1862
|
Abraham Lincoln signs Morrill Act
offering grants of federal land to every state that agrees to
establish a college for agriculture and engineering. |
1863
|
William L. Wilson of Charles Town,
future WVU president, comes to Morgantown with a Confederate
raiding party; he becomes a local hero by refusing to burn the
bridge across the Monongahela River. |
1864
|
Congress specifically extends the
Morrill Act to include West Virginia, a new state established
in 1863. |
1865
|
War Between the States/Civil War
ends; West Virginians embark on building their new state, including
public institutions of higher learning. |
1866
|
Senator William Price of Monongalia
County introduces a bill offering properties of Monongalia Academy
and Woodburn Seminary, valued at $51,000, to West Virginia for
a new college. |
1867
|
State legislature votes to put college
in Morgantown; state capital to move to Charleston two years
later as part of the deal; Rev. Alexander Martin is first WVU
president. |
1868
|
Legislature gives first contribution
to WVU from its own budget: $10,000 for endowment and $6,000
for current expenses. |
1869
|
Board of Regents is to replace Board
of Visitors; board adopts WVU seal. |
1870
|
University Hall, renamed Preparatory
Hall in 1878 and Martin Hall in 1889, opened at commencement
of first graduate, Marmaduke Herbert Dent. |
1871
|
U.S. War Department offers use of
ordnance, small arms, and ammunition for Cadet Corps at no cost
to WVU. |
1872
|
State constitution rewritten as Democrats
return to power. |
1873
|
College Hall (Old Woodburn) burns
down; legislature passes act levying tax of five cents on every
$100 of taxable property to raise funds for WVU to replace College
Hall. |
1874
|
William Dann builds a large boarding
house that he operates as a private venture; eventually, WVU
buys the building to house the School of Music. |
1875
|
Board of Regents decides it will
annually elect all faculty, "possibly with a purpose of
decapitation by indirect methods," muses James Morton Callahan. |
1876
|
Central part of Woodburn
Hall finished at cost of $41,500; top floor used for commencement
auditorium until 1890; called New Hall when built, then University
Building. |
1877
|
New President John R. Thompson says:
"The attempt to govern young men in attendance upon a State
University by laws conceived in the same spirit as those which
obtain in the conduct of reform schools and inebriate asylums
is foredoomed to miserable failure." |
1878
|
College of Law established as WVU's
first professional school; Dr. Hugh W. Brock teaches first medical
courses. |
1879
|
In the West Virginia Journal of
Education, which he founded and edited, President John Thompson
states that decent teacher salaries, better buildings, more state
aid, and free tuition for WVU students are needed. |
1880
|
Board of Regents considers coeducation
to increase attendance; Hinton Herald calls for abolishing WVU
completely and turning the campus into a "colored insane
asylum." |
1881
|
During the fall semester, "the
Virginia members of the Faculty . . . promptly indicated that
their chief immediate purpose [was] to take a firm stand against
the agitation for admission of women." |
1882
|
Ex-Confederate William Lynn Wilson
named president; Board eases requirements for compulsory chapel
attendance; faculty instructed to show "an exemplary diligence
in study and in the communication of knowledge and performance
of every moral religious duty." |
1883
|
Levi Holland, an African-American
living in Morgantown, tries to enter the Law School but fails
because WVU is racially segregated. |
1884
|
Board of Regents decides to meet
with Elizabeth I. Moore "to ascertain
the terms and conditions upon which the University might secure
the use of the Morgantown Female Seminary building as a dormitory
for female students and for other purposes in connection with
the proposed plans for coeducation." |
1885
|
Clarksburg attorney Eli Marsh Turner
becomes president; a delegate from the eastern pan-handle argues
that coeducation can come only "when we are prepared to
substitute the half-civilization of the northwest for the culture
of the Atlantic seaboard." |
1886
|
First train—of the Fairmont,
Morgantown, and Uniontown Railroad—enters Morgantown; clock
on Martin Hall moved 20 minutes ahead to be synchronized with
railroad time. |
1887
|
Congress passes Hatch Act to establish
agricultural experiment stations; The Athenaeum, a literary
magazine, debuts—it becomes the Daily Athenaeum newspaper
in 1933. |
1888
|
Prof. Berkeley uses a stereoscope
(an early version of a Viewmaster, which allows one to see two
images in three dimensions) to show his students nearly 200 Greek
and Roman scenes. |
1889
|
Board of Regents votes to admit women
to all WVU departments except the Preparatory Department; first
10 women arrive to study with 198 men; Agricultural Experiment
Station becomes active. |
1890
|
Members of the former Columbian Literary
Society become the charter members of Phi Kappa Psi, the first
permanent fraternity on campus. |
1891
|
Harriet E. Lyon is WVU's first woman
graduate—she is first in the class, which also includes
future WVU Law Professor James Russell
Trotter, who maintained that WVU had lowered its standards
by admitting women; students Melville Davisson Post and Billy
Meyer organize WVU's first football team—they
lose 72-0 against Washington and Jefferson College, with Prof.
F. L. Emory as coach. |
1892
|
Mechanical Hall (located near today's
Stansbury Hall) and Commencement Hall (where Hatfield's is now
located in the Mountainlair) open. |
1893
|
John C. Rane of Princeton coaches
WVU football team for free; WVU loses to Washington and Jefferson
58-0 but defeats Mount Pleasant Institute 12-0 and the Uniontown
Independents 12-2. |
1894
|
The Athenaeum proclaims: "Give
the School reputation and its halls will be filled with students." |
1895
|
Rev. James L. Goodknight becomes
president; legislature provides no funding for dormitories, so
fraternities provide housing, as do boarding houses, where men
and women live under faculty-mandated rules. Otherwise, groups
of 20 to 50 men gather in "forts," led by a "captain"
responsible for buying the food, employing the cook, and collecting
and paying bills in return for free board and the right to designate
his own successor. |
1896
|
Faculty warns students, after they
stamp their feet during chapel to show displeasure over compulsory
attendance, that "any student who is found guilty of creating
disorder in chapel shall be dismissed from the West Virginia
University." |
1897
|
Jerome Hall Raymond, age 28, named
president; women allowed to enter all departments and schools
(except military), including the Preparatory Department; WVU
preparatory school at Montgomery opens (today's WVU Institute
of Technology). |
1898
|
University extension lecturers include
Lester F. Ward, who argues about modern marriage, inspiring a
complaint from Prof. Robert W. Douthat to Gov. A.B. Fleming about
"the inner wickedness of Sociology." |
1899
|
Mechanical Hall burns; Board of Regents
authorizes 23 standing committees, "each with authority
to act in its own jurisdiction," so faculty can share in
conduct of University affairs. |
1900
|
Alfred E. Thayer appointed to Department
of Medicine—Thayer makes lasting contributions to the medical
program, such as insisting upon the procurement of cadavers for
dissection, as well as seeking additional space for laboratories
and classes and University membership in the Association of American
Medical Colleges. |
1901
|
Board of Regents elects Daniel B.
Purinton as president; University Hall renamed Woodburn Hall. |
1902
|
First separate library building opens
in what is now Stewart Hall; two-year School of Medicine established;
WVU preparatory school at Keyser opens (today's Potomac State
College of WVU). |
1903
|
Susan Maxwell Moore becomes dean
of women—women students required to submit bulletins from
Sunday church services at her office. |
1904
|
Charles Frederick Tucker Brooke receives
an A.B. from WVU at age 18 and is selected as a member of the
first group of Rhodes Scholars from around the world. |
1905
|
President's home, now called Purinton
House for the first president to live in it, completed. |
1906
|
Board of Regents states that the
Agricultural Experiment Station at WVU should not compete directly
with the state's farmers in sale of dairy and poultry products
produced at the station. |
1907
|
Robert Parvin Strickland is the second
Rhodes Scholar from WVU. |
1908
|
Governor's Office wants to know home
counties of WVU employees—President D.B. Purinton responds
that "scholastic employees" are not credited to any
county and that "a majority of them were drawn from other
states than West Virginia." |
1909
|
Legislature abolishes governing boards,
replacing them with one Board of Regents to make policy for all
state-supported educational institutions. |
1910
|
School of Medicine loses indepen-dence,
becomes department within Arts and Sciences. |
1911
|
WVU chapter of Phi Beta Kappa established;
Thomas E. Hodges named president U.S. President William
H. Taft speaks at Hodges's inauguration. |
1912
|
WVU Extension Service established;
School of Medicine regains independence. |
1913
|
According to the College of Arts
and Sciences, because "the unusual development of high schools
makes the training of teachers absolutely imperative," the
major work of the college is preparing teachers for the secondary
schools. |
1914
|
Mining Extension to train miners
starts, first in nation; first instruction in pharmacy; College
of Law becomes a member of the Association of American Law Schools;
WVU enrollment exceeds 1,000. |
1915
|
State Senate introduces a resolution
to investigate the advisability of keeping WVU in Morgantown—Morgantown
residents and WVU President Frank Trotter point out Morgantown
has no saloons, a long history of educational support, and a
"classical atmosphere." |
1916
|
Frank B. Trotter named president;
with war in Europe, a draft law is enacted and many students
enlist immediately—those who remain protest taking final
examinations; Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) organized. |
1917
|
Students picket entrances to all
WVU buildings to try to convince the faculty to "rescind
its customary testing." |
1918
|
Oglebay Hall completed for College
of Agriculture; basketball facility called the Ark built on site
of today's Stansbury Hall; flu epidemic hits Morgantown. |
1919
|
State Board of Education takes over
management of all public institutions of higher education. |
1920
|
A joke from the 1920 Monticola:
He—"Did you like the minister's lecture on alcohol?"
She—"Oh, it was splendid. He seemed so full of his
subject." |
1921
|
Engineering Experiment Station and
Jackson's Mill State 4-H Camp, the first in the nation, established. |
1922
|
William Jennings Bryan speaks in
Commencement Hall on "The Bible and Its Enemies," charges:
"The teaching of evolution and Darwinism by university professors
is ruining the faith of the young people of America." |
1923
|
Law Building, later named Colson
Hall, completed; College of Law fully accredited by the American
Bar Association. |
1924
|
Allen W. Porterfield, head of the
German Department, tells the Morgantown Post that Morgantown
real estate prices are so high that, "unless lowered, the
faculty would depart, bringing grave and permanent injury to
the University." |
1925
|
Old Mountaineer Field completed;
WVU records a 21-6 win over West Virginia Wesleyan. |
1926
|
WVU joins the North Central Association
of Colleges and Secondary Schools. |
1927
|
Top salary for a professor in Arts
and Sciences is $5,000; College of Education becomes independent. |
1928
|
School of Physical Education established;
economist John Roscoe Turner becomes president —in his inaugural
address, he says he has received "necessary assurances"
from government officials "that a graduate school would
be forthcoming." |
1929
|
Stephen P. Burke, former research
director for Combustion Utilities Corp. in New York City, is
named chair of the new Graduate Council and starts organizing
a graduate school. |
1930
|
Graduate School is established with
support from individuals and corporations who fund six fellowship
programs for 1930-31; Dr. W.H. McGaw, WVU infirmary physician,
states that women freshmen at WVU are in better physical shape
than male freshmen, many of whom need minor surgery and dental
work. |
1931
|
New main library building, now Wise
Library, is dedicated. |
1932
|
Graduate School is organized into
four groups: Industrial Science, Biological Science, Social Science,
and Education; the Graduate School is charged with pursuing research
to address the problems of the state, and to train students for
graduate degrees. |
1933
|
Following budget cuts that drive
many faculty members away, these are the salaries of those who
remain: $4,713 for deans; $3,538 for professors; $2,691 for associate
professors; $2,397 for assistant professors; $1,811 for instructors. |
1934
|
Charles Wise and DeWitt White are
chosen to represent the United States in a series of debates
with students at British universities as a result of their training
in public speaking at WVU. |
1935
|
Literature Professor Robert Allen
Armstrong becomes president; Armstrong, who wrote pamphlets like
How to Know the Bible and Historical and Literary Outlines
of the Old Testament, has been on the WVU faculty for 40
years; he dies within a year and is replaced by Chauncey Samuel
Boucher, an historian. |
1936
|
School of Pharmacy established—offers
a B.S. degree in pharmacy. |
1937
|
Four-year forestry program created
in the College of Agriculture and Forestry. |
1938
|
Mountaineers beat Texas Tech 7-6
in the Sun Bowl at El Paso; WVU boxers Sam Littlepage and Ashby
Dickerson win NCAA national titles—they join WVU's Mickey
Brutto, who won the title in 1936, as national champions. |
1939
|
Charles E. Lawall named president;
School of Social Work established; Journalism School becomes
independent. |
1940
|
Board of Governors adopts American
Association of University Professors (AAUP) principles of academic
freedom and tenure. |
1941
|
Gov. Matthew Mansfield Neely, a WVU
alumnus and graduate of the College of Law, states in his inaugural
address that WVU "should be so expanded and perfected that
it would be unnecessary for anyone in the state to go abroad
for technical or professional training." |
1942
|
Mineral Industries Building, today's
White Hall, opens; with World War II underway, many WVU students
leave to join the military. |
1943
|
For the first time in WVU history,
women students outnumber men, excluding soldier trainees—809
women are enrolled compared to 592 men; only the School of Mines
remains all-male. |
1944
|
Gov. Matthew Neely, seeking higher
education reforms, tells the people of the state: "If you
desire that the University be lifted high above the Dead Sea
level of inferiority in which visionless greed has long kept
it and that it be made a fountain of everflowing blessings for
you and your children after you, join me in this important fight
for educational reform, and help render an inestimable service
to all the average men, women, and children of the state." |
1945
|
Anticipating a 2,000-student growth
in enrollment after the war, the faculty newsletter states: "If
appropriations are not obtained sufficient to retain an efficient
faculty and to provide necessary equipment and buildings to enable
the University to compete with the universities of neigh-boring
states, the result will be most humiliating indeed." |
1946
|
Irvin Stewart's term as president
begins; World War II is over and the Cold War is in full swing. |
1947
|
President Stewart tells the Board
of Governors: "I would recommend the dismissal of any member
of the faculty who is a Communist, because I believe that communism
requires intellectual dishonesty incompatible with serving on
the University faculty." |
1948
|
Land for the Evansdale campus is
purchased; Core Arboretum established; student population reaches
8,069 as returning soldiers and sailors enroll under the GI Bill. |
1949
|
The House Committee on Un-American
Activities requests lists of textbooks used in social sciences
courses; President Stewart honors the request, but writes: "I
assume that the separation of powers between the state and the
national government is such that the House Committee has no proper
jurisdiction over the University. . . . The [Committee] falls
in a class by itself by the way in which it has used its official
position to smear private individuals." |
1950
|
February 7 is declared the first
University Day, celebrating WVU's birthday throughout state—the
idea is President Stewart's. |
1951
|
WVU selected as site of the state's
new medical center. |
1952
|
On May 22, a major panty raid on
Terrace Hall and Woman's Hall occurs; College of Business and
Economics established. |
1953
|
State auditor decides WVU doesn't
have to belong to the North Central Association of Colleges and
Secondary Schools and withholds dues payment. |
1954
|
WVU Foundation is established; U.S.
Supreme Court issues its Brown v. Board of Education decision,
and WVU desegregates immediately, without incident; Jack Hodge
from McDowell County is the first black undergraduate to receive
a WVU degree. |
1955
|
Board of Governors rules "that
there be no waiver of the military and air science requirements
for students objecting to military training on religious grounds,
inasmuch as it is reasonable to require that able-bodied boys
who desire to study at a land-grant institution should learn
how to defend their county by force of arms if the occasion should
arise." |
1956
|
Second Mechanical Hall burns down. |
1957
|
Basic Sciences Building in the new
Medical Center opens; the School of Dentistry, the only dental
school in West Virginia, is created; Annette Chandler-Broome
of Morgantown is the first black female undergraduate to receive
a WVU degree. |
1958
|
WVU School of Pharmacy moves into
Medical Center. |
1959
|
Nuclear reactor installed at WVU;
Elvis Stahr's term as president begins; Stahr's $30,000 salary
makes him the highest-paid executive in WVU history and the highest-paid
public employee in West Virginia; Jerry West leads the Mountaineer
basketball team to the NCAA Championship game, where they lose
to California 71-70. |
1960
|
University Hospital opens; School
of Nursing and Department of Pediatrics established. |
1961
|
First D.D.S. degress awarded by School
of Dentistry; Dental Hygiene program is created, the first four-year
program of its type in the nation. |
1962
|
Paul Ausborn Miller becomes president;
Parkersburg Center of WVU, the first community college in the
state, established; Dr. Herbert Warden
and his team in the School of Medicine perform the first open-heart
surgery in West Virginia. |
1963
|
According to the WVU annual report
for 1962-63, President Miller views his role as "presiding
over the culmination of the land-grant movement in education
which recognized that all work was dignified and worthy of continuous
improvement by educational institutions and that citizens should
have educational opportunities commensurate with their abilities,
regardless of income or social position." |
1964
|
WVU acquires its first computer,
an IBM, installed in Agricultural Sciences; Dean of Libraries
Robert Munn establishes the WVU Press. |
1965
|
Forestry Building, later renamed
Percival Hall, opens, as do the first two towers of the Evansdale
Residential Complex; College of Human Resources and Education
organized. |
1966
|
Distinguished faculty positions,
later known as Benedum and Centennial professorships, are established. |
1967
|
James G. Harlow becomes president—a
former editor with a penchant for electronic gadgets, he is devoted
to computerizing WVU; enrollment is 13,455 on WVU's 100th birthday. |
1968
|
Creative Arts
Center, new Mountainlair, and two more towers of the Evansdale
Residential Complex are completed. |
1969
|
CBS News reporter Nicholas Von Hoffman
visits WVU to report on anti-Vietnam War moratorium day observances—he
tells a national audience: "The place strikes you as essentially
authoritarian," and calls WVU a "football and fraternity
campus" of "obedient children"; Mountaineers beat
South Carolina 14-3 in Peach Bowl in Atlanta. |
1970
|
In May, following the Kent State
tragedy, demonstrating students and counter-demonstrators block
traffic on University Avenue—State Police officers fire
tear gas into the crowd to restore order; 14,000-seat Coliseum
opens; Drug Information Center opens in School of Pharmacy. |
1971
|
School of Social Work established;
Mountaineer statue dedicated in front of Mountainlair. |
1972
|
Science Hall is renamed in honor
of Oliver P. Chitwood, a long-time professor of history; women
allowed to join the WVU Marching Band for the first time. |
1973
|
"Streaking"—running
naked through public places—is the craze on campus. |
1974
|
Law Center is completed. |
1975
|
Natatorium opens; WVU starts the
West Virginia Network for Educational Telecomputing. |
1976
|
The Computing Services unit is established. |
1977
|
Gene A. Budig becomes president;
enrollment reaches 21,565; the Charleston Division of the WVU
Medical Center is dedicated. |
1978
|
WVU's first capital campaign, "Threshold
to Greatness," is launched. |
1979
|
The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT)
system, started in 1970, is completed between downtown and the
Medical Center. |
1980
|
50,000-seat Mountaineer Field opens. |
1981
|
Evansdale Library opens; Former Dean
of Law E. Gordon Gee appointed president, succeeding Harry B.
Heflin, who served less than a year. |
1982
|
WWVU-FM, student radio station U-92,
goes on the air. |
1983
|
Rifle team wins first NCAA national
championship; WWVU-TV, West Virginia's first public television
station, which began broadcasting in 1969, is transferred to
the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority. |
1984
|
Hazel Ruby McQuain donates $8 million
toward the construction of Ruby Memorial Hospital, the largest
single gift in WVU's history; Graduate School is discontinued;
WVU Hospitals become a private corporation; WVU's Georgeann
Wells is the first woman to dunk a basketball in a game. |
1985
|
Barbara
Schamberger becomes the first female WVU Rhodes Scholar. |
1986
|
Neil S. Bucklew of Preston County
named president; Erickson Alumni Center opens; Mountaineer Field
is expanded to 63,175 seats. |
1987
|
First class of Foundation Scholars
enters WVU; Chestnut Ridge Hospital opens. |
1988
|
The Academy of Distinguished Alumni
is established by the Alumni Association; Ruby Memorial Hospital
opens; led by quarterback Major Harris, the Mountaineer football
team is 11-0-0 in the regular season but loses 34-21 to Notre
Dame in the Fiesta Bowl national championship game. |
1989
|
Institute for the History of Technology
and Industrial Archeology is founded; Ruby Memorial Hospital
has the state's first Level One trauma center. |
1990
|
Board of Trustees replaces the Board
of Regents under the University of West Virginia system, which
includes Marshall University; College of Mineral and Energy Resources
opens new building on Evansdale campus; Natalie
Tennant is the first female Mountaineer mascot. |
1991
|
College of Business and Economics
moves into a new building downtown. |
1992
|
Construction begins on the National
Research Center for Coal and Energy; Mountaineer Doctor Television
(MDTV) founded to link WVU physicians with patients in rural
areas. |
1993
|
College of Arts and Sciences becomes
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences; Health Sciences Center becomes
the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center. |
1994
|
The STAR student information system
enables students to register for courses electronically; library
catalogs and circulation systems automated. |
1995
|
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
celebrates its centennial. |
1996
|
David C. Hardesty Jr., a Shinnston
native and former Rhodes Scholar from WVU, becomes president. |
1997
|
President Hardesty announces a master
plan calling for major new construction and renovations of campus
buildings; Operation Jump-Start and the Career Services Academy
are created. |
1998
|
Resident Faculty Leaders move into
new houses beside residence halls; WVU becomes a member of the
Oracle Academic Initiative, bringing state -of-the-art computing
systems and educational programs to campus. |
1999
|
Kellogg Foundation grants to establish
partnerships between WVU and the state's communities are announced;
WVU Press moves from Libraries to Eberly College of Arts and
Sciences. |
2000
|
WVU marks the end of the 20th century and the
second millennium with a year-long celebration called WVU 2000;
special events are held around the state to reaffirm WVU's role
as West Virginia's flagship university. |
