Tennessee State University - Tennessean Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

Page 24 text:

20 Creation ofthe Vice Presidency. h How do you fill a void created by the departure of a college Off'ICIal who nurtured all college publications for nearly thirty years; guided the development and safeguarded the integrity 0f the total educational program; directed the origin and development of the graduate program: directed the delivery of off campus credit instructional programS; and maintained an active role in Signifi- eant professional organizations to promote the colleges interests? This was the question 905951 by 'Dean GOWS resignation, One answer that Tennessee A. and I. offered was to create a new super position 1 the organizational chart, and call it Vice President ofthe college. Then came the task of identifying a super PCP son to fill it. The person selected was Dr. Alger V. Boswell. . Dr. Boswell, who had come to the college as a mathematics teacher in 1930, had served in a variety 0f capacities during the subsequent twenty years. Among these were treasurer of the ecallege 311d ad- ministrative assistant to President Davis. When interviewed during this study Dr. Boswell commented on the various positions that he had filled at this institution. At another point in the interview Dr. Boswett stated that the greatest challenge that he faced was hto take on all the jobs vacated by Gore when he left. This challenge aCCIuired added dimensions during the next year when the college was authorized to operate as a university. University Status. a The concluding statement in President Davisi Inaugural Address was the following: The establishment and maintenance of a strong nA class university with a complete program ofeurricular and extracurricular activities is our goal. It '15 00W apparent that this was far more than a mere exercise in rhetoric designed to en- Courage applause at the climax of an academic ceremony. For Dr. Davis this was one of those dreams WhICh approach the obsession stage in the lives ofhuman beings.

Page 23 text:

The ambitious academic organizational structure which greeted Dr. Davis that first year t1943-1944t was matched by an equally ambitious array of courses. Dr. Davis must have been quite pleased with the fact that the curriculum included courses that were uniquely relevant to the student body such as the following: Drama 51 l w The Negro in Drama and the Theatre English 433 w American Prose and Poetry ofNegro Life History 41 l - Negro History Sociology 441 - Races and Nationalism Dr. Davis must have been a bit perplexed by the incongruity of the existence of such situations as a foreign language faculty of one teacher, Mrs. Alma Watkins, and the foreign language section of the catalog which listed twelve French courses, twelve Spanish courses, one Italian course, one Portuguese course, and three German courses. Dr. Gore Leaves the College. b Just as the college was bringing into realization new and exciting dimen- sions of its role and scope, an event occurred which introduced pain with the exhilaration. The Dean ofthe College, Dr. George W. Gore, announced his resignation to accept the Presidency ofa sister institution. In the fall of 1950 Dean Gore became the President of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College. To lose the services ofa man who had been literally the embodiment ofthe intellectual spirit ofthe college was loss that taxed the cohesiveness ofthe college to the limits. In retrospect one realizes that the past exercise of Dr. Gore1s creative academic administrative expertise, which made his departure so painful was the same phenomenon which had influenced the development of the college to a level that enabled it to sustain itself in his absence.

Page 25 text:

Growth ofzhe Library. a The Davis administration not only began with a good nucleus ofa library, but it inherited the seasoned services of a head librarian whose career at the college began when its doors first opened. Mrs. Martha M. Brown must have had all of the dedication that any college president could desire in a librarian. She had seen the collection grow from the very first book to the quantity of 1944 of 34,000. Mrs. Brown's staff in 1943 consisted of three professionally trained librarians and twelve additional persons. Theyr provided their service in a building which was made possible through the efforts of Mrs. Brown. She is credited with having secured a Rosenwald grant to fmance its construction. Until the time of her retirement in 1951 Mrs. Brown continued to guide the growth of the library service and instructional program of the library. She was available in 1950 to advise concerning the modernization and enlargement of the Library Building to its present size trated capacity of 120,000 volumes; U. Hun Hg! firing; t.- Miss Lois Daniel. who succeeded Mrs. Brown as Head Librarian. was responsible for eomplllng the Library data for the report to the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools 1n 1958. That TCDOI'i provided data which, when compared to the 1943 data showed that SOme categorles of the holdtngs had more than doubled during the fifteen year period. The book collection had actually outgrown the rated capacity 0f the building. This situation stimulated a campaign by the librarlans for a new butlding. As the library collection had grown the size ofthe professional staffhad also grown. . . In retrospect it is easy to discern evidence of the motivational force ofthis dream operattng 1n the evolu- tion of the institution. The insistence on offering a graduate program whose breadth exceeded the depth of preparation ofthe faculty in several disciplines; dividing and subdividing the aeadernte program mm more and more areas of specialization; and structuring the faculty into a rapidly inereaelng number of depat't- mental units, even when some departments consisted ofone person, were actions which reflected Dr. Daws' urge to create an embryo from which a university could develop. In August 0! 1951 the State Board of Education authorized the transformation of the college into a university. The dream had become reality. The achieving ofuniversity status was indeed a momentous event for all who had become a part 0t Ten- nessee Agricultural and Industrial State College.