Interview with Judy Christensen

Partial Transcript: Hi Judy! This is Yiqi...

Segment Synopsis: Start of Interview/Interviewer’s Introduction

Partial Transcript: Okay Judy... I have heard from Troy that you worked in

Segment Synopsis: Judy graduated from Eau Claire nursing school. She worked full time for four years before getting married and having a baby. After becoming a mom, she worked one day a week, Wednesdays, and the day of the Dow demonstration fell on her day of work.

Keywords: Nursing school

Partial Transcript: So when I walked in on October 17

Segment Synopsis: Judy remembers a very foul odor in the building and knew she was going to have an unusual day. She was working a 3p-11p shift, Judy had to go right to the emergency room to stitch up wounds from the Billy clubs and flush tear gas from eyes.

Keywords: Billy club; tear gas

Partial Transcript: ... two things I mentioned. But the other unique thing

Segment Synopsis: Judy remembers a lot of phone calls coming in from parents, and it was all handled by people in the emergency room because there wasn't public relations. She was amazed at how much information she gave out because that was before the HIPAA laws. There was a lot of chaos, a lot of crying and the kids were terrified.

Keywords: Emergency room

Partial Transcript: Was that situation unexpected?

Segment Synopsis: Yes, there was some rumble that something was brewing, her husband was a professor in the law school. There was a lot of discussion about if Dow should come to campus, although planning of the demonstration was quite. Judy doesn’t know how much the school or the faculty knew. She mentions that she doesn’t think many law students were involved and why. After the Dow events, her husband was put into a legal committee for the campus.

Partial Transcript: Did you see many police officer also wounded and sent to emergency room?

Segment Synopsis: No, she did not remember any person in uniform was sent to emergency room.

Partial Transcript: And they really didn't have many staff

Segment Synopsis: Not many emergency room staff. Emergency medicine did not exist at that time. Medical doctors there did not received any emergency training. Too many injured, and too few to help them.

Keywords: Emergency medicine; Emergency room; Medical doctor

Partial Transcript: How would you describe...

Segment Synopsis: She was horrified, because of the damage to human beings for just participating in demonstration. She had no sympathy with injured policeman, if there was any.

Partial Transcript: You know, it's funny how

Segment Synopsis: She still vividly recalls images in the emergency room. She tried to keep calm and assuage patients.

Partial Transcript: I don't believe the subsequent riots

Segment Synopsis: She don't believe the subsequent campus violence shocked her as much as the second Dow demonstration, as she got used to handle emergent situation.

Partial Transcript: These were... basically

Segment Synopsis: She believes that the participants of the second Dow demonstrations were mostly undergraduates. She also admitted that she did not have much memory of what she read about the event at that time.

Keywords: Anti-War; TA Strike

Partial Transcript: How did you help them to recover the vision?

Segment Synopsis: Used water (maybe mixed with salt) to flush their eyes. She reveals that the victims of tear gas also had a lot of pain.

Keywords: Flushing eye

Partial Transcript: I am just wondering how this event impacted

Segment Synopsis: Because she was not a staff of emergency room, she did not get involved in reforming emergency room practice. However, based on her later participation in later emergent treatments, she felt emergency room became more organized and developed certain protocol. For example, "triog" protocol - a way to identify and treat the most critical patient in priority-was adopted for the first time among her colleagues after the Dow.

Keywords: triog

Partial Transcript: Ralph Hansen was the police chief of the university...

Segment Synopsis: Because Ralph Hansen, the chief of UW police became good friend with Judy, they talked a lot about the Dow. Cops outside the campus were not trained to use clubs or crowd control. She thinks that UW police were more prepared to crowd control and that Hansen received national recognition for handling demonstrations well years after. She thinks high of Hansen for his intelligence and ability to negotiate with campus on boarder issues. She also thinks that city police got improved later based on the good policing model set by Hansen, as intelligent people took control of the department.

Keywords: Ralph Hansen; UW Police

Partial Transcript: How would you say the campus activism in general...

Segment Synopsis: She was apolitical until she married a law professor. And she joined the League of Women Voters and felt obligated to learn more. She became a more liberal person. Dow was a big part of her life for her to see the importance of human dignity, equity and social justice. She was appalled by the unnecessary violence, and further she sympathized with the soldiers suffering in the Vietnam War. She adds that it was a mistake for the university to call the city police.

Keywords: League of Women Voters; Vietnam War