Mississippi State University - Reveille Yearbook (Starkville, MS)

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. Bl u L f L l -- V ' wk heritage . . . institution observed its seventy-fifth anniversary as a Diamond Jubilee of Progress. Under Hilbun a four- year School of Forestry was inaugurated in 1954. In 1956, the liberal arts departments, which had been scat- tered among three schools, were brought together as the Liberal Arts Division of the School of Arts and Sci- ences, formerly the School of Science. It was also in the fifties that a dramatic expansion in doctoral programs occurred, especially in the physical and social sciences. By this time the college had sufficiently come of aca- The 1941 Orange Bowl champions enjoy the Miami beach. demic age to be designated a university by legislative action in 1958. The only tragic note for the period was the burning of Old Main early in the morning of Jan- uary 23, 1959. Unbelievably the loss of life was limited to only one student. The passing of Old Main was in a way a symbol of the passing of a number of the characteristic features of what students have come to speak of as the cow-col- lege days. The institution had grown up — matured. Certainly the generation of veterans that invaded the campus after World War II and the Korean confhct would have no part of such time-honored juvenilism as hazing, including the skinned scalp, the freshman paddle, and the errand-boy syndrome which had humiliated innocent freshmen in the past. As for the generation born after the wars, when it grew up, it would have no part of the hazing nonsense. On January 1, 1960, President Hilbun retired and was succeeded by D. W. Colvard, formerly Dean of Agricul- ture of North Carolina State University. The Colvard Years were years of extraordinary growth, academic and otherwise, at Mississippi State University. First, Dr. Colvard set out to form the Mississippi State University Development Foundation, to provide support over and above that received from governmental appropriations and student fees, as a margin of excellence needed by a growing institution. The foundation was incorpo- rated on February 5, 1962, with Charles S. Whittington as its first president. 20

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Cheerleaders show spirit in this picture from a page in the 1958 REVEILLE. Men, a position created for him there. His career at Mississippi State was a creative one. It was Mitchell who saw the institution through its postwar boom of veteran enrollment in which the total rose from 431 in 1943 to 3819 in 1948. Women were responsible for some of this growth, for at last the college managed to provide dormitories for women - by converting some men ' s housing. Academic standards were improved. The graduate school more than tripled in size, and the first doctoral degree was awarded in 1953. In 1949 all engineering departments were given full accreditation. A spacious new library building was completed and later named for Dr. Mitchell. Accreditation by the American Chem- ical Society (its only one in Mississippi) was given to the chemistry department, whose building-up was the life- long task of Professor and State Chemist, Dr. William Flowers Hand, who also served as dean of the School of Science and vice president. When ill health forced Mitchell to retire in 1953, the Board chose as president Ben F. Hilbun, who had served many years as registrar until he was made administra- tive assistant under Mitchell. In the same year, the A freshman tradition that is no longer with us. ]9

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In 1959, Main Dormitory was destroyed by fire. It was the largest dormitory on a U.S campus. It was during the Colvard years that the desegrega- tion of the University came. First, in March, 1963, Dr. Colvard, one jump ahead of the sheriff and an injunc- tion issued in Hinds County, sent the basketball team, winner of the Southeastern Conference title, to the NCAA tournament, where black players were involved. Then in 1965, came the admission of State ' s first black student, Richard Holmes. It was a peaceful affair, for the students of Mississippi State University had made up their minds there would be no incidents. When Dr. Colvard left in the spring of 1965 to become Chancellor of the University of North Caro- lina-Charlotte, he was succeeded by the Vice President for Agriculture and Forestry, Dr. William L. Giles. In October, 1965 a modern Gothic Chapel of Memories, commemorating Old Main and the one victim of its burning, was dedicated. The Giles administration will be remembered as unique in that while these were years of student unrest and violence elsewhere, they were peaceful years at Mississippi State University. 21