Code,500030
Subject,William Shepard
Date,8/22/14
Interviewer,Joseph Wickens
Abstract,"This interview was conducted as part of Cleveland State UniversityÕs 50th Aniversary Commemoration Effort. William Shepard is a native to the Cleveland area, having been born and raised in the cityÕs eastern suburb of Lorain and is currently the Director of Operations and Technical Support at the university. He initially enrolled as an education and psychology major at CSU back in 1971 but later changed his academic focus to information technology after being exposed to coding by some of his fraternity brothers. As a member of Greek Life, Shepard took part in the various activities associated with those organizations and was central to their many philanthropic fundraising efforts and intramural sports teams. Before graduation Shepard left CSU for work but returned to work in the IT department and finished his degree during that time. In this interview he discusses campus life and Greek Life in particular during his undergraduate days and relates the trajectory of his career in the IT department at the university. Of particular interest is his description of how CSUÕs implementation of technology progressed as over time and how his department worked to address the issues caused by the PeopleSoft failure of the late 1990s. "
Special Notes,
Minutes,
0,"Introduction. Originally from Lorain, OH 30 miles west of Cleveland. Went to public schools all his life. Went to LCCC before enrolling at CSU."
1,Niether parents finished HS. Shepard didnÍt know what he wanted to do and LCCC was conveinent. Lived off campus in a fraternity house. Enrolled in fall of 1971. Started working in IT in 1972 as a student and became employed full-time in 1976. 
2,"Came to CSU on a few visits, had a friend who attended. Another friend was in a fraternity and he joined too. ""It really enhanced my student life."" Knew he wanted to be in the fraternity."
3,"Knew being Greek was fun. Was told stories about how great it was and joined on. At that time Greek life was strong. ""There was a lot to do."" Discusses process of joining. "
4,"Description continued. Involved in intramural sports. Competed for the ""Coveted all-sports trophy."" Description of various student activities. ""Stunt Night."" "
5,"""It was a lot of fun."" Homecoming parades, floats, and yearbooks. Greek Week in the spring. ""It was a very very rich experience for me."" Discussion of ""smokers"" "
6,"Gene Hickerson showed up for a smoker. ""It was like being in the stadium."" Smoker discussion continued. Course of study was psychology and education."
7,Began to see job market was limited in those fields. Relates story of being introduced coding by fraternity brothers. Later started taking computer courses. Has spent most of career in programming. 
8,Discussion of computer mainframe. Was located on the 10th floor of Rhodes Tower. Last one was too big to fit in elevator. There was talks of flying it in by helicopter.Description of how mainframe was installed.
9,"Description continued. ""It was a great time in the evolution of IT to be involved."" IT started in military."
10,Knew a couple people in the data center. Was going to need a Masters degree to work in psychology. Talked to programmers about the job.
11,"""I had a good feeling of what the job was like."" Liked the people and environment of the data center. Fraternity house was at E. 36th and Carnegie. ""Not the best area of town."" Queen Anne style house. "
12,"Describes the house. Parents thought it was a ""rat trap."" ""The house was beautiful."" Desciption continued. "
13,"House description continued. ""It was interesting living in a house like that."" Would climb up on the roof and watch the city relaxing. Was in Sigma Phi Episilon."
14,"Fraternity had won the all-sports trophy 44 out of 48 years. Shepard won the wrestling trophy one year. ""It was probably my proudest intramural moment."" Relates the various sports teams he played on. Relates story of playing on tennis team. "
15,Sports and accompanying stories continued to be related. Took part in a 24 hour dance marathon for muscular dystrophy. 
16,Received a telegram from Jerry Lewis for the event. Got to go to New York because of the dance marathon as well. Relates story of travelling in NY. Rode in a pirate taxi from airport to hotel.
17,Trip to NY continued. Probably 200 in the room and got to eat lunch with Jerry Lewis. Talks about other fundraising efforts.
18,Relates story of renting a robot to speak to people about donating. Did work for United Way. Fraternity was big on philanthropic giving. Stunt Night described.
19,"Describes holding ""Car Smashes"" for charity. ""Those were always fun and easy to raise funds doing."" Talks about taking part in a drinking contest. On a side note Shepard was selected the Sig Ep's top beer drinker while he was at CSU."
20,"""I donÍt tell a lot of people about that."" Relates story of participating in the contest. Got second place to Jan Lewis. ""She spilled an awful lot of beer."" Tied for second and had to drink as much beer as he could in one minute to decide second place."
21,Has seen Jan Lewis over the years. Saw her in a bar at one point and settled the score once and for all. Got a lot of publicity for the event. 
22,Left CSU before graduation to work in industry. Came back and completed the necessary courses to graduate. Needed two math courses. Graduated in 1980. When he returned he realized this is where he belonged and has been at CSU ever since. Also taught at CCC during the same period. Got a Masters degree from CSU educational technology.
23,"He was ""computer analyst one"" when he returned. Wrote Cobalt code in that role. Describes the job. Relates story of finishing a financial aid program. "
24,There were long hours. Talks about computerized parking management system that he developed. Had been working with the director of parking at the time.
25,"There was a lot of abuse of parking during that time. Developed handheld ticket writers. Describes the functionality of the handheld devices. ""It was kind of a unique approach."" "
26,Talks about relationship with Martin Cooperman. Wrote articles annually for CUMREC. Both were programmers.
27,"Describes Marty for the record. ""A fun guy to know, much different than myself."" CUMREC taught him a lot about presenting to groups/conferences. Got to travel to a lot of cities."
28,Relates story of having Marty make travel arrangements. Stayed at the YMCA. Describes the room and accomodations. Everyone else stayed in much nicer places.
29,Relates story of site-seeing with Marty while at the conference. The two were seperated and Marty got caught in a rainstorm.
30,Taught courses in continuing education for 20 years. Relates some of the courses that he has taught over the years. 
31,"Courses were IT related courses for novices. Started in the Euclid Building. Describes the building. Presence of cochroaches. Later moved to the Cole Center. ""The Cole Center was a big step from the Euclid Building which was a pit."" "
32,"Went on to teach at CCC. CSU used Bitnet, a precursor to the internet. Describes peoples' perceptions of what the internet was in the mid-90s."
33,At CSU there was a web server was a single technical document. Descibes the early forays at CSU into use of the internet. Relates story of presentation he gave to staff about using the internet.
34,"Story continued. ""It was a hard sell for our own staff."" Gave multiple presentations about how CSU was using the internet. "
35,"Relates story of developing a kiosk that allowed people to log in and view their information; grades, course schedule, etc. Just put the kiosks out on campus and never bothered training students because of how adept they were with technology."
36,"Relates story of a student who went to a kiosk to get her transcript when her advisor forgot to bring one to their meeting. Had to add more because of their popularity. Was the only group able to demonstrate the use of their kiosk at CUMREC. ""I was very proud of the work we did there."" "
37,Discussion of wireless. Wireless arrived at CSU in the early 1980s and it wasnÍt campus wide. 
38,Campus started to become more wireless in the early 90s. CSU has invested heavily in the technology. Relates story of how people were gaining access to the wireless signal.
39,"It wasnÍt a big deal but it was made out to be so. ""It is very safe today as long as its used properly."" Discussion of Lorain International Parade."
40,Lorain prides itself on its international makeup. Describes the International festival. Loved attending the festival and wanted to become involved. Describes the festival.
41,Description continued. Moved up from trustee to vice-president and eventually president of the organization. Relates challenges of managing volunteers versus employees.
42,"Talks about project management during the event. ""It was truly a community operation."" "
43,Festival description continues. Relates how be started to play Santa Clause around Christmas time. Palace Theater in Lorain.
44,"Santa Clause for the festival had quit and he stepped in as a replacement, last minute. Has now been doing it for 27 years. Wife has since made him his own suit. Begins to relate story of getting in a fire truck basket."
45,"Story of fire basket continues. Getting in was easy, getting out was a challenge. ""I have never fallen."" Worked with Billy The Magic Clown."
46,"Has also worked with Slider from the Indians. Relates story of how while riding in the truck with both of them Billy scared Slider into talking. ""He wasnÍt supposed to talk but no one was around."" Streets of Lorain were lined with people during the parade."
47,"Continues to describe playing Santa Clause. A lot of kids are afraid to see him. ""Im a very quiet, passive Santa."" "
48,"They would set up a camera and broadcast it on cable so family who couldnÍt make it down to see the kids. ""I would tell people I was on TV more than David Letterman."" Relates story of kid who said something inappropriate and he told the camera man he should probably edit it out. ""There is no editing!"" "
49,The response was bad enough no to mention on the record. Talks about some of his experiences with the children. 
50,Relates how first two sons went to John Carroll. They pledged the JCU chapter of his fraternity. They would take classes at CSU during the summers and ended up getting masters degrees from CSU. 
51,"One son was very happy with faculty at CSU. They played rugby in college. Relates story of son analyzing risk management while serving as president of fraternity. Shepard never had to worry about that. ""No offense dad but it was you guys in the 70s that force us to do it now."" "
52,Youngest son went straight to CSU. It feels good to have his sons go to CSU. Proud of his sons. 
53,"Begins to talk about the PeopleSoft implementation. It was one of biggest undertakings he has seen while at CSU. It divided the staff and was run by an outside company. ""Almost put CSU out of business."" "
54,"""It was a good step forward in terms of technology, it just wasnÍt managed well by the outside firm."" When it left the CSU staff came back together. Is proud of the work that they did. Talks about current projects. Program that gives students free Microsoft Office. "
55,"Implementation of voice recognition to access their data. ""We did a lot of things that people donÍt realize how much it involved."" Mentions a few examples. "
56,"More examples described and how they were received. ""Weve never been big on fanfare."" Describes how campus has changed over the years. "
57,"Quonset huts mentioned. Elevator service described. Fenn Tower described. Classes in Mather Mansion. ""A lot of good memories of early campus."" ""Its been an amazing transformation."" "
58,*END OF INTERVIEW*