go. We are filming. And again if there's
anything you don't want to talk about or anything you
can remind about just telling you. Okay? Yeah
. Okay. So why don't we start with?
Tell me who you are. The camera? Yes
. Uh, and you know that you're let's establish
that you're still teaching. Also, I'm not in
this. I cut my voice out. So if
I ask you a question, if you can sort
of reiterate the question just to the Okay. So
, um, to talk about who I am and
how I got here. Um, I'm Ellen Bratton
. Um, I came to Blacksburg, too,
work against strip mining and decided to stay with my
young daughter. She was a year and a half
then, and my first experience was to try to
find a job. And I met Olivia Ferrari,
and he hired me as a writer. I had
had an editorial background at George Washington University. He
hired me to write, um, a proposal.
Well, it was actually a slide show to celebrate
the 150th anniversary of the university. So I did
that. And then, um, he found out
that I was a potter and I had a little
show in the basement of Cocoa Hall in in a
70 71. And he hired me as an editorial
assistant teaching ceramics. So that was how I made
my my way into into the college of architecture.
It was a college of architecture. Then So,
um, I, uh I started teaching ceramics,
and then I, uh, at the same time
, I bought a big Victorian house on Roanoke Street
in Blacksburg, and I let out rooms to architecture
students. And Mr Fry rented a room for all
the Swiss guests that came over the next 20 years
. So we had a very lively household of young
architecture students, and we had some really notable Swiss
architects. Lawrence Moser, Carl Flag, uh,
Vassar Fallen. Timmy Neeson from Basel deter Ellie from
Basel. So they all were a part of the
household. We, um I served one dinner I
served at dinner every day. Um, usually a
soup and a salad in an entree and a dessert
. Some of the Swiss guys would not eat all
day so they can eat dinner. But we all
sat down together, and then usually all the young
men in the house they were mostly men would clean
up and then go back to Kogel. So we
had a work ethic and a very, very rich
cultural experience. Many of our Swiss guests couldn't speak
English when they came, so we spoke a little
bit of, uh, switch list. I guess
you would call it, uh, and slowly,
slowly we learned a few words and they learned they
learned English. Peter Dish was in that group of
people he taught at the school in Bend Rizzio.
So, um, slowly, slowly the ceramics became
a real part of the college. I sometimes had
50 students in my ceramics class, which was amazing
. At first. It was just a class that
it wasn't a class. It was an opportunity for
our students to use so so faculty would send them
down to work in the material when they felt they
needed it. But then, as bureaucracy took over
, we had to make it a class. So
we did that. And about that same time,
let's see, In 1982 when Charles Steiger took over
as dean, I was made assistant to the dean
, and so I had a great many, uh
, responsibilities. I I used to say I did
everything the boys didn't want to do. It was
kind aside, side jab at them. But it
was true. I took care of the student,
all the students, all the advising, all the
events for the college. Um, but when I
was younger, when I was 29 when I first
started, I am. I had a great respect
and a wonderful relationship with Charles Burchard. I think
he put in the first handicapped parking space, Um
, at the university, actually, because I was
getting parking tickets. So he just took care of
that. And then, of course, my friendship
with and my collegial experience with Lucien Olivia Ferrari was
something that really was an amazing, amazing experience.
I would say He mentored me in my teaching.
He made sure that I got to Europe. I
went on trips with with him and with Lucy the
next stop you real quick. I want to get
into that more. I want to move this light
real quick. And am I talking too much?
No, no, no. It's great. It's
very, very good. I just It's one of
those things that I'm sure you can understand It's like
not looking exactly that. Yeah, like, real
quick. They're not perfect. That's exactly Is that
what you want? That? And then I'll just
basically what I'll do is I'll just kind diet into
what you're saying. Yes. So I actually want
to go into the Ferrari part of it. Yeah
. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. So
let's talk about before we go and you can go
right into the what you're talking about with Ferrari and
Lucy mentoring you and kind of taking you under their
wing. But I want to get into that by
asking you. You said Ferrari Uh huh. Found
that you were Potter and brought you into the to
me from the stories that I've heard. That's that
was part of the genius. Well, yes,
Well, and he came out of that house Ian
tradition. And also having been at home, he
was around people who who did that kind of work
. Lucy was a talented, um, Weaver.
He had Brandon Holt to was graphics. She came
after I did. And then there was me.
Um, the other thing that we did because we
were so close to each other was make this environment
in my house on Roanoke Street that, um,
engaged all the faculty and all of the students that
wish to participate. So every Friday night, we
would have a seminar, and that seminar would be
, um, a presentation via student, then a
discussion led by Ferrari. Uh, sometimes we would
have guests who would be in the college. Ken
Frampton, uh, spoke in the house. We
had all sorts of individuals who came through and gave
presentations. The students would sit as questions. Uh
, it would be. Wouldn't be fair for me
not to say some of these went on into the
wee hours of the morning. Um, but it
was a very open environment where students and faculty really
worked together. And I think the notion of Ferrari
, uh, the way Ferrari looked at students,
they were really at the center of their own learning
. So he inspired this this real quest for,
um, learning things that you wanted to learn.
And in doing that, I think he also inspired
the faculty so he knew which ones of us could
do certain things. I, for instance, did
all of his editing for him, even when he
moved to Riva San Vitale. He would call me
up and say, Yeah, can you help me
with such and such a thing? So we always
had a very, very close, collegial friendship and
personal friendship. Um, he and Lucy would take
care of my daughter when I would travel. Um
, so she also grew up with a very strong
sense of design and a very strong sense of who
she was. I think Olivio had the ability was
so completely, uh, he could look through you
and know what you needed. And I think that
was one of his biggest gifts. He could be
tough. Um, when I was a young teacher
, he said to me once, you're a bourgeois
teacher, and I was I was crushed. I
thought, Oh, no. But but then he
proceeded to help me, um, get over that
. And, um, he was my thesis chair
for my master's degree in architecture. Unfortunately, he
died before we got that finished. But I was
able to present to him right before he died.
So that was that was really a wonderful experience for
me. Um, we had a real long,
uh, it was a really a long experience together
which I can't tell you how important it was to
me. I always remember being in Venice with Olivia
Lucy. And at that point, I had to
use a wheelchair to be well on the trip.
And he got up one morning, very early,
came and got me and said, Yeah, you
know, uh, it's perfect. We go away
on ST Mark's right now. We're going, Let's
go. We're going to see the city. So
we went over every bridge and he would carry my
wheelchair and I would walk over the bridge and then
I would get in the wheelchair and off we would
go. So he was for me, a person
that allowed me to see everything I would. I
always I always referred to him as Mr Ferrari.
I never was, was casual with him in the
college. I was I had so much respect for
this person. He was a genius, but there
were lots of geniuses in the school. He really
meant heard a lot of us. Some of us
don't want to admit that, But then I think
if you're really honest with yourself, he put together
a great group of people for myself. I had
the opportunity to interview students who wanted to come to
the college, make suggestions. So I had a
certain amount of autonomy, and we could say I
had some power. I did. Um, I
could help students get around bureaucracy, which I did
. I knew how to use the substitution forum,
which I did. Um, And in those days
, things weren't so tightly bureaucratic that you had some
ability to move within the system and help the student
that needed your assistance to get through a program.
So we all really work together. Um, and
that was very special. A very special time today
. I see. I retired in 2000 and three
, but I've been teaching ever since then. So
basically flunked retirement. Um, really enjoyed being a
part of the college. Um, really enjoy teaching
. Um, it really doesn't matter to me if
I so called on the faculty or not. As
a marriages faculty, I have that ability. And
that's just absolutely wonderful for me. Uh huh.
What else do you want to do? Well,
let's talk about I mean, it's hard. It's
just just come up a lot. And this is
probably what I'm bringing to it, too. Um
, but I see a difference just from when I
was here in the mid nineties, um, to
now and I'm just curious and it's not a criticism
, you know? I just think it's because of
the School of Virginia Tech. And the reality is
of, you know, the realities of the educational
, uh, that platform. I wonder if if
the and maybe this this this is a good thing
, maybe it's not. But it seems to me
like the way that Ferrari talk the way that Bertram
taught the way that this school that you're describing the
Friday night seminars, that that's that's much more difficult
to do. And it is, Is there something
lost? Well, on that subject of having something
lost in the school, I would say that the
pedagogy is very strong. Uh, however, it
needs a new diagram to meet the constraints of what
the educational system wants today. So before we really
didn't have to check off boxes Now, the system
defines education differently. In those days, we all
work together. As I said today, we work
separately. Very rarely do you see faculty interacting with
other faculty trying to bring that back and trying to
work that way. Um, it works. Sometimes
. I know that I've had a wonderful experience with
younger faculty recently working with them, talking with the
But in the day that I'm referring to, we
would. We had a coffee table. We all
sat at that coffee table. We all talk together
. It wasn't my studio in your studio, in
his studio in her studio. It was our studios
today. I think there's so much pressure because you
want to get tenure. You want to be a
full professor. You have to do all these little
things to do that. I I prefer not to
go through the tenure process. I had the opportunity
to do that. I was advised not to.
I think that was really good advice, for one
thing, and I'm not casting expert explosions on anyone
. But for one thing, that always made my
work new. I didn't I didn't rely on things
I had done in the past. I always had
a different kind of syllabus. Every year it was
it was exciting for me as a teacher to try
new things. Uh, in terms of my own
ceramics teaching gave me an opportunity to teach and also
to make my own pots, which was very,
very important to me back then. And it still
is. I realized now, though, that I'm
a good teacher and that I would never have said
that before because I always I always feel like I'm
learning. I never feel like I'm not learning,
but I was relieved of the pressure that a tenure
track faculty is under. So in that respect,
I think, uh, you you lean on the
things you've done before as a tenure track faculty,
whereas a non tenure track faculty can really experiment and
doing that and doing the administrative work I did the
administrative work was incredible. It was intense. Um
, I was the only advisor in the college.
There is no advisor in the college now, So
I had 850 kids that could come to me,
and sometimes they banged on the door at 409 East
Roman street to talk to me. So the job
it wasn't a 9 to 5 job. It was
never a 9 to 5 job. I wish that
it wasn't 100 5 job. Now I mean,
for other people. But I think that we were
also dedicated to the program. And Olivio really did
bring to all of us desire to really lift up
our students. I really think that that thought of
our students come to us with gifts, you celebrate
their gifts and you add to those those gifts that
was just a real way of looking, being perceptive
to know enough about who was going to do well
in what field? One of my dearest friends.
Her thesis was photography, and she has an architecture
degree. She has worked as a photographer she has
done house is, uh, she's very, very
happy with her life. Um, another A friend
, Uh, in those days, he's a benefactor
to the college. His name is Robert Turner.
Um, his fifth year thesis. I sat upstairs
on the third floor and cast 1800 column capitals for
him, and I wouldn't say it was the strongest
thesis in the world. But, my lord,
he went on to be director in London and of
S. O. M. And the kids that
came out of my house, Three of them were
associate directors. There were 18 young men that were
living in my house that went on to S O
. M. In the heyday. So, uh
, that was a really wonderful time for me,
too, because I knew all those s o.
M guys. Bruce Graham Brigade, a painter.
Hans, all those folks, I would say one
thing about the education in the eighties and the seventies
, it had a tendency to last past graduation.
So, uh, you had a real coterie of
friends. You, uh, those friends you had
40 years later and I'm not sure that that happens
now. I don't think I was talking to a
student recently and she said to me, Well,
you know, students don't trust each other And I
thought, Isn't that a shame that they feel a
competition? Because when we were teaching, the competition
was with you and yourself and not with another student
. So when you celebrated what you could do and
realized what that meant to you and what you were
going to learn after that, it was something else
. It was something more important. That's a spectacular
point. That's that's Yeah, that's huge. Well
, and it also I mean, to me,
part of that pedagogy is, um, the faculty
were there to learn from the students? Absolutely.
Faculty always learned from students. I always learned from
students. Um, and you developed a critical eye
. Uh, and it didn't matter whether you were
a potter or an architecture faculty. You were still
in the faculty. You could still input with the
students. You could still read the things you needed
to read. And I think that was the the
Burchard Ferrari. Uh, strength Burchard let Ferrari do
what Ferrari wanted to do. And by doing that
, he let an educational genius, though some might
. But some might not agree with me An educational
genius. Make a school and create a faculty that
was dedicated the way he was. And when I
said that, he knew what each of us can
do. Frank Winner, who's now a faculty full
professor, was the one that always went to the
library for him. And still, today, he's
the one that goes to the library and looks at
books and brings books back in. You know,
it was it was always We always use the library
so intensely. Now we go to the computer,
we go to the Internet. Unfortunate in my my
looking at it because you never smell the page of
the book. You can't feel the texture. Um
, it's fleeting on the Internet, but I understand
, you know, that's why I say the diagram
has to change. But the essence of that first
diagram has to stay, and those are things like
the student is at the center of his or her
learning. Uh, student comes with gifts that we
don't take away from them. We celebrate those gifts
if we could always remember that and make the students
proud of what they have. That's the important thing
Olivio used to say to me when he was in
Riva San Vitale. Yeah, send me the weakest
student. I want the weakest ones because he knew
he could show them how how strong they were.
And I think you know, that's another point.
Real. It's really a good point. You know
, Common sense was a big part of being an
architect and also exploring exploring everything. Um, when
we had our Friday night seminars, we would always
have students who helped us. Today I would have
a hard time. I mean, I could do
it. I can I can always go to a
student say, Will you help me with this party
? But basically, uh, now we say,
Oh, well, we'll pay you to do this
. Why would you pay them to do it?
It's a wonderful experience for them. My daughter,
who's now well, she graduated from Virginia Tech's industrial
design program with a master's degree. She's now a
director of design for Procter and Gamble. Her experience
with this house of ours with full of designers growing
up that way, was just such an enriching experience
for her, Um, and she When she graduated
from high school, she went with Lucy and Olivia
on the summer design, a summer program abroad,
which was just an absolutely fabulous experience for her.
She didn't want to go, but her mom insisted
it was one of the few times that I made
her do something she didn't want to. Mm.
But, um, it enriched her life, and
she will never, ever get over the fact that
she lived with all these fascinating people. And as
she grew up, it was just amazing for her
. So I think she's a wonderful example of what
happens to a person who goes, goes through an
experience like that and gets to know their faculty having
students here in the studio. I get so close
to them and they know they can trust me and
we have talks. We don't talk just about ceramics
. We talk about architecture because architecture is everything.
It's like, Olivio said. It's every single aspect
of your life. It makes a difference how you
put the butter on your table. And I think
those simple little things are really the essence of architecture
. Architecture is life. It's how you live your
life, how you create your life. So then
maybe the It's not so much because this is a
question that I have have the students changed, as
has the Pentagon's You changed. But I think,
you know, maybe it's more that the practice of
architecture has changed, and so the expectation of what
architecture people come in. Like I know. When
I was 18, I didn't know anything about architecture
, and I came in completely open and the fact
that it seemed to be about everything was exciting,
and I think maybe now people come in with a
bit more knowledge of practice and I think practice,
I don't know It just seems like there's some shit
. I think there is a shift, and I
think that a firm is looking for Some firms are
looking for all that technical information. That guy comes
with all that technical information. Does he have any
common sense? Can he work on his own?
Does he think out of the box? Kenny,
Kenny, Can he work in the situation? I
mean, if something is thrown at him, does
he know how to handle it? I think when
when we abandon the idea of the wholeness of the
architectural experience and look at it in a very narrow
way, we lose. Um, we lose something
really huge in terms of the education of an architect
. If somebody doesn't know who Noguchi is, or
somebody doesn't know something about the Bauhaus or, um
, or some of the schools that really influenced the
way in architecture, architecture architect is educated. Then
I think we've lost it. We have. So
it's in a way, um, when, uh
when, uh when a an an alum uh comes
back at me and says I have to have a
student graduate who knows how to do this program,
This program in this program. We always felt like
those computer programs were something our students can pick up
very easily in the office. They're changing so quickly
. Why wouldn't we do that? Why are we
teaching something that's going to be archaic in four years
? So at a certain point, if you educate
a person who knows how to handle those kinds of
things doesn't have to know the program knows how to
do it. Uh huh. What's the difference?
Why not educate the whole man in philosophy and art
history in music? I mean, one of the
things that was so evident in our school in the
eighties was when you walked in the door. Classical
music was filling, filling the hall, you know
, for I was walking around with a conductor's wand
. You know, it was it was something that
was together. Now they're all these little separate,
uh, entities, as as Olivia would say,
one and one and one and one, and not
a grouping of people interested in education. So I
think that's instilling, instilling that love of learning is
something that I think loses out when we put all
these requirements down. So the pressure on faculty now
is immense. Huge, huge pressure on faculty and
to write papers and to travel and to say,
Oh, I did this, this, this and
this. And that's why I should be full professor
. Well, what are you here for? Your
your here to to make someone better than you are
. I mean, someone asked me was Well,
um, what happens if a student gets becomes a
better potter than than you are? Well, then
I succeeded. Yeah, you know, and I
have students that are better powders than I. But
that's okay. When I get a note back from
, say, a partner at Bowling Slowinski and Jackson
that says I still what you taught me is the
way I approach a project. Then I know I've
succeeded. If I have a student right, me
from Mandrake CEO and say, Will you please teach
next year? I want to be in your studio
. I've succeeded and that only that makes me feel
good. It makes me feel better to know that
those guys are going out in the world and they're
going to make a mark that's so much more important
to me. It really is. It's so much
more important than if they cat. Oh, so
much more important than at Auto Cat or Rhino or
all these. Uh, you know, these things
? I mean, not that I don't don't appreciate
that, but I just think that they can learn
those technical things somewhere else. It's interesting for me
talking. I've talked to a number of friends and
I've talked to Are you talking about Ray Calabro?
Yes. I've spoken to him. Yeah, because
I think it's whiskey Jackson. I just love their
work. Well, you should see the book.
That rate Calabro sent me out their work and the
inscription that he put in that book. I mean
, it's just he lived in the house. So
, you know, when I think about the people
that lived in the house, it's just really it's
very amazing. Um, had a whole contingent of
Icelanders. One. Johannes Thoreson is now head of
the School of architecture in Reykjavik. Um uh,
your deceit pretty slow Daughter was supposed to come this
fall, but she can't right now, but they
won the competition for the Icelandic Embassy in Berlin.
It's built, so you know, it's just so
wonderful to see. I mean, I had a
wonderful life cooking, teaching and having all these people
in the house. I mean, when Leah and
I had to make a life on our own,
I was determined that it wasn't going to be on
her own first first, because of my handicap or
first. Really, Because of Leo, I wanted
to to have a well rounded life. So that
was really important to me. I had I know
what we were gonna have. Goodness gracious, it
was It was amazing to have her back hurts Burger
in our kitchen and Ken Frampton Frampton talking about the
maison de there. I mean, those things you
don't you never forget you never They never leave your
memory or Carl Flag talking about his experiences with Alvare
Alto. He was his right hand man. So
, you know I mean it. When I knew
that I was going to talk with you, Joshua
, I started to think about the wonderful life I've
had in this in this environment. And I started
to think back to the things that I hadn't remembered
. You know that I that how rich and full
my life was and how it still is, It's
not as though retiring meant stopping because I'm I had
Olivio in my life and he made He made me
realize how important it is to keep learning. Keep
reading. So that's what's that's. That's my staying
point, I guess. Yeah, I found that
a lot that people are nervous about being interviewed.
Ah, but I think most people find that it
it's almost forces, um, reflect. And for
most people, it's a very wonderful it is.
It's a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to reflect
about a school that has grown so large. And
when you think we started out as a college of
architecture and we ended up as a college of architecture
and urban studies, with landscape and interior and industrial
and architecture and all those things, I will sneeze
. Excuse me, uh, and building instruction.
I mean, you know, a wonderful degree program
is, um, undergraduate degree in architecture and a
master's degree in bill and in building construction and construction
management. I was always thinking about those things for
my students because, you know, we went through
that period in the eighties where nobody was hiring anyone
, so we started to configure these double degrees.
And, you know, you could get a degree
in civil engineering in another year, So their lives
became very, very rich in so many different ways
. So many different ways. When I think I
mean, there's no question to me that when I
was here, I was here in 95 96 and
I didn't know I wasn't this. But this way
I wasn't excited about film. When I came to
call and I learned about film at Virginia Tech and
then a group reunion. I was exposed because at
that point, it's certainly attack. I don't think
this is necessarily true, Cooper, but it would
have been okay for me to grant. It would
have been not even okay. It would've been,
I wouldn't say encourage. Everyone would have been fine
if I graduated with my five year architecture degree and
then went made film. And I think that that
was something truly unique and extraordinary about. And it
is about yes and, uh, that that is
true and the fact that you know how to do
so many different things or you used to. I
I was just thinking, though, you know,
20 years ago you could be mentored by a faculty
. Now a faculty has so many things on their
mind, so many pressures to deal with. It's
hard to find that faculty member that you, um
, tidy your heart with bands of gold and that
you don't let go of its. That's difficult.
Uh, it part of I think part of our
problem is, um, today we have no advisor
and we really need someone there. Uh, like
a mother figure. I mean, that's what I
was in the school. I know I was that
mother figure who is going to be there, who's
going to be able to handle whatever issues you have
send you where you need to go. That's extremely
important. And I think students today don't have that
that they can hold on to, and I think
that's really, really important. I'm so glad you
went. Let's talk about that more, but I
think you're 100% right. I think that's I had
never thought about that. I think you're 100% right
that there's a vacuum. There's a loss. Yes
, and because the student doesn't have when we say
, um, that the student has their studio head
to go to as an advisor. We're doing something
completely and totally wrong. What student is going to
go and talk about an issue with their studio master
? I don't think that's going to happen. I
think they need someone who is not connected to them
by a grade. They need someone who can talk
to them and and give them the kind of help
that they need or send them where they need to
go or help them configure a program that's really meaningful
to them. Who do they go to if they
want to have a minor in history and a major
in architecture? Who tells them about all the possibilities
? Um, it's one of the things were criticized
for the most now as a as a college and
as a school, where is my advisor? Where
is the person that I can sit down with?
And I think how I wish that that would happen
off the record, I would say to you,
I have offered to do that again, and I
know I would be good at it, but I
haven't been. They haven't picked that up. It
is It's a terrible shame because I know so many
so many alums. And I know so much about
what they're going through. I do. Yeah,
Well, and especially, I mean, your coin
. I think about the great going to the your
professor. Kids now are so obsessed with grades,
they are 100 times less likely, right? Precisely
. Yeah, it is a shame. And it's
, you know, it's I hadn't I feel kind
of bad now. I had no idea that you
were doing that when I was here, or I
would have gone and talked to you because I was
completely, you know, I end up leaving.
I went to, you know, right? Yeah
. I used to have a state I used to
be. You know that where you come in that
when you come in the building, into the lobby
, on the left and on the right, there's
those forward sealing windows. I used to be in
an office with that floor to ceiling windows and they
would line up all the way out the door.
And I did this for 20 years, and then
I couldn't do it anymore. I needed help,
and the guys didn't see it. They couldn't see
it, which is I don't know. Yeah,
it was hard at first. Being the only female
in administration for the first few years. That was
really difficult. But I'm a survivor. Clear?
Uh huh. Yeah, actually, I've ever my
really good friend. Who I'm really sorry that I
lost touch with was you were helping him out a
lot. Remember Emery? Yes. Yeah, because
he was here. Kind of Not really. Shouldn't
you stayed under the right on? I think he
ended up screwing that up by not taking classes.
Well, you know, that's the other thing.
Who tells these kids to not Don't wait until your
last semester to take your science credit. I mean
, who tells them that? Who really gives them
all that info? I mean, Tamerlan does some
of it, but Tamil is not versed in the
design professions. Enough to see if somebody really has
a real want how to help them get there.
You know how to help them realize what they really
want to do. And I think that's that's the
point, isn't it? I mean, it really
is. I really don't think that the university takes
advantage of its emeritus professors, Um, to tell
you honestly, um, I haven't had any financial
remuneration for several years, but I really don't care
, because I'm emeritus, so I have the right
to teach. Thank goodness I'm emeritus. It took
a special vote because I never went past assistant professor
. But that didn't matter to me. It really
didn't matter. I the emeritus status, help me
be able to teach to still teach and to talk
with students you know, help them. Because I
really think for me, that's really important. I
could have, and this is also off the record
. But just to tell you honestly, I had
this really strong desire to let students know that it
didn't matter. If you were handicapped, you could
achieve things. I really wanted them to know that
they could achieve things. And so if they could
look at me, they could see that they could
do it. Kathy House, who has only one
real arm, Fabulous architect. If you would talk
to her, she would say the day she walked
in my pottery studio and said she went through parts
and I just looked at her and I said,
Okay, fine was the day her life turned around
. What a wonderful thing to be able to do
that. Yeah. And I think that for me
was that that again was just an amazing experience.
Yeah, well, this is off the record for
me. Sorry, Jeff, Um, you know
, this film is a celebration of the school,
and I Look, I could have gone several other
places for my message here. I wanted to come
back to check, and I'm glad I did.
I'm very glad I but it seems to me that
your generation of educators you changed education. You saw
what, what was lacking, and you did something
about it. And I think when I hear these
stories about Ferrari, and if you did, I'm
jealous that I that you didn't get that. Yeah
. You see, that's the point that that,
to me, is really the biggest point that we
can make. We looked at each student as an
individual, and the things that we did meant something
to each one of those students. I mean,
each one of those students was like a gift for
us, you know? And I really think that
that just that part of it is gone And the
advising part I think is a real integral part of
what's missing. Finding someone who will do that.
That is a real issue I presented. I presented
an idea to upper administration in the university of having
an office for emeritus faculty that they could. They
could start to advise doing something that helped that situation
. I mean, so I'm going to be 70
in April. Who cares? I don't feel 70
. You know that if I came when I was
29 it was 1971 it's easy to do the man
. But, um, I still have a lot
. I feel like I have a lot and I
want to contribute. I don't want to stop.
I just don't want to stop and hopefully I will
be able to do that Well, Hans has been
a mentor for me and just seeing, you know
, I didn't know him before and I've heard you
know, he was different. He was a little
bit more fiery, I think, and just seeing
, you know, he stopped teaching his urbanism class
. I think I think you know, the people
who are used to teaching in a certain way and
used to a certain environment are getting really dissuaded.
They are. It's really difficult. It's really difficult
. Um, and I think that we have something
that if they would let us keep it, let
us do it. It would be in addition to
the school. So I mean, if if we
looked at the folks that retired, who would come
back and add it, would it would make the
environment so rich. I was really happy that there's
a new faculty member from Berlin that I talked to
yesterday I saw yesterday. And, um, we
talked about doing some stood being in the studio together
, and he invited me, and I thought,
Oh, what a wonderful possibility. And last last
year, Andrew Balzer was here, and I worked
with him with his fourth year students. And that
was just so enriching for me, you know?
But I could also I knew how to get to
the student. Mm. I'm not afraid to do
that. Well, you're a resource. I mean
, why aren't you being used? Mm. So
is there anything else you want to know? Unless
there's any specific stories or anecdotes that you want to
share, I gotta tell you, in all honesty
, I don't know how I'm going to cut this
down. You've given me, and you gave me
some coming in the film with this was spectacular.
Can't was it? Yes. Good. I'm not
just saying good. It's a Yeah. I think
your perspective is I think you know what You know
what it is. It's very clear that you've been
reflecting and so you're bringing it all together in a
way that's really special. Oh, well, thank
you. I think that, um, how I've
grown and how I've been able to experience and have
my life be so full is because of my school
. It's because of what we did. I don't
think that it's something that we need to replicate completely
. But I do think that we need to look
at it in terms of how how we we treat
our young people, how we bring them up and
how they go forward and how much confidence they have
, because it's really important that they have the confidence
to go forward and know that they can think in
situation that is so big. It's so big.
And the only way to do that is to mentor
them and not just teach course and grade them and
go. That's not That's not where it's at.
Okay. Okay. Thanks, Joshua. Thank you
as I can that this was wonderful.