Morningside College - Sioux Yearbook (Sioux City, IA)

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The most surprising thing that occurred education- ally was the discovery that married men could and would do such excellent work in scholarship. The G.I. Bill was more influential in expanding educa- tional policy than any other single event in Amer- ican education. It proved that a government schol- arship for education was worthy. It also changed educational housing concepts making housing for married students necessary. Prior to 1936 the catalog of Morningside College prohibited students from remaining in school if they married without the previously arranged consent of the president. The first faculty meeting over which I presided at Morningside had to deal with a clan- destine marriage which had just been revealed. Pro- fessor Steinbrunner remarked in that faculty ses- sion that marriage is no crime. It was unanimous- ly voted to permit the offending student to remain. It was also voted to change the catalog at its next issue and leave out the onirnous prohibition. The far reaching success of the G.I. program was iirst, the chance it gave to all who had been in ser- vice to secure a college education. Second, the sub- sistence payment was far less than the student could have earned elsewhere. He, therefore, remained in school because he wanted to. Third, the government gave the professor the full authority to decide whether the student was worthy of securing the money from the government for the government agencies furnished the opportunity but did not pressure as to practices. The three things, in addition to marriage of stu- dents, which have changed the most in student life are: cars on the campus, the student council organi- zation, the loan fund. About 1948 Marvin Levich, a student who received the Lydia Roberts scholarship award three years in succession at Columbia Uni- versity, rewrote the constitution and changed the government of the student council. Up to that time the student council was composed of a representa- tive from each of the organizations on the campus. It finally became exceedingly difficult to define an organization. It was easier to change the constitution than to define the organizations. Prior to 1942 we never had enough loan funds to supply the demand of the students. Since 1950 we have not had suffi- cient applications to requisition all the funds that have been available. Prior to the world war stu- dents were willing to risk going into debt to secure an education. They dared risk debt for positions which would pay them 91,000 Students now apply for scholarships and expect from 53,000 to 94,000 in- come when they finish college. Morningside received some of its widest publicity in the years of 1944-1945. In October of 1944, the Board of Trustees of Morningside College bought the Sioux City Street Car Company. A man who had lived in Sioux City for thirty years said that that event caused more conversation on the streets than any other incident in his life in Sioux City. Morningside was thought to be both sinful and dafffy to have purchased public utilities. It proved, how- ever, to be the' best investment Morningside ever made. The students had a sort of a whee about get- ting free rides. 1 suggested one morning in chapel that since the college had farms that they might want free oatmeal for breakfast. The deman-d for free rides subsided. Life Magazine for November 6, 1944 carries a full three page story of one of the first G.I.'s in the United States to enroll under the G.I. Bill. Charles Wise who had been terribly wounded in north Afri- ca and whose wife was teaching school in Sioux City, was the G.I. whose experience was presented in the Life Magazine story. Mr. Wise is now an en- gineer with the C. F. Lytle Company in Sioux City. In October of 1945, the then popular 'tWake Up, America broadcast originated on the Morningside campus. There were ten people who came from New York City to produce that event. Also in September of 1945 Morningside received the largest bequest in the estate of Dr. Herbert Saylor of Pocahontas. It is anticipated that by 1965 it will amount to a quar- ter of a million dollars. In 1946 the Homecoming Queen was crowned in the old Tomba ballroom. The Tomba was also used in the 1947 Homecoming event but their racial pro- hibition made it impossible for the student body to go there subsequently. No record of student life at Morningside would be complete without reference to the pre-engineers of the pre-war days. Chemistry was in the old gym- nasium in the spot subsequently occupied by the art department, biology was on the second floor of Main Hall, in Dr. Green's office and classroom, physics was in the basement where the Collegian Reporter now holds forth. Although scattered all over the place, there was a ten year period of pre- engineering organization which was one of tre- mendous consequence. The one question asked of me far more than any other is 'tAre students today better than when you were a student. I never answer directly. I also say something like this: Well, they are ours aren't they? You always love your own better than others, don't you? No one can answer such a question. There are no comparable criteria for measurements. Whether students are better or worse makes little difference. Whether students are serious, daring and religiously determined to use the privileges which they have for whatever service is to be demanded in the future is all important. No persons could be more proud and happy than Mrs. Roadman and I for all that we have seen and known about the Morningsiders who have been faculty and students together. We have passed through the terrors of wars and tensions of peace and depression during these years. We have had marriages and home making including more babies born to our homes than ever before. We have seen the assumption of community responsibility and citizenship by our former students. We rejoice in every achievement and we pray for each and all in moments of need. I could propose a number of things which, I am sure, should and will be done in the future and which will increase the dedication of students and faculty to ever higher scholarship, Christian citi- zenship and the gracous pursuit of life's ideals. These, however, constitute the area of dreams, plans and pursuits of the next president. May God bless and the campus love him greatly! Earl A. Roadman.

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Report to the Annual by retiring president Earl A. Ptoczdrnon While history is much better fortified in the minds of men than prophecy, i-t is quite often as difficult to reconstruct the past as to forecast the future. The ever-pressing experiences of today tend to dis- color and change the appearance of the events of yesterday. A beautiful and happy married life tends to glamorize and beautify many rugged ex- periences of the past which possessed at the time, little of glamour or beauty. I recognize that my re- port of the past twenty years at Morningside is being made with something of colored glasses be- cause the total of the experiences of those years has been so very gratifying. I had had three personal relationships to Morning- side College prior to my election as president on February 7, 1936. First, I was a member of the Upper Iowa University debate team which contest- ed with Morningside in the spring of 1908. Inter- collegiate debate in that first decade of the twen- tieth century enjoyed attendance quite parallel to attendance at athletics contests. The old chapel, now Klinger Forum, was filled to capacity for the event. Second, I was scheduled in 1909 to appear in the state oratorical contest which was held in Morningside's chapel. I again was to represent Up- per Iowa University. My place, however, was va- cant because I had a combination of mumps and an operation for appendicitis. Third, in the autumn semester of 1922, I taught a two-hour course in Rural Sociology by meeting a class of twenty-four students on nine Friday afternoons in four hour sessions. As a part of that which immediately preceded 1936. there had been a most devastating depression in which students at Morningside from farm homes had brought provisions of eggs, meat and vegetables to pay for tuition. There are pictures in the Sioux City Journal of those days, showing students who were operating a butcher shop in the kitchen of Dimmitt Hall and preparing the tuition beef for student consumption. CThey had their beef and they ate it tool. Our graduates went into high school teaching positions with the highest salaries of 9110 a month, or less than one thousand dollars for nine months work. Graduates went into grade teaching positions at 580.00 per month. Frequently during the first two years following 1936 our faculty salaries were delayed from thirty to sixty days. Sometimes a half salary check was available. Dur- ing these days, however, college spirit was as- high and ennobling as it has ever been. In 1938 the North Central Championship was won. Mr. Buckingham, as a student player, was very important in winning that championship. We had the famous Corn Hunt which began on a Thursday evening in 1937 in Dimmitt Hall with ci- der and do-nuts. The faculty and students went forth during Friday and Saturday and visited farms all over northwest Iowa asking for gifts of 15-20 bushels of corn. The corn was only worth about 30 cents a bushel at that time but the mass production of corn for Morningside produced something ap- proximating S3,500, which was an exceedingly im- portant amount in the Morningside budget. Stu- dents of those days still talk with a gleam in their eye about The Corn Hunt. , The fact that Morningside's debt was greater than its endowment was a bit difficult but not an im- possible factor. Faculty salaries were finally paid in full for the year of 1939. From then on the finances of students and the college improved rapidly. The debt, however, was not fully retired until 1944. The Jones Hall of Science was dedicated in the spring of 1948. The first basketball game was played in the Allee Gymnasium on December 17, 1949. The O'Donoghue Observatory was dedicated at Com- mencement in 1952. The Klinger Forum and the Men's Dormitory were first occupied in September of 1953. The new look in the Conservatory of Music began in 1954 and the Miriam Jones Hall of Culture will be completed for housing the Petersmeyer Li- brary in 1956. Naturally, one of the most interesting and important periods of the immediate past was the program of GI education. In the spring of 1942 about four hun- dred Air Force Cadets were moved into Dirnmitt Hall. Eight large houses were rented for the occu- pancy of the women. The Grammer House Girls are still maintaining something of a round-robin com- munications to keep ever alive the wonderful ex- periences of those days and events. At Dimmitt Hall two boys lived where one girl had lived before. Four boys were put in each room. Closet space was much less of a problem with men than with women. The enrollment of women re- mained about normal. The romances which began were above normal. The number of college men on the campus, apart from the cadets, was greatly reduced. In September, 1944 there were about forty-six men. Our athletic directors had all gone into service. Our college bas- ketball team was coached by the ladies physical educational director. The North Central Conference had abandoned its schedules entirely. There were a few inter-collegiate games. However, we did not play the University of South Dakota. We boasted at least, that the University feared risking the experi- ence. In 1945 Germany surrendered in May and Japan in August. The G.I. Bill fhad been put into operation whereby the tuition costs were paid directly to the college and subsistence of S90-S120 paid directly to the students. Enrollments increased so rapidly that there were over five hundred men enrolled in Feb- ruary, 1946. Five hundred men in the spring of 1946 in contrast with the fifty-six men in October, 1944 was a shock in every direction. The effort to secure sufficient faculty was very great. In 1947 before we had the Jones Hall of Science, we had a daytime en- rollment of twelve hundred fulltime students. Class- es were scheduled not only on Saturday but from 7 A. M. to 9 P. M. in order to have sufficient class- room facilities. The basement of Grace Church and the building now occupied by the Curran Drug Store were used as classrooms.

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