Rowan College - Oak Yearbook (Glassboro, NJ)

Page 19 text:

The U increased to eighteen thousand volumes, with two full-time, trained librarians in charge. The health department with its well-equipped gymnasium and shower-baths, offering accommodations to twenty-four students at a time, has added to the faculty a resident nurse and a doctor. The auditorium has been furnished with musical instruments, moving-picture machine, and varied lighting equipment needed to facilitate the presentation of many types of activities. Reproductions of works of art, selected by the Art Department, now adorn the walls of the school. The first students coming from a distance lived in scattered groups throughout the community. These groups were governed by girls known as student associates. Later the interior of the fine old Whitney Mansion was remodeled for the comfort of students. In 1 ( )2S a new dormitory was built so that all boarding students were brought together on the campus. In 1930 a duplicate of this dormitory was completed. Since that time the dor- mitories have a dean, who guides the student government and plans for the social life within the dorms. Stimulated by Dr. Savitz ' s enjoyment of nature, under the direction of the Outdoor Club, the students have planted trees and shrubs on the campus, transplanted wild flowers and plants in the woods, outlined the front of the campus with American Beauty rambler roses, maintained a violet bed. developed a Japanese garden, a rustic nook, a perennial garden, and an amphi- theater, and purchased a camp of seventy acres, including a lake, a farm- house, and a canoe-shed, thus promoting the sports of canoeing and swimming. For the past twelve years there has been a constant advance in the requirement of admission to the Normal School, as well as in the standards exacted within its walls. During the first seven years a two-year course was offered. In 193!) a three-year course was introduced. In June, 193 5, the first fourth year class received the degree of B.S. in Elementary Education. Thus, under the able guidance of Dr. Jerohn J. Savitz, Glassboro has developed into an institution worthy of the name, State Teachers ' College.

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ITS DEVELOPMENT UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF DR. JEROHN J. SAVITZ IN 1918 the State Board of Education purchased a thirty-acre oak grove from the estate of the late Thomas Whitney. To this was added twenty- rive acres of land contributed by residents of Glassboro. Near the center of the fifty-five acres of land, with the grove as a background and .1 large campus in front, was located the mam building. In the capacity ot principal, Dr. Savit; planned the interior of the build ing, the specifications tor the rooms and furniture, as well as for the young people who were to attend this school. The school opened in September, 1923, offering a two-year teacher- training course. Dr. Savitz brought a group of girls from Trenton, who composed part ot the senior class that first year. Others who had taught several years, desiring to obtain a two-year certificate, loined them. Thirty- eight were graduated in June. The first faculty and administrative force totaled eighteen. Ten of these are among the thirty of this year ' s faculty and administrative group. It is the principal ' s vision which enables a school to cope with and meet its needs. Many of the opportunities at Glassboro today are the result of Dr. Savitz ' s foresight. In the mam building, in addition to the usual classrooms, is a beautiful library which began with approximately four thousand volumes and now has Tin First Dormitory

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Students (it the Glassboro State Normal School, Dear Friends: As your YEARBOOK presents to us the highlights of a period rapidly drawing to a close, the Principal and Faculty recount with grateful appre- ciation your friendly attitude, unswerving loyalty to your fellow students and School, devotion to high ideals, and the co-operative spirit of which this hook is an outgrowth. You have earnestly striven to search out and to establish truth for your ' selves, you have retraced the steps of the great schoolmasters of the race to develop the power to blaze your own trail, and you have endeavored to explore the kingdom of childhood in order that you might lead the young to live the abundant life. We bid you Seniors farewell in the confident hope that you have developed the attitude and power to overcome the resistance of conservative boards of education, of indifferent, it not hostile patrons, and of dull and unresponsive children, with such insight, skill, tact, and joy, that both pupils and community will be transformed. To you undergraduates we express the hope th.it the example of your predecessors, the varied and rich experiences of your school life, and the contact with your instructors may open doors of opportunity which will enable you to enter into the newness and fullness of life awaiting all those who are eagerly striving to overcome their limitations. Sincerely yours.