spirit, and I interviewed her, point of fact,
somewhere along the line here, I'm sure. […] Other things about
the office? It’s changed […], well let's talk about the equipment.
Do they have typewriters when you came?
LP:
11:38
They had typewriters, [GN: electric typewriters?] electric
typewriters [laughter] sweetheart. And we only had probably


one in the office cause we had to type up all the addresses on
the envelopes for the transcripts going out or any of the
enrollment forms. Anything that we sent out had to be typed
up. And years ago […] we would put a seal on the back of the
envelope when we sent out an official copy of the transcript and
we would actually light, it was like a candle, drip the wax, and
then put a seal on the back of the envelope. Which nowadays I
think it would set off all kinds of alarms, you know, fire alarms.
But yeah, we used to put the seal and it would be a red wax
seal. [GN: This is an official document?], that was an official
document. And if you broke the seal and then it was not official
anymore.
GN:
12:33
That was advanced. […] How about the filing thing? […] No
longer is so much kept in the office, it must be somewhere else.
LP:
12:51
We actually, well we have storage space over and across one of
the buildings that we have storage. But now lately we've been
scanning a lot of documents so we're trying to do away with a
lot of the paper. We still have a lot of paper, but it's the years of
scanning all the documents and putting it in one big area that
everybody would have access to, including our office and other
offices.
GN:
13:21
There are how many alumni? 40,000 or something like that.
LP:
13:26
Yeah, way. There's a lot.
GN:
13:28
So, trying to keep track of that by envelopes would be a hard
job I imagine. While we're on the office, maybe we could just
talk about a few more things. I'm interested in these, […] I call
them special issues. What are some of the problems, or why
don't we call them concerns, in the office? Like pressure to do
things from [the] admissions office. Do you get that kind of, you
know a late arrival? [Imitating admissions office] “We really
would like to have this student but we’re past the date. Squeeze
him in.”
LP:
14:09
Yes. And so, then we have to always accommodate, or if […]
admissions have interviewed a student and they would like to
know the evaluation of their transcript from their other school.
They want it done right now to. And a lot of times it comes at
very crazy time, like say during freshman orientation when you
know you're getting a lot of students at the same time. So, you
have to a lot of times drop things [be]cause they would like an
answer because this is, you know, a potential student that may
be coming in.


GN:
14:48
You're looking at $200,000 [brief laughter].
LP:
14:50
Easily. And if we deny it or say that we don't have time to do it,
that's a student that we may not take here at Marist.
GN:
15:00
[…] How long would that [take]? Are they concerned about, “oh
they can't take a morning class,” or [laughter]?
LP:
15:09
Of course. I don't know what they did in high school. I mean,
these students started high school much earlier than eight
o'clock. And so many of the eight o'clocks they can’t take or
they can't do […] at five o'clock or […]. A lot of times students
are better at night, or they’re better in the morning, but eight
o'clocks yeah [laughter].
GN:
15:32
Do you find a change in the attitudes of students themselves?
Do they come in more confrontational? [Imitating student] “I
want to change my course. You made a mistake, you put me in
the wrong language.”
LP:
15:49
I find that they want instant […] gratification right away when
they submit a transcript request, they want the transcript to go
out right then. They send you an email, they want an answer
right then and if not, they'll send you another email or another
email. I think nowadays it's like they're all on their cell phones
or when they send a response or a question they want answers
right away. They don't want to wait a couple days or a day or
something. And then so many times that the classes fill it
becomes our problem even though there's only, you know, 30
seats or something. But it becomes our problem, it's not the
school's problem, it's our problem.
GN:
16:40
Find a bigger classroom and put another chair in it [laughter].
LP:
16:44
[…] We send out endless emails about registration and you have
these handful of students that they do not register, but then it's
our problem that they don't get any of their classes or the times
that they want and they have to do it running around, even
though all the other students are able to register. So, you have
to accommodate students that way.
GN:
17:08
What is your job now? What do you do in reference to these
things?
LP:
17:11
I oversee registration. I oversee the classrooms. […] Also,
freshman orientation in the part of scheduling [the] freshmen.


GN:
17:23
Put this into focus. Is that all the courses in all the classrooms?
Is that graduate school as well?
LP:
17:30
We create all the courses. We receive courses from the
different schools and we input all the courses, undergraduate,
graduate courses, whether they're here on campus or online
courses. We also have a school college program. We enter those
courses into the system. We also have a paralegal program, we
have OLC, we have a variety of programs and we actually input
all those courses. So, it's a lot of courses.
GN:
18:00
Have you started examining the candidates for the medical
school yet?
LP:
18:04
No. Well another office, they actually […] interview them, and
then we will actually register those students too manually, we'll
register them. So our other students, our graduate students and
Undergrad students, they actually register online. But some our,
like PA program or the medical we’ll actually register them […]
manually, we'll register them.
GN:
18:30
Turn the page, another issue! What about finance? Who deals
with the financial problems? If a student says, for instance, “I
didn't take that course or I dropped it so I shouldn't pay for it.”
Do you deal with that or does that go to some other office?
LP:
18:51
Student financial services, they actually are a big part of it, but
they have to have documentation from us. Some type of proof
that a student did not attend. So we would have proof from the
instructors saying the student was never in the class or we
would have to have some proof. But financial services, they
would take part of the-
GN:
19:11
You need data to substantiate what [it] is that you’re holding
[the student] to. Yeah, cause I've heard […] the experiences of
students who said “I never took that course. And I never really
withdrew from it.” So, the bill was there, and years later it
comes back to haunt them.
LP:
19:31
Yes. Or they never attended but never withdrew from it. And
then they have an f on their transcript. That always becomes a
big issue too.
GN:
19:40
I’m you asking all these questions because it dawned to me that
[…] I never heard the answers to them, I just made them up
[Laughter] as we went. Personally, what were some of the most
difficult problems that you have had? Or you know, […] timing is


one thing, or your vacation and you can't fit it in, or graduation
week is coming and you have a cold, [laughter].
LP:
20:15
You sort of just roll with everything. Cause during the
summertime is one of our busiest times because we end with
graduation in May, towards the end of May, and then we start
right away with the incoming freshmen and the transfers.
GN:
20:29
That's […]. Through June is all this…?
LP:
20:31
June is all orientation and then for six weeks, the whole month
of July and two weeks into August, we're actually registering all
the freshmen. So, your registering almost 1200 freshmen in a
span of six weeks manually-
GN:
20:47
You would think that the summer is free, but the summer for
you-
LP:
20:48
No, the summer is much busier. So I never take vacation in the
summertime. I can't because of the onload of everything.
GN:
20:58
What […] are some of the more satisfying things that you have
had in the office and your job? You know, what will you say “I’m
very pleased with this success” […] for a new office? [laughter]
LP:
21:15
I always find it amazing because we only have a certain amount
of classrooms and we've had the same amount of classrooms
for endless years and it always amazes me how we can fit all the
classes. It's like one big giant puzzle. It's a headache and we [...]
just started with a room scheduler, but […] there's certain
classes that we have to schedule manually still anyway. But it
amazes me how we can fit everything into the one class
schedule because like I said, […] we have the same amount of
classroom space as we did 10, 15 years ago. So even though we
have a lot of new buildings-
GN:
22:03
Does anybody from the registrar herself go over and knock on
the door and say “when you put up a new building, would you
make some classrooms?” Not too much success with that,
yeah?
LP:
22:16
No, no. It's like when they built Lowell Thomas, we lost two
classrooms in that building. When we had the music building
created, we gained three, but we also lost three. So, it's always
been an even swap or Fontaine is mostly offices and now, this
coming fall, there’s supposed to be a renovation of Dyson. So,
it's a scramble there too […]-


GN:
22:44
Will there be any more classrooms in the new gym?
LP:
22:47
I don't think- well, [classrooms] used primarily for the Phys Ed
[Physical Education] department […] and for the sports teams.
GN:
22:56
That’s the buildings and that part of it. Let’s look into the crystal
ball. You’ve seen a lot of progress in Marist from when you first
came and where it is now numerically [with] the number of
students. Actually, I understand [there is] not only more of
them, but […] the level has gone up. I mean, I taught here, I
don't even know if I can be admitted as a student now.
[Laughter]. So that's part of it. Financially- I mean, I talked to
Father Lamour some time ago and he said when he came here,
two students had cars back in the early seventies. But they
looked like they had been hit by a train. Now students have cars
he couldn't afford. So, the financial status seems to have risen
as well across the board. We offer more, we can do more. […]
The dormitories for instance. Could you say something about
that? Did the registrar's office have anything to do with the
planning and implementing of the new dormitories?
LP:
24:15
No, we don't even- nope. We don't even- [dormitories are] not
part of our area.
GN:
24:18
You didn’t get a classroom in any of the buildings?
LP:
24:24
No [laughter]. I know, and those dorms are beautiful. I mean
they're really, really nice. But no, we have no part of that.
GN:
24:30
10 years from now, the future, what do you see for Marist? Is it
gonna still be here?
LP:
24:39
Yeah, oh definitely. Marist will be here. It probably will have
additional programs like with the medical school. I'm sure that
will advance into other areas too.
GN:
24:53
The question is, though,- well when I was a student here
Western Printing was across the street and they’re gone. IBM
used to be big, [and] they’ve been reduced. So, other places
that we thought were going to be the big ones, we have kind of
emerged from in that. And yet we know […]- well, part of it, will
students still be wiling to come here?
LP:
25:20
Oh, I think so. Just, I think in the last 10 years, I mean the
numbers have really risen and we have been very fortunate
where there's some schools that have had lay-offs or never
hired/rehired other people. We have been very fortunate. We


have not had layoffs and I could see 10 years even further into
the future, Marist will still be here.
GN:
25:48
I mean there’s online learning, but I think students still like to go
away for their college years. Live in a community with other
people like themselves. And as much as that goes on, it's not
like being in a classroom with students, online learning versus
traditional learning processes. Well, let me see, with that part
[…]. Do you see a problem with minorities? And will Marist still
be affordable for these less fortunate [groups]? Would there
still be room at the table? Are there enough scholarships to be
able to […]? From where you sit, you probably have nothing to
do with the money for our scholarships.
LP:
26:42
No we don't. But I could see additional scholarships being
created in order to bring the students in.
GN:
26:51
A more of a balance to the school in terms of [demographics?].
If you had a chance, because of your experience here or your
lifetime here, for what, 20 years now? How long [have you been
at Marist]?
LP:
27:06
I've been here for 33 years. [GN: How Many?]. 33.
GN:
27:10
Excuse me. [Laughter]. Where have I been? 33 years. Have you
had a chance […]? The board said “we'd like to have somebody
from the ranks who is down there touching students every day,
and so on, come and address us.” What do they see as the
problems? If you had a chance to go to the board, what would
you suggest? My big thing is that […] would enhance Marist,
problems that were […], certain things are fixed. Like salary is
fixed, so there's not much you can do about that. And medical
benefits. Are there other options though that you would like to
see brought on board?
LP:
27:55
I could see with the medical center opening, I could see them
offering maybe different kinds of tuition benefits for those
students. I'm not sure if they're going to have tuition benefits
like we do. I could see, you know, either students’ parents that
work here being able to afford a medical school. Cause I mean
most of those students that go away or go to a medical school, I
mean they're in debt for years and years. So, I don't know if
they would be able to offer some kind of incentive for students
to […]
GN:
28:39
Yeah, certainly not at the beginning, but […] there should be
some scholarship somewhere, I suppose, to bring that about.


LP:
28:47
Or even with the PA program, that's another pricey program.
It's [a] great opportunity for students to take. But I don't know if
there's any kind of benefit, […] a tuition benefit that Marist
offers for parents that work here or even people that work here
to go to that school.
GN:
29:09
How about another, […] more mundane things? Like parking?
LP:
29:16
[Laughter] Parking would be good.
GN:
29:18
Do you think they should put up a parking garage?
LP:
29:22
I think that would be[…], it would reduce some of this space of
using one big parking lot. We definitely need parking.
GN:
29:32
I talked to the director of security, John, who was here before.
And he said there is a plan, […] research has been done. They
could put up a four or five story garage down in the pit going
down to McCann Center, going down the hill there, put up in
the air. The cost for every space that the car would use is
$17,000. So, could you imagine getting a sponsor to spend
millions of dollars to have a garage named after them?
[Laughter. LP: You don’t want that Gus?] Not likely. But I mean
this is the […], what can be done, cause they’re off campus
parking and bus servers coming. I'm just playing […], have
people talked about this at all?
LP:
30:26
I just wonder too, when you go across campus there's, Marist
has bought several different buildings, along in that area. And I
just wonder, there is some buildings that are still not part of
Marist and I wonder in time if they'll sell to Marist and that
would increase either more for buildings or for parking. Or even
across the way where staples used to be. I don't know, that's a
little empty there. I don't know if they would even, […] if that's
feasible to have parking over there.
GN:
31:04
Yeah because now […] for all the events, we have places taking
them […] to the McCann Center.
LP:
31:13
And you think of when we do graduation. I mean, they're being
bused in from various places.
GN:
31:20
What would you say, from your experience here, in terms of the
spirit itself of Marist? Do you find it a continuum or has there
been some ups and downs in terms of people being more self-
centered, or more outgoing, or […]? There's a certain spirit it
seems to me that I have always experienced at Marist because I


come in here to different offices and I see pretty much the
tradition. I'm not sure you see that.
LP:
32:00
I think sometimes we get so absorbed in our work schedule that
we don't venture out. I think years ago it seemed […] there
were not as many people working here, and you sort of knew
everybody or knew where they were.
GN:
32:14
They were all in Donnelly to begin with.
LP:
32:17
Yeah, and you knew where everybody worked or you knew of
them. But now there's many people that, now when I go to a
function, I have no idea who they are or even where they work.
And some of them have been here for five, 10 years and I
couldn't even tell you. I've never seen them before. But I think
so many times we get so busy with our own, you know, we have
registration going on and then we go into graduation. It's so
busy that you don't really, the only time you get to deal with the
other offices and everything is like during graduation or during
orientation and you get to meet with these other people. But
I've always found that Marist is almost like a big family. There's
[…], you always have that secure feeling with them. You don't
feel […], maybe I'm naive in our office, we work great as a team.
I mean, there's a lot of different personalities and we work
great as a team. We're dealing with faculty, we're dealing with
students and we work together.
GN:
33:19
Do you deal much with faculty? Do you have occasions where
faculty will come in for various sorts of request? I have no idea
what they, […] maybe describing their courses. How is that
done? Does that […]?
LP:
33:32
Well, I deal a lot with the faculty with different courses that
they're putting in with the chairs and the deans, […] with the
room assignment or […] just, I seem like I'm the go to person
because I've been here long enough where I know the answer
that they're looking for. But we deal, I deal a lot with, […] not as
much as before. Before we would accept the grades, we would
see the faculty and […] that was done all manually and
everything. But now it's more like by phone call or by email.
GN:
34:09
Yeah. Well even the separation of the buildings, I mean […]
communications is over there and science is over here, so that
it's not even in the same general area. You know, […] it's not
that easy to get to them […] in terms of […]


LP:
34:29
And I often wonder when you were saying with additional space
over by where Saint Anne's is. I think Marist owns all that, you
just wonder if that will be developed into something.
GN:
34:40
There used to be a swimming pool over there. Donald Kelly,
yeah [laughter]. And I used to feel good, people going topless,
you know, […] they had to wear hats.
LP:
34:54
But I think they filled that in, right?
GN:
34:56
That was […] that’s a long time ago. Well, I think part of it is that
like they say, you know, we're so busy in our own little cocoon,
[…] and the few times that there are that we go out, we kind of
stay with our own group anyway. [LP: This is so true. This is
true.] If there's a picnic or something, you stay with your own
table as it were rather than intermingle. And I don’t know, do
we still have a Christmas party? Not like we used to have.
LP:
35:27
No. Remember that they had a big Christmas party and it was
held off campus. It was at night. Now what they do is it's like a
Friday afternoon, a week before Christmas and it's [GN: You just
gather in the cafeteria or {…}?] Yeah, like the cabaret or
something. And they just have finger foods and desserts and
you know, some drinks. But nothing like they had before. I
mean they used to have […]
GN:
35:52
We used to have a musician, we had a band, and […] all of that.
Yes, indeed. The kind of last question I have is, tell me the
answer. Is Marist worth the investment for a student? And the
question has three or four parts to it. Number one, investment.
It takes investment of time. It takes investment of energy to
come and to do. It takes investment of social, […] leaving home
and coming away because I think 90% of the students live on
campus. And then there's $200,000 at the end of it, you know,
and there may not be a job.
LP:
36:43
No. No, there’s no guarantee.
GN:
36:46
I mean, eventually they will, you know, hopefully get a job. But,
[…] how do you respond to that? Why would they keep going if
you can't get your money back?
LP:
36:59
And I think […] the students have to reach out, say for an
internship, or word of mouth, or be proactive. Go to the career
service office, […] start working on the resume. There's no
guarantee that they'll get a job. But if you're sitting waiting for
somebody to knock at your door, that's not going to happen


either. So, you have to be more aggressive too […]. Maybe an
internship would open doors or maybe it would have an
opportunity for a job to open.
GN:
37:35
It's strange, you’re kind of the personification of that. I mean,
the fact that you came up here because you wanted to get on
with your life, […] you have to make the effort to go out and do
it […]. Now, so far as the money is concerned, many have a
down payment, but with prudence I think the more important
thing is to be happy and content. I mean, you could stay home
and go to high school, and you're not going to get [a] much
better job going to high school.
LP:
38:07
Right, right.
GN:
38:09
At least you might learn how to read, […]. And you might learn
how people will respond, the psychology of […] interaction with
people and how to communicate that it's not what you say that
is important, its what people hear what you say.
LP:
38:25
And you have to sell yourself. You have to be that little bit
better than that other person that's going in for the interview.
GN:
38:34
You have to love them, but you don't have to give away your life
for them.
LP:
38:38
No. And […] you have to […] present yourself and whatever here
at Marist, and tried to involved in different things, try to build
yourself as a better person.
GN:
38:50
It would seem then that the internship program is probably one
of the more useful ways of making a venture into the outside
world.
LP:
39:01
Oh sure. And even when you're doing the internship, somebody
else that’s working there may know of somebody else that is
looking for […] somebody that's in that field. So, it may open
other doors for you.
GN:
39:17
And you might find out if you like teaching by trying it. And
don't be miserable, if you don't like it and you just can't get
along with students […]
LP:
39:26
Right. And you don't know […], like […] some of the students will
come in as freshman and they have a major, but by the time [of]
their sophomore year they have changed because after taking a
few of the classes it's not what they were looking for. And like


you said, with doing student teaching […]. All their lives, maybe
they thought they wanted to be a teacher, but to actually do it
hands on, you find that you may not want to be a teacher. You
may not like kids. You may not have that patience.
GN:
39:53
All right. Do you have anything else to say? I think I've kind of
gone through the list that I have. Is there something you want
to tell me? You’ve been dying for this opportunity?
LP:
40:07
No, I appreciate you interviewing me and I hope I gave you the
answers that you were looking for.
GN:
40:13
You’re the only person who was so honest about this aspect of
[…] [the] registrar’s office [….] and the problems we have. And
that's now […]. I can't erase it, it's there someplace. [LP: You're
going to hold it against me, right?] Oh No, they're gonna make
an improvement. We're going to open it up and not keep you
[…] so tied down. This is the beginning of Marist. That’s the
chapel of course, and so on. And it's grown since […] even the
swimming pool. Do you remember that? [LP: I just going to ask
you, where is this? Is this {…}?]. That’s Lowell Thomas now.
LP:
40:52
Oh Wow.
GN:
40:54
Lowell Thomas is built over that.
LP:
40:55
So that's why you hear the water running under Lowell Thomas?
[GN: {chuckles} yeah]. So, it was an actual swimming pool where
people could go swimming?
GN:
41:04
Yeah. We used to pump it out. It was naturally fed. [LP: Right, by
springs?] by springs down the hillside. And you won't believe
this, it’s a little disgusting, but I’ll tell you. In the springtime,
some of the farmers would slaughter their animals up there and
the blood would just be poured out into the streams. And it'll
wind up in our pool. I remember after we white-washed it one
summer, this would be in 1949, […] we had to pump it out, do it
all over again, […] and then we never […] had filtering or
anything. And it was only when Lowell Thomas went up that the
health department said “you have to close it.” It was going to be
closed before that. But we said “well we're building a pool over
there. Can we have it for another year?” They said “okay.” And
the kids in the neighborhood used to come and swim there. [LP:
Wow, cause it looks good size, I mean it looks big.] Oh, it was a
good size. […] It's the bottom of Lowell Thomas, that whole area
[…] they built over it, […] and then they were surprised there
was water in the basement. [LP: who would've thought, right?


{laugh}] So that's Lowell Thomas. […] that’s the road going
down, […] well, this is the main road, its still there. No, it isn't
there. I mean, the gate is out here now. Lowell Thomas is here,
and then the gate is out there […] the entrance. Linus Foy said
that’s his memorial, he's going to be buried underneath that
[laughter]. [LP: That’s too funny. Oh my gosh, yeah. It has
changed a lot]. This is the handball courts, it used to be the
pool. The city owned that.