Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University
Eva Tsuquiashi-Daddesio Interview
November 7, 2023
Bailey Library, Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania / Zoom
Interviewed by Megan John
Transcribed by Sara Dickensheets
Proofread and edited by Judy Silva
Reviewed and approved by Eva Tsuquiashi-Daddesio
MJ: Okay. It is November 7th, 2023, at about 12:19 pm and I am here interviewing Eva
Tsuquiashi for Rock Voices [Oral History Project]. Hello.
ET: Hello.
MJ: Now, to start off, could you tell me some biographical information, like your name, your
date of birth, where you're from originally? Things like that.
ET: Okay, -my full official name in the U.S. is Eva Tsuquiashi-Daddesio. Daddesio is my
husband's name. I was born in Peru from Japanese parents. And I lived there--I lived in a farm
with my parents for about seven years. Then seven other years for primary school, then another
seven years for secondary school. And then I went to France where I got three degrees in
French Literature, and the last one was the master's degree; it’s the equivalent to American
master's degrees. Then I came to America with my husband. He got a job in Minnesota. And so
I went there and got--since it was difficult to find a job without a Ph.D., I decided to do the
Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota. So I finished the Ph.D., and then I decided to look for
jobs. Slippery Rock was one of the options, you know, and so it was really, really the furthest
east. That's what I was looking for [laughs] because Minnesota is wonderful, except that it's so
freezing cold. That is not fun [laughs].
MJ: [Laughs] That’s fair to say--which degrees did you get in France again?
ET: In France, it's the [DEUG] which is translated to American General Studies in Literature.
Then la licence, which is license, I suppose. But there's no equivalent in America. And then
there is the master's degree in Comparative Literature. And then when I came to America, I did
a Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota, and that was a major in French and the minor in
Spanish, because I spoke Spanish. And so the interesting thing about me, or in relation to
Slippery Rock, is that I was the first person that was of so many different origins in the
department and it was quite an experience at the time, 1988. And you would think that life was,
you know, would have improved a lot, but not exactly.
MJ: How do you mean?
ET: It was fine for me, but I would have wished for things to get much better for women and
for diverse people of all kinds. And it's, I mean, Slippery Rock hasn't done poorly, but it is a
challenge just because of where Slippery Rock is located, you know? But given that, I think the
university has done a good job at times, and at times I didn't know why things disappeared
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 2
[laughs]. Yeah, it was a challenge. Like when I arrived, there were programs that brought
European students to study at Slippery Rock. And it was wonderful, because I could meet
Swedish students and French and English and they were all coming to study at Slippery Rock,
to get a B.A. degree. That was 1988, ‘89. Now they have disappeared--that program
disappeared. There are no--at least when I left in 2016, there were programs for SRU students
to go to other countries, but we didn't bring European students anymore. And I'm sure it was a
question of money, but it would have been fun to continue that, you know? For students that,
students learning French, have French students talk to them or German. . . .
So things have changed for the better, but in some areas--but in certain areas, we still, Slippery
Rock still has a ways to go. But it's the--it's this new many colleges, and so Slippery Rock has
done well regarding. . . .
MJ: Yeah.
ET: But I am supposed to talk about the good and the bad and the more [serious], right?
MJ: True. Yeah. No, I've--in the two years I've been here, I've known two European students,
so there aren't none, but it's close. About your education, I've been reading like the old articles
about you in The Rocket and didn't you also get a Computer Engineering degree at some point
or Computer Science?
ET: [Laughs]. No, I got a computer certificate: coding--a coding certificate for COBOL
[Common Business Oriented Language].
MJ: Okay.
ET: And then--so COBOL it was used for payroll and that sort of thing. But I have a nice story
about that one, the COBOL that I did. I did that at NYU, New York University. And so I went
to Minnesota and I applied for jobs, with the certificate. And one company was the school (I
shouldn't name it) [laughs], but it was a school system that said, “Your degree--you have
fantastic credentials. I just can't hire you because you're a woman and the majority of your--you
are going to supervise a whole bunch of men.” And I thought what's the problem, you know, I
don't need to beat them [laughs]. And so, well, it’s just one of those things--of things that
happened in 1981 or ‘82.
MJ: All right. And next question, your affiliation with SRU? So, you said you were hired in
1988?
ET: Yes.
MJ: And what department were you hired into originally?
ET: The Department of Modern Languages and Cultures. And I was hired to teach French, but I
also taught Spanish. So it was an advantage for the university.
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 3
MJ: By the time you were here it was already a university; it had transitioned out of being a
state college . . .?
ET: Yes [inaudible].
MJ: All right. And did the department you were hired into change while you were there? And if
so, how?
ET: Yes. It changed--I liked the fact that I could--I had so many French students. I [had] three
at a point. And so I would use them to tutor my students, my American students, because they
were native speakers. I loved that program. And then . . . the person that created the program
was called Stan--Kendziorski was his last name. Kendziorski. But then he left, and then that
program disappeared. We used to have Swedish people; I had three Swedish students, female
and then one male student that ended up in MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]. So it
was exciting. It was just so fun.
We had eight languages at one point. And then when the professors retired, like the German
professor retired and the Italian professor retired, they were not replaced. We also had Russian.
Russian disappeared as well. And so there was a big change. And so we tried to make it
survive, but it was not only--it wasn't that Slippery Rock wasn't doing a good job. It is that
general tendency in the area, that Slippery Rock offered more languages than many other state
schools, but there weren't that many students. Students were not interested. First, it was a
requirement for the B.A. to have a language, and eventually most students--only for the B.A.-so most students decided to go for a B.S. And so the number of students in languages went
down. And that was a pity, because I think students benefit from learning foreign languages.
And then another big change in the department was when I became chair [laughs]. I became
chair of the department sometime in 2005, I think. And so I tried to keep it up, to make it so
that students would be interested. But if they were not required to take languages, they were not
going to do it. Because if you come from Slippery Rock, you have very little connection with
foreign students, with other languages also. So that was a pity. But there was also a program, I
think there still is ROTC [Reserve Officers’ Training Corps]. So there was, you know what
ROTC is, right?
MJ: [Nods head].
ET: Yeah. So that program required students to . . . well, it would be beneficial for them to
learn Arabic. So I created the Arabic program. And so that was a success because it's still open
today; Slippery Rock still offers Arabic.
And then I also introduced TESOL: Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Language. So
students would take courses to then offer language classes to foreigners in the U.S. So that was
also another change.
Then eventually I became dean because the provost asked me to become dean of the college.
That was 19--no, 2009. And I remember because my tenure as dean was almost exactly the two
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 4
terms of Barack Obama [laughs] . . . yeah, because I went in 2009 and I stopped at 2016. I was
just the two-terms [laughs] of that president. So that was funny. And then with that, I just tried
to make every department survive, the arts. I promoted the managerial side of the arts because
many times students who are Art majors, when they graduate, they don't know what to do in
terms of creating a business. And so I introduced--or I supported people who opened up and
tried to create these programs in different departments, like Theater, I think was one. And
Dance as well, got a Management program; the Art Department as well. So it was sort of a
success and I like that. And we did that in part with the support of [Provost] Philip Way; do you
remember who he is?
MJ: I know he was an interim president for a couple of years.
ET: Yeah, that's him. He was provost. And so when he was hired, one of the things he told me
as he was being interviewed, he said, “You have a good program. Keep on doing the business
in the arts.” And so then he was hired and so between the two of us, we created--we worked on
lots of projects. I got along very well with him because he was British, and I had a European
education as well. And so we used to just fool around and have fun. But most Americans
couldn't understand the humor because American humor is very different from British humor,
[laughs] I found out. So it was, it was difficult. But he ended up president of a university in
Alabama, so he did well, too. But I retired in 2009--no, 2016. Sorry. Yeah, 2016.
MJ: What was the name of the college that you were the dean of again?
ET: The College of Humanities, Fine and Performing Arts, when I became dean. But eventually
that didn't fit the [college] anymore because there were fields of study that weren’t really the
humanities or the performing arts. So, I proposed to change it to College of Liberal Arts. And in
a way, it involves everything that is taught [pause] in the university. But there's always a fight
with that. [Pause] people want to create their own college. They say, we want--because there's
more money that way, you know. “Give me all the money. Don't give it to that poor department
that is so small,” you know? But they don't realize you have to support the small departments as
well because you want quality education. You cannot only support the courses that are popular.
You need to support the courses that are useful for the students. Management is one of those.
And there was one dean that once told me, “I don't need to send my students to the Philosophy
Department to teach ethics because my professors can teach ethics.” And I said, “No, they
cannot teach ethics, because ethics is a field of Philosophy” [laughs]. And so we used to have,
let's say, interesting discussions with some of my fellow deans.
MJ: All right. Next question on the paper is just a quick one. What buildings did you work in
over your time here?
ET: Okay, I'd begun in Spotts World Cultures Building, which I think somebody told me used
to be a high school. Then we went to Carruth Rizza Hall on the other side of campus. And then
Strain Behavioral Building, I think it was called. Strain. . . .
MJ: [Strain] Behavioral Science Building.
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 5
ET: The science build--now it's called something else . . . because they have opened something
with Safety. I think it's a Safety program. . . .
MJ: I'd have to double check on that.
ET: Yeah, yeah, because I know that when I left, they had to change. The dean was changed to
Spotts, so I was the last humanities dean in that building. It was really nice; I can't complain. It
was a huge office [laughs].
MJ: [Laughs].
ET: Yeah, I miss that sometimes. Not always. But it's fun to have a lot of space.
MJ: Yeah. And what about your first impressions of the university? Like, what was it like here
when you arrived?
ET: I was amazed at how insulated and how homogeneous the population was. I mean, no, no
diversity. The diversity [laughs] at the time was like--I was one of two Asians, probably. I was
also one of three Hispanics. African Americans, there were maybe two or three. I mean,
throughout the entire university. And I had--I knew a colleague who felt really offended. She
was African American. And I thought, it's not worth it to get so mad. You just need to get
better. I mean, I don't know, you're a student in this way. Can I say things [laughs] that . . .
well, it is interesting that [pause] people . . . so I always told my students, “Don't get mad, you
have to get even.”
MJ: Mm-hm.
ET: [Laughs] So. . . .
MJ: What kind of things are you planning to say [laughs]?
ET: Well, it's [pause] don’t get mad to the point--so you can get mad, but many people go
directly to the legal system, and they go and sue the university. Which I'm not against. I think
it's important to sue universities [laughs] when they misbehave. But for me, I've gone through
several cases where I've been discriminated against and I could have sued, but for me it was a
waste of time because I could make money doing something else. And that's why I did my
Ph.D. as well, because I thought, okay, I get my Ph.D. and then I will be free to do more stuff.
But the problem was I got my Ph.D. and then the university where my husband was working-he was an associate professor. And so they said, “You don't need the permanent tenured
position because your husband is here, and we will always give you something.” And I said, “I
don't want always something. I want my own.” And that's how I applied to many schools and
decided to come to Slippery Rock.
But the thing is: don't get mad. Figure out a way to get even. As a woman, as a diverse kind of
person, of any kind, you know, just--it is not even--not being even in terms of violence. No. It's
just by your own efforts, show them that you are better than what they think you are. So, yeah.
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 6
So I’ve gone through a whole bunch of interesting diversity [laughs] issues, but somehow none
of that has hurt me. But in a way, I know why because I am Asian, and being Asian, it's not as
bad in American universities. Being Asian actually sometimes is a problem because people
think that Asian people study too much. I mean, somebody actually told me, “You shouldn't
publish so much.” And I said, “Why?” “Because you make us look bad [laughs].”
MJ: Yikes.
ET: That was interesting. Yeah. But they--this all was sort of like joking. But it isn't a joke,
really. It isn't a joke. You shouldn't let anybody do that to you [laughs].
MJ: All right. Now, since 1988--or by the time you left [2016], what changes had you
witnessed and were they for the better or the worse? Like you mentioned, a few languages
disappearing from the curriculum.
ET: Yeah, yeah. Korean and Chinese have disappeared, I think after I left. And Japanese [is]
still strong, but it's a function of the person who teaches, Yukako [Ishimaru] is fantastic. She
does a great job. You know her?
MJ: Yes.
ET: She's fantastic. She just--you need a person like that to guide. So that was a big change.
[Pause] So your question was exactly what. . . ?
MJ: What changes have you witnessed. And I guess it could be in your department or the
university in general, and were they for the better or the worse?
ET: Okay. I was amazed . . . Dr. [Robert] Aebersold, Dr. Aebersold was the first president I
served for. So he was president when I was hired. He used to give me [a] stomachache or, I
don't know, because he used to like to talk--when he talked, he talked with sports metaphors
because he was a Ph.D. in Physical Education. And I know zero about any kind of sports:
football, baseball, you name it. I don't know anything. I mean, I know a little bit about tennis,
but that's it. And not even, you know, so. . . . I was not very impressed with a Ph.D. in Physical
Education. I couldn't fathom something like that, you know.
But then he was president and he surprised me because he created an informal program. It was
breakfast with the president. And I think all of the subject matters had to do with diversity; so
with racism. And so he said--we would have breakfast, especially new faculty and just to talk
about diversity issues. So there was one person in the group I was in that said, “I have never
seen racism in Slippery Rock.” And I thought, have you been living under a rock or what? You
know, like . . . it's unthinkable, you know? So, because I thought, I have on a given week, I
know of at least five people who have been insulted because they are African American. You
know, there are no Hispanics, so there was [laughs] no such thing. They [have] been
discriminated against them. But it was really a wakeup call for me. And I couldn't tell what I
told the people there, “Well, maybe your experience is different because you are White.” But it
was just a shocker for me: the faculty who said that there was no racism or no problem with
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 7
discrimination. And the fact that the president had created programs to improve diversity issues
on campus and he was a Ph.D. in Physical Education. So that was an education for me. I always
appreciated Dr. Aebersold because he did other things as well to bring Hispanic students to
Slippery Rock, I think. He was really good.
Then there was another president. I can’t remember which one it was that made an offensive
comment of a hairdo of a faculty member, African American, and he didn't realize it was
offensive. And so the faculty member came to me and she was furious. But it was the president.
So what are we going to do, you know? I can't go to the president and say, “Hey, you're a racist
pig,” or whatever [laughs]. You can't do that! And so I said, “Well, wait.” And so somehow, I
got to see--I went to see the president and told him that it was not appropriate. And actually, he
invited her to breakfast. They discussed the issue, and he was okay; the president was okay. So
that's just two presidents of Slippery Rock.
So we've had some good presidents, and these presidents . . . there was also one person who had
trouble the first time he traveled out of the country was when he was president. I couldn't
fathom that either. I mean [laughs], to me it was just unthinkable. Somebody who gets that far
in life; it's incredible. How could that happen? But the same thing, this person got to travel a lot
after that and created programs. So Slippery Rock was on a good path. I think we've been lucky
with the presidents. Dr. [Cheryl] Norton was the first woman and that was fantastic because it
changed the way people do things and the perceptions in general.
MJ: All right. And let's see, next question is your campus activities like committees and things
that you were involved in.
ET: [Pause]. First committee that was really interesting for me was the Grievance Committee.
And the head of the committee was, I think he was a Philosophy chairperson. Somehow I think
he was. But there were elected members, and I was the only woman in the group. So the
Grievance Committee is for faculty to go and complain about what Administration did or didn’t
do. So I remember--is this too much to tell? Well, I’ll tell it anyways [laughs]. What happened
was . . . I was the only woman, so there was a professor who was accused of sexual
harassment. And so, all these men in the committee were looking at me, you know, like, what
do we do? Like, I would know better what to do, you know, with sexual harassment and to
defend the faculty member. And I said, “No,” because the person--the student that is
complaining is a student of mine in one of my classes. So [laughs] I'm not going to defend the
guy. [Pause] but I had some experiences like that where they gave me assignments that were
problematic for them.
MJ: Mm-hm.
ET: There was less openness about--men were not as open as they are now. I mean, I see young
people your age, men, young people, I mean young men who are not as [pause] freaked out,
let’s say, about sexual harassment. They understand what sexual harassment is and they know
what to do, what is appropriate conduct and what isn't. Whereas in my days, sometimes the
faculty didn't know any better either, and so they committed crimes or offenses and they
couldn't figure out why they were being called . . . they said, “But I didn't do anything.” And
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 8
you had to explain, “But yes, you did [laughs],” you know? “You can't say that, you can't do
that.” But I stayed there for a while and then—which other committees? I didn't go to many
committees because I became chair. Oh, I think I went to the Sabbatical Committee, which is
very--nothing interesting [laughs]. I mean sabbatical is where faculty [can] have a semester off.
Then, basically I was chair and then I was dean, so I attended tons of committees but because of
my role as dean or as chair.
MJ: What about when you were only a professor? Did you advise any clubs or anything like
that? Like help start any clubs?
ET: Yes. When I was in the French [program]--I didn't create, but I supported the French
program, and I created the study abroad program for French in Cannes at the Collège
International de Cannes. Cannes is a city in the south of France.
MJ: With the film school, right?
ET: Pardon?
MJ: With the film festival, right?
ET: Exactly. That's it. And so I got some of my students to work for the film festival. They
were elated because I knew the guy who was the director of the school [Patrick de Bouter], and
he knew people in the festival. And so some of my students worked in the film festival. Yeah,
that was fun; that was fun.
What else did we do? Well, I created the Arabic program; the TESOL program. I did a bunch of
things; I liked to teach a lot, but I also liked administration.
MJ: Alright, what would you consider your accomplishments during your time at Slippery
Rock?
ET: Well, my accomplishments are the fact that I sort of saved [laughs] all the different
languages, as many as I could, but it was tough . . . but Japanese is still there, so I'm happy
about that.
I also am proud of my students. I mean, I've gotten key students to get--I don't know what this
says about me, but my biggest proud moment for my students is one student I helped to get the
Rotary International Scholarship, which is $20,000. Well, at the time it was $20,000 to live in
some place in the world. And so she went to Africa.
MJ: Wow.
ET: And then another was when my first student got a Ph.D. I have a few students now with
Ph.D.’s, but the first one is just like, “Wow, yes,” because he got a Ph.D.

Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 9
I'm also very proud of something I did with a student who had problems because her father was
in jail. The police let him out of jail and he came back home where he stole the money of the
student. So she came to my office, and she said, “I'm quitting because I don't have any money.”
And I said, “You're not going to quit.” So I made her write everything that her dad did and try
to write about what solutions there are--think about solutions. And I said, “Just now that you’ve
done all that, try to do what you can now, and leave me these texts that you've written.” So in
the four years that she was at Slippery Rock, whenever she was really freaking out, she would
write all of the horrible things that were happening to her. And she had some horrible things
happen to her because she had to take care of her sister's children because she didn't have any
money nor a husband. So I made her go to France and--with a scholarship, of course, we got her
a scholarship. And then she was really good in Cannes, the school, the international school. So
my friend, who is the director, I said, “Can you help her?” And I told him the story. So he said,
“Yes, I'm going to hire her for six months.” So she worked in France for six months. And then
today she is a civil servant. She makes good money [laughs].” I'm very proud of her. I mean, it's
just like fantastic.
And then the last one. I mean . . . my students are just fantastic, you know? So I'll tell you one
more. There was one student, who made a ton of money when he was seventeen years old,
okay? So he didn't want to go to a university, but his parents forced him. So his parents came to
my office with him and they said, “Please, can you make him finish?” And I said, “I'll try. I'll
do my best to help him.” And so he hired half the students in his class to do--to sell knives,
kitchen knives [laughs].
MJ: Oh my gosh.
ET: So he made a lot of money. And so he didn’t want to study because studying he wasn't
making any money. So anyway, he disappeared from [laughs] school and all that and then
[pause] I found in Pittsburgh, in a Pittsburgh newspaper, I found his name. So I called him and I
said, “So did you graduate?” He said, “No.” I said, “How much money do you think you can
make without a degree?” And he said, “Yeah, I need to finish the degree.” “Okay,” I said,
“come over to my office and we'll look at your degree audit, and we'll see what we can do.”
And so he came, because he liked to take classes that he wanted, not what he needed, but what
he wanted. So we sat down, looked at everything he had done, and I said, “Okay, you're going
to go to the professors that are teaching these courses and see if they can give you credit for the
requirements,” you know, “so you do that with all of these courses and I will approve your
graduation.” Because he had sixty extra credits. You only need--how many credits do you need
now?
MJ: A hundred and twenty, I think.
ET: A hundred and twenty? Well, he had like a hundred sixty-seven or . . . because he just
didn't pay any attention. So I made him work with the professors and there was only one
professor that forced him to take one course to be able to graduate. And so he graduated. And
now with his new B.A.--B.S.--yes, B.S. degree--he got a job where he was a lot better paid,
because of that. And so eventually he made--but I told him when he graduated, I said, “You
can't forget Slippery Rock University; you have to be thankful.” And so he made a ton of
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 10
money, obviously. And then he came to Slippery Rock and gave, I think it was something like
$25,000 to the university, just as a thank you. And I thought, okay, this is good. And then he
was selected [alumnus] of the year. There was some program, alumnus of the year, and he was
honored by the university because of his success and of course, the money that he had given the
university. This guy was British, his parents were British, but he's totally American because he
was born here.
So those are some of my wonderful memories of my students. Faculty as well, they were fun.
But, you know, the biggest satisfaction you get when you can push a student to their limits and
then become what they can become, you know? So that's fantastic. Yeah.
MJ: And the next question sort of blends into the last one, your best and worst moments while
you were teaching?
ET: [Laughs] Okay, while I was teaching. The worst? Well, the worst and the best [were] the
same thing, probably. Okay. I came to America in 1980, having studied in France; I have a
European education and they gave me a job teaching French 101, just the basic, basic, basic
courses. And so I was teaching--I was barely thirty years old and I wore jeans [laughs] to class.
And so when I gave the first quiz, I started correcting the quizzes. They were awful. They were
all really bad. And I had to give a D to every single one of them. And I had forty students in my
class and I gave them--I gave everybody a D. And so I went to the chairperson and I told him,
“These students are making fun of me because I am short and I am [laughs] and I am Asian, I
don't know what, but they've done this just to bug me.” And so he said, “Show me.” So I
showed him the tests. And what happened was, he explained to me that in America the level of
education that you get, most everybody can go to college if you have the money. If you get the
money, you can go to college. In a system like mine where I came from, you pass tests and you
have to be better than anybody else. And that's how you go from one level to the other. So you
have to be the best of the best. And so that's what he understood, the chairperson, when he said,
“You're not teaching in Europe, you're teaching in America, so you have to adapt.” And then I
realized--it was a learning process. I had to figure out what is it that they could learn because
what they expected to learn, you know. And so I adapted. I helped students understand, well,
but those students were scared to death of me [laughs] after that. But I learned. So that was a
really tough moment for teaching. For teaching, and what else did you say?
MJ: Best and worst moments, also was that--was your worst there at Slippery Rock or
somewhere else?
ET: Somewhere else, it was in Minnesota, no. In Slippery Rock, my worst teaching moment . . .
I haven't had a really bad [laughs] teaching--I've had really good teaching moments, but not bad
ones. I mean, I got the president's award for teaching one year, so I'm very proud of that one
because it's teaching, even though I was an administrator I am proud of what I did as a teacher.
MJ: All right. And the next question is, who are the leaders like presidents, deans, etc., when
you first came to campus? The people who'd been there forever, the people who were really, I
don't know, making changes. And what were your impressions of them?
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 11
ET: As I said, I was amazed at how little diversity there was. But I also noticed that the faculty,
like the chairperson was Russian and German, and the professor in French as well. They were
really passionate about the languages, and they were always in danger of disappearing. I always
remember that, that they just--we were always like on the verge of just being obliterated
[laughs]. Everybody was scared to death that Modern Languages was going to disappear, but
they worked really hard to do the best they could. And they offered--there were some
problematic areas for me, but I recognized that they were doing the best they could, and that's
how the department survived as well.
MJ: What were the problematic areas?
ET: The problematic areas [laughs] were like faculty [pause] it is, in my view, it's impossible
not to be able to find a native speaker of Spanish or French in this country. It is even then, but
because the department was entirely White, entirely White, to me was just like, how did this
happen? And so they would say to me, “Well, foreign-born people don't like to work at
Slippery Rock.” And I'm thinking, so what am I? You know, like what those two [were], you
know? But so they have these fixed ideas.
But Charles Tichy was really good. He convinced me to come to Slippery Rock because he
showed me also the surrounding area, and I loved the landscape of western Pennsylvania. I
think it's absolutely lovely. And Hannah Zinni was my colleague for my entire career. I was
passionate about French, and she would go and bother anybody she could: she went to the
provost, to the dean, to the president, just anybody to make sure that the program didn't
disappear. It was to the point where she told me, “We in French, we cannot take a sabbatical,
because if we take a sabbatical, we won't be able to come back because there won't be a--there
won't be courses to teach.” And so, I never took a sabbatical, but I still don't--I don't reproach
that. I don't, I think it's okay because she was trying to save the program.
MJ: Sorry, were both of these colleagues in the Modern Languages program?
ET: Yes. Yes. Hannah was in French, and Charlie was German and Russian. Yeah, it was, it
was fun. Very nice person. I mean, really nice people in the department. With the little few
problems, you know, but being who I am, it's normal that people do things that are insulting
[laughs] without meaning to be insulting.
MJ: What about other people who influenced you or were significant in your time here?
ET: Other people--oh yes! Okay. So William Williams, he is the reason why I was selected to
be dean. I would have never thought that he would have chosen me because I used to fight with
him. And [laughs] we had this reading groups, women's reading groups. And I used to just, you
know, not be very nice to him [laughs]. And so--but he liked to fight! He liked to fight for stuff
like that, you know, “You don't understand.” “Well, you don't understand,” that sort of thing.
And so it was no point getting mad at him because he was who he was. It’s just like . . . but he
was very good at what he did. He did what he could.

Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 12
And then the other president [interim], Philip Way, I think that without him, the university
wouldn't be where it is now. I think he helped a lot with his insistence on creating new
programs. He really was key, I think. But he wasn’t always well, he wasn’t always appreciated
to his value, in my opinion. But of course, other people have other opinions [laughs], but they
might be right, too. But for me, he was good.
MJ: What kind of programs did he create?
ET: He--not in my college--he created programs in Physical [Therapy]. In things that were
important for the university where they could get students; he was really good at recruiting. He
traveled the world to recruit students, foreign students, to Slippery Rock. And I traveled with
him, quite a bit. Yeah, Philip Way. And then who else? There might be some that I’m
forgetting, but [inaudible].
MJ: All right, that's all right. Now, next question is major events or activities while you were
here, like academic events, cultural, building projects, like how the campus changed, national
events, things like that. It's a pretty broad question.
ET: Yeah, well, Miller Auditorium [laughs] was the never-ending project. I mean, when I came
in, Nora Ambrosio had started the program. She just went and convinced everybody. She was a
force of nature, and she just retired also this year.
MJ: I've interviewed her.
ET: Oh, you did? [Laughs].
MJ: Yeah, she's great.
ET: Yes. But she's a force of nature, you know, right? So she just worked at it, you know? Just .
. . she wouldn't relent [laughs]. She was just--somebody says, “No!” She’d say, “Okay, how can
I make you say yes?” And then, “No!” “Okay, there must be another way.” [Laughs]. She
always was finding ways. She was just incredible. Yeah. She wanted to hold on to being chair,
didn't let anybody else be chair. And I thought, that's not good. She has to--she has to let other
people lead as well. Anyway, so.
Oh yes, I'm very proud of somebody, Ursula Payne. Ursula Payne is from the Dance
Department. She was--I supported her; I supported her a lot. I thought that she had the qualities
to be a good administrator, and now she is an associate provost. So I'm very proud of her.
And then a horrible thing that happened was September 11. I was there [at Slippery Rock
University]. I don't know if it is important for the university, but it was important for the
university because I was teaching a class and I knew--I was noticing that one--my students were
there, sitting and everybody was quiet. But then I noticed that this student, her father worked in
a place that was close to the--where the plane landed in Pennsylvania?
MJ: Yeah.
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 13

ET: So she was just like--she was like, not there. She was there, but without being there. And so
I said, “So your dad works there, right?” And she goes, “Yes.” And so I say, “Okay, go and call
your family. Call somebody.” And she just went like, like just doing what people tell her to do.
She was just not computing, you know. So [pause] and so after a few minutes, she came back
and she said, “My dad is safe.” [Laughs]. So he wasn't—yeah. That was horrible.
And then I realized that I have a sister whose husband worked in the building, in the [World
Trade Center Twin Towers]. But that day [pause] the train was delayed. And so when he should
have been underneath the towers, when the first plane hit, he should have been there. But since
he was late, he was safe in the middle of the road, I mean, in the middle of the train path. So he
was safe. And yeah, all that happened. And then I went to the chairperson of the department and
I said, “I'm sorry, I just realized I need to find out where my sister is.” [Laughs]. And so
everybody was just like going crazy.
So the president [G. Warren Smith] somehow got us, I don't know how I knew it, but the
president said, “You teach if you want to, or, you just go home, send students home.” And I
thought I would leave my students decide. So “either you go if you want to or you stay if you
want to.” And then I had to go and check on my sister and her husband because they were--he
worked in New York. And so . . . the worst was when we couldn't find his family in Peru
because the, because the system, the phone system had collapsed worldwide. So nobody could
do that. But I like (as you pointed out, or maybe not), I like technology. And so I had a chat
room with my nephew, with one of my nephews. So I chatted and he answered and so you
could chat, but you couldn't call on the phone. And so that's how his family found out that he
was safe because they thought he would be right under the rubble, you know? Yeah. So those
were events of 2001. But not exactly related to Slippery Rock, but yes, because I worked there.
MJ: Yeah, no, one of the other professors had a really interesting story about 9/11 that was sort
of, it was pretty similar to what you described. Just like the students, the effect on the students.
ET: Yeah. Yeah.
MJ: What about how the campus changed in terms of like buildings?
ET: Oh yes, you asked me that before. The buildings, well, Miller Auditorium, the neverending project that just ended this past year, I think.
MJ: I think it ended the summer before I started college.
ET: Oh, so it was not 2018?
MJ: 2021, I think.
ET: 2021, okay, well, that was the never-ending story [laughs]. The other buildings were the
P.T. [Physical Therapy] Building, and the Art Building was also remodeled, and Maltby also
was also redone, I think. And of course, Carruth Rizza Hall. That wasn't called Carruth Rizza
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 14
Hall, it was called Carruth Rizza Hall because she [Carolyn Carruth Rizza] gave tons of money
to the university.
So those were the buildings [pause]; which other buildings? Yeah, the Art Department had a lot
of updates. [Pause]. Then there was--but this is, I don't know, because I’m really terrible with
sports [laughs], but apparently there was a baseball field [Jack Critchfield Park] that was
created while I was there, but I didn't pay any attention to it. But apparently it was a big thing
because the donors were alumni. I think it was that, something like that. So, but you have to get
the right information from people who know [laughs] about this. I just remember vaguely.
MJ: All right. And other memorable events or memories?
ET: Memorable events [pause] oh, yes. It was something--and I can't remember exactly what
year it was--but there was a cross burning [pause] in . . . what is that part of the school? There
was a cross burning in one of the student dorms. Not student—well, yeah, student dorms. And
it got so bad it got on CNN. CNN informed the entire country that Slippery Rock was a racist
town and [laughs] was, you know, it was, it was just--it was scary to me because it was just too
much exposure. And then I started listening about other--you know when people find out about
something horrible, then they come up with all sorts of stories. And so I did hear a lot. That's
how I found out that the Ku Klux Klan has a branch in Butler [Pennsylvania] and Youngstown
[Ohio]. I don't know, but those are things that I used to hear in those days. Maybe they still
exist, but I don't know.
So other memorable thing is that I think that the last year I was there, this didn't happen, but for
Halloween they used to hang a man--hang a semblance of a man with the blackface in one of
the--in Route 8, the route that goes from Slippery Rock to Butler. But I think that they finally
somebody convinced that family that it was not cool to do. But I also remember when I first got
to Slippery Rock, somebody told me if your car--if you have car trouble in this part of the road,
do not get out of the car. Just, you know, put the lights on, the blinking lights and just wait for
police or somebody to come. No, don't get out of the car. I've never had a problem. But it gives
you an idea of how things were in those days, because I'm talking to you about 1988, ‘89. And
that was the time of the cross burning and all that. So, yeah, hopefully that has changed.
MJ: I hope so.
ET: Yeah.
MJ: I haven't heard about anything like that. What, if anything, do you miss about being at
SRU?
ET: The students. Yeah, because the students are so--they bring you the future. You know
what's going on. I love to be with students who know a lot about technology because that's the
way I learn. They learn so quickly. But at my age, you don't. But I like it so I use my nephews, I
use all my students in Slippery Rock. I always had a student come and help me with
technology. Yeah [laughs].
Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania

Tsuquiashi, Eva 15
MJ: All right, and last question is words of wisdom--actually here, wait, second to last question,
how would you like to be remembered?
ET: [Pause] How would I like to be remembered? As an administrator . . . I did what I could to
make the lives of students the best they could. As someone who helped everybody to be the
best they could be. Yeah.
MJ: All right. And then last question, words of wisdom or other things you would like current
or future Rock community members to know.
ET: Could you say the question again?
MJ: Words of wisdom. So other things you'd like for current or future community members to
know.
ET: I am not that wise. So. . . .
MJ: [Laughs]. It’s okay.
ET: I figure the best is just--people have to try to get the best of themselves. Don't doubt
yourself. Just go ahead. Don't get mad. I suppose that's my one: don't get mad, get even
[laughs].
MJ: All right. Awesome. Thank you so much for making the time to talk to me. This was great.
ET: No problem.

Rock Voices: The Oral History Project of Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania