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STEP volunteers to reminisce about tutorial experiences in the '60s

Contact: John Duley, (517) 347-1884, duley@msu.edu; or Kristin K. Anderson, University Relations, (517) 353-8819, ander284@msu.edu

To recognize the contributions of the Student Tutorial Education Project (STEP) volunteers and the achievements of the students who benefited from MSU’s service to others, there will be a STEP reunion during the university’s Martin Luther King Jr., celebratory activities, Jan. 13-15.

The Michigan group assisted the Rust College entering freshman class during the summers of 1965 through 1969 with improving their communication skills through drama, art and music, as well as reading and computation skills. The group also provided 8- through 18-year- old Holly Springs. Miss., youth with similar programs.

Paul Herron, an associate professor of anatomy and neuroscience in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee, will present reflections from STEP volunteers and Rust College alumni at a public presentation at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 13, at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center.

In addition to STEP, some MSU professors joined the faculty as visiting professors, and MSU librarians assisted with organizing and updating the library. Their reflections also are part of Herron’s report.

In 1965 King was invited to MSU by Robert Green, then a professor of education, and John Duley, professor and Presbyterian campus minister, to launch STEP.

It was standing room only when King spoke to more than 4,000 students and community residents at the MSU Auditorium on Feb. 11, 1965, when he kicked off the fund-raising efforts for the project.

“The appearance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on our campus to launch STEP stands, in my mind, as my most significant single contribution to the life of the university through my campus ministry,” Duley said.

By 1969, STEP participants and organizers felt that their mission was complete. By then the college had made significant progress in gaining accreditation and in instituting courses in its curriculum similar to the STEP courses to help its students who were not properly prepared for college.

Herron said that Rust College officials felt that STEP played a vital role in helping the college at a time when it was really struggling to gain accreditation and prepare its students for college.

Gordon Puls, a Grand Rapids native now of Lantana, Fla., spent the summers after his junior and senior years tutoring Rust students in language and communication skills.

Puls, one of the last four MSU individuals to return to Rust College in 1969, said that he and his fellow volunteers have not forgotten their experiences and the contributions they made to the college and the Holly Springs community.

“We were sincere, and doing what we felt was right, and not worrying about the differences between people,” Puls said. “I felt that STEP participants had a dream, and I still feel that for at least one brief shining moment we shared a reality that society at large has yet to taste.”

MSU’s 100-plus volunteers now live throughout the country, in Canada, and abroad. Their occupations run the gamut – state representative, former mayor, city manager, county commissioner, and astronomer, with many in the fields of law, education, social work, and the ministry, to name a few career paths.

For a listing of the reunion events, visit www.msucolloquy.net