Mississippi State University - Reveille Yearbook (Starkville, MS)

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The 70 ' s brought a new Academic Building — Allen. Why? Primarily because channels of communication at all levels were maintained. Dr. Giles made it a point to confer each Monday morning with the Student Associ- ation president and the same open policy toward stu- dents was maintained at all levels. Faculty communica- 22

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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

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With the 60 ' s and the 70 ' s came more and more women to brighten the campus. tion with the administration was maintained through the increasingly effective Faculty Council, which had been set up in the Hilbun administration. In the Giles era the woman ' s enrollment grew from 1165 to 4143. Not surprisingly, there arose an increasing emphasis on the fine arts. First an Art Department was set up. Then in 1973 the Board approved a School of Architecture. A significant move forward came when the research department of Home Economics became a teaching department, with the resultant title change of its instructional home base to the College of Agricul- ture and Home Economics. Also, a teaching Depart- ment of Computer Science and Statistics evolved in the College of Arts and Sciences. Finally, in 1974, the state legislature created a College of Veterinary Medicine, and ground-breaking for this facility took place in August, 1976. The seventies were the period when the John C. Stennis Chair in Political Science was established and a Stennis Room of the Senator ' s records and memorabilia was set up in the library. Likewise through the generos- ity of Cully A. and Lois Dowdle Cobb, the Cobb Insti- tute of Archaeology was formed and funds were pro- vided by the Cobbs for a building to house that facility. Other major structures of the period were Allen Hall, in part a gift of H. E. Allen in honor of his deceased daughter; McCool Hall, which was largely the result of a gift by alumnus E. B. McCool of Holiday Inns; and Humphrey Coliseum, honoring the ninth president of Mississippi State University. In 1976, the Harry C. Sim- rail Engineering Building was completed. Student enrollment passed 11,000 for the first time in the fall of 1974. The students were made happy that year by participating in State ' s first bowl game in dec- ades, the Sun Bowl in El Paso, where State defeated the University of North Carolina 26 to 24. In 1975, with the retirement of President Giles, the Board chose as president James D. McComas, the Dean of Education at the University of Tennessee. McComas hails from West Virginia {Southern West Virginia, he always points out). One of his first actions after his election to the presidency was, with becoming restraint, to deliver an honors day address at the University of Mississippi. The last six words of those remarks describe his idea of the mission of a proper university as furthering progress from the usual to the extraordi- nary. That has been his goal at Mississippi State. This new breed of administrator democratized the academic hierarchy on campus, even ordering certain doctor-this- and-that purveyors to call him Jim. He was on speak- ing terms with every student and staff member. He was a well-spring of new ideas and concepts designed to enable the University to fulfill its proper mission; so there was never a dull moment on campus. The first year of McComas was prologue to the Uni- versity ' s centennial coming-of-age. Elaborate plans for its celebration were under way, a demanding task for a university trying to keep up with its McComas, who promptly came up with a centennial must — the launching of a campaign for funds to build a Creative Arts complex to house a substantial fine arts programs already in existence on campus. A New Century — a New Dimension, read the slogan for this venture. It was a fitting way to measure the academic stature of this centenarian of a university. 23