Western Michigan University - Brown and Gold Yearbook (Kalamazoo, MI)

Page 19 text:

ONE o the most attractive scenes one sees while driving on the streets of Kalamazoo is the building shown above and its surroundings which appeal to the aesthetic sense oi beauty. The building is the symbol of Western Michigan College to those who gaze at it. The white pillars might be said to represent the past because they are stable and will never change; the offices, the present, because the systems or methods progress according to the times; and the landscape the future. The landscape is continually being altered malting the value greater and the scene lovelier. So should be the lives of those who attend Western. The Administration building Is also the starting point of the great circuit of buildings referred to as Western ' s hilltop campus. 15

Page 21 text:

FROM THE PRESIDENT THE subject of the 1947 volume of the Brown and Gold is a vital one in the history of Western Michigan College. The staff of the Brown and Gold is to be congratulated on the interesting and attractive manner in which the events and p3rsonalities are recorded. This has been a banner year of many firsts at Western. For the first ti.ne the college enrollment has exceeded 4000 and, for that matter, 3000 students. This year marks the top in the number of new faculty members added to the staff. It is the first year in which the number of men enrolbd greatly exceeds the number of women. It Is the first year in which the number of new students admitted exceeds the number previously enrolled. For the first time the non-teaching curricuiar interests of students exceeds the interests of those preparing to teach; for the first time in the history of the college, the number of freshman students exceeds the number in all other classes combined. 1946-47 also marks great changes in the physical facilities of the campus. At least 25 acres of the campus were covered this year with temporary housing facilities for 800 students and their families. Really active work was begun on utilization of the new campus area; the erection of five temporary classroom buildings with a total floor area of 40,000 square feet was begun; a new maintenance building was completed; an extension and remodelling of the elementary and high school was begun; two new faculty apartment buildings providing 32 apartments for members of the staff were completed; Arcadia House was extended and remodelled to provide additional dining facilities for faculty and students; a new million dollar classroom building to house physics, chemistry, occupational therapy, art, and home economics is well under way. These are among the firsts on the campus at Western this year. Hence, the Brown and Gold most certainly records an interesting chapter in the history of the college.