Brown said an atmosphere of optimism surrounding the campus was at an all-time high because of Bucky’s presence.

It was a very exciting period of time with the design department because of the attitude they had, he said. Bucky was a manifestation of the idea that if you used your creative juices, you could work wonders.

Fuller was appointed University Professor by the Board of Trustees in 1968, a status created for Fuller, Brown said.

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It’s a formal recognition of great intellectual competence, he said. (It) means someone at least theoretically capable of being a professor in any department in the University.

The term University Professor is honorific; you don’t run across it very frequently, Brown said. It’s something Morris would very deliberately choose to help recognize Fuller’s significance.

Brown said although Fuller never taught a class at SIUC and was often away from campus, teaching in the traditional sense was not what Fuller had been hired to do.

Morris supported Fuller simply because here was something that needed support, he said. You didn’t hire (him) to do this or do that, you hired (him) to be.

Brown said the atmosphere on campus was an exciting time and an adventurous one, but as times change, so does a university.

The Bucky Fuller impact, I think is still with us, he said. The University has a feel to it that goes back to a lot of things that Bucky was a part of.

If you have the right faculty, the students will come and be good students, and Bucky was the draw, Brown said.

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The interesting thing about a university is that it’s subject to influences of that sort and yet it still persists, he said. It’s not a transient thing and the key to a university is not students, the key is faculty.