University of Maryland College Park - Terrapin / Reveille Yearbook (College Park, MD)

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Maryland U. Experimentation with high intensity light beam is many things . . .

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versity a Pajama Paradise, Woods resigned. Standards as well as spirits sagged. Some students tore the vel- vet off their tunedoes to wear them to class. Others were expelled for refusing to join the ROTC, and there was an anti-Semitic riot. Everyone around the University seemed to be looking for a strong new leader. They called him Curley. Charming and handsome, football hero in 1908 and later coach, H. C. Byrd had long been the best known man on the campus. As president from 1935 until he retired to run for governor in 1954, he was one of the most spectacular and controversial men in Maryland politics or in Amer- ican education. Although profes- sors sometimes feared him as a dic- tator, even they were generally proud as the University launched bold new programs and institutes, as progressive education flow- ered, as the plant expanded and en- rollment soared, and as champion- ship football teams brought un- precedented publicity. When Wilson H. Elkins became president in 1954 saddle oxfords were giving way to the Ivy League look and a new purposefulness was coming over education. The presi- dent was a Rhodes scholar who talked about self-discipline, indiv- idual initiative, quality and excel- lence. The emphasis was on librar- ies, research and higher faculty salaries. Restricted admission and an academic probation plan brought a dramatic rise in standards. An honors program began, and in 1964 Phi Beta Kappa established a chap- ter at Maryland. Enrollment con- tinued to soar, from 3,(K)() in 1934, to 12,()()() in 1954, to more than 26,()()() in 1966. In Catonsville an entirely new campus began. Today the University ol Mary- land stands proud in the siunmer of its maturity, one of the oldest and largest educational institutions in America, moving ever towards great- ness. This account is a synopsis hy Dr. GeoTfie H. Callcott from his book, A History of the Uni- versity of Maryland (Maryland Historical Society, 1966). Dr. H. C. Curley Byrd Early twentieth-century scene in College Park where the Maryland Book Exchange is presently located.

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Harmony Hall 10