About the Collection
The SMU Video Archive Series contains 71 oral histories by leading SMU administrators, faculty, staff, and others with significant ties to the University. The guests discuss the history of SMU, recounting times of challenges and change. The interviews cover developments and transformations that led SMU to become a nationally recognized university, and the notable impact SMU has had on the growth of Dallas.
The first interviewees were Robert Cooper, James Early, Mary Alice Gordon, Bishop John Wesley Hardt, Harold Jeskey, Luis Martin, and Richard Rubottom. The interviewers were Travis Jordan, retired director of the Norwick Center for Media and Instructional Technology; Neill McFarland, former Associate Dean of Perkins and Vice President and Provost of SMU; and Jo Faye Godbey, the former Director of the SMU Lecture Series.
The interviews were produced by Bill Dworaczyk and filmed by professor David Sedman’s TV Studio Class between 2000 and 2011. The original seven interviews were videotaped by students, who worked as camera operators, technical directors, sound engineers, and directors. The original recordings were shot with three cameras on ¾-inch Umatic video cassettes.