Impressions From the Top Floor
When people think of longtime campus staff members, one of the first names that comes to mind is Norma Morris, staff assistant to President Milton A. Gordon.
Morris joined the President’s Office in 1980 and has served under every campus leader, except for founding university President William B. Langsdorf.
Her workdays are often long and filled with the broad spectrum of events, planning and details that come with working for the president of a university that serves more than 35,000 students.
Although Fullerton has grown tremendously since she first walked on campus, most of her memories are of the faculty, staff and administrators who have always pulled together to serve the institution. No matter how big it becomes, Morris believes that it is the people who make Cal State Fullerton “a wonderful place to work.”
How did you come to work at CSUF?
My husband was in school and I needed to work full-time while he completed his studies. We lived in Placentia and I was looking for a position that was close to our home. I saw two half-time secretarial positions listed, one in Foreign Languages and Literatures and one in Art. I had majored in Spanish and French when attending Fullerton College where I earned my AA degree, so it seemed like a good match. I applied for the positions in May 1966, was interviewed and hired for both half-time positions.
In 1966, the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures was housed on the second floor of the Music-Speech-Drama Building (now Performing Arts Center) and the Department of Art was located in the temporary buildings where the Children’s Center is now located.
In 1967, a full-time secretarial position in foreign languages and literatures became available. I was hired and worked there full-time until 1969 when the School of Interdisciplinary Studies was formed. Dr. David Feldman was named director of the school (he was a professor of Spanish and linguistics) and there was a secretarial position with a higher classification advertised for the new school, so I applied and was selected for that position.
The programs within the School of Interdisciplinary Studies in 1969 were: American studies, linguistics, religious studies, human services, Russian area studies, technological studies, and library science.
What are your earliest memories of CSUF?
The excitement, pride and collegiality with which the administration, the faculty and staff worked together. Everyone seemed to know that we were all working together to build an outstanding university that would educate generations of students, who would, in turn, become the business leaders, teachers, artists, musicians, actors/actresses, doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers and government leaders, who would play a major role in the intellectual, cultural and economic lives of our region and the state in the future.
Excellence in teaching and scholarship and involvement of students in scholarly research was always the mission of the university from its inception. The faculty was busy not only in teaching classes, doing research and mentoring students, but in developing courses and academic programs for the new campus. The Faculty Council (now Academic Senate) was actively involved in developing university policy recommendations on such issues as administrative and support, faculty personnel procedures, student related policies, and curricular policy to President Langsdorf.
There was a Staff Council (before collective bargaining) that made recommendations on staff-related issues to the vice president for administration. I was a member for several years. I remember in the early ’70s, when hot pants were popular, that there was a big debate on whether it was appropriate for staff — many of whom were the same age or a few years older than the students — to wear hot pants like the students were doing. They got to wear them.
What was it like on campus when you joined the staff?
Student enrollment was approximately 7,300 students in 1966. Because the university was smaller, faculty and staff knew each other across the university, not only in within their own schools (before the eight colleges we have now) but in other schools and divisions. Everyone was acquainted with those in Physical Plant and all of the officers in the very small University Police Department.
Faculty, staff and students would gather with their brown bag lunches on the second floor of McCarthy Hall where there were vending machines, or in the cafeteria in the basement of McCarthy Hall before the Commons Building was built. I remember having lunch on that second floor landing and watching the Humanities Building being built and talking with faculty about their research, students, etc. I met many of the science faculty at that time.
In those early days the campus holiday party was actually held in a restaurant off Orangethorpe. I remember Jim Young [emeritus professor of theatre] would always read the Christmas Carol. Later, we held the holiday party on the seventh and eighth floors of Langsdorf Hall and the staff cooked the food.
What are your best memories about those early days?
Assisting the chairs and faculty in the departments in which I worked to develop their individual academic programs, and interacting with the majors as they pursued their degree objectives. I was fortunate to work with faculty members who were intellectual leaders: creative, inspiring and dedicated to their profession and our students. These faculty members also made the work fun and rewarding. It was most gratifying to see the students enter as young freshmen and graduate four-five-six years later as seniors and to know that in a small way I helped them reach their goal.
My early memories include continual new construction, and it seemed that my departments or school always moved to the newest building. During my years at Fullerton, I have had an office in the Music-Speech-Drama, Humanities, Engineering and Education-Classroom buildings — and for the past 26 years, Langsdorf Hall.
When I worked in the then Music-Speech-Drama Building, registration was conducted with punch cards, requiring students to go from room to room picking up the cards representing a seat in a class. Once you had all your class cards, then you went and completed your registration.
When I moved into the Engineering Building it had just been completed. In those days, staff and faculty members would move much of their own stuff, like books. It was in January and pouring rain and the sidewalks hadn’t been poured. If you tried walking over the wet ground, you would sink to your knees, so we all wore boots until planks were laid down. Once we got into the building, we discovered that something was wrong with the thermostats and there was no heat for weeks. We worked in our coats and wore gloves.
I also remember the two visits to campus by Ronald Reagan. The first time he was on campus as governor and there were protests. I remember standing on the balcony of the Humanities-Social Sciences and watching the students being arrested. We weren’t allowed out of the building.
It was so different from when he visited during his last years as the President. Then I was working in the [University] President’s Office and I worked with the Secret Service to make the arrangements.
I also would say my being named the first Outstanding Staff Employee in 1978 was a wonderful memory and an outstanding honor to be representative of the many outstanding employees on campus at that time.
What are the biggest changes you have seen in the campus?
Obviously, significant growth of the student body and the increase in the number of university employees (which means you don’t know everyone any more), the increase in the number of academic programs we offer, the expansion of our campus in terms of buildings, three satellite centers and the Cal State Fullerton Irvine Campus, and the changing campus demographics which adds a wonderful dimension to the university, and how the technology infrastructure has significantly improved our work environment. The increased number of international students and the global focus of our curriculum (e.g. 59 international education and exchange agreements with countries around the world). Our national rankings and long-held accreditations.
Why have you continued to work at Cal State Fullerton?
Because I believe there is no greater mission than to be a part of this outstanding university and contribute my small part to enable our 35,000+ students to fulfill their dream of obtaining a college degree.
What do you think the future holds for you and the university?
For me, I will be retiring from the university in a few years but I know the university will continue for hundreds of years to come, doing what it has done since 1959 — that is, educate the next generations of leaders for this region, state and the world. Our university has been fortunate to have five outstanding presidents who have worked with the faculty and staff in developing and expanding our academic and student affairs programs, to meet the needs of our students and the communities we serve, and I am sure this will continue into the future. I have no doubt that with our outstanding faculty, staff and administrators, and our supportive alumni and community members, the university will always meet the needs of the communities we serve and will always have as its mission excellence in teaching, research, and service.
