BRATTON: When you first came to Greenville back in 1947, they were just getting over the [Leon] Meadow's problem. Do you think that had much effect on East Carolina, other than the immediate impact?
JENKINS: No, it was very transitory. I don't want to say fortunately or not, but I'll illustrate what I'm trying to say. People were divided right down the middle on that, on the campus they were divided, in the city. I went to a church. I was the preacher at an annual homecoming and people came from all directions. They couldn't fit into the church, there was such a crowd. It was over in Johnston County. That name came up because they knew I was from ECTC, at that time. They said, "What do you think?" I said, "Honestly, I don't know the man. I haven't followed the case or anything." I just couldn't make an opinion. Then, bang, the arguments started, and I dare say half of that gang said, "Well, here is an innocent man that was railroaded." And the other side was saying, "nothing but a damn crook and he got caught." So that was right in the middle. But I don't think it had a bit of an effect. Because the effect of the G.I., the men coming here, the war, strangers coming here, and the Yankees coming here, and everybody else, that made it a new ballgame and everybody could have cared less.
BRATTON: It changed after [the war].
JENKINS: I never even talked about it. Once in awhile an old timer would come in and say, "I remember when Meadows was here." But it really had no effect at all.
Another non-entity, a fellow stayed here about a year named Cooke
BRATTON: [Dennis] Cooke.
JENKINS: and didn't make any influence on anybody. I never heard anybody say they even knew him. I knew him very well. He was a pretty nice fellow. He went from here to Woman's College and became a professor of business, no, education. Then he went to High Point and he was president there until Wendell Patton took over. I think he did a pretty fair job, but he wasn't happy here. It was obvious, he wasn't part of here.
An interesting thing did happen, however. I lived a year here with the post office closing every day about 6:30. You could get mail after 6:30, and I'd rush to my office to make sure I got my night mail. I thought it was a governmental regulation. Finally, I asked one of the veterans here, "Why in the world, other college, you can get mail at eleven or twelve o'clock at night. At Duke, when I was there, I could get my mail at any time. Here it is 6:30. Is that a regulation for rural post offices?" He said, "No. Dr. Cooke closed all post offices at 6:30 because he felt that if the boys and girls go there to get their mail, they might smooch." Now isn't that something?! I said, "I'll be darned. From now on, open the thing." Now, of course, we open it. You can get it any time you want. I was only dean then and I opened the thing. [John] Messick didn't care. He said, "Why keep that thing closed with a reason that silly?"
They had so many silly rules. A girl could not wear Bermuda shorts even to play tennis. She had to wear a raincoat until she got to the tennis courts, then she was allowed to take the raincoat off. Then put the raincoat back on again and go to her room.
And girls were not allowed to ride in a car with a man, a male. Believe it or not, I went to get a girl to babysit for us. We had two little boys then. And they said, "I'm sorry, but she may not ride with you." Really.
BRATTON: With the Dean.
JENKINS: No. I had to go back home and get them. I said, "We don't have a babysitter. She's not allowed to ride with me."
One lady in town here was barred from the campus for life, I understand. She explained it to me. You know what terrible thing she did?
BRATTON: No.
JENKINS: She brought a birthday cake to her daughter, but she forgot to sign in. She didn't sign in downstairs and she brought the cake up. And they barred her, they barred her from being here. So we went from ridiculous, almost to the crazy stuff.
BRATTON: When you were here, then as Dean under Dr. Messick, many of these things came before, under your province to do away with a lot of these rules.
JENKINS: Yes. He gave great freedom. I had a great element of control there which I think is common. Frankly, that's the way it should be done. You've got to delegate and give people, they've got to be in charge. Otherwise, they are not going to do their best. And this business of a tight administration, I never did believe in it. Because, if you've got a sly person who wants to cheat, he can do it whether you watch him everyday of the week. He can do it. I've known people who pulled all kinds of tricks.
One student came to me one day and said a certain professor, "I wish you wouldn't call him to your office so much, because, honestly, we just don't get started in this. He comes in and says that he can be with us for five minutes because 'Jenkins wants me for a conference.'" He said, "That will be two or three times a week, you want him." I had never even called the fellow once. So, just by luck, a student [told me].
Then we caught another fellow. So as I say, no matter how tight you think you can have it, it's got to be based on honesty or you don't have it.
This girl came in and she said, "I want to make a correction on my records. I had appendicitis the first week of school and was out the whole semester and I got an A on this subject." So I called the fellow and I said, "Did you have a girl in your class?" whatever it was. "Oh, yes, a very good student." I said, "What did she get?" "She got an A." Then I explained, I said, "Do you realize that she wasn't even in your class?" The guy admitted it. He said, "Well, you don't blame me." He said, "What the hell?" He admitted that he did that.
Then he gave another guy, he gave everybody an A and a few B's and we soon began to suspect. Because one boy's record was all D's. This subject was English as a matter of fact. How can he get all D's, D, D, D, and an A. The guy admitted to me after awhile. He said, "Frankly, I just threw the damn mess on the stairs and everybody, all the A's were the first eight flights and the B's were the second." All kinds of crazy things you had to deal with.
[interruption in interview deleted]
Well, a good illustration is in Art, [Edward] Reep and [Donald] Sexauer. Then we've got a man in sculpturing, I've forgot what his name is. He does it in, [Wesley] Crawley. I asked Crawley, "Why did you come here?" He came from Oregon. I said, "You make a hell of a lot of dough making these statues for the banks." He makes marble heads for children. He doesn't have to be near here. I said, "Why are you here?" He said, "I'll tell you the God's honest truth. I'm here because I'm free. You've never said anything unkind to me ever and neither has [Wellington] Bud Gray." He said, "It's fun working in an atmosphere where you don't have to fight all the time. You don't have to be in the middle of a lot of junk. I'm just a loose soul." Of course, he gave us our money's worth. He was a good man.
And all these fellows, if a person wants to write, they're going to write. You don't have to force them. And if you want, if you want, to have that publish or perish, it's so easy to beat. You know the formula. You can write an article on what you are going to do, then write an article on what you've done and then write an evaluation. You can milk it for three. And you can always get some jerky publication that needs articles, no problem with that. So it really doesn't amount to a row of beans.
