Washington College - Pegasus Yearbook (Chestertown, MD)

Page 24 text:

One of President Gibson ' s first tasks was to prepare the College for a decennial revaluation of its accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges, involving an extensive self-study and a three-day visit and ex- amination by a group of educators representing the Association. President Gibson guided the College successfully through that evaluation and, with the challenge met, started Washington College toward a goal of acedemic excellence that has been in the forefront of its development throughout two decades. Within his first ten years he had increased the number of full-time faculty to 37, thereby creating a highly favorable faculty-student ratio of 1 to 1 1. During the Fifties he initiated a thorough evaluation of the academic program, resulting in the first major reorganization of the curriculum in this century. Excessive courses were eliminated, emphasis was placed on independent study, and the Four Course program was adopted

Page 23 text:

r«i f% - f-... .( ' When Dr. Gibson, at 42, assumed the post of president of Washington College in 1950, the 168-year-old school had an enrollment of only ap- proximately 400 students. Of those, there were less than 100 girls. Other than East and Middle Halls, which at that time were housing girls, there was only one other women ' s dormito- ry, Reid Hall, among the nine perma- nent buildings on the 25-acre campus. There were only 163 out-of- state students on the campus, and most of those were from the neigh- boring states of Delaware, New Jer- sey and Pennsylvania. The faculty numbered 25, less than half what it is today. Major areas of study were offered in 14 disciplines. Endowment was barely $100,000, and the val- ue of the physical plant was less than $1 million.

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With the College entering the second decade of President Gibson ' s ad- ministration, the largest fund-raising effort in the school ' s history was or- ganized. Called the Heritage Program and launched in 1963, its goal was to raise $10 million during the next seven years to meet the increasing costs of operating and expanding the educational program. The initial goal of the Heritage Program was met two years ahead of schedule. The Heritage Program and earlier efforts under President Gibson ' s lead- ership have moved the College ' s endowment from $300,000 to $2.5 million, including the endowment of two professorships and partial endowment of two others. The 25-acre campus of 1950 has grown to 90 acres, with six new dormitories constructed, a major enlargement of the science building, a new power plant, a maintenance building, a student union facility, a fine arts center, a new athletic complex and playing fields, and a new 160,000- volume library.