Developing Interest in Student Government
Cathy Sterling explains how she became involved in Student Government and how her future husband, Gene Messick, helped develop her interest in politics.
Interview on 2010-11-02 00:00:00 -0400
Transcript
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"Why me?" has always been a question.
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Campus elections, and I certainly, like I said, I lived off campus and I wasn't really involved with that--.
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And student government was just a tiny thing on campus.
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It was really seen as, as you know well, as you go through the old Technician,
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it was one of those things you wanted on your resume as you went forward into government in North Carolina,
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so that's why you see a lot of governors were--[Right, were former presidents.]--student body presidents at different campuses
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But that was not me, you know.
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I honestly cannot tell you why I got involved.
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It was just a period of time when people were like, [Grumbling] "We need a change," [Grumbling], like that, and like [Grumbling] "Why don't you do that?" and I'm like, well, okay.
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Yeah. And I had started writing letters
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to the Technician about the athletic fee,
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which really stirred a pot, and that was really--. I was so shocked at how deeply a pot it stirred.
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I'm like, whoa, people really care about this. That was maybe what carried me over.
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I was also at that time involved with a man who became my husband, Gene Messick,
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who was fighting his own battles with the university, very, very intelligent man,
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and he really got it, how things worked, but nonetheless
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the universities at the time were so powerful, and they may still be, I don't know because I haven't kept up.
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But you weren't going to really win any battles with them as a professor--or he wasn't a full professor but he taught in the school of architecture--
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who had been told, we don't want you anymore. You're not going to win it.
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But he did everything to appeal it, and I became aware through him,
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and he was probably the biggest influence on me in terms of politicizing me to the times,
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to the times and the events that were going on, so that kind of combination.
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And how, you know, I still--. I have no clue.
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I look back, because I've been thinking about that. I don't actually remember but it happened.
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Suddenly I was there and then it just moved forward.
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It just moved forward on its own.
This video is an excerpt from a longer interview. Contact the Special Collections Research Center to request the transcript of the full interview.
