Southeastern Oklahoma State University - Savage Yearbook (Durant, OK)

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2) Use SNOLISSQ: 2 Nose Kel ley a . Lover Jaw : Tratney Collar-Bone -Werk : Right Arm-Miss Hallie fondle tert | — Misal ng lub Lt Pore Arns Ni ies, CO Pw pape + | ae {4 as Hatin nd sone ¢- Mlatirre ‘Thay LE Ti by Tr Skeleton of S outheastern, Eae hers 5 HT Feet Laird — | j college | Photos: ; each evening at the Methodist Church Opposite pagé! 1921 student (top) Miss Lucy Ads | Leonard and her “credits”. 1919 Custodians beginning at 8 p.m. There, the guests and (bottom) worked long hours. : - . This page: 1921 Student Council (top left). 1922 students enjoyed Be, social, | “Skeleton of Southeastern” (top right) education and cultural activities. | 1922 Training School Industrial Art Class (above). Professor Mildred Riling (right), 1928 English Because of the vast number BEETS | teacher. who responded to the summer session, President Moore had to hold the model | school in several locations to provide more room for the observation.

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Model Schools Used The model city school was divided into grade levels and was under the direction and management of Southeastern’s regular faculty. According to the local paper, such training was invaluable to teachers in rural schools, and they “cannot well afford to miss this feature of the normal, as it alone will be worth what all the entire term will cost them.” The momentous event which everyone had waited for finally occured on June 14, 1909. Front page headlines on that day proclaimed, “Southeastern State Normal Convenes with Enthusiasm.” As the teachers had begun arriving in Durant in banner headline implied, much greater numbers than had been predicted. According to the paper, the visiting teachers “came from the east, the west, the north and the south, all happy and smiling, glad-handed, hearted, citizenship of the city.” By the end of the first week, statistics showed the number of teachers already exceeded warm- registration five hundred. They came from not only Choctaw, Lane, Johnston, Marshall, Carter, Bryan, Coal and Atoka counties of Oklahoma, but also Gainesville, Collinsville and other north Denison, Texas cities, as well as Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. In essence, the first summer session and later ones for several years were joint efforts combining the regular special instructors drawn from the ranks of Southeastern faculty with superintendents and public school teachers from the several counties. For instance, among the first summer faculty in 1909 appear such prominent names as William C. Canterbury, Henry Garland Bennett, and W.H. Echols. Canterbury came to Oklahoma in 1905 as principal of Ardmore high school, moved to Marietta as superintendent and eventually became president of Southeastern in 1914. Bennett was county superintendent of Choctaw County in 1909, superintendent of Hugo from 1910 to 1919 and president here from 1919 to 1928. Echols was superintendent of the Durant Public Schools from 1908 to 1915 and he joined the Southeastern faculty. Classes convened each morning at 8 ail LUCY CAROLINE LEONARD Durant Ciraduate. Durant H: S$. 719. Alta Petentes ‘20 ‘21. W. C.. A. Cabinet °20 21. Ass't Editor Holisso. Vos, Luey, received her share of height and all the requisites thia it takes for an ‘round girl ' a.m. at either the high school or the Presbyterian College; after a noon intermission, a similar four-hour session followed. Chapel exercises were held

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Session Successful Because of the success in numbers, the rural school was held in Room 17 of the high school building. The model city school met in two places; grades one through five were conducted in the South Ward School and grades six through eight met in the North Ward School. As Moore and Hinshaw earnestly had hoped, within a few days the visiting teachers were applauding the concept of the model school and were agreeing that its inclusion in the normal was “a striking feature” meeting with the approval of everybody. KK K The anticipation that work would commence in the near future on the actual construction of the Southeastern State Normal building cheered the students and faculty at the summer session. On July 9, 1909, architect W.R. Breedlove, of Ardmore, announced the plans and specifications would be ready to be submitted to contractors for bids in about three weeks; he believed a contract could be let and actual construction could commence by September. The estimated cost of the new structure was $100,000 - the amount of the appropriation was made by the legislature for that purpose. The building was to be a three-story brick structure, trimmed in native granite. It would be 310 feet long and 195 feet wide. Beside housing all the necessary class and recitation rooms, laboratories, cloak and lunchrooms, manual training and kindergarten departments, the building would have a large auditorium with an opera-style stage. The auditorium was to be the height of the third floor and was to have a large dome. On the ground or basement floor would be a gymnasium surrounded by a large running track. KX XK Because of the nature of the institution and the confusion sur- rounding the hasty opening, the total enrollment for the summer is difficult to determine. 10 The first official catalog of the 1909-10 stated, “Southeastern opened its career with a summer term reaching an enrollment of about 800 students”; however, 561 was the number actually listed by name on the official roll. Since almost 170 children were enrolled in the city and rural model schools, perhaps these, too, were included in the larger total. President Canterbury wasted little time in implementing his new attitude toward governing the campus. At the first faculty meeting, it quickly became apparent the days of Dr. Murdaugh had ended. Canterbury announced he would not require lengthy, weekly faculty meetings. Instead the faculty would meet twice monthly for round-table discus- sions never exceeding 30 minutes Examples of the type of topics the president considered worthy included: what constitutes a teacher’s knowledge of his subject educational thought, and similar broad matter; current topics.