Missouri Southern State University - Crossroads Yearbook (Joplin, MO)

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Inspiration Owned by Mr. and Mrs. F.C. Wallower. the Mission Hilts Farm later became the site of the new Missouri Southern College campus.

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T he year 1937 was hard. T he nation was in the throes of a deep economic depression; times were hard everywhere, and money was difficult to come by. Joplin was no better off than the nation as a whole, but Joplin was surviving, as was tke nation. There had been considerable talk in Joplin about the possibility of establishing a junior college. The Board of Education had discussed the idea; there was support for it, but there was no particular organisation of movement behind the idea. The Board called upon William Markwardt, Joplin businessman and civic leader, to chair a public meeting to discuss the idea and to determine if there were sufficient support to form a commit¬ tee and pursue the idea. It was in early June 1937, in the auditorium of the Joplin High School at Eighth Street and Wall Avenue that such a meeting was held. Between 150 and 200 persons attended. E.A. Elliott, superintendent of schools, spoke first. He presented the need for the college and its value to the community, but, be said, the Board of Education would only act in accordance with the will of the public. If there were a desire for a junior college, the Board would proceed with plans to establish such an institution; if there were no desire, the Board would drop the idea. Mr. Markwardt, 9S presiding officer, recognized next a person who asked to speak. A graduate of a prestigious Eastern university, the person opposed the idea of a junior college. “It would be nothing more than a glorified high school,” the person said, and the person went on to say it would not be accredited and therefore credits earned would not be transferable to other institutions of higher education. “It will merely be a drain upon the taxpayers of the community,” said the speaker. Another person rose to speak. That person, too, was a graduate of a prestigious Eastern university, and that person, too, opposed the idea of a junior college in Joplin. This speaker made the point that there was no one available in Joplin to operate a junior college and none was likely to be found. The chair seemed rather frustrated and finally said, “Is there no one who can say something in favor of a junior college? At this point, a woman sitting in the rear of the auditorium arose and walked to the well of the auditorium. “All of us do not have parents who are sufficiently wealthy to send us to Wellesley or Harvard, but, never¬ theless, we would like to give our children as much higher education as possible.’ She told the audience she was a widow with four young sons, that many of her sacrifices would have been unnecessary had there been a Joplin Junior College which her sons could have attended, and that a junior college was a means by which everyone could have easy access to higher education. She spoke, also, of what a junior college could mean to the development of Joplin and the surrounding area. She sat down. The audience was silent, and then it burst into applause; speaker after speaker then extolled the virtues of a junior college. A committee was formed to investigate the idea of a junior college. Three months later the first classes were offered. They were through the extension services of the University of Missouri, and the classes met in the same high school where the town meeting had occurred. But one year later, in the fall of 1938, the Joplin Junior College occupied its own building—a former high school building at Fourth Street and Byers Avenue. Joplin Junior College did not become a glorified high school. The students and faculty working together made it into one of the most respected junior colleges in the nation. Faculty challenged the students who in¬ spired the faculty, and together they established a tradition of excellence. Soon the people of southwest Missouri began to talk of the need for a four-year college built upon that tradition. There were public meetings and private meetings. There was support built among townspeople, and then among the residents of Jasper Coun¬ ty, and then among the residents of adjoining counties, and soon it was a movement among all of the counties of southwest Missouri, a movement which spread to the halls of the State Capitol in Jefferson City, and which culminated in the establishment of Missouri Southern College on a campus built on a former cattle ranch on the northeast edge of Joplin. Within years it was a fully-funded state institution known as Missouri Southern State College. Through the years of development, the names of many legislators and supporters have become synonymous with Missouri Southern State College. They are the ones who provided the college its base for operation and provided the buildings and the grounds and eventually the personnel. They were men and women of vision. But it always remained to the students and to the faculty and to the staff to provide the real College—the community of scholars pursuing the ideals of a college, the challenges that inspirational faculty give to students, the responses that dedicated students make to fac ulty, the constant interaction that goes on between scholars and professors, the give and take of those who have to create the true excellence a college must have, the ex¬ cellence of minds in action. Immediately following are 50 pages of highlights from 50 years of yearbooks, chronicling the growth of this college. For in 1987-88 we observe the 50th anniversar y of the College. In 1987-88 we celebrate those first 50 years of inspiration, dedication, challenges, and vision. We celebrate the first 50 years—A Great Beginning.

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SOUTHERN MISSOURI SOUTHERN STATE COLLEGE