Eastern Kentucky University - Milestone Yearbook (Richmond, KY)

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and Gets l A Bigger Thing ' ENTRAL UNIVERSITY did not endure large- ly because the conditions which created it no longer prevailed. Reconstruction had largely run its course by 1901, the country had been through another crisis — the Depression of 1893 — and had been greatly reunited by what Teddy Roosevelt call- ed a splendid little war. The men who wanted Central University to remain in Richmond did not seek to retain it for the reasons of religious zeal for which it had been founded. For them it was a matter of personal and community pride. They were determined that higher education wouJd continue in Richmond. The seed that had been cast in the community with the founding of Central University in turn gave bud to another institution that bridged the brief educational gap [1901-1906) be- tween Central and Eastern. Waiters Collegiate institute, named for the great benefactor of the original institution — Singleton P. Walters who died in 1885 — offered a classical edu- cation to young men in Richmond, including William Wallace, a current member of the Eastern Kentucky University Board of Regents. The men who founded Walters were largely Central graduates, and their names include many families still prominent in Madi- son County. Later, many of the same men would be instrumental in securing Richmond as a location of a state normal school. Waiters soon gave way to the movement in Ken- tucky toward state-supported education. In early years of the 20th Century Kentuckv was already rank- ing low nationally in terms of public education and its teachers, in order to build interest state-wide in ed- ucation, pointed out that the Commonwealth was painfully below her sister states. The Glasgow Times reported We find that Ken- tucky is one of the two states of the Union that does not maintain a system of state normal schools . . . that there are only three states in the Union that show a greater percentage of ignorance among their white population . . . The 1906 General Assembly responded to the hue and cry for improvement in the state ' s educational system. Governor . C. W. Beckham pointed out that it takes money to run educational institutions and cautioned the Assembly to proceed carefully. The legislature debated establishing two or three normal schools, before deciding that it could only fi- nance one, and Bowling Green had the inside track on getting it. However, the people of Richmond and Madison Countv knew the obvious benefits in having a normal school in their community. They also knew that those roots which had nourished educational excellence at Central University and kept alive the hope of higher education through Walters Collegiate Institute, could once again grow with the green of state financing. They had a powerful drawing card in the campus which had housed Central University and which was at the time the home of the collegiate institute. Prominent Richmond citizens, including ere A. Sullivan and W. Rodes Shackelford, led a group lob- bying for Richmond as the location of a state normal school. Sullivan was eventually a member of East- ern ' s first Board of Regents, and both men were grad- uates of Central University. Finally, the State Legislature was convinced that two schools were needed and Eastern became Nor- mal School Mo. 1: Western, Normal School No. 2. The law, signed March 21, 1906, maintained that both schools were to train teachers for the classrooms of the Commonwealth and it also established boards of regents to govern each of the new institutions. Each school was also given S5.000 to equip buildings, im- prove grounds etc., and each was to get S20.000 yearly for salaries and other expenses. The law also set up boundaries for Normal School District No. 1 and No. 2. But Governor Beckham insisted that the enabling legislation not specify the sites for the new normal schools. The act, which had been introduced by Rich- ard W. Miller, a Richmond native and Central Uni- versity graduate, was so amended and a comission was appointed to determine the final locations. With Sullivan and Miller influencing the composition and with Richmond ' s Kentucky Register editor Thomas H. Pickels, another Central University graduate, drumming up local support, it wasn ' t long — from April 12 to May 7. 1906 — before the commission made up its collective mind. Editor Pickels wrote triumphantly and prophetical- ly in his paper: We ' ll get ours all right and Danville can have Central University, and welcome. For we ' ve got a much bigger thing. ' The first Regents were appointed May 9, 1906, and soon thereafter. Dr. Ruric Nevel Roark was named president.

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Eastern Kentucky State Normal School RICHMOND CALENDAR 19101911 First Term opens Sept. 5 Second Term opens Nov. 14 Third Term opens Jan. 23 - Fourth Term opens April 3 Summer Term opens June 12 Closes Nov. 12 Closes Jan. 21 Closes April I Closes June 10 Closes July 21 COURSES I. Review Course. II. Elementary Course (one year) leading to State Elementary Certificate. III. Intermediate Course (two years) lead- ing to State Intermediate Certificate.) IV. Advanced Course (three years) leading to State Advanced Certificate (Life Cer- tificate). New and enlarged courses of study for the en- suing year. Courses in Domestic Science. Manual Training, Agriculture. Up-to-date Model School, with first-class High School— a real College Preparatory School. CATALOGUE FREE J. G. CRABBE, President RICHMOND, 1 Selects Dr. Roark As 1st President R. ROARK WAS A LIKELY CHOICE as East- ern ' s first president. While chairman of the normal department at Kentucky State Col- lege, now the University of Kentucky, he had worked for the establishment of normal schools in Kentucky for the preparation of teachers, despite the opposi- tion of his president, ]. K. Patterson. At the time he was named President of Eastern, he was serving as a professor at Clark University. Author of numerous articles on education, Dr. Roark was a man of prestige and it was a boost to the rudimentary normal school when he accepted its presidency. Unfortunately, his tenure was brief. He died in 1909 at the age of 50. For a time his wife, who later served as dean of women, acted as president of Eastern untii a full-time successor could be appointed. During Dr. Roark ' s tenure, he expanded a physical plant that originally consisted of an athletic grand- stand and three Central University buddings — Old Main, the Miller Gymnasium, and Memorial Hall. By 1909 the home economics house, a home for the superintendent of buddings and grounds, Roark Haii, Sullivan Hall, and the power plant had been com- pleted . . . all at the staggering cost of 5168,481.64. Erom the beginning, the normal school seedlings, Eastern and Western, competed with the more ma- ture State College (now the University of Kentucky} for funds and, no doubt, students. Leaders of the three institutions finally met to talk over their dif- ferences and made plans to approach the 1908 legis- lature with some show of cooperation. As it turned out, the ' 08 legislature was more generous than the 1906 group. Appropriated was $200,000 for the State College and $150,000 for each normal school. The early years of cultivation for the new normal school rested in the capable hands of Dr. Roark. He, like most of his successors, served in many capacities as the October 1907 issue of the Eastern Kentucky Review, the student newspaper, advertised for stu- dents and had them contact the president if they hap- pened to be interested. C. H. Gifford, prominent Eastern benefactor and a member of the first graduating class in 1909, remem- bers Roark as one of the two most influential persons in his life. Despite the cold, poorly furnished and undecorated rooms and bare walls, he said, his mere presence brought warmth. The 1910 BJuemont, the normal school yearbook, records a posthumous tribute to the first president . . . As a Kentuckian, Dr. Roark glorified in Kentucky as she has been, he grieved over Kentucky as she is, and he gave all the powers of his matured manhood to help make Kentuckv what she shall be: and in doing so he laid down his life in her service. The Review outlined the courses of study available and gave instructions on the objectives of each. Six courses of study included a Review Course to satisfy the needs of the public school teachers of Kentucky. Eastern also offered a State Certificate course and a State Diploma Course, the latter being good for life in Kentucky. Three other courses were designed for principals, superintendents and librarians. Founders of Normal No. 1 showed great foresight in their educational objectives as reflected in their exit requirements, as stated in the 1907 Normal School catalog: The proper place at which to safeguard an institution ' s standards of scholarship and efficiency is at the exit rather than at the entrance. Acting ac- cording to this proposition, the State Normals will