Fresno State College - Campus Yearbook (Fresno, CA)

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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

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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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GOV. WARREN BREAKS GROUND FOR NEW CAMPUS Official groundbreaking on the new Shaw Avenue site was held on October 18, 1950, at ceremonies attended by more than 2,000 persons. Chief Justice Earl Warren, then the Governor of California, was the main speaker at the ceremony. The first building to be occupied on the multi-million dollar campus was the laboratory school in 1952. Although the entire men ' s physical education unit was not complete, the basketball team played part of its 1953-54 season in the new gymnasium. In the fall of 1954, the agriculture, industrial arts, music and ag mechanics building were popu- lated by the growing student body. During the Christmas vacation of 1954, the president ' s office and the student personnel offices were moved to the new campus. By the fall of 1953 almost 400 students were attending classes on the new campus, commuting by special bus from the old campus. Then with the completion of the education- psychology building in the fall of 1955, the new campus became the main FSC site. More than 75 percent of the total classes were scheduled on the new campus. In the spring of 1956 one of the most tedious and diffi- cult transfers occured with the occupancy of the new library. Since then the new student cafeteria, a woman ' s physical education building, a bookstore — financed by the FSC Stu- dent Association — and the medical center have been com- pleted and occupied. The new campus, a $30 million capital investment, was dedicated May 9, 1958. THIRD PRESIDENT of the college, Dr. Arnold E. Joyal, was appointed in 1948. THE LONE THREE story structure on campus, the art-home economics building, was built in 1957 and part of 1958. PARTICIPATING In groundbreaking ceremonies ore Governor Earl Warren, Senator Hugh Burns, P. T. Pooge, Dr. Roy E. Simpson ond Dr. Arnold Joyal EARL H WIGHT, former administrative ossislant to President Joyal, observes sculpture on the men ' s gym. 16