Emu's First Lady Prefers Informality

(Editor's Note: Eastern Michigan University's f i r s t lady, Mrs. Harold E. Sponberg, has an eye for details in her entcrtaining. But at the same time, the vivacious hostess likes to keep her parties as informal as possible. This article, by women's writer Marcia Wood, is the third in a series of four dealing with how wives of area college presidents h a n d 1 e entertaining obligations.) On the keyboard cover of the Harold E. Sponbergs' piano are the autographs of Dave Brubeck and nis band- carved there with an ice piek provided by their hostess. The autographing was done at an informal post-performance party for the jazz musicians held by the Sponbergs at i their home in Topeka, Kan., while Dr. Sponberg was president of Washburn University. Since Dr. Sponberg became president of Eastern Michigan University four years ago, the couple has had fewer opporItunities to entertain big name performers. But the tradition of informal entertaining which levolved at Washburn has been continued, whenever possible, by Mrs. Sponberg at EMU. Much of the Sponbergs' official entertaining is done outside of their University-provided home at 600 West Forest in Ypsilanti. Mrs. Sponberg said, 'The faculty here is so large, that even E an event is only departmental, we can't handle it here at the house." Another reason official events are scheduled away .from the house is that the Sponbergs have neither a cook f nor much of a household staff. Mrs. Sponberg's only outside household help is a student who comes in two afternoons a week to do cleaning. The McKenny Union is the location for most of the official entertaining hosted by the Sponbergs. Such entertaining would include faculty dinners and commencement luncheons and dinners. Although the first lady of EMU prefers informal entertainment, she can take formal entertaining in her stride. The Union's food service department and its director, Gil Cobb, are responsible for the meals at official occasions. According to Mrs. Sponberg, tliey do a marvelous job. Although she plans the menus for any function where she and her husband will be the official hosts, Mrs. Sponberg explains, "I don't search for new recipes because Mr. Cobb knows his own limitations as to what he can and can't prepare." She admits that she and Mr. Cobb "try to do something different foodwise every time. We try to stay away from baked potatoes in aluminum foil. And we're always searching for new ways to prepare and serve large quantities of vegetables." Right now the official hostess of EMU thinks m u s farooms are a great substitute for the overworked baked potato - especially if the mushrooms are sauteed in herbseasoned butter. And for noon luncheons she often substitutes rice for potatoes. Mrs. Sponberg operates on the theory that the iments to the meat should be tasty. She even tries to vary the bread. She said, "For one dinner last fall we served warm, dark pumpernickel bread instead of rolls. Everyone loved it." At the same time she's planning yummy meals, Mrs. Sponberg is also trying to watch waistlines - her own and those of the people she's serving. "I try to strike a balance between the men who like to eat lots, and the other men and women who can't eat so much or else don't like to. I always try to keep desserts light," she said. Mr. Cobb keeps an extensive file on what has been served at each event. Mrs. Sponberg also keeps a notebook which is filled with little reminders to herself. S o m e of her notes read, "Have lots of large ash trays handy for this group . . . Keep the husband and wives of this group together, they don't like to be separated . . ." In addition to such reminders, Mrs. Sponberg also records information such as the menus served, guest lists, pourers and number of serving stations used. Another part of Mrs. Sponberg's pre-dinner preparations include the making of a seating chart and writing place cards. She makes a point of using place cards for dinners at the U ni o n. She said, "I try to make every guest feel that he has been prepared for and planned for." This thoughtful hostess also prefers to u se round rathcr than oblong tables cause they tend to stimulate conversations more. Official entertaining at the president's home is infrequent, but when it occurs, it's usually on an informal basis. On occasion the Sponbergs have invited in groups of foreign students asking them to bring along their American dormmates. People cónnected with the exchange program also receive invitations to these affairs - which according to the hostess, get very informal and quite crowded. She said, "Sometimes 75 people end up sitting on the floor talking and eating sloppy joes, potato salad, pop and brownies. The Sponbergs also have scheduled post-game parties and buffet suppers in their home following the final football game of the season. Another party they've tried to hold at home all four years they've been at EMU is a summer reception for the summer students, and the visiting and resident faculty members. But every year so far, the event has been rained out and had to be moved inside. Mrs. Sponberg explains that they do little entertaining for visiting digitaries at their home because "the schedules of such persons are usually overcrowded and the heads of the various departments usually like to plan entertainment for them. We're usually invited to these parties." All of the Sponbergs' official entertainment expenses are paid for by the University. Whcn the couple entertains on a personal basis at home, it's frequently a spur-of-themoment affair. "We often invite people to the house following an official event at which we've all been together," said Mrs. Sponberg. She always has an artificial arrangement of flowers on hand to pull out on short notice. And food is no problem on such spontaneous occasions, because she keeps an emergency shelf in her kitchen s t o c k e d with easy-to-fix foods. As for cooking in general, she a d m i t s that "I cook sketchily." She grocery shops once a week and plans her menus for the whole week while in the store. "I start thinking about dinner at around 4 p.m. each day . . . it's fairly easy to put together a decent meal." Mrs. Sponberg can depend on gett i n g some help f r o m her daughter, Ingrid. (One other of the Sponbergs' five children lives at home. The other tbree attend the U-M and live in Ann Arbor). Mrs. Sponberg is such a wild rice fan that her husband gave her six pounds of it for an anniversary a few years ago. "I can do anything with wild rice," she said. But she lamented that it's gotten so horribly expensive. And she finds that it's difficult to get pure wild rice anymore. She used to use it extensively in her personal entertaining, but now she quipped, "Someo n e almost has to be the President of the United States before I'll serve him wild rice." Asked to compare the entertaining she does here with that which she did at Washburn, Mrs. Sponberg replied that she did more entertaining on her own in Kansas, probably because of the size of the school. At that time Washburn's enrollment was near 4,000, about one-fifth of EMU's present enrollment. The one thing the whole family m i s s e s are the postperformance parties which were traditional at Washburn. On one occasion the Smothers Brothers were special guests a f t e r a concert, and Mrs. Sponberg remarked, "They act just the same off-stage as on." Mrs. Sponberg's recipe for such parties was a simple one: lots of informality, lots of good food and a few congenial people. The performers want to relax and unwind -the last thing they want is a formal reception." The Sponbergs' children also enjoyed the informality of such parties because they were invited to attend and sometimes could bring along some friends. Thinking back over her four years at EMU, the university's first lady m u s e d, "I s p e n t the first two years learning everything I didn't know. She added, however, that she never allowed all of her time to be taken up by official and family responsibilities. An accomplished org a n i s t, the first lady has managed to squeeze time into her 'busy schedule for organ lessons and practice and for other personal interests.