St Helena Extension School - Saint Yearbook (Norfolk, VA)

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ScU«tt BY Marvin W. Schlegel, Chairman Department of History and Government Saint Helena marked a milestone in the progress of American education. It demonstrated the soundness of the new concept, first formulated in the G . I. Bill of Rights, that every American should have the opportunity for a college education — that a college education should be, not the privilege of the aristocratic few, but the right of the democratic many. It proved that it was possible to teach not only the brilliant, but also the average student. In the years to come, when more and more of the average students would enter college, teachers would profit by studying the lessons of Saint Helena and learning that inspired instruction can be successful where pedantic dullness will fail. Saint Helena grew out of a campaign pledge by Governor William Tuck. The Governor had promised that every Virginia veteran would have the opportunity to go to college, and by the spring of 1946 it became obvious that the existing ' irginia institutions could not fulfill this pledge. As school after school closed its entrance lists, President John E. Pomfret and Bursar Charles J. Duke of the College of William and Mary rose to meet the emergency. In the Saint Helena corner of the Norfolk Navy Yard the Navy during the war had erected ten temporary buildings, including five barracks and a mess hall, as a berthing station. No longer needed by the Navy, these structures could be made available for use. Norfolk, moreover, was a good site for the location of Virginia’s veterans’ college because it was in the heart of a heavily populated area and because the departure of Navy personnel had made the housing shortage less serious there than elsewhere in the state. After a conference with Governor Tuck, President Pomfret and Bursar Duke arranged to take over the present site. The problem of setting up the college was solved by the return of an old friend of President Pomfret’s to the United States. Herbert W. K. Kitzroy had been assistant dean at Princeton until the war called him away in 1942 for four years of military service. In the Army he had found an opportunity to continue his career as an educator, having been head of the liberal arts division of the American University at Shrivenham. Now in the summer of 1946 he came home with the silver oak leaves of a lieutenant colonel on his shoulders and yielded to Doctor Pomfret’s request to create Saint Helena. A lesser man would have shrugged off the task as impossible. In six weeks Colonel Eitzroy was expected to collect a student body, assemble a faculty, organize an administration, and acquire laboratory equipment and a library. Plunging into the job with unbounded energy, he soon had all his plans underway. Two aides from Shrivenham provided a skeleton office staff which was quickly filled out with Norfolk personnel. Calls on universities’ and teachers’ agencies produced the names of available instructors who were selected by the shrewd Fitzroy instinct. W hen a prospective teacher demurred, the magical enthusiasm of the Colonel’s voice soon [ 66 ]

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talked him onto the train to Norfolk. The student body was produced by Virginia’s older colleges, who referred all their late applicants to Saint Helena. Meanwhile, the drab Navy barracks were being transformed into a campus, with fresh paint doing its best to atone for the lack of ivy. One of the barracks was converted to furnish classrooms and laboratories, while beds and furniture were acquired for the other four to equip them as dormitories. One wing of the mess hall was remodeled into a snack-bar, while another was transformed into a library. Facilities were still inadequate, however, and the Colonel cast covetous eyes on the brick building by the entrance gate, which the Navy had fenced off. A few days of wining and dining Navy officers followed, and the fence came down, giving Saint Helena a gymnasium and additional classrooms. Since most of the students were to be veterans, every effort was made to dispel the military environment. The dull Navy numbers of the buildings were replaced in true academic fashion by the names of benefactors — Pomfret, Tuck, and Duke, and three admirals, Ainsworth, Clark, and Small. The mess hall became the dining room, and the barracks were called dorms. In the same spirit anything resembling military discipline was avoided. The students drafted their own rules of behavior and were granted freedom of criticism. On September 20, 1946, Saint Helena opened its gates. Some 625 students made their way through the registration lines and began their college careers. Vlany of these men might never have had a chance to go to college if there had been no Saint Helena. In normal times admission depends on a good high school record, but Colonel Fitzroy recognized that the veteran represented a special situation. Many a man who had been a careless student before entering the service was now ready to buckle down to hard work. For that reason every veteran who had a high school education or the equivalent, and even a few who had not, was admitted. The veteran also differed from the conventional college student in having been long away from his books. VIoreover, the restless reaction from military service often made it difficult for him to stick to his desk. The instructors, may of them combat veterans themselves, took these factors into consideration. Teachers worked to make their lectures clear and interesting and devoted extra hours to tutoring and counseling. For those weak in the principles of mathematics or English grammar, special courses were provided. All this consideration for the veterans, however, could not include a lenient grading system. Grades had to be kept on a comparable basis with those at any other Virginia college, since the records were to be transferred to other institutions. The necessity for standardizing grades became evident at the first mid-term examinations in November, 1946, when some teachers failed more than half their students while others failed none. As a result of this experience, it was decided {Continued on Next Page) [67 ]