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Page 9 text:
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SFA Celebrates 60 Years of Growth This school year marked the 60th anniversary of SFA. It is only fitting that we prepare for the future by looking to the past. Sixty years ago, the student body consisted of 158 students. When the college opened its doors in 1923, a student had to be 16 years old to en- ter college and had usually graduated by the time he was 19 or 20. Now the average age of college freshmen is 18, and most students graduate when they are 22 or 23. No tuition was charged in 1923, but there was a student development fee of $12 for athletics, entertainme nt and student publications. Sixty years ago, students had a choice of joining either literary clubs or musical sororities. Classes were held in the Austin Building where the library, the physics lab and other classrooms occupied most of the space. The 19 steps in front of the building were called The Steps of Opportunity. In 1923, women had to live in ap- proved boarding houses. The dean of women, Miss Ruth May, was strict in her policies. Every young lady had study hours from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Male visitors were allowed on Sunday afternoons and on Saturday nights until 10:30 p.m. If the man in question did not attend SFA, he had to have Miss May ' s approval to visit one of the women students. The University was founded in 1921 by the 36th Texas Legislature as a state teachers college. The founding president of SFA was Alton William Birdwell, former history instructor and academic dean of Southwest Texas State Teachers College. A local steering committee present- ed to the state legislature a brochure of 23 reasons that SFA should be located in Nacogdoches. Nacog- doches, committee members said, was the most accessible city in East Texas. They claimed that the town had an unusually high moral tone and an exceptional cultural environment. According to the committee, the peo- ple of the city were church going; no immoral resorts were located in the city; the jail was empty and the city had 22 boarding houses which could care for students at a monthly rate of $20 for room and board. Committee members said Nacog- doches was the Cradle of Texas Liberty, its past dear to every Texan and that its present typified Texas progress. Opposite Page: SFA students witnessed the construction of the Ferguson annex. Completion date for the building was set for August 1984. This Page: Autumn leaves fell from a gum tree after a typical Nacogdoches downpour. Photos by lirn Stolls
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Page 10 text:
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During the Great Depression, SFA was a teachers college with only 499 students. Twelve clubs (non-Greek) served as the college ' s organizations. Students felt the economic struggles of the depression. In the atmosphere of austerity, simple campus events such as a school dance assumed greater importance. Parking didn ' t represent a large problem to the students of the 30s. Because money was in short supply, few people could own the old Fords and Chevys, even though large cars could be bought for under a thou- sand dollars. The same lack of money forced the senior class of 1933 to go without an annual. In 1933, the school song was The Pine Tree Hymn, still read aloud on ce a year at the Early Bird Breakfast at Homecoming. By the time of President Birdwell ' s retirement, World War II had precipitated economic and social changes that would permanently af- fect East Texas and SFA. The war did bring an end to the decade of depression and took more than 250, 000 people from this area for military service and wartime industrial employment elsewhere. President Paul Lewis Boynton suc- ceeded President Birdwell. Boynton was a native Texan who had been serving as chairman of the psychology department at George Peabody College for Teachers in Tennessee. During the first three years of his ad- ministration, he managed to keep the college open, partly by making it a training base for members of the Women ' s Army Corps. In 1949, the 51st State Legislature changed the institution ' s name by de- leting teacher, although teacher education would remain a significant feature of the academic programs. While SFA was changing its name and the Depression was ending, the students turned once again to the outside world. Popular movies of the time were, Cabin in the Sky and DuBarry Was Not a Lady, starring Red Skelton, Lucille Ball and Gene Kel- ly. Cartoons and newsreels from the war played before the features at the theatres. With the end of World War II in 1945, the Gl Bill enabled many former military servicemen to attend school, increasing the school ' s enrollment tre- mendously. After the war, many industries focused on the natural re- sources of the area, and paper mills and other forest-related industries be- gan to grow. The oil industry also af- fected the area. In 1945, Nacogdoches acquired its first woman law enforcer. At that time Griffith Boulevard and Vista Drive were unpaved; College Street was only two lanes. With the men re- turning after the war, once again SFA had a football team, and men again began to join the wartime all-wom- en ' s band. At that time much of the campus construction was being completed. photo by |im Slotts Classroom buildings, a library, a fine arts building and more college housing were built. In 1950, a student center was pro- posed as a memorial to Macon Alston Gunter who had attended SFA before being called to war. Gunter died in Sicily, and his parents donated $20, 000 for his memorial. A new gym replaced the old Aik- man Gymnasium located where the Ferguson Building extension is now being constructed. Shelton Gymnasi- um was completed in 1950 at a cost of $232,000 and contained 3,000 seats. In 1955 the football team moved
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