IU Southeast archives oral histories of Korean War vets

“The Memory Shall Be Ours,” a program honoring veterans and particularly those from the Korean War, is scheduled tomorrow (Nov. 10) at 7 p.m. at the Ogle Center on the New Albany campus in honor of Veterans Day on Sunday. Every discipline from the IU Southeast School of Arts and Letters is participating and a highlight will be a readers’ theater performance of segments taken from the interviews Reid’s oral interpretation students conducted with local Korean War veterans, several of whom will be in the audience.

“I think this serves to reinforce the values of this country—the values of freedom,” said Reid, an award-winning teacher who has been the recipient of the Metroversity Outstanding Faculty for Adults Award, IU’s Teaching Excellence Recognition Award and the Most Accessible Professor Award from ACCESS during a nearly two-decade career on campus. With a renewed patriotic fervor in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Reid said there’s a need to recognize and honor those who have fought with their lives to preserve the nation. Reid said the interview project is “a way for IU Southeast to give something back to the community.” She added that interviewing the veterans greatly impacted her students. “We have had such a wonderful experience with veterans. Students come away changed because they now have a personal connection to a historical event,” she said. Transcripts from the interviews are to be presented to the IU Southeast Library for archiving.