University of Nebraska Omaha - Tomahawk / Gateway Yearbook (Omaha, NE)

Page 12 text:

THE OLD UNIVERSITY A GROUP OF PUBLIC -SPIRITED CITIZENS, motivated by the desire to establish a non-sectarian and co educational institution of higher hberal, professional, and technical training in the metropolitan area, created a Board of Trustees in the summer of 1908 and caused it to be incorporated as the University of Omaha in the fall of that same year. Public approval was so aroused that the University immediately purchased a tract of land known as the Redick Reserve in North Omaha; Mrs. M. O. Maul donated the John Jacobs Memorial Gym nasium in remembrance of her son ; and Mr. George A. Joslyn erected Joslyn Hall. In these two large buildings a Collegiate department was established with a well-rounded cur- riculum. The success of the enterprise vindicated the hopes and aims of its promoters, until now more than fifteen hundred students are enrolled in its regular, extension, and summer sessions. The demands upon the university made during the 1920 ' s by eager students and ,he necessary standards of education involved such a financial burden that those interested in the institution and its continued value in the community conceived that its perpetuity must be made possible through the organization of a Municipal University, financed from public funds. To that end, the legislature of Nebraska passed a bill in 1928 authorizing cities of the metropolitan class to vote on the question of the establishment and maintenance of municipal universities, and the people of Omaha, on May 6 of that year, levied a one-mill tax for the support and development of the Municipal University of Omaha. Dr. Daniel E. Jenkins was the able leader of the Univer- sity for the first eighteen years, ending in 1926. Then followed Dr. Karl F. Wettstone and Mr. Earnest W. Emery in the presidency. During the year immediately preceding the opening of the new municipal school, the University of Omaha was administered by Dr. W. Gilbert James; then the late Dr. William E. Sealock was called to the presidency from the University of Nebraska. After the municipalization of the University of Omaha, the late Dr. Sealock, with exceeding courage, initiated a new plan of instruction and did much to add to the University ' s prestige. Some thirty new instructors were added to the faculty, and over 22,000 volumes were added to the library. But Dr. Sealock ' s greatest dream, that of a new spacious campus for the university in a quiet neighborhood, was not realized when he died in the summer of 1935.

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THE NEW UNIVERSITY BUT DR. SEALOCK ' S DREAM has finally come true. The able Board of Regents long since realized that the ever-increasing enrollment necessitated more adequate facilities for a greater Municipal University. Accordingly, the first action of the Board was the choice of a new president who had the leadership qualities to obtain the University ' s needs. Mr. Rowland Haynes was chosen to suc- ceed the late Dr. Sealock. Mr. Haynes had long been associated with schools, and his education and experience were broad. After doing extensive graduate work in sociology at several New England universities he had taught psychology at the Uni- versities of Chicago and Minnesota. He later went into social work, becoming secretary of the Playground and Recreation Association of America. Then he held executive positions in recreational and welfare work in New York City, Milwaukee, and Cleveland. And prior to his acceptance of the presidency of the University, he had been State Director of Federal Relief for Nebraska. Then a year later, in October of 1936, the second step of the Board was the purchase of a site of twenty acres for the new University on Dodge Street in west Omaha adjacent to Elmwood Park. This tract was chosen because it was more centrally located than the other two dozen and more considered. About the same time the financial aid of almost a half million dollars was received from the Public Works Administration to assist in the building program. This fund was to be matched by the University. The new president has been very energetic and forward- looking in his plans for an extensive building program covering a ten-year period. Total expenditures, to be made on a pay-as-you-go basis, will amount to nearly one million dollars. The work of grading was begun early in January of this year. The first building on the campus will be Georgian in style ; the structure will be in the shape of an H, and will be dominated in front by huge pillars, three stories in height. Situated on the highest point of the new West Dodge Street campus, the building will face Dodge Street, and the ground will be sloped and landscaped to the north, east, and south. This first building will provide the minimum essentials for more than one thousands students ; more buildings will be added later. Constructed with the aid of the Public Works Adminis- tration funds, the building will cost over six hundred thousand dollars. The design was completed after consultation with Paul Cret, internationally recognized architect. John Latenser Sons are the local supervising architects. The PWA contract calls for completion of the structure by January 1, 1938, and officials plans its occupancy by the beginning of the second semester next February. Science laboratories will occupy upper floors of the main section, temporary library stack rooms will be in the basement, and offices and classrooms in the wings. A combined recreation room and auditorium will be in the center of the building.