Project E-Quality Presentation Today
You are invited to a presentation on Project E-Quality Today, Monday, April 24 in the Great White Hall from 3-4:30 p.m.
Students in Dr. Yolanda Arauza’s Senior Seminar class conducted the oral history interviews—done on digital recorders—and collected and curated the photos and artifacts, and prepared the photo exhibit. Dr. Arauza, the lead investigator supervised and guided every step of the process. The Senior Seminar students are: Sejla Dervisic, Airin Spell, Forrest Suchy, Connor Thompson, Gary (Greg) Garbe, and Nicholas Kusnierek.
Minnesota State University (MSUM) began as a Normal School in 1867; evolved into Moorhead State Teachers College (1921); in 1957, embraced a general liberal arts mission and dropped “Teachers” from the name and became Minnesota State College (MSC); and in 1975 became Minnesota State University (MSUM). The focus of this project is the period from 1968-1974. MSC’s broader focus as a general liberal arts college aligned with other similar institutions whose redefined mission as liberal arts colleges translated to race conscious decisions meant to provide educational opportunities for racial minorities, primarily African Americans.
Moorhead State College launched Project E-Quality in the fall of 1968. The mission of the project was based on the belief that MSC had a “responsibility to make an effort to bring minority students here.” The recruitment of minority students to MSC focused on three racial/ethnic groups: African Americans, American Indians, and Chicanos. African Americans made up the majority of the students recruited to Project E-Quality.
This oral history project seeks to document the history of this project through primary sources and oral history interviews with the participants of the program. Little research has been done on Project E-Quality and the research that has been done has focused primarily on African Americans. Critical to this project is to fill the historical gap with the voices of American Indian and Chicano participants of Project E-Quality while also amplifying the voices and experiences of the African American students.