Audio interview with Thelma Armstrong, Part 1, 2020 March 27
Scope and Contents
In this audio interview with Julia Foulkes over three days, Thelma Armstrong discusses her thirty-six-year employment at The New School. She details her duties in the Office of the President and Secretary of the Corporation, providing insight into the operation of the school as it transitioned to more centralized administration across its many parts. She also discusses her role in the Adult Division and her experience as a student in the Bachelors Program for Adults and Transfer Students as well as in the masters program in Historical Studies. She addresses the racial discrimation she faced and the largely unsuccessful attempts by the university to address structural inequities.
Dates
- 2020 March 27
Extent
694.5 Megabytes (1 Broadcast Wave file; 01:07:10 duration; includes PDF transcript)
Conditions Governing Access
By request of the narrator, this interview is not available online. To access the interview, please contact archivist@newschool.edu.
Participant Biography
Thelma Armstrong worked at The New School for thirty-six years, from 1983 to 2019. She was an Executive Assistant in Central Administration during Jonathan Fanton's tenure as president. She worked in the Office of the Secretary of the Corporation, headed by Richard Rogers, and, subsequently, Robert Gates. She transferred to the Adult Division Dean's Office in 1996 where she worked as Executive Assistant to five deans: Elizabeth D. Dickey, Elissa Tenny, Linda Dunne, Lisa Servon, Ann-Louise Shapiro, and two Executive Deans: David Scobey and Mary Watson. She retired in October 2019.