A 19th-century ideal of higher education for
all people
has become more inclusive—and more diverse—as the
21st century dawns.
by Barbara J. Howe, Ph.D.
This article was researched and written by Barbara J. Howe, interim
director of the WVU Center for Women's Studies
and associate professor of history, with assistance from Sara
Hoffman, a sociology major.
A New University in a New State 1860s/70s
West Virginia University, founded in 1867, has a long and rich
history as a land-grant university. Our history actually predates
1867 because Morgantown was home to several private seminaries
and academies (nineteenth-century versions of high schools) whose
histories are linked to WVU's.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act, offering land grants of 30,000 acres of federally owned land to each state that agreed to establish a college to teach agriculture and the "mechanic arts" (engineering). The State of West Virginia was formed the following year. Shortly thereafter, the state's legislature accepted the terms of the Morrill Act to raise the money to start the new land-grant college they called the Agricultural College of West Virginia. In 1868, the school's name was changed to West Virginia University.
WVU opened in September 1867 as an all-male, all-white institution with six faculty members, six college students, and 118 Preparatory Department students (high school-aged students who were preparing to do college work). WVU used the former Woodburn Female Seminary building, where Woodburn Hall is now, as the first residence hall, and our first president, Alexander Martin, lived there with the students. "Woodburn" means "streamlet in a shady glen" and comes from Sir Walter Scott's Guy Mannering; the "streamlet" was Falling Run, which then ran through a wooded valley where the Business and Economics Building is now. WVU built its own first building in 1870 and later named it Martin Hall, for Alexander Martin.
WVU offered programs primarily in the humanities and sciences disciplines. The Morrill Act said we had to have an agriculture program, so students planted a garden in Woodburn Circle—then left for summer vacation and returned to a garden full of weeds. The Morrill Act also required that we have a Cadet Corps, which became the ROTC program during World War I. Some people argued that women could not attend WVU since women could not be in the Cadet Corps.
Today's students would have enjoyed paying for their education in 1867, because the tuition for a 13-week term was just $8. Room and board was $3.50 per week. The average student would have paid between $187.50 and $249 for a full academic year. Now, that's an inexpensive education!
The Early Days 1880s/90s
During the 1880s, WVU began to be a more diverse institution.
In September 1889, the first ten women entered WVU as degree
candidates (a few women had taken occasional courses earlier).
One of the ten was Harriet Lyon, who
transferred here from Vassar College. Two Japanese students were
admitted into the University that year, also. In June 1891, Lyon
became the first woman to receive a degree from WVU, graduating
at the head of her class. In 1989, Tower II in the Evansdale
Residential Complex was dedicated as Lyon Tower, and WVU's Housing
and Residence Life Office created a scholarship in her memory.
Levi Holland, an African-American who lived in Morgantown, tried
to enter WVU's Law School as early as 1883, but all of West Virginia's
public schools were racially segregated by state law, and he
was not allowed to attend.
President Jerome Hall Raymond (1897-1901) hired the first women faculty; added art, music, and domestic science (predecessor of family and consumer sciences today) to attract women students; started the first summer school; and hired the first graduate students to assist the faculty in teaching undergraduates.
There were many aspects of early WVU life that today's students
would find incredibly challenging. Until 1895, students were
required to attend chapel exercises every morning and one church
service on Sunday. While this requirement eased somewhat during
the 1895-96 school year, students still had to appear each morning
at 7 o'clock for roll call. By 1898, compulsory chapel attendance
ended, much to the chagrin of the administration.
Students participated in extracurricular activities then, as
now. In 1887, WVU began publishing the Athenaeum, the
predecessor of today's Daily Athenaeum. Many students
belonged to literary societies that sponsored debates, and the
men might belong to fraternities. The first sorority was a local
group called Kappa Delta, founded in 1899 and not related to
the current Kappa Delta sorority on campus. To provide further
support for women on campus, Josephine Hall Raymond, President
Raymond's wife, organized the Woman's League, which united women
faculty, staff, and students with women in the Morgantown community.
The Turn of the Century 1900s
WVU hired its first dean of women, Susan Maxwell Moore, in 1903.
Moore was the daughter of Elizabeth Moore (of E. Moore Hall fame).
At this time, the University had a policy of acting in loco parentis,
a Latin phrase meaning "in place of the parents." Students
were expected to follow WVU's rules as though they were following
the instructions of their own parents.
President Daniel Boardman Purinton
(1901-1911) allowed students to attend regular Saturday night
dances, which was one of the main forms of entertainment for
students at this time. Students also attended the local theaters
for a show and, sometimes, a large group would "rush"
a local theater to gain free admission. Obviously, theater owners
and the local police force did not find this nearly so entertaining.
WVU also began to hire a well-qualified faculty who had earned
their Ph.D. degrees at some of the nation's most prestigious
universities. One of these men was John A. Eiesland, who taught
math and for whom Eiesland Hall would be named. In 1910, several
of these faculty members organized WVU's chapter of Phi Beta
Kappa, the most prestigious honorary for students who excel in
arts and sciences disciplines.
Expanding Horizons 1910s
Most WVU students continued to live in boarding houses, sometimes
sleeping (rooming) in one house and eating (boarding) in another;
thus, like today, they had to pay for room and board. WVU required
that the owners or operators of the boarding houses had to enforce
the regulations for women students, including curfews which prohibited
women from staying out too late at night. WVU opened its first
residence hall in 1919: Woman's Hall (now Stalnaker Hall, named
for a longtime professor of psychology, Elizabeth Mattingly Stalnaker).
As early as 1909, male freshmen were required to wear "freshman
beanies" whether on or off campus. According to Brad Laidley,
a history major who graduated in 1915, "Anybody caught without
it, they would deal with him accordingly."
On May 6, 1918, students voted to create a student governing
organization to be led by the president of the student body.
This student governing body became today's Board of Governors
and Student Administration.
Students looking for careers as teachers could work with "equipment
for mental testing and measuring and for psychological experiments"
in a lab in Woodburn Hall, sharing space in the building with
the history, English, Latin, and Spanish classrooms; women's
gym (in the basement); zoology lab; school of medicine; school
of music; law school; registrar's office; telephone switchboard;
and bookstore, among others.
The records are not clear, but it is possible that the first
female international students were two women from Serbia who
enrolled at WVU in the fall of 1919 to study agriculture; they
did not complete the school year.
The "Roaring Twenties" 1920s
The "roaring twenties" brought many changes to WVU.
Women who wore galoshes that they left unbuckled so that they
flapped while they walked were known as "flappers";
they also often wore scandalously short dresses (to their knees)
and had short hair.
Men returning from World War I smoked more often, and, for the
first time, proper well-bred women began to smoke in public.
By March 1922, so many students smoked that custodians had to
clear the cigarette butts away from the entrance to Woodburn
Hall six times a day. The next year, the state fire marshal declared
that smoking in buildings was a fire hazard and banned smoking
in all WVU buildings. President John Roscoe Turner (1928-1934),
a smoker, ignored the ban, and ashtrays reappeared in offices
across campus.
No students could drink legally, as the 18th Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution mandated prohibition, but students could drive
or ride the train to Point Marion, Pennsylvania, to visit the
"speakeasies" there.
Dean of Men Harry Stone began to talk about "social hygiene
for men" in his freshman orientation classes in 1924 and
distributed hundreds of copies of a booklet entitled Social
Hygiene, which the Bureau of Venereal Diseases of the State
Department of Health published with the U.S. Public Health Service.
The administration eliminated hazing of freshmen, but student
"vigilance committees" still enforced very strict rules
for first-year students. Besides suffering a paddling for not
wearing a beanie, male freshmen were required to run around Mountaineer
Field as a group before every football game. All freshmen were
required to attend the football games. In 1922, this could have
been considered quite an honor, instead of a requirement, since
the Mountaineers had an undefeated football season and won a
bowl game in San Diego on Christmas Day.
Elizabeth Moore Hall was dedicated in 1928 as a lounge and gymnasium
for women, with sleeping rooms for female graduate students on
the third floor. Stansbury Hall opened about the same time as
the Field House—the men's gymnasium. Perley Isaac Reed (for
whom the School of Journalism is named) taught WVU's first journalism
classes in 1920-21. Earl Core (for whom the Core Arboretum is
named) began to teach biology during the 1920s and took part
in the Biology Department's first summer botanical expedition
in 1926.
The Great Depression 1930s
Many students found it difficult to stay in school during the
Great Depression. Federal financial aid programs were available
to students at WVU for the first time, as part of President Franklin
Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. This aid made it possible for students
to work and study at the same time; one student's job was to
be the night guard for the Chemistry Building (Clark Hall); he
remembered that he got a lot of studying done on the job because
there was nothing to guard against. Students also paid for their
education with funds from their family or a few scholarships,
or they worked in Morgantown or at home during the summer. Sometimes,
families moved to Morgantown so their children could attend WVU
and save the cost of room and board.
WVU opened its first residence hall for men in 1935: Men's Hall
(now Boreman Hall). Out-of-town students packed their laundry
into big crates or baskets and sent it home to mom by train—there
were no Laundromats, no wrinkle-free clothes, and no one wore
jeans and T-shirts to classes.
In December 1938, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Missouri
ex rel. Gaines v. Canada decision that colleges had to admit
African-American students to any graduate courses that were not
available at the state institutions for African-Americans. This
would soon open WVU's doors to a few African-American students.
WVU offered its first social work courses and its first humanities
courses in the late 1930s. Those humanities courses are still
taught as Humanities 1 and Humanities 2.
World War II and Post-War Growth 1940s
Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the United
States found itself at war. WVU, like colleges across the country,
soon felt the war's impact. Male students and faculty enlisted
or were drafted into military service. Students in engineering
might stay in school but had accelerated programs, with heavy
course loads crammed into short periods of time, so they might
graduate early and go into the armed forces with better preparation
for wartime service.
In the absence of many men students, women became a more dominant
and visible force on campus. Sororities and women's honoraries
became some of the most active groups on campus. In 1942, Betty
Head became the first female student body president when Peter
Yost enlisted in the navy. In classes, women often knitted for
the war effort. During the war, approximately 300 men of the
48th College Training Detachment lived, trained, and studied
on WVU's campus. Terrace Hall, now Dadisman Hall, was converted
into a mess hall for these cadets. Dean of Women Edna Arnold
(for whom Arnold Hall is named) expected the women students to
do their patriotic duty by attending Saturday-night dances at
E. Moore Hall to entertain the soldiers.
Women were still required to wear either skirts or dresses to
class, since slacks and blue jeans were not permitted. Some women
students wore shorts or rolled-up blue jeans under trench coats
so it was not obvious that they were disobeying the rules. While
men were expected to dress "respectably," jackets and
ties were not required.
In 1941, WVU granted the first graduate degree to the first known
African- American student, Kenneth Jones. In 1945, Victorine
Louistall became the first known African-American woman to earn
a graduate degree from WVU when she received her M.Ed. degree.
She returned to WVU in 1966 to teach library science and was
the first known African-American faculty member. There is no
way of knowing whether earlier students or faculty "passed"
as white so they could attend or work at WVU.
The war ended in 1945, and enrollment skyrocketed to a record
high of 6,010 in the fall of 1946 as veterans attended school
with financial help from the G.I. Bill; this provided federal
funding for those who had served during the war. Classes met
from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on Saturdays to meet demand. Students
crowded into apartments and residence halls, government-surplus
barracks and trailers, and homes of Morgantown families; five
veterans lived on the second floor of the president's house with
the family of President Irvin Stewart
(1946-1958, for whom Stewart Hall is named).
A Changing World 1950s
During the late 1940s and 1950s, while Sen. Joseph McCarthy was
in power in Congress, there were many threats to academic freedom
throughout the country as Americans feared the threat of the
Soviet Union during the Cold War. WVU survived this period of
McCarthyism much better than did some other institutions.
The U.S. Supreme Court, in May 1954, handed down the Brown
v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision, which
determined that "separate" was not "equal"
in terms of education. Many Southern states actively resisted
this order to desegregate schools, but President Stewart announced
that WVU would obey the court's order.
In 1954, Jack Hodge became the first known African-American student
to earn an undergraduate degree from WVU, a B.S. in journalism.
John Reuben Sheeler became the first known African-American to
receive a Ph.D. from WVU when he earned his doctorate in history
in 1954. In 1957, Annette Chandler-Broome became the first known
African-American woman to earn an undergraduate degree, a B.S.
in home economics and nutrition.
Dress codes and curfews were still very important during the
1950s, especially for women students. Women freshmen had a curfew
of 7:30 p.m. for the first four nights of the week and 11 p.m.
on weekends.
Baby-Boomers Arrive 1960s
In the late 1950s and 1960s, WVU converted farmland to buildings
and roads and parking lots for the new Evansdale campus. The
first two Towers of the Evansdale Residential Complex opened
in 1965 and the last two Towers in 1968, as "baby-boomers"—the
children of World War II veterans—entered college. Also
in 1968, the current Mountainlair was built on the downtown campus.
The student body became more diverse. The College of Agriculture
and Forestry and the Cooperative Extension Program developed
programs in East Africa and brought African students to WVU.
The first African-American athletes played on WVU teams.
The early 1960s were filled with "Mountaineer pride"
activities. All freshmen, both men and women, were required to
wear freshman beanies during the 1961-62
school year. Students participated in events that included dressing
in Mountaineer costumes. Men students wore jackets and ties to
football games, while women wore skirts and dresses.
There were also many curriculum changes. WVU's core curriculum,
the predecessor of today's liberal studies program, went into
effect in September 1964. The English Department opened its Writing
Lab in 1967. Faculty taught new courses on subjects such as "Negro
history" and worked with students in the "Free University"
that met from 1968 to 1974 to explore subjects that were not
part of the formal curriculum.
Notes for New Mountaineers: A Student Handbook, 1961-1962
suggested that, in class, students "look alert, interested
and cheerful, as if you cared about what's being said. Don't
slouch and don't sleep; pay attention instead of reading a newspaper,
writing a letter home, knitting, or doing your nails."
It wasn't called "service learning" then, but students
and faculty tutored children in the coal-mining communities along
Scotts Run, and President Paul Miller (1962-1966) encouraged
WVU to improve the lives of West Virginians through the Center
for Appalachian Studies and Development.
An Expanding Community 1970s
Students throughout the United States demonstrated against U.S.
involvement in the Vietnam War. On May 4, 1970, Ohio National
Guardsmen shot and killed four students during an antiwar demonstration
at Kent State University in Ohio. In response, WVU students joined
with students across the country and held a vigil to protest
the deaths. The quiet vigil quickly escalated into a full demonstration
lasting three days. State Police officers
were called in to try to clear the students from University
Avenue; at one point, officers used tear gas to try to clear
students from the area. However, as soon as the gas dispersed,
the students returned to the demonstration.
In support of the students' efforts,William Haymond, chair of
the Philosophy Department, announced that he was canceling finals
for his classes and giving all students in his classes As for
the semester. At the end of the term, Haymond was removed as
chair of the Philosophy Department, but continued to teach as
a tenured professor. Students who flunked out of school could
be drafted into military service and sent to Vietnam.
The 1970s brought about some of the most radical changes in student
life on campus. Most importantly, WVU had to comply with Title
IX of the Education Amendments Act, which Congress passed in
1972. This forbade discrimination against students and employees
in federally assisted educational programs. As a result, the
marching band first admitted women in the fall of 1972. In 1973,
WVU abolished curfews and dress codes for women students and
approved a proposal for women's intercollegiate athletic teams.
Across the country, the growth of women's intercollegiate athletics
has been one of the most visible results of Title IX, but the
law also opened opportunities for more women to study law, medicine,
and engineering. WVU began to offer more courses that focused
on the environment, women's history, and women and literature.
"Man and His Environment" was an experimental lower-level
general education course in the spring of 1971. Several more
facilities were added to the campus, including the Coliseum in
1970, the Natatorium in 1975, and Mountaineer Field in 1980.
The PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) system, under construction for
a decade, was completed in 1979.
An Emphasis on Excellence 1980s
WVU developed more new programs in the 1980s. The Women's Studies
Program began in 1980 and became the Center for Women's Studies
in 1984. WWVU-FM U-92 went on the air in 1982, and the Social
Justice Office was established in 1986, followed by the Center
for Black Culture and Research. WVU celebrated the centenary
of women's education on campus from 1989 to 1991, using a theme
of "Excellence Through Equity."
Athletics continued to be a primary focus at WVU. During the
1980s, many athletes earned All-America status. For the newly
developed women's athletic teams, this was a particularly sweet
victory. Shari Retton was the first athlete to win All-America
status in a women's sport, gymnastics, in 1983. In December of
1984, Georgeann Wells became the first woman to dunk a basketball
in a game. She was inducted into Phi Slama Jama, the dunking
fraternity. The basketball she used for the dunk is now in the
Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Mountaineer Field was expanded to 60,686 seats in 1985 and to
63,175 seats in 1986. This expansion was an excellent move for
the University because Mountaineer football was soon to experience
one of its best seasons in history, as the team was undefeated
(11-0-0) in 1988.
Student-Centered for the Future 1990s
WVU in the 1990s launched new programs designed specifically
to assist freshmen in their transition to college. In 1997, President
David C. Hardesty Jr. (1995-present) announced the Operation
Jump-Start program. This program places first-year students in
one of nine residence halls, or "homes away from home,"
based upon the students' interests. Each of these "homes"
works as a small community led by Resident
Faculty Leaders, referred to affectionately as RFLs (pronounced
"riffles"). The RFLs act as mentors for the students
in their residence halls.
When President Hardesty was student body president in the 1960s,
WVU had a "Festival of Ideas." In the 1990s, as WVU's
president, he revived this idea. During this multi-week festival,
WVU hosts nationally and internationally renowned guest speakers.
In recent years, these have included Yolanda King, daughter of
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Spike Lee; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; and
Greg Louganis.
WVU has developed several fun activities for the students,
like FallFest, which is a huge party to welcome students back
to classes. In 1999, SpringFest was a time to celebrate before
the last week of classes began.WVUp All Night started in 1998
to offer free weekend entertainment to students including free
food, films, and various other activities.
WVU's curriculum and programs became even more diverse in the
1990s. The University approved the Africana Studies certificate
in 1990, developed new courses in environmental sciences, started
the forensic identification program, and offered an introductory
course to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender studies in
the spring of 1999. Operation Safe Zone, to provide support for
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, started in
the spring of 1998.
As WVU moves into the 21st century, its rich history of academic
excellence and progressive programs will continue to grow. As
alumni and supporters, you are part of this history.
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