International House Berkeley

80 Roland Rush 1946 - 1949 I arrived at I-House in September of 1946, so I was one of the first residents to go into the Big House – I-House had just moved from the fraternity houses where they had been during the war years. What were the conditions? The rooms were kind of spartan: it was a double room, with bunk beds, two small desks and chairs. And the Great Hall had some sofas in it – it was comfortable, as far as I can recall. And the patio in the courtyard, it had some lawn furniture, and it was very pleasant. I was coming from the Army Air Corps. I had been discharged almost a year earlier and had done one semester at UCLA. A friend of mine from the military, George Reel, had said that he was going to Cal. So, after a semester, I got in touch with George, who lived in I-House – he was one of the first people there – and I said, "I'm coming up to Berkeley, and I don't know where I'm going to be staying." And he said, "Talk with Mary Jane Sanford" – who was in the business office – "and if you're a veteran, she'll probably let you come in." You see, I was an undergraduate. So I got in as a sophomore. All of my first impressions of I-House were totally positive – there were people from all over the world, of all races, religions, etc. I was very comfortable in that setting. It was, in a way, a familiar setting because my family had friends from all over the world. My father was originally from France, and he had many friends who were from Europe and from different countries. So it felt very familiar; it didn't feel strange or unusual, to be almost a minority in your own country. Although you weren't really a minority, because there were more Americans than anybody else – but you were surrounded by people from all over the world. I wasn't surprised at how well people got along with one another, but I was very pleased. At that time, as I recall, one of the biggest areas of disagreement in the world – it's still true – was the Arab – Israeli problem. While we had Israeli students – it wasn't Israel at that time, but Jewish students – and Palestinians at I-House, I think the staff made a conscious effort to have everyone relate to everyone else in a very civil way. Even though people might have felt antagonistic toward this or that group, the staff made an effort to make sure the students didn't exhibit that. So I wasn't aware of any conflicts within the student body at International House. You know, it was a time when the United Nations had just been formed, in San Francisco, and everyone was feeling it was going to be a peaceful world, one world where everyone would be happy from now on: wars were over, and no one was going to resolve conflicts in that manner, any more. So it was a very positive outlook that I had, and one that was shared by most of the other people there. My first roommate was Argentinian. It was just interesting to hear about his family,

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