Central Washington University - Hyakem / Kooltuo Yearbook (Ellensburg, WA)

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New Library Building

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Brief Historical Sketch Tin Washington State Normal School at KUenaburg was established by an act of the first legislature of the Stale of Washington in 1899. It opened Its first regulrr work on September 7, 1891 and moved into its own permanent plant in ism. From the beginning It ha» accepted as Ita major field of effort, the problem of training teachers for the elementary schools of the state and this aim has been the determining factor In Ita policy for the past thirty-two years. Ita first grad¬ uating class had eleven members, Its last graduating class, the clasa or 1924. had 225. Ten years ago this Institution moved up to a college entrance basis for ad ' mission so that the whole of the work of this Institution since 1917 has been of full collegiate grade. The Ellensbnrg State Normal School has had unusually rapid growth in the Inst eight or ten years, Ten years ago there were SI graduates from the two-year course. In the year ending June. 1924. there were 225. The rate of growth over that period was 179. There was u total enrollment In the school fcountlng no student twice) of 1903 for the session 1922-23 and 1089 for the session 1923-24. The average carrying load throughout the year wus 435 and th« student-clock- hour cost was 28 rents. This student clock hour cost Is exceptionally low as coni pared with costs in stales doing similar or equal standard of work. Tke students of this school come from 30 of the 39 counties of the stale. Eighty-seven percent of the enrollment In the school comes from outside of Kitti¬ tas County ns compared with 75 percent of the Bellingham enrollment outside of Whatcom County and 40 percent of the Cheney enrollment outside of Spokane County. Students for the most part come from counties lying west of the Colum¬ bia K ' ver. with the exception of Chelan. Grant and Okanogan Counties and south of Seattle throughout Southwest Washington. CAMPUS AND BUILDINGS Within the past few years a permanent Campus plan has been In process of gradual development and at the present lime these plans extend well into the fu¬ ture, providing for grounds and buildings that will be acquired in the next 19 years. Tile present Campus plans so far as grounds are concerned are to include all of the city block lying between Eighth and Tenth Streets and extending from D Street, our present west boundary line, three blocks eastward to Chestnut Street This will give eventually between eight and one-half and nine city blocks and will provide ample grounds for an Athletic Field upon which will be erected a permanent grand stnnd. a large space for ten or twelve tennis courts, about one- fourth of a block devoted to practice horse-back riding where Instruction 1 given before -‘Indents take the horses on short tripe, play spaee large enough to ac¬ commodate all student sports for women and another play space for the accommo¬ dations of training school games and practice classes. The new buildings under contemplation are a Library building to be erected this year west of the Administration Building; an Auditorium which will be sim¬ ilar in site and architecture to the library anil will occupy n site on the eust side f the Administration building; a Gymnasium, the site of which Is to be north of the present Manual Training Building between Ninth and Tenth Streets; a Men s Dormitory Building in the block east of the present Women ' s Dormitory building. The Gymnasium Building will provide working spare for all Physical Educa¬ tion Instruction, a good-sited swimming pool and appropriately furnished rooms for all of the work in Health Education. All new buildings will be of Colonial design and fire proof. The buildlngB In general will agree in style of architecture with the Library Building, a sketch of wnieb Is shown on the following page.

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1925 COURSES The EJlettsburg State Normal School nt the present time in especially emphasizing training lor the Junior High School on a basis of three years t— minimum preparation This seems to be one of tile most promising fields Jfl open at the present time and the movement is national. Practically certain L employment at good salaries Is available for all who are properly prepared. Reference to the outline of the courses in the first two years shuw that they hare been changed somewhat by the reduction of the amount or elective work In the first two years and a corresponding amount of increase in the elective work In the third and fourth years. This has strengthened the courses ill every depart ment and Is resulting in greater success on the part of our graduates who now are fundamentally well-prepared and whose high standard of work Is hcing gen¬ erally recognized. The Appointment Office Is constantly receiving letters compli¬ menting the high standard of work done by our graduates. A change in the plan of groups of the major departments has been made In the third and fourth year work so that we now hnve 5 major groups, all of which give a wider preparation for teaching and are not so nn.rowly departmental as heretofore. The adrantages of this plan seem to he that It give some relief to those who after preparing in one department are unable to get employment with¬ out combining two or three kinds nf work. The number of positions open in pure work in Art. Music or Home Economics is very limited but there are a large num¬ ber of positions open where this major work is combined with general teaching ability In other Helds To meet thir type of preparation and the demand from the field 5 major groups have been worked out as follows; Croup I Croup II Croup III Group IV Group V Educational Supervision and Administration with major In Ed- cation and Psychology, Social Sciences and History along with ftebate and Public Speaking. Health Education and Physical Training with Home Economics, Nutrition and Biological Sciences. Athletic and Poaching. Art. Industrial Arts. Junior High School Sciences. Physics and Chemistry. Languages. Literature, Music leading to specialization In either Music or English. The advantages of broader preparation are well indicated in the above groups. Far the past two years we have been closely scrutinizing our own course of study and during most of that lime | have been a member of the Commonwealth Fund Committee on investigation uf the curricula of teachers ' colleges. This In¬ vestigation so far as It ha gone shows that oar own courses are well In advance of the usual situation In regard to professional content. Ill general the tendency seems to be toward reduction of the number of electlro course . This has been the tendency In our own organization for some time but my suggestion fnr next year still furthor reduce the free elective offered in our curriculum and narrows our courses down very definitely to such as arc focused upon Ihc training of teacbers for elementary schools and for Junior High Schools. We are not in theory ready lo say that normal schools should not train high school teacbers or that they could not because I really believe that they could do this work better than it Is now betug done In our State but as a matter of State policy I am still lu favor of the principle of dividing the functions of the institutions for a few years more at least. This means that 1 am ready to definitely take the stand that at present tile normal schools of Washington are not justified from a financial viewpoint In opening up training deportments for high school teacbers even if permitted to do so by State law. A year ago we opened up a course for the Improvement of scholarship and for the purpose if clarifying more definitely our educational objectives. This was required of all First-yenr students nr.d was a course in Contemporary Civilization ofrered on a five-hour basis for three quarters. To undertake this course without adding to the number of teacbers wss more than should have been done but the members of the faculty voted to try it lor one year Slid the result ha been far