PROJECT METHODOLOGY

Initial interviews were conducted with members of the Class of 1942. Then, in the Summer and Fall of 1994, we conducted a mass mailing to members of another prewar (1943) and a postwar (1949) class from Rutgers College. These two classes were selected in order to offer a comparative perspective on how the war impacted the group with college degrees going into the Second World War and those without a baccalaureate. The project is especially interested in documenting how the GI Bill transformed American higher education and society in general.

Through press announcements and other means, we have encouraged other Rutgers College alumni and New Jersey College for Women alumnae to participate in the project. Individuals willing to participate in the project are asked to complete a detailed survey that offers the project director and other interviewers a detailed biographical sketch of an individual's life, especially his or her war-time experiences. By the sixth year of the project's existence, it accumulated more than four hundred completed surveys and more than 300 interviews.

The laborious process of transcription is the Achilles heel of any oral history project. A professional transcribes the interviews and the project staff reviews word for word resulting transcripts. The project staff then returns the transcripts to the interviewees for their comments and corrections. Interviewees are encouraged to correct only minor errors of fact or grammar, and we seek to assure participants that they have ultimate ownership of their life story. After review and final editing, all transcripts and tapes are placed in the Rutgers Special Collections and University Archives.  Depending upon the interviewee's wishes, not all completed transcripts are released immediately for public research.