Memphis State University - DeSoto Yearbook (Memphis, TN)

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Fabulous Fifties Memphis State ' s next step up academically came in 1950. the year in which Lamar Newport served as President of the institution during the absence of J. M. Smith, when a Graduate Division was added. In just two years, more than six-hundred students registered for the program, proving that such a move had been sorely needed. The Graduate Division was designed primarily for teachers and school administrators, offering a major in education with minors in the humanities, the sciences, and business education. In that same year the Student Government Associa- tion was formed. In 1951 Memphis State began its most difficult climb toward its most notable goal: university status. Administrators of both Memphis State and the University of Tennessee approved a plan to make Memphis State a branch of the University of Tennessee, only to have the plan rejected by the State Legislature. Discouraged but not defeated, school officials, students, and interested citizens of Memphis threw them- selves even more determinedly into the task of making MSC worthy of the coveted title of university. That same year saw the introduction of a new mass medium which was to influence millions of people, including students of Memphis State. This amazing apparatus was the television set. The second year of the fifties was a year of sweeping change for the entire nation. A popular general of World War II. Dwight D. Eisenhower, led the Republicans into the White House for the first time in twenty years, and was promptly dubbed Ike by impatient headline writers. At Memphis State there were a great many changes also. The Administration Building received a new wing to house the Music. Education, and Art Departments: Hayden Hall opened as the new dormitory for men : the Tiger Den admitted its first customers; Governor Browning from Nashville dedicated the new gymnasium; the library boasted a two hundred-fifty thousand dollar addition; the first annual Shakes- pearian Festival received a huge ovation; the R.O.T.C. was established on campus: a Memphis State coed, Miss Jean Harper, was named Miss Tennessee; Greater Mem- phis State, an organization to promote the academic and general welfare of the college, formed in the city; and a new parking lot was paved to meet the growing parking problems as enrollment climbed to more than twenty-five hundred. The following year the college was divided into three schools: Arts and Sciences. Business, and Education. Courses were added and instructors hired. The Graduate School was also expanded. School administrators were working on plans for a shift from the quarter to the semester system, and new policy was put into effect in the fall of 1954. The college was taking on the air of a real university. As the school expanded its curriculum and physical plant, the school spirit was also on the rise. For instance, the Student Government Association had adopted a. new constitution comprised of a system of checks and balances similar to the national constitution. The Interfraternity council began sponsoring Greek Week designed to stimulate better understanding among the many social fraternities on campus. Also, the Veterans Club, with the help of the citizens of Memphis, dedicated an eleven thousand-five hundred dollar elevator for the use of physically disabled students. Memphis State had become a university in all but name. In 1956 the curriculum received an additional boost when journalism was officially divorced from the English department and set up as a new department under the direction of Dr. Herbert Lee Williams. A news bureau was also created to serve area newspapers by sending them information of out-of-town students at Memphis State. As ' 56 slipped into the pages of history, one of the greatest decades at Memphis State ended. It was Presi- dent Smith ' s tenth year as head of the college, and a year in which more and more pressure was applied to the state Legislature to grant university status to MSC. 13

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Peace was not the only thing that returned to the Memphis State campus in 1946. Along with it came the man who was to lead and guide the college to university status. That man was Jack Millard Smith, a 1929 graduate of West Tennessee State Teachers col- lege, who occupied the president ' s chair from 1946 to 1960, with one year off while he served the state of Tennes- see as Commissioner of Education. When President Jack, as he insist- ed students call him, assumed control of MSC, enrollment was nearly fifteen hundred, and the college plant consist- ed of the administration building, Mynders Hall, Scates Hall, the John Willard Brister library, the Training School, the cafeteria, and the gym. Due to the war, the college ' s growth had been limited, but under the leader- ship of President Smith it soon began to expand in all fields. 0 T , 1912 1962 An incident in 1947 put the name of Memphis State on the lips of the entire country. When Miss Barbara Walker, a student at MSC, was selected Miss America of 1947, the college received nation-wide publicity. In dedicating the 1948 issue to Miss Walker, the editor of The DeSoto said: Who through her wholesome ideals had brought national acclaim to Memphis State because of the outstanding qualities of true womanhood, and who side-stepped all stage and screen offers to return to MSC and graduate with her class of ' 48. Of the first Southern girl to acquire this title we are exceedingly proud. 12

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V . • % v . Li I • r ? ' , §■•■ .. w SsZ ltel I 1 During 1957 thousands of postcards flooded the Legislature asking, urging, suggesting, pleading, and de- manding that the college be granted the title it deserved. Finally on July 1, 1957, the State Legislature passed and Governor Clement signed a bill making it official: Memphis State University! From West Tennessee State Normal School, to West Tennessee State Teachers College to State Teachers College to Memphis State College to Memphis State University: an arduous journey, but a rewarding one, with appropriate rejoicing when the dreamed-of goal was reached. In that same eventful year , Memphis State found a place of glory on the nation ' s sports map. The basketball team entered the National Invitational Tournament, and in a nationally televised game, missed winning the tournament by a single point. Surprised sports writers scrambled for adequate adjectives to describe the Tennessee college that had just been made a university.