Former Ohio University President Charles Ping came to Alden Library on Thursday night to speak about his newest book: his memoir.
Ping was not the only former president to come back and speak about his memoir, an oral history about his term as president from 1975 to 1994, said Dean of OU Libraries Scott Seaman. President Alden came back two years ago to speak about his.
“I had a serious accident, and it made people think about my mortality,” Ping said. “I created a sense of urgency to do this.”
English Professor and longtime friend Sam Crowl facilitated the discussion about the memoir because Crowl was the main person to interview Ping for the book. They met for nine, two-hour sessions to capture all the information.
The memoir, titled A Conversation about Ohio University and the Presidency, 1975-1994, is meant to feel conversational.
The discussion between Ping and Crowl consisted of questions that were asked in the interviews, and Ping said he answered them closely to the way he did for the book.
Ping gave his account on how he landed his position at the university, the state of the university at the time of his arrival and the problems he overcame during his 19 years as president.
“Ohio University was in a crisis in 1974,” Ping said. “It had just lost about 6,000 students and we had to layoff a large amount of the faculty. We stumbled from one trouble to the next.”
Ping also discussed the innovations that he implemented to get the university out of trouble. He pushed for a common core curriculum, renovated empty residence halls for other purposes and created committees to bring all aspects of the university together and have a common set of ideals.
Crowl and Ping covered other topics such as the large presence of international students on the OU campus, Ping’s relationships with governors through his time in office and his wife. Ping told stories about the nature of the governors, and praised his wife for the role she played.
“We have been married for 62 years,” Ping said. “You need someone in your life who always accepts you. Without her, I don’t think we would have built the friends for the university that we did.”
Seaman said that it is important for past presidents to speak about and write their memoirs because it is invaluable information. The early history of the university does not have the information that these past presidents have.
As the discussion grew to a close, audience members thanked Ping for his contributions and improvements that he made to the university through his time in office.
“Dr. Ping is very interesting,” said Hannah Clouser, a freshman studying mathematics. “The talk was informative, and I got to learn about a lot of stuff that was way before my days here. I also got to learn a lot about him as a president.”
