Wiley L. Housewright Faculty Professional Relations Committee Files

Collection — Box: 1817

Identifier: MSS 2007-009

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Wiley L. Housewright Faculty Professional Relations Committee Files primarily include correspondence and memoranda to and from the Committee during the period he served as chair. Topics include academic freedom; deliberations over 12-month contracts, faculty participation in civil rights activities, such as discussing the segregation-integration issue in the classroom; sabbaticals; Social Security benefits; tenure, and dismissal policies. Correspondents include FSU President Gordon W. Blackwell and Dean of the Faculties E. Laurence Chalmers. The collection is significant to researchers because it documents the issues facing Florida faculty during the 1960s and how they impacted the higher education teaching profession.

Dates

created: 1959-1968
Other: Majority of material found in 1963-1964

Creator

Housewright, Wiley L. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to research

Conditions Governing Use

To request permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from the archives, please contact Heritage & University Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. Researchers must obtain separate permission from the copyright holders of material held within University Archives collections for which the institution does not hold copyright.

Biographical or Historical Information

Dr. Wiley L. Housewright, born in Wylie, Texas in 1913, received his B.A. degree from North Texas State College in 1934. He studied at the Juilliard School of Music and at Columbia University, where he received his M.A. degree, and at New York University, where he received the Ed. D. degree in 1943. Before coming to Florida State University (FSU) in 1947, he served as director of music for the Fort Worth public schools and the Batavia, NY public schools, and assistant professor of music literature at the University of Texas. In 1947, he joined the FSU faculty. While at FSU he was active in advisory roles for foundations, such as the Ford Foundation's Program in the Humanities and the Arts. Well known in professional groups, he served as president of the Southern Music Educators Conference and on the executive committee of the Music Educators National Conference. In 1948, he organized the FSU University Singers, a 71-voice group of men and women students.In 1955, Housewright served a summer professorship at Indiana University. On a Fulbright grant he lectured on choral literature and choral music in Japan during the 1956-1957 school year. In 1961, Housewright was selected FSU's Distinguished Professor. That year he was also appointed by U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk to the U.S. National Commission for the U.S. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). During the 1960s, he chaired the Faculty Professional Relations Committee, which developed guidelines in such areas as academic freedom and faculty participation in civil rights activities, and he chaired the Faculty Committee on Contract Policy Recommendations, which discussed salaries and teaching contracts. In 1966, he was named Dean of the FSU School of Music by President John E. Champion. In addition to these activities and accomplishments, Housewright authored several books, including An Anthology of Music in Early Florida (Gainesville, Fla.: University Press of Florida, c1999), A History of Music and Dance in Florida, 1565-1865 (Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c1991), and Music for Florida Children: A Guide for Elementary School Music (Tallahassee, Fla., State Dept. of Education, 1954). He died December 13, 2003, in Tallahassee.

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