University of California Los Angeles - Bruin Life / Southern Campus Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

Page 27 text:

ITH the assurance that the University will he moved from the present location to a site which will permit its obvious expansion, one is forced to consider its phenomenal development and growth. Commencing as the Los Angeles State Normal School in 1881, with a little over sixty under-graduates, the institution has attained a prominent place in the vanguard of the western field, both in size and in scholastic and athletic activity. Dr. Jesse F. Millspaugh, who became President in 1904, and Dr. Ernest Carroll Moore, the present Director, who took over the Presidency of the Normal in 191 7, have been big factors in this advance. The steps in its growth are of interest. The original site on Normal Hill outgrown in 1907, the legislature authorized the purchase of twentv-four acres, the present site, which was occupied by the school in 1914. Later this purchase was increased by the addition of several more acres in the vicinity. It had been the dream of Dr. Millspaugh to give the degree of Bachelor of Education to graduates of the Normal. When Dr. Moore came to the chair, he exerted his influence to bring about the realization of this dream. As a result, after several years of disappointment, in 1919 the Legis- lature changed the Normal to the Southern Branch of the University of California, placing it under the jurisdiction of the Regents of the University and making Dr. Moore Director. As well as the four years ' work in the Teachers ' College, the two preliminary years in the College of Letters and Science were given. In 1913-14, the latter college was extended to include the Junior year, and in 1914-15, for the first time, the full four years of college work leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts were offered. The Branch is bearing fruit. That the Regents were justified in first expanding in Southern California is proved by the plans for further expansion. In six years the Branch has outgrown its present plant necessitating a move for more room. Future progress is inevitable, but will depend upon the efforts of those who leave the University ' s portals during the next decade. In the meantime we arc building Californians. It is enough. twenty- three