Memphis State University - DeSoto Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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' HE WEST TENNESSEE STATE NORMAL SCHOOL was estab- ■ J lished by an act of the General Assembly of 1909. The locating board located the school in Memphis, upon Memphis and Shelby County donating approximately a half a million dollars in grounds and bonds. The school was opened on September 15, 1912, with an enrollment of 250 students. The total enrollment for the five years of the school is 4,468. The main building is one of the handsomest structures in the South. It occupies the center position of the spacious campus. No finer dormitory for girls can be found in the land. It is absolutely fireproof, steam heated, electric lighted and equipped with every modern convenience. The school confidently hopes that the present legislature will make provisions for the erection of a boys ' dormitory. The faculty is composed of twenty-five members, all of whom are graduates from the leading colleges of the country, including Col- umbia, Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Yassar, Vanderbilt, Peabody, Tennessee, etc. Practically all of the faculty have had experience in all grades of school work from the rural schools to complex city school systems. There have been 119 full Normal School graduates, and 190 academic graduates since the opening of the school. These graduates represent every phase of school work in Tennessee: County school superintendent, city super- intendents, high school principals, high school instructors, elementary school teachers, rural school teachers, home economics supervisors, etc. Every grad- uate of the Normal School who desires it has a good position, many of the graduates are taking advanced courses at the leading universities and colleges. Those who complete their courses here are admitted to the Junior Classes of our leading universities without examinations. The school is excellently equipped with apparatus for the teaching of physics, chemistry, home economics, manual training, biology, and agriculture. The library contains 4,000 of the best selected books, and more than 100 of the leading magazines are on file for the use of the students. The Messick Elmentary School, a county school, is used as the practice school. The Normal School boasts of a great number of student organizations managed by the students with faculty advisers. There are four literary societies, two for women and two for men. The men ' s organizations, the Forum Club, and the Mynders, are particular designed for the development of oratory and debating. The women ' s societies, the Sigma Alpha Mu and the Kappa Lamda Sigma ' s aim to develop its membesrs in the critical study of music, art, and expression. Other organizations are the band, orchestra, Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., dramatic club, athletic association, and Community Club. The official school magazine is the Columns, so named for the massive stone columns at the entrance of the main building. The Senior Class last year issued for the first time an Annual, which was named The DeSoto, in honor of Hon. Walter Malone ' s Epic.

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