Fresno State College - Campus Yearbook (Fresno, CA)

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SCHOOL BECOMES FRESNO STATE COLLEGE IN 1935 The 1935 legislature changed the state teacher colleges to state colleges, thus increasing the field of instruction at the Fresno State College and abolishing some of the previous requirements. The number of four-year courses leading to the A.B. degree was increased and many liberal arts courses were authorized. The next major extension of college offerings came in the spring of 1946 when the California State Department of Education granted Fresno State College permission to add a fifth year of graduate work leading to the general secondary credential. The fifth year ' s work became effective at FSC with the 1946 summer session. Only three years later, in 1949, the California legislature sanctioned the offering of a Master ' s Degree. While the college was growing, academically speaking, the State Department of Education and college officials were busy planning the physical growth. Shortly before World War II, it was decided to construct four new buildings ad- jacent to the old side, now owned by the Fresno Junior Col- lege. Plans were made for industrial arts, music and ad- ministration buildings and the gymnasium. However, the shortage of materials and labor caused postponement of actual construction. By 1940 enrollment had risen to more than 2,100 and the number of fields in which FSC offered the bachelor ' s de- gree had risen in five years from 12 to 30. At this time there were about 121 faculty members. Immediately after World War II, the college administra- tion once more considered expansion. THE COLLEGE LIBRARY, built al o cost of $725,000, was com- pleted in September, 1932, and hobsed 32,000 volumes. AERIAL VIEW of the college campus in the late 1920 ' s The church building in the center foreground was later converted to the University Street Playhouse. « 1 M k - 3 H RK L ' V ,T «|fl 1 J itu ' Sffi i ' . ,4 ■i! m THE VtNE-QOVERED Administration Building housed the cotlege administration for 40 years on the University Street campus. SOME 7 5,000 people attended productions in the University Street Playhouse from 1930 to 1945. M

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FAR -WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS 1930 THE 1930 FOOTBALL team is the only undefeated, untied grid team in Fresno State ' s SO-year history. F5C faculty members on the team, which celebrated its 30th anniversary reunion this year, included J. Flint Manner, Myron Anderson and Hal Beatty. WlM COLLEGE STUDENTS gathered in the inner court to hear President Herbert Hoover ' s radio broadcast in March, 1929. ■m • The new Fresno State stadium on Blackstone Avenue was dedicated in the 1920 ' s. The first West Coast Relays were held April 30, 1927. DR. THOMAS NAMED COLLEGE PRESIDENT IN 1927 McLane, who died in 1949 at the age of 87, retired as FSC president in 1927 and was succeeded by Dr. Frank Waters Thomas, a member of the college faculty since 1917. In 1931 a state appropriation of $30,000 completed the payment of the investment certificates for the stadium. The title to the property was passed to the state of Califor- nia. The first unit of the expansion plan of the college was the construction of the McLane Hall east of the main build- ing. This was completed in 1928 at a cost of approximately $200,000. A new library, built at a cost of $225,000, was completed in September, 1932. The last unit in the development program was the con- struction of the $20,000 field house at the stadium. Later a five-acre tract north of the stadium was completed. Enrollment reached 1,493 by 1930 and Dr. Thomas and the Fresno representatives in the legislature began the bitter five year battle to give Fresno status as a liberal arts college, rather than just a teachers ' college. During 1935 the college campus was increased to twenty- five acres. A special study was made by the state depart- ment of architecture as to the future building needs and a comprehensive plan of future building construction was developed. 13

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DR. TULLY KNOWLES, president of the College of the Pacific, and Dr. Arnold Joyal, F5C president, headed the procession at the 1 949 commencement. 1 tTii THE FRESNO BEE kept FSC students informed ' on World War II news DR. ARNOLD JOYAL presented the FSC Foundation award for service to tfie college to Frank Homan in 1950. COLLEGE PRESIDENT Dr. Arnold Joyal and former president Dr. Frank Tliomas visited with the first college president, C. L. McLane (center), in his home o few weeks before his death in 1949. STATE BUYS LAND FOR NEW SHAW AVENUE CAMPUS The barrier of the Santa Fe railroad tracks had convinced the college administration that the old campus should not be expanded. In 1947 the legislature enacted a bill calling for the sale of the old campus and the purchase of a new site. Four sites were considered and in 1948 the state public works board selected a 160 acre fig orchard at Blackstone and Shields Avenue (now the site of the Manchester Shop- ping Center). Dr. Thomas retired that year at the age of 70. His suc- cessor was 46 year old Dr. Arnold Edward Joyal, the dean of education at the University of Oklahoma. Dr. Joyal ' s immediate task was to organize and carry out FSC ' s opera- tion big shift, the transfer of a growing student body to a new campus, seven miles northeast of Fresno. The state bought the Shields-Blackstone site for $327,000 in 1949 but immediately ran into opposition from planning officials and property owners when it proposed to buy another several hundred acres in the same area for the farm school. The impasse was broken when the state decided to sell the site and build instead at Shaw and Cedar Avenues, where it already owned 120 acres. The state completed purch asing the 880-acre site for approximately $600,000, 120 acres for academic structures and 720 acres for the division of agriculture. Today the campus comprises almost 1,000 acres and will grow to 1,428 acres when the college adds more land for its farm school and discards 358 acres now used for the farm operation at the Fresno Airport. 15