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- Dr. Surrendra Singh
College of Education Faculty Oral Histories
Dr. Surrendra Singh
LB: Speaking of conferences I want to go back a bit. I found a photograph of you, Dean Battle, and Dr. Harold Taylor at a national superintendent’s conference. Do you remember doing that as a faculty?
SS: I remember now. That picture is from a time in our lives when we were younger. The picture was taken, if I remember correctly, at the International Education Conference in Cullowee, North Carolina. Dr. Taylor was on his way to go to Tokyo to become the president of an international university in Tokyo. I don’t remember the exact name of the university at this time. The reason I was there was to participate in a cross-cultural program, and took the opportunity to seek some advice from Dr. Taylor in developing an international program at USF. Anyway, this was not the superintendent’s conference. It was the International Education Conference in Cullowee, North Carolina.
LB: Cullowee in the western part of North Carolina.
SS: Yes, the western part of North Carolina. Dean Battle and I had shared a room and thoughts on international education. Dean Battle was very much interested in Russian education. I had shared with him what little I knew at that time about Russian education regarding exceptional children. In Russia, the department which served exceptional children was called the Department of Defectology, not a very progressive name. However, I was familiar with the works of several well known Russian educators and neuropsychologists such as Alexander Luria. I shared their work with Dean Battle.
LB: I recently interviewed him (Dean Battle) and he had some good memories of the College to share with us all. Let us talk about some of the faculty you came with and were here for a number of years. I am thinking of Bernie Lax. His specialty as I recall was mental retardation, but he did some other things.
SS: Physically handicapped and motor disabilities were his areas of specialization. He taught courses in mental retardation as well.
LB: I remember him also having a crisis phone management project that he taught individuals. Was that related to suicide or something?
SS: Yes, I think you are right. Eleanor Gutzeloe was the one who subsequently provided leadership in the area of suicide prevention. Bernie Lax was also very much involved in developing community theater through some foreign connections but I cannot be certain.
LB: And then he worked with the University in terms of accessibility here on campus and that I guess came from his physically handicapped background.
SS: That’s right. He provided some exercises for the students to experience how it feels to live with conditions such as blindness and physical handicaps. He had students walk across campus blind-folded or have them navigate themselves in a wheelchair. Bernie had provided significant leadership in inducing these experiences for prospective teachers.
LB: I know you had a strong interest in faculty governance and you been involved in finally getting a College of Education constitution and governance. I don’t know if that led to work in the local union and state union, but it is related. Tell me something about that series of events.