University of Central Oklahoma - Bronze Book Yearbook (Edmond, OK)

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CSU Celebrates Throughout the years as Oklahoma has grown as a state so has CSU developed into a highly respected educational institution of higher learning. Characterized from the beginning by simplicity and friendly charm, it has gone through numerous changes in names as well as appearances. When the founding fathers of Oklahoma higher education established the Territorial Normal School on December 24, 1890, they were seeking to provide a place to train teachers for the many public schools of the new territory. Each of the new towns and rural communities which had sprung into existence overnight had its young who would seek their share of the American dream through education. Central State, originally known as the Territorial Normal School, has come a long way since the first class of higher education was held in the unfinished Methodist Church at 19th and North Broadway in Edmond on November 9, 1891. Old North toriginally known as the Normal Building l, the first completed building constructed for the purpose of higher education in Oklahoma, held its initial classes on Ianuary 2, 1893. The school then had as its one and only purpose, the education of teachers for the new territory o Oklahoma. It offered a two-yea teaching certificate after a four-year prep course equal to four years oii high school. A life certificate re- quired two more years of preparation. Thus to Central came the young men and women of the new territory who had heard the call to the honored profession of teaching. Mostly they came from families with few resources, and to be able to at- tend college was a great privilege and honor. Following those first days, when the cold winter wind whippe through the cracks of the Methodis

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Church, new conveniences came slowly. The Normal Building, too, re- mained unfinished for a time, but gradually improvements came. In 1903 electric lights and a telephone were installed: in 1905, a steam heating plant and a new administration-classroom building was erected. This was at first called the South Buildingf' hence, the Nor- mal Building became the North Building and eventually Old North or Old North Tower . During 1911-12, an extensive renovation of Old North was com- pleted, and, after a long wait, the much-desired tower clock was installed. As the Central State enrollment made a slow but steady rise, the third and fourth years of study were added to the curriculum. This led to the ad- dition of the bachelor degree and the renaming of the school as Central lState Teachers College in 1919. ,Along with these developments came a new home for the president and a new power plant. During the decade of the twenties and the depression years of the thir- ties, Central State grew very little, though it did add two important new buildings, Mitchell Hall, 1926, and Wantland Hall, 1928. The school con- tinued to produce quality teachers for Oklahoma schools, while her athletic teams won laurels in state competi- tion. CSU's first dormitories, Mur- daugh and Thatcher, were erected in 1939. During this same period an impor- tant reconstruction was made of Oklahoma higher education, and the higher regents system was establish- ed. At this time Central saw its name changed to Central State College and the addition of a number of new bachelor degree programs. In 1941 CSU celebrated its fiftieth anniver- sary even as World War II exploded with the Iapanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Once again, as there had been in 1918, military training returned to the CSU campus as Army Air Corps cadets arrived, followed by Naval cadets. During the following three years, students bought War Bonds, wrote to Centralites at the Front, and did without tires and gasoline as well as football and the Bronze Book, which was temporarily suspended for the duration. Taking advantage of the G. I. Bill, servicemen returned home in 1946 to overflowing classrooms and new hopes for the future through educa- tion. The Y-Chapel, completed in 1948, was a forerunner to an era of expansion that saw the addition to CSU's campus of Howell Hall, the Music Building, Industrial Arts Building, and Student Union lnow the Art Buildingl during the 1950's. Editor - MONTY COATS fwfr