Today’s Project 100 memory is from Ron Weisberger who finished his Bachelor’s degree at Glassboro State College (GSC) in 1965.  Born and raised in Atlantic City, he graduated high school with plans to become a high school social studies teacher.  He majored in “social science” and secondary education at Glassboro State because the history major did not begin until the year after he graduated.  After commencement, he went to graduate school at Kent State University.  He later earned a doctorate and has been teaching at Bristol Community College (BCC).  In 2014, he co-authored Teaching, Learning, and the Holocaust:  An Integrative Approach.  In 2015, he helped organize a major reunion for the 50^th anniversary of his graduating class from GSC.  In 2018, he founded the Holocaust and Genocide Center at BCC.  In 2023, he joined the steering committee planning the reunion of history and social studies majors on October 20^th.  In the memory below, he discusses how he was transformed by his time at Glassboro State College.

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I grew up in Atlantic City, and there were a lot of Jewish immigrants living there at the time.   In fact, when I was very young, I thought Yiddish was the primary language of Atlantic City.  My father worked for a shoe chain, Becks.  He had a degree in history and education like me, and he also was a pianist.  He hated his job, but it was a living.  I went to a Jewish school until 3^rd grade.  I went to public schools after that and graduated from Atlantic City High School with the hope of becoming a high school social studies teacher. My high school counselor told me to go to one of the state teacher colleges, and I ended up going to Glassboro State, possibly because it was a closer to my family. 

When I arrived on campus in 1961, I discovered that they did not have room for me in a dorm, so I had to live off campus.  Four of us ended up living off campus and rooming together in a basement.  After that first year, we were able to live on campus, though we moved off campus again in our senior year, living in an apartment.  One of these roommates, Dave Tarr, remains my friend all these years later. 

My second year at Glassboro State was a turning point.  I had a professor and mentor named Maurice Blanken.  He helped me see that going to college was more than getting good grades and a certificate to teach in high school.  He called it “getting the grab,” and he meant learning that there were important things in the world happening if you paid attention.  One example of this that I remember is the day that he decided to try to get us to understand civil rights as a vital issue by driving us to where some migrant African American laborers were working right there in Glassboro.  For modern students, I think it is hard to understand how eye-opening this was to me and my fellow students.  I had grown up in segregated Atlantic City, and these things were largely hidden from me and other students. 

Professor Blanken was not alone. Jesse Kennedy introduced us to what was happening in Southeast Asia and Vietnam.  Richard Porterfield opened our eyes to the complexity of what was occurring with colonialism and independence movements in Africa.   

Anne Edwards influenced me and was clearly supportive of her students.  One example of this is that on one of her midterms or, perhaps, a final for a political science course, she gave me an A despite the fact that I had misnamed the case Marbury vs Madison.  I had written a correct description of the case, and she let the error go.  Even more importantly, Dr. Edwards encouraged me to consider graduate school. This was also supported by James Judy who was my advisor and who pointed out Kent State to me, of which I had never heard at that time. He wrote a nice recommendation when I applied which I believe made a difference.  Three faculty members in the English Department – Daniel McConnell, Nathan Carb, and Ed Wolfe – were also incredibly influential, as was coach Richard Wackar.

One big event that happened early in my time at Glassboro State College was Operation Uganda, which was an ambitious effort to gather books and supplies for the soon-to-be independent nation in East Africa. We were probably a little naive about what we thought we could accomplish. Nevertheless, for sophomores like us, at the time it was an exciting project and we thought we were making a contribution. After I took Professor Porterfield’s course on African history two years later, I developed a more realistic perspective on the challenges facing those nations emerging from colonization. 

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, I was living in a dormitory on campus.  My friends and I heard that something was happening, but we weren’t aware how serious the matter was until a faculty member called us into the Common Room to watch Kennedy’s speech where he declared that he was ordering the United States military to quarantine Cuba.  After that we were apprehensive until the matter was finally resolved.  Even then, however, we didn’t understand how close we were to nuclear war.  This was probably the beginning of my becoming more aware of what was happening in the wider world. 

A very specific and important moment for me during my time at Glassboro State was when Dave and I went  up to see the 1964 Democratic Convention which was held at the Convention Hall in Atlantic City.  Once we got up to the Boardwalk next to the Center, we ran into members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Convention delegation, which was integrated and hadn't been seated at the convention.  They were demonstrating outside.  We spent a lot of time talking to those folks which was a real eye opener.  It was an important learning experience for me and enhanced my understanding of the Civil Rights Movement.  We brought back what we learned to campus in September.  As a matter of fact, when I decided to pursue graduate work, I ultimately focused in part on African American history when August Meier, a prominent historian of African American history, joined the faculty at Kent.  By then, of course. I was able to place in context in a clearer way what David and I had experienced on the Boardwalk that day. As you know, when you are living though what ultimately becomes history, the events can swirl around you until you have some distance to better understand what they mean.  In any event, I have been teaching African American history on and off at Bristol Community College, where I am a faculty member, for many years.  

Perhaps the most vital of all my experiences outside of the classroom was my participation in the College’s debating club, the Forensic Society.  Fellow social studies major and friend Frank Esposito and I were part of the team as juniors.  Our coach William Beattie arranged for us to go to a debate tournament at Harvard during the winter vacation I think. You can imagine what that was like for two boys from South Jersey.  We actually flew to Boston (my first flight) and then taxied to Cambridge where we stayed at one of the Harvard upper class houses. I recall that we attended a welcome "sherry hour" when we arrived. It was all very heady stuff. To tell you the truth I'm not sure how well we did. No doubt we won a few and lost others.  The main point for me is that it certainly expanded my horizons in regard to what was possible. Beattie left after that year, but Frank and I are indebted to Beattie for providing us with that opportunity. We attended other tournaments that year closer to Glassboro, which also added to my knowledge and experiences of the world at the time.

I believe that Frank left the Forensic Society during our senior year, but my friend David Tarr joined.  We had a new debate coach whose name I don't recall. He was competent but not as flamboyant as Beattie.  Our trip with Beattie to Boston, Cambridge, and Harvard came at just the right time in my life, and it led me in directions that I couldn’t have anticipated even just a year earlier. Mostly, it helped me understand knowledge in a whole different way and to see it as exciting!  It was this experience that opened me up to the wider world of higher education, and in a sense prepared me to go to graduate school.  Those experiences are ones that lead me to be very concerned about the trend toward online courses. While they have a place, they can't substitute for the in-person connection such what Frank, David, and I experienced as part of the Forensic Society and in the hallways and offices between classes. Sadly, in many schools, including my own, the trend towards online education over in person classes is expanding, and I fear something vital is being lost.

I was actually on a trip with the Forensic Society when Kennedy was assassinated.  We identified with him, since he was a young, handsome man who had begun as President at same time that we graduated high school and were beginning our adult lives.  We also identified with him when he talked about the torch being passed to a new generation.  In any event, we were on our way to a tournament in Burlington, Vermont.  I can’t remember exactly what small town we were in at the time, but, on the way to Vermont we noticed people outside running around outside in distress. When we asked what was happening, they said that the President had been shot.  At first, believe it or not, I thought that they meant President Thomas Robinson of Glassboro State had been shot.  That tells you how hard it was to imagine such an assassination.  My initial reaction was that some random person in a small New England town was somehow in distress over the shooting of Glassboro State’s President.  Even after I learned what they really meant, it was still hard to fully comprehend.  Not knowing what else to do, the Forensic Society pushed on.

When we got to Burlington, the organizers also did not know what to do.  They eventually decided that Kennedy would have wanted them to continue.  So, we debated.  However, in the quiet moments throughout the competition, we talked with students and individuals from all over the northeast about this shocking episode.  When we got back to Glassboro, the campus was deserted because so many people had gone to Washington for the funeral.  My friends and I were living in the dorms at this time, and we watched the service on television.  That was when we finally, fully absorbed what had happened.  None of my friends thought much of the new President, Lyndon Johnson of Texas.  For us, he was nothing like Kennedy.  We had lost the young, charismatic leader with whom we identified.  I think this changed the way that we thought about mortality and the world itself.  We now saw that things could change more quickly than we had ever imagined. 

Frank Esposito and I shared another thing in common.  We were both work study students toiling away in the cafeteria.  I remember that there was a Cuban refugee who also worked there and sort of took us under his wings.  However, he caught me reading a book by Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and kept calling me a communist after that.  However, he still liked me.  During our 50^th reunion, Frank, who had kept in touch with this man, brought me to his home. Now retired, he warmly welcomed us to his home, but he still called me a communist all those years later.

All in all, I had a profound and life altering experience at Glassboro as an undergraduate.  Through conversation with friends, faculty, and even strangers – inside and outside of the classroom, I came to see learning as more than just getting good grades.  I came to realize that having an education is important for its own sake and as a way to better understand what’s happening in our society and the world around us..  In short, Glassboro State changed the way I saw myself, the world, and my place in it.

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This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff.  One memory will be released per day in the 100 days leading up to October 20, 2023, the date of a reunion celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  The reunion will take place at 7pm at the Summit City Farm and Winery in Glassboro, New Jersey.  Registration for the reunion will be open from July 11^th and will remain open until the venue reaches its 100-person capacity (or October 13^th if capacity never reached).  We do anticipate that the reunion will sell out, so please register as soon as possible by visiting the Alumni Office’s registration page here:  alumni.rowan.edu/historyreunion2023.

You can also find the up-to-date set of Project 100 memories on the Department of History’s webpage.  William Carrigan arranged, interviewed, transcribed and/or edited these memories.  Laurie Lahey proofread and helped edit the final versions.  If you wish to share your own memories, please email Dr. Carrigan at carrigan@rowan.edu.  Alumni with Facebook accounts are encouraged to join the RU/GSC History Alumni group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/251485937221524.