University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Magazine 2018SpringLibrariesForJoomag | Page 24

Mary Rouse, Continued
my life. I went to Chicago. I went
to the Indian reservations. I went
to Milwaukee, to Racine, to Beloit. I
went to visit these students in their
homes and met their families and
then subsequently admitted them
and quite frequently had to pick them
up from the bus station and help
them get organized and oriented. And
they really taught me how students of
color saw our university, and it wasn’t
pretty. I soon realized that the more
diverse the student body, faculty and
staff were, the better an education
all of us would have in today’s world.
From there I think I’ve developed a
commitment to try to do everything
I could to make the university a more
inclusive space and to learn more
from students from all different kinds
of backgrounds. It certainly was a
formative experience. I learned much
more from these students and their
families and their experiences here
than they ever learned from me.
JF: Life-changing choice, but a good
one.
MR: Let me give you an example
from outside the university. I’m a
regular blood donor. When I was
donating blood a few years ago I met
a young mother who had just donated
and she had her son with her. Her
son had severe sickle cell disease. We
struck up a conversation. Fast forward
to the Morgridge Center where
we were celebrating our fifteenth
anniversary and looking for special
events that we could add. I said,
“How about a sickle cell blood drive
that focuses on educating people
about the disease and encouraging
more people, particularly African
Americans, to donate blood?”
This boy, Isaiah, had 200 blood
transfusions. He was a teenager and
even my O-negative blood, which is
a universal donor, would be rejected
because Isaiah needed blood from
an African American donor that
would have similar markers to his.
So we were going to do a sickle cell
blood drive for just one year. It was
so successful and well-received that
we’re still doing it. The best news
recently is that the Wisconsin Black
Students Union has taken it over.
Those Sickle Cell drives allowed us
to connect with Mt. Zion, Second
Baptist Church, and Fountain of Life
and made all these connections in
the community plus connections at
the university. We have two drives off
campus and two on campus. There’s
an example of a connection I’m proud
to have helped with but the real
credit goes to this young mother who
taught me about sickle cell.
JF: Is that what the Morgridge Center
is about to you? Connecting people
so they are aware of other people’s
needs?
MR: The primary reason I tell
people working at the Morgridge
Center was the best job I ever had
at the university was because it is
fundamentally about democracy
and civic-mindedness. We teach our
students to become lifelong civic
participants. Whether you think the
government should be small and
you’re a conservative or you think it
ought to be large and you’re a liberal,
in fact we have no well-functioning
government, that is, society, unless
everyone is participating at some
level in some kind of public arena,
some kind of public works service.
That’s the first reason. The second is
making connections that can work
toward that goal.
JF: I’ve forgotten to ask you about
the library. You’ve been on the board
of the Friends of the Libraries for a
decade now?
MR: I’m married to a librarian and
I studie d Latin and Greek so I’ve
been around books. I’ve served on
the library board for ten years. I love
libraries and I think it’s critically
important to our research and service
and teaching. It’s all connected.
Libraries connect us to all kinds of
things.
JF: So you have a good feeling about
the future of libraries?
MR: They will always be with us.
Certain things change with the
advent of information technology.
There will always be folks who are
interested in history and want to go
back into the dusty volumes in the
stacks.
JF: Were you ever tempted to go
elsewhere?
MR: No, I tell people I’ve always
been a local. I love my local
community. I’m very attached to it.
I know people. I can make all those
connections.
JF: Has your life so far turned out the
way you expected it to?
Under the
MR: Not at all. I had no idea there
was a career to be had in student
services. When I got the job in
admissions, I was just so glad to have
a job; it was all I cared about. So, I got
into this career in student services
and there were more and more
challenges, and eventually I got the
dean’s job, and then I got my dream
job as director of the Morgridge
Center for Public Service. That was
Board Work
Your Friends volunteer board does not work “down by the
sea,” but we do get to view the shores of Lake Mendota when
we meet monthly, most often on the ninth floor of Memorial
Library. The ninth floor is home to what some consider the
rarified atmosphere of Special Collections. To us, it is another
part of the campus library system that we hold in such high
regard. The Friends Board attends to monthly business, but we
are always mindful of our internal and external roles and how
we collaborate with our Library partners. In a review of recent
board meeting minutes, some recurring themes are clear.
Revisiting and discussing our mission is a refrain in board
midstream in considerations on how to maximize visibility and
impact of our grants to visiting scholars.
meetings. It is within our mission to support, promote, and Finally, the board addressed and acted on efforts to broaden
enhance the many and unique aspects of the Libraries. How we representation on the board itself, and to use committee
do this changes over time, as does our role. We want to make volunteerism as a pipeline to board membership. This is
sure our mission guides what we do today and tomorrow. ongoing work and is discussed frequently as a reminder to
Certainly related to mission is how we allocate funds received
maintain our momentum toward this goal.
from our book sales, endowment interest, and your donations. Your Friends Board operates with a sense of the larger
Our Grants Committee is active not only in awarding grants, organization while making smaller month-to-month decisions.
but also in making sure the grants meet our goals and Library The work is stimulating and rewarding as we move forward on
needs. The board is keenly interested in current needs on behalf of students, researchers, and friends.
campus as grants to libraries are approved. The board is also
24 | LIBRARIES Spring 2018
a lot of fun because it was a job that
directly relates to democracy and
public service, which was why I was
studying Greek and Latin in the first
place. So, it came around a circuitous
route but it came around.
—Al Friedman
University of Wisconsin–Madison | 25