Dossier f90 - Royce, Jean Isobel

File consists of a recording of Jean Royce. Topics of the conversation include TAPE ONE 'Historical Sketch of the Medical Education of Women', Osier Club booklet, 1916. Family photo (St. Thomas, Ontario). Sister Catherine as violinist, teacher; use of music to assist teaching; studies at McMaster University, work in St. Thomas and Toronto public libraries. Father as industrial foreman, son of farmer; removal from St. Thomas to small outlying farm (retaining job in St. Thomas), 'back to the land' impulse; perfectionist nature (compulsion to pluck every bug from every potato plant). Sister Marion as family scholar; attendance McMaster University, Ontario College of Education; eager family interest in Marion's letters, (first member to leave home); position as secretary, Girls' Work Board for Canada (CGIT). Subject's firm belief in co-education, interest in Kathleen Ryan on convent schooling (see interview 46, Ryan, Kathleen). Family decision to remove Catherine from lessons at St. Thomas convent: nuns' exploitation of Catherine's musical talent, turning her into show-off 'star'. Belief in co-education, derived from Quakers; interest in Society of Friends. Kathleen Ryan's glowing recollection of peaceful Renfrew County convent life. Former rumour of excessive punishment at Kingston convent; warmth of local Roman Catholic Regiopolis school (co-educational), fine character of nuns and mother superior at local Notre Dame convent. Role of co-education in adjusting students for society; former teaching experience at Ontario Ladies' College (Whitby, Ontario).//Diverse OLC student population (Canadian, American, Nigerian, Japanese, at least one Negro). 'Normal' upbringing; complete surprise at birth of younger sister; recollection of female school principal, unusual for the times; liking for schooling. Brother's banking career. Holiday employment as camp leader (mid-1920s) with Neighbourhood Workers (Bolton, Ontario), entertaining tired mothers and babies. Choice of library career, happy employment at St. Thomas Public Library; library work as good background for registrarial career. Mother as church­woman, deeply interested in missions; as remarkable cook, without patience to teach children; informally educated, very knowledgeable, sympathetic, supportive, generous. Attendance at library school; father's death; sister Marion's resignation of CGIT work, MA at University of Toronto, eventual employment with international YWCA, Geneva, as liaison officer with United Nations, New York. Extramural registration at Queen's, summer school attendance 1925, resident enrolment 1927; attraction to Kingston. Employment Ontario Ladies' College; invitation from Queen's Dr. McNeill to assist Registrar Alice King. Undergraduate position as secretary to Professor Min Gordon, Educational Secretary of lODE; men students' attempt to storm Candlelighting Ceremony, intimidated by Min Gordon; Gordon as 'the heart of goodwill and kindness' as subject's employer; maritime origins of Gordon's father, Queen's Principal Gordon; Min Gordon's 'tremendous pre­judices', sense of propriety.// TAPE TWO Min Gordon's inability to accept father's retirement, removal to Gordon House (later Queen's women's residence). Subject's appointment while Assistant Registrar as women's residence Warden, to supplement wretched salary; delightful acquaintance with Gordon House students; anxiety for tardy canoeists (later punished by women's Levana Society disciplinary council) as sole cause for alarm. Non-interfering role as Warden: responsible natures of house president, Levana Society president; residence houses as pleasant, relaxed places; importance of keeping house 'in good fettle' during exams. Pressures of registrarial work (death of former broken-down Registrar Alice King, exhausted by work, pressure): huge correspondence with incoming students; 'constant flow' of students in need of counselling; secretarial appointment (minute-taking, writing-up, correspondence) to Faculty of Arts, Senate, Committee of Departments, Board of Studies. Appointment of Jean Richardson (1936) as first office secretary (later Assistant to the Registrar); Richardson's exceptional competence, ability to lift much of Royce's burden. Horror at Queen's introduction of paper diplomas. Appointment as Registrar, 1933. Happy, cooperative, sociable office staff; Ralph Clench, valued staff character, man­of-all-work, lecturer in Queen's Mathematics Department. Present-day division of Registrar's former decision-making responsibility among various Faculty offices. Counselling individual incoming students on choice of programme as major part of registrarial work; responsibility for university calendar (soliciting programme descriptions from professors, checking descriptions with eagle eye for compliance with university regulations); administration of scholarships as huge workload, responsibiIity (advantage of acquaintance with Miss Gordon's system of developing Canadian Federation of University Women Scholarships). Preoccupation preceding retirement with reconstitution of Queen's Senate.//Cooperation with Senate over scholarships, degree lists. Health breakdown (1965), hospitalization, retirement. Regret she was never offered sabbatical leave. University reorganization at time of retirement, division of academic and administrative bodies; faculty desire in mid-1960s to assume some direct administration; Senate reconstitution, subject's involvement writing papers, evolving committees. Holiday travel, travel as committee convenor for Internaional Federation of University Women. Time given up to advising university staff, preparing papers as member of study group; limited outside social life. Pressure of registrarial work, unwillingness to stay so long in a job again; lack of equivalent job opportunities throughout Depression, 'it worked out very well for a long time'. Astonishment at numbers of freshmen entirely ignorant of what university is, despite Queen's long-established high school liaison programme; subject's province-wide address to high school students, participation in registrar's conferences. Contributions of faculty members George Whalley, Clint Lougheed, to success of university calendar. Academic snobbery of Queen's French Department; subject's continual 'battling' with friend P.G.C. Campbell