VOLUME TWENTY-THREE

AUGUST,

1955

NUMBER

Six

A
PROGRESS REPORT
•

Fifteen Years Are Finished -

1940 to 1955.

•

Have Pennsylvania Teachers Colleges Come of Age?

•

Bloomsburg -

•

The Development of Pennsylvania State Teachers Colleges as
Institutions of Higher Education (1927-1948).

Bigger? Better? or Both?

STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE
BLOOMSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA

REPORT TO ALUMNI, FORMER STUDENTS, AND FRIENDS
OF BLOOMSBURG STATE TEACHERS COLLEGE
NINETEEN HUNDRED FIFTY-FIVE - This marks the end of a
fifteen-year period in the present administration of the college.
You will find that this report is divided into four parts, as
follows:
(1)

( 2)
(3)
( 4)

Fifteen Years Are Finished - 1940 to 1955.
Have Pennsylvania Teachers Colleges Come of Age?
Bloomsburg - Bigger? Better? or Both?
The Development of Pennsylvania State Teachers
Colleges as Institutions of Higher Education ( 19271948).

This report is not intended to conform to the pattern of those
made from time to time by Presidents of colleges and universities.
In addition to the regular biennial report made to the State
Superintendent in volumes which gather dust on the shelves of
libraries, we have distributed to the Alumni and friends of Bloomsburg two reports:
(1)

Five Years Are Finished -

1940 to 1945;

(2)

Five More Years Are Finished -

1945 to 1950.

The first was written by the President of the College, who
corrected the final proofs while in New York City awaiting transportation to go overseas to help organize the First American Army
University near Oxford, England, in the late summer of 1945.
The second of these reports was written by Dean John A. Hoch,
Director of Public Relations, and published in April, 1950.
Instead of writing a third report covering the five-year period
from 1950 to 1955, it seems desirable that the fifteen years from
1940 to 1955 be covered in one report. This period covers the
administration of

President.

Entered as Second-Class Matter at the Post Office at Bloomsburg,
Pennsylvania, under the Act of August 24, 1912.

3

FIFTEEN YEARS ARE FINISHED BUILDING AND IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM OVER

1940-1955
$2,000,000.

In 1940 the first General State Authority Building Program
was not completed. It is true, we had a new Gymnasium, Junior
High School, and Maintenance and Heating Plant Buildings, but
they were neither usable nor completely equipped.

For instance, the Heating Plant had three boilers dating back
to World War I, one unit dating back to 1930, and one new unit
which was operable less than one month each year of the following
decade.
During the war period, the college was able to put over
$300,000 into plant repairs in an attempt to make women's dormitory space available for men, and change from dining to cafeteria
service. Most of these funds were drawn from Federal Contracts in
connection with the training of Army and Navy Flyers and Navy
Deck Officers.
In the last five years over $1,000,000 has been spent on the college plant, over 80% of which has been provided by the General
State Authority to reconstruct the Heating Plant, and to construct
a proposed College Dining Room Building to cost in excess of
$450,000.
Some of the internal changes have been brought about by the
renovation of the Waller Hall (Old) Gymnasium to be used as a
Lounge for students and house a College Book Store and Snack Bar.
The first floor corridor of Waller Hall has been changed from office
space to lounge space for both students and faculty, and administrative offices for the social deans.

These plant changes are of the type that can be noted by the
returning alumni or the college visitor. Other unseen improvements
which have resulted in economies of operation and fixing building
space for modern instructional uses should be noted, even though
not easily discernable.
Underground electrical lines and transformers now give the
college the lowest relative electric cost among the State Teachers
Colleges. Rewiring of the Waller Hall Dormitory not only removes
a fire hazard, but provides conduction for electric current necessary
to operate modern electric appliances, and provides more light for
study.
Although few see it, we have one of the most modern and
economical heating plants in this section of Pennsylvania, and of
sufficient size to provide for future growth.
Practically all buildings have been reroofed and the interiors
repainted.

4

The general impression of our grass plots and plantings causes
many favorable comments from casual visitors.

If we look at the fifteen year period, we can, in addition to the
million dollars spent on construction, discover that expenditures for
major repairs have been about three-fourths of a million, and the
purchase of equipment and machinery one-fourth of a million,
so that the grand total for building construction, contracted repairs,
and equipment and machinery will exceed $2,000,000.
The greater amount of these plant improvements has taken
place in the last five years.
ENROLLMENT TRENDS

For those who are interested in figures, college enrollments are
significant. First, the number of graduates. Two thousand onehundred eighty-five degrees have been granted in the fifteen year
period from the college year 1939-1940 to and including the college
year 1953-1954, the largest number of graduates being two-hundred
sixty-three in 1950 and the smallest being fifty-nine in the year 1945.
It will be remembered that 1945 was in the trough of the enrollment during World War II and prior to the return of any veterans in 1946, and that 1950 was the high tide of G. I. enrollment.
While a restudy of this group is being made, if we take the
placement report of the graduates available for employment ( if we
take the total number of graduates and subtract the number of
people who went into the Armed Forces or enrolled in graduate
schools directly after graduation) we find that 83% taught the year
after graduation and 13% were employed in gainful occupations,
making the total employment 96% of those available. The remaining 4% includes married women who did not teach, graduates who
could not be reached, and the unemployed.
During the post war period the teacher education students
numbered only 178 in 1945 and reached 894 in 1950. However,
during the war period from 1943 to 1946, the figures in full-time
teacher education students was offset in a large measure by War
Program students. For instance, in 1944 we had a total enrollment
of 1,140 students during the year, of which only 313 were teacher
education students.
During the four-year period of War Programs we taught 1,000
to fly, had 500 Navy Officer Candidates, housed 2,000 students for
Engineering Science, and Management War Trainees, and offered
courses to nurses from Bloomsburg Hospital. This enabled us to
o_ffer employment to our faculty, maintain our college plant in
times when material was available only on priority, make a substantial contribution to the war effort, and develop our Aviation
Program.

5

In the war time when other colleges were at their low point in
enrollment, at the height of World War II we had an enrollment of
1,000 students in 1944.
During the last five years, the enrollment of the college has
averaged somewhere between 800 and 900 students, being limited
by our dormitory capacity and seating in the dining room and
auditorium.
For seven years, from 1946 to 1951, we operated extension
classes in as many as five or six towns located within a forty mile
radius of Bloomsburg.
For three years, 1947 to 1949, we accepted two sections of about
seventy-five Liberal Arts Freshmen who had matriculated at Pennsylvania State University, and after completing one year at Bloomsburg became Sophomores on the Penn State Campus.

In 1955 there are more than 900 full-time teacher education
students on campus, with a Freshman Class of over three-hundred
fifty.
Over this period of time the Business Department has in some
years had the largest enrollment of any one of the three divisions,
·and this seems to depend on the proportion of men students. The
ratio of men to women after World War II was two to one, and
after the Korean Conflict is now about five to three.
INSTRUCTIONAL GROWTH

With an enrollment range of from 800 to 900, the number of
full-time faculty has varied between 45 and 50. Part-time instructors
have been employed to teach extension and classes for part-time
students, and the number of co-operating teachers off-campus has
waxed and waned with the number of Seniors in the practice
teaching field.
Since 1950 the college has been visited by committees representing the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary
Schools ( a regional accrediting association) and the American
Asssociation of Colleges for Teacher Education ( until recently a
National accrediting association for teacher education), and has
received a superior rating.
Faculty growth is evidenced by the improvement in the degree
holding status, namely, over twenty per cent have earned the
D octor's Degree, and a sizable fraction of the faculty have continued
to pursue graduate courses. Present faculty ranking shows 10 Professors (Doctor's Degree), 9 Associate Professors (Two years of
graduate work including Master's Degree), 25 Assistant Professors
(at least Master's Degree), and 3 Imtructors.

6

The number of Associate Professors indicates those people who
have gone beyond the Master's Degree toward the Doctor's Degree,
and represents in many cases additional education planned to relate
directly to the instructional responsibilities of the particular faculty
member taking it.
The quality point system was inaugurated in the early part of
this fifteen year period, and along with the appointment of a Coordinator of Guidance Services, the continuance of the giving of
Placement Tests to all Freshmen, along with the social and economic
questionnaire, and the increasing use of the trait sheet for all
students formerly applied only to Seniors, are some of the devices
by which improvement in faculty-student relationships is sought.
Admission procedures have been revised to include an interview by two college officers. With the larger number of applicants
and larger number of students seeking admission who graduated in
the lower half of their high school class, a correspondingly larger
number have been refused admission. Continuing guidance and
counseling have been made available through the Directors of the
Curriculums in Business, Elementary, and Secondary education,
along with the Social Deans and their assistants.
FACILITIES FOR STUDENTS:

With the construction of the Junior High School and its use as
a classroom building for the Department of Business Education and
certain science classes, it has been possible to make classroom space
in older buildings available for social and lounge purposes for
students.
The large classroom on the second floor of Noetling Hall,
formerly used for the Sixth Grade when this building was a Model
School, and afterwards used for an Accounting Classroom in Business Education, was made available to Day Men, with much the
same facilities as have been available for Day Women on the first
floor of the same building over a period of twenty-five years.
The putting of the Centennial Gymnasium into use, allowed
the conversion of the Old Waller Gymnasium into a general student
recreation center - on one side a balcony lounge was located in the
bleacher space, and on the other the bleacher space was leveled off
as a location for a student book store and snack bar. At one end a
fireplace and lounge space was made available, and with the removal
of the balcony at the other end, once a part of the circular running
track, the main floor used as a basketball court is used for weekly
student dancing, card playing, and the like.
The classroom adjacent to the Alumni Room, formerly used as
offices for the Physical Education Staff, is now a faculty lounge,
and by removing the overhead stairway to the Old Library, we now
have space in what was formerly a hall for three student offices.
7

With the increase in the size of the lobby entrance to the
dining room to include the space formerly occupied by the Business
Office, we would now seem to have more than adequate lounge,
lobby, and waiting space for students and college visitors for the
student-body of the present size.
PUBLIC RELATIONS

Changes in habits of the American people since World War II
have caused us to change the kind and number of our contacts
with our surrounding communities and service area. Some of
the older events have been continued, such as Homecoming for
the younger alumni, and Alumni Day for the Reunion Classes,
the Basketball Tournament, and the continuation of the Spring
Contest for Business Students.
We now invite service club representatives from three or four
surrounding communities to a dinner preceding our Annual Sales
Rally. The dinner is served to from 100 to 200, and the Sales Rally
attendance varies from 700 to 800.
A fashion show precedes the Business Contest and the Future
Teachers of America invite interested high school students to come
· to the college for a day in the Spring.
Our most effective channel for contacting prospective students
is through the services of twenty or more interested members of our
faculty who have in some recent years visited as many as 175 high
schools. This visitation is many times preceded by an invitation to
the high school principal to give the names of high school students
who may be likely prospects for the teaching field.
Hiring officials receive an annual placement brochure which contains the pictures and description of the teaching fields of each
graduating Senior.
With the publication of the catalog every two years, a larger
amount of supplementary picture material is placed in the hands of
prospective students.
ATHLETICS
While "wins" and "losses" are not necessarily a good criteria to
apply to the success or failure of an intercollegiate athletic program,
since many times sacrifices have had to be made in academic standards and administrative favoritism has to be shown to certain groups
who participate on teams, it is, however, the most objective measurement of team prowess.
The period from 1939 to 1945 was, of course, one in which
intercollegiate athletics was curtailed or terminated, and finally

8

revived on a limited basis using war program students (Navy Flight
Instructors and Officers Candidates) for teams representing the
college.
,;

~

For a fifteen year period beginning in 1930 it would seem to be
fair to say that our track and baseball teams were outstanding,
basketball was above average, and football teams were below average. In fact, in some years our record was poor.
With the turn in the balance of enrollment in 1938 in
rection of a larger number of male students, and with the
one ratio of men to women following World War II, it
desirable to reorganize our staff of Coaches. This was done
basis that

the ditwo to
seemed
on the

1.

Physical Education instructors could not be expected to coach
all college sports in that

2.

No Coach can be an expert in more than two sports, so that

3. The coaching duties were assigned on a broader basis to a
larger number of faculty members, many of whom were not a part
of the Physical Education instructional staff. The results speak for
themselves as we summarize the following intercollegiate sports.
FOOTBALL

Beginning in 1946 the Husky Gridders compiled an excellen~
record of 61 victories, 16 losses, 2 ties. The 1948 Club was the only
undefeated and untied college football team in Pennsylvania, and
our team was declared one of the co-champions of the Teachers
College Conference.
This Football achievement was repeated in 1949 when the
Huskies lost only one game in nine starts.
Whereas, in 1951 with the organization of the Pennsylvania State
Teachers College Athletic Conference, Bloomsburg Huskies were
victorious, winning all of their games, and in 1952 finished second.
This is the greatest football record in the history of the college.
BASKETBALL

#,

The high point in this sport was reached in 1953 when Bloomsburg won the conference championship with ten wins and two
losses. The record for the ten-year period is 95 wins and 71 losses.
BASEBALL

One undefeated Baseball Season in 1949 represents the first
undefeated season since the days of Danny Litwhiler in 1935. Our
record is 70 wins and 33 losses, 1 tie (weather).

9

TRACK

This sport, once our most outstanding intercollegiate athletic
effort, has not been as successful as in former year.
WRESTLING

Early in the p ost-war period Soccer was a part of the college
athletic program and was finally deleted from the list of activities.
After a lapse Wrestling as a varsity sport was begun in 1955.
INTRAMURAL ATHLETICS

lntramurals for men have been popular, particularly the Spring
program in which from 20% to 30% of the college men participate.
Intramurals for women have attracted a relatively smaller proportion of women in activities that center around a weekly openhouse program in the Gymnasium.
HAVE PENNSYLVANIA TEACHERS COLLEGES
COME OF AGE?
(Address Mid-Year Commencement, January 19, 1955)
INDIVIDUALS AND INSTITUTIONS

Coming of age means one thing to individuals, while it may
mean something else to institutions. Individuals graduating from a
Teachers College have probably come of age in the legal sense and
also in an academic sense, but they have still to demonstrate their
professional responsibility.
AGE As A MEASURE OF MATURITY

While individuals may get married at eighteen, vote at twentyone, and make legal contract according to the law of the particular
State in which they live, there are no such measures for the maturity
of colleges. If so, we could say that in 1955 our colleges have been
on a four-year basis since 1934, at which time only students for the
Bachelor's Degree were admitted, thus marking the passage of
twenty-one years.
Institutions mature, or come of age, not on the basis of the passage of an interval of time. They cannot be viewed in the same way
as individuals. Generations are sometimes required for institutions
to achieve academic respectability.
ACADEMIC RESPECTABILITY

Sometimes the outward display of collegiate status has been too
pretentious.

10

y"

When the Goths overcame the Romans, we are told, these conquerors arrayed themselves in togas and strutted about the Forum
spouting orations in ornate Latin style with greater aplomb than
any of the Roman Senators. Young colleges sometimes fall into this
error. In achieving academic respectability, the Pennsylvania State
Teachers Colleges have been slow to follow the outward show of
traditions and trappings whose sources have long since been lost
in the light of the Middle Ages.
Being a part of the public school system, our college calendar
is the nine month - 180 day - 36 week calendar of the public
schools rather than the two semesters of 15 or 16 weeks comprising
the traditional academic college.
Faculty ranking has only recently been established in State Teachers Colleges as a part of a mandatory salary schedule following the
pattern of the public schools. If academic respectability, i. e., the
conformation to academic traditions, is the measure of maturity,
or coming of age, then the Pennsylvania Teachers Colleges may not
qualify by the mere length of academic processions headed by
marshals with maces, or rigid plans of organization, such as department heads, professional rank, adherence to a policy of publish or
perish, do research or resign, or many of the other current traditional practices.
PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

However, if we do not view coming of age in terms of the
passage of years of achievement of academic respectability but in
terms of being professionally responsible for the education of
teachers, it is another story. All Pennsylvania Teachers Colleges are
now accredited by the Pennsylvania Council of Education, the
Middle States Association, and the America Association of Colleges
for Teacher Education. This means that they have been recognized
by the State, Regional, and National Accrediting Associations. In
terms of professional responsibility, we can say that Pennsylvania
State Teachers Colleges are on the road to coming of age or maturity.
THE HERITAGE OF HISTORY
~

.,,

Those graduated in 1955 commemorate a century of Teacher
Education in Pennsylvania. They are the inheritors of history which
began in a very meager way in Lancaster County for the first time
in 1855, when James P. Wickersham discovered a need for separate
institutions for teachers. This need grew out of his supervision of
teachers in one-room rural schools. Wickersham was a meticulous
record keeper, and he has left us in his diary the notes which he
took over a century ago. Here are five examples.
1. Teacher - Can scarcely understand English - speaks to
the pupils altogether in German - teaches in the old way - knows
11

nothing about the improved modes of teaching - may do his best
but is unfit without more knowledge to teach either English or
German.
2. Teacher - Dull, slow, and ignorant - writes miserably teaches reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic equally bad - is
unfit to teach and yet is wanted by the neighborhood.
3. Teacher - A female, the only female teacher in all this
country - industrious - speaks too low - teaches reading well,
by example - asks miscellaneous questions in grammar and Geography-has improved methods of teaching-is an excellent teacher.

I

l

4. Teacher - Inexperienced - pronounces English badly has some idea that there is a better way of teaching - with a
good deal more knowledge and influence may make a teacher, but
is a poor one now.
5. Teacher - Old, and very old-fashioned - sits with his hat
on - seems feeble - I doubt whether anybody can teach worse no energy - no life - no improvement - poor beyond hope of
amendment - amputation is necessary.
The law providing for County Superintendents was enacted
in 1854. It is interesting to note that James P. Wickersham of
Lancaster County, had his salary fixed at $1,500 per year, the highest in the State, and Joel Bradley, of Columbia County, received
only $300 per year.
Under the 1854 law, County Superintendents conducted examinations, issued teaching certificates, inspected schools, kept
public attention focused on educational problems, and encouraged
teachers to remedy their deficiency on a voluntary basis by attending teachers institutes which were organized to increase their proficiency in common school subjects and, as Wickersham put it,
learn something about the 'business of teaching.'
The Lancaster County Normal Institute opened April 17, 1885,
for a three month period in the buildings of the Millersville Academy with 147 teachers in attendance. At that time the average male
teacher received a yearly salary of $118.88, and the average female
teacher $79.42, while the cost of this institute was $37.50. You can
understand the sacrifice that was necessary to attend these institutes,
when women were willing to pay half and men one-third their
salaries of bettering their preparation for teaching.
Undoubtedly, the County Superintendents had a great deal to
do with the evolution of these short term institutes, housed in rented
quarters, into separate schools for the preparation of teachers.
The Lancaster County Normal School was founded and finally
became, after the passage of the Normal School Act of 1857, the
first of the State Normal Schools in 1859. This same James P. Wick12

f

J

I

'

ersham became State Superintendent, and in 1867, on a trip through
the Northeastern part of Pennsylvania, passed through Bloomsburg
on the railroad in the evening, saw the lights from the student
lamps in the newly erected building of the then Bloomsburg Literary Institute, and the thought occurred to him that this would be
a good location for a State Normal School. Later he delivered an
address in Bloomsburg advocating a conversion of the Literary Institute into a State Normal School, and you will recall that on
February 19, 1869, our institution was chartered as a State Normal
School.
This is our historical heritage.
GIANTS OF THE PROFESSION

As we look back to find out where we have been in order to
find out where we are in relation to where we want to go, we recall
the Biblical quotation that "Giants dwelt therein in old time."
James P. Wickersham, the most prominent of the early County
Superintendents in Pennsylvania, organizer of Lancaster County
Institute for Teachers and the Lancaster County Normal School,
Principal of the First Pennsylvania Normal School, State Superintendent, one of the leading spirits among the organizers of what is
now the Pennsylvania School Journal, and one of a very small
group of men to meet in Harrisburg to organize the National Education Association - all these things along with his part in the
organization of the Bloomsburg State Normal School, justify hi!.
designation as giant of the profession.
Lancaster County also claims a part in the careers of Thomas
H. Burrowes, Secretary of the Commonwealth and Superintendent
of the Common Schools, President of the struggling institution
which now has become the flourishing Pennsylvania State University, and Dr. E. E. Higbee, President of Marshall College, now
Mercersburg Academy, member of the faculty of Franklin and
Marshall and later State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

t
I

But Bloomsburg has also made its contribution to this galaxy
of giants. Two of the Heads of Bloomsburg have been State Superintendents, one Dr. David Jewett Waller, was Principal of the
Bloomsburg State Normal School for two terms of Office aggregating
twenty-seven years, was State Superintendent for four years, and
and Principal of Indiana State Normal School for twelve years,
making a total of forty-three years of service in teacher education,
probably the longest Pennsylvania career in teacher education on
record. The other, Dr. Francis B. Haas, who was State Superintendent
of Public Instruction before becoming President of Bloomsburg
State Teachers College in 1927, and after a term of twelve years is
now completing his sixteenth year as State Superintendent, having
served under four Governors.

13

It is also interesting to note that both Doctor Waller and
Doctor Haas have been Presidents of Pennsylvania State Education
Association, along with Mr. ~'. \V. Evans, who served as Superintendent of Columbia County Schools for many years, and who was
for four years Vice-President of the Board of our Trustees.
COMMEMORATIONS OF HISTORICAL EVENTS

Last February 19, 1954, we commemorated the Eighty-Fifth
Anniversary of the chartering of the Bloomsburg State Normal
School. The Bloomsburg Beacon was lighted and dedicated to those
of our graduates and former students who made the supreme sacrifice in World War II.
Following the passage of the Normal School Act in 1857, an
"Educational Harvest Home" was held in Millersville. This was
an event commemorating the hope that Millersville would be the
first State Normal School. Beginning at nine o'clock in the morning
the distinguished guests assembled in Lancaster and paraded to
Millersville over a recently constructed turnpike, escorted by a local
militia company (Fencibles) and their band in Conestoga wagons.
The procession was over a mile in length and included Governor
Pollock, who spoke, along with the several County Superintendents.
Newspaper reports indicate that the guests were entertained with
exhibitions in elocution, phonetic spelling, dialogues, and music in
the small school chapel with sentiments from the pupils appropriate
to the occasion. Of the sentiments addressed by the County Superintendent, this one is typical:
'The Superintendents of the three counties - May the White
Rose of York, the Red Rose of Lancaster, and the Cedars of Lebanon,
be twined in a never-fading wreath of bloom upon their brows.'
The State Superintendent was the recipient of a sentiment given
by a young lady whose name it is interesting to note was Miss Rose
E. Budd, who addressed him thusThomas H. Burrowes, the steadfast friend of public schoolsWhen old Lancaster wished the plow of progress to turn the depest furrows, she turned and gave, with one acclaim the handle up
to Burrowes.'

If you will contrast this demonstration of interest in public
education with our observance of the Eighty-Fifth Anniversary, you
will have to admit that the Millersville Educational Harvest Home
had a wider public appeal. It was a combination Camp Meeting,
Revival Meeting, Political Rally, and Militia Parade all rolled into
one. Over 1500 people came in a holiday spirit and filled the seats
provided, with more than 500 finding standing room. Some of the
people came with the same spirit with which they went to the County Fair, or saw the butchering of a 795 pound pig at a local tavern.
14

The Governor was there, great throngs were there, and for
many it was an exciting day aside from the cause of public schools.
STUDENT LIFE THEN AND

Now

Students have always felt that there were too many rules and
regulations. In one of the early Bloomsburg Catalogs can be found
the following statements for the guidance and edification of students. The regulations in the Bloomsburg Catalog at that time read
as follows:
'l. The young ladies and gentlemen are not allowed to pause
and loiter for intercommunication in the Halls, Society Rooms,
Dining Rooms or Parlors, unless by special permission. Neither are
they permitted to walk, ride or correspond with each other

'5. On the time intervening between the close of afternoon
study hours and the supper hour, the boarding students have the
privilege of leaving the grounds and walking in the neighborhood
of the School.

'6. After evening Chapel exercises, the students are to repair
immediately to their rooms for study; the study hour ending only
with the ringing of the first retiring bell, at quarter before ten p.
m. During this time no visiting of rooms or loud talking is allowed,
and no student is permitted to leave his floor without permission
from the teacher in charge.'
Sometimes the student reaction to these regulations carried over
into Alumni meetings. Evidently Millersville, and I doubt not
Bloomsburg, had strict rules which chafed both sexes.

An article by J. W. Coates, titled "The Autocracy of Millersville" will be a case in point ( or in print) . This was an address delivered at a well attended meeting of the annual Junior reunion on
June 4, 1881. The speech appeared to be based on facts. At that time
it was considered to be quite inflammatory. Here is a paragraph
or two.
"And mark you the consistency: A man may not speak to his
wife on these grounds, a lady to her brother, a gentleman to two
ladies old enough to be his grandmother; but any insignificant
member of the faculty whom strangers do not know from Adam,
upon whose brow no look of superior intelligence sets to distinguish
him from the common herd, can sit for hours talking to any lady
students. Certainly, if a member of the faculty can do this and the
school not fall into disrepute, why shall not a man walk with his
own sister on these grounds?
"The author writes not as one desirous of spending his time
with the ladies on these grounds. He has no fond dove with whom
he wishes to coo on this yard; but he desires to see common sense

15

and common decency exercised at the school; he wishes to see an
institution fostered and supported by the public conducted in the
interest of the teachers whose welfare it pretends to seek; and he
desires to see men and women treated as such and not as children."
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

If 1955 marks the end of a century of Teacher Education, it
also may mark the crucial year in the development of State Teachers
Colleges. Again we must look backward for certain significant dates
which may not be discernible in the immediate past or the foreseeable future.
1907 was the year in which Dr. George M. Phillips of the West
Chester State Teachers College first made a formal plea for the
purchase of the then private Normal Schools by the State. This was
repeated in 1909 and incorporated in the School Code in 1911.
1913 was the year of the purchase of the first State Normal
School, West Chester, by the State.
1920 marked the completion of the period of purchase of thirteen of the State Normal Schools.
1927 was the year when State Normal Schools became State
Teachers Colleges in name, since they continued to offer two-year
curricula.
1934 was the year that the issuance of the two-year Normal
Certificate was discontinued and these institutions became State
Teachers Colleges in fact.
1941 was the year of the outbreak of World War II, and a section was inserted in the School Code so that over 2,500 students
were housed, fed, and instructed in State Teachers Colleges at one
time to become Army Aviators, Army Postal Clerks, Navy Deck
Officers, Navy Flight Officers, Nurses, etc.
1948 found the State Teachers Colleges co-operating with Pennsylvania State College in accepting Freshmen students. World War
II Veterans were accepted in large numbers with their tuition being
paid directly to the college by the Federal Government.
1955 is the year in which consideration is being given to the
applications of State Teachers Colleges by the State Council of
Education to offer graduate courses leading to the Master's Degree.

HAVE WE ACHIEVED PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY?

If coming of age is not calculated by the number of years that
State Teachers Colleges have been four-year colleges, or by their
confirmations to college traditions, but by their professional re-

16

sponsibility of educating teachers for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we are still left with the question of coming of age unanswered.
Even though we seem to discern a pattern, or a rhythm, in
the dates of 1907, 1913, 1920, 1927, 1934, 1941, 1948, and 1955,
we are dealing with quantity rather than quality, the time of change
rather than the nature of change, and it may be that we are confusing change with progress.
It is evident that Pennsylvania State Teachers Colleges are still
developing, and I trust that they will never come of age in the sense
that they will find a place in the system of higher education of
Pennsylvania, and having found such a place continue the same
practices that many other colleges have continued long beyond the
time when they have ceased to meet the need of the public schools.

If this development of over 100 years is to continue, then it
must be in the spirit of Bruce Barton writing in the current January, 1955, Reader's Digest, under the title of "The Best Advice I
Ever Had." He takes the text from one of his father's sermons,
which was "And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him
twain." The challenge of the Second Mile is the challenge of coming of age, but never becoming aged.
He tells all about the work he did for a publishing house, wor~
for which he was not paid, working longer than the eight hours
put in by the rest of the staff. He tells of drawing $10.00 a week
of a $40.00 a week salary because the business in which he was employed was in financial difficulties. And finally he tells of an Irish
lad who came to the publishing house for a summer job and stayed
on as office boy and mail clerk. One morning he came and said,
"Mr. Barton, What books should I be reading?" Thus Duffy, the
Irish office boy, became, in time one of the most valuable men in
the concern. When Bruce Barton retired as president, and the company faced the choosing of a young successor, even though there
were one hundred college men in the company, Duffy, the ex-mail
boy, who never finished high school, but who was willing to go the
second mile, was made president of the company.
So I say that, whether Teachers Colleges come of age as collegiate institutions is not so important as the continuance of their
willingness to do more than is expected of them in terms if the
School Laws of Pennsylvania. Our colleges will come of age in time,
and to the extent that their graduates are willing to go the Second
Mile.
(Acknowledgment is due Dr. D. L. Biemesderfer, President of the
Millersville State Teachers College, for historical information dealing with the development of the Normal Schools.)

17

BLOOMSBURG -

BIGGER? BETTER? OR BOTH?

For more than ten years our college has been requesting additional plant facilities from the General State Authority through the
State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
During this period twenty million dollars has been allocated
to the fourteen State Teachers Colleges. If divided equally, each
college would have received more than one million four-hundred
thousand dollars. With the reconstruction of our heating plant,
costing less than four-hundred thousand dollars, and the allocation
of four-hundred sixty thousand dollars for the building of a new
dining room and kitchen, Bloomsburg will have received about
eight-hundred fifty thousand dollars.
We have been told that our physical plant is in better condition than that of other colleges. Only two State Teachers Colleges
have received less for construction than Bloomsburg.
The present allocation of $450,000 for the construction of a
new dining room, kitchen and storage building on the site of the
old tennis courts, with an additional $10,000 for equipment, is
inadequate. Plans have been drawn to come within this amount.
They do not provide for a terrazzo floor in the dining room, and
complete modern kitchen equipment. Our Board of Trustees has
passed a resolution which has been sent to the proper state authorities requesting that the $450,000 allocation be raised to $530,000,
which, we understand, was the original figure fixed by the General
State Authority at the time this project was first proposed.
With the expenditure of twenty million dollars in the fourteen
State Teachers Colleges, we find that the capacities of these institutions have not been increased appreciably. New buildings have been
built to replace structures varying in age from fifty to almost onehundred years. We have now come to the place where Pennsylvania
must decide whether or not it is going to increase the capacity of
the State Teachers Colleges so that they may serve more students
who want to become teachers in the public schools of the Commonwealth.
The enrollment situation as of June 15, 1955, while duplicated
in some other State Teachers Colleges, is very acute at Bloomsburg,
as shown by the following figures: With the year just closed May
31, 1955, we find we have had 900 full-time students during two
semesters, divided as follows: 535 men, 365 women. The Freshman
Class of 1954 numbered 409 including 177 entering the second
semester. We now face the reduction of the class of Freshmen and
entering students for September, 1955, to 270, which with 664 returning students will give an enrollment in excess of 925. We have
had 235 applicants up to June 15, which we will not be able to
admit. In former years, over half of our admissions were made after

18

June 1, therefore we anticipate 200 or 300 applications which we
can only file, since we do not have available faculty or facilities.
This means that we shall admit one out of every three students that
apply.
If graduation and student dropouts permit, we may admit 345
new students if space is available for seventy-five Freshmen students
in January, 1956, making our total enrollment about 1,000.

Last year we had the largest enrollment in the history of the
institution, and when we increase it by ten per cent we will have
reached a point above which any additional number will lower the
quality of instruction and our ability to treat students as individuals
in a small college atmosphere.
Since our dormitory capacity is slightly more than 400, our
dining room capacity 500, and our auditorium capacity 867, we will
have 200 students ( mostly men) living in the town of Bloomsburg
next year.
The Superintendent of Public Instruction, Budget Secretary,
Department of Property and Supplies, General State Authority,
along with all the members of the Legislature in the counties surrounding Bloomsburg have been advised that immediate plans
should be made for:
(1)-A new dormitory to accommodate 250 men to cost at least
$1,125,000; ( 2 )-Replacement of the 1875 barn with a new storage,
building to cost $100,000; ( 3 )-An Auditorium to seat not less
than 1200 to cost $700,000; ( 4 )-A Classroom Building to include
science laboratories to cost $750,000.
In addition, the following expenditures are necessary:-(a ) Renovation of the present dining room space to provide for Library
space for the next five years - $50,000; ( b )-Renovation of present
second floor Library space for dormitory purposes-$50,000.
This based on the assumption that we can defer the beginning
of construction of a new Library ($650,000) and Women's Donnitory ($1,500,000) for four years.
It also assumes that $175,000 will be provided for the purchase
of all private residences and land within the present boundaries of
the college campus.
·
Needless to say, a larger enrollment will mean an increase in
the number of faculty. These proposals do not include, however,
more faculty and facilities for the offering of graduate work for
teachers, or for the inaugurating of college curriculums in fields
other than teacher education.
In this time of challenge and crisis, there are those who propose
to fix the tuition of State Teachers College students at $500 a year
19

to be repaid at the same rate each year as our graduates teach in
the public schools of Pennsylvania, and there are various proposals
pretending to improve the tenure status of teachers. All these things
tend to discourage young people from entering the teaching profession.
There are those who challenge the growth of Pennsylvania
Teachers Colleges by asking such questions as: (1) How many
graduates actually teach, and (2) do they teach in Pennsylvania?
We find that 1744 of the 2377 graduates of State Teachers Colleges in 1954 went into teaching. Since 633 did not go into the
profession of teaching, immediately the question was raised of
why does the State educate young people and then not receive
teaching service in return. An analysis of the group who did not
go into teaching shows that 406 men went directly into the Armed
Services, 43 went to graduate schools, and 55 women were married,
thus 504 were not available for teaching. Only 129 were available
and did not enter the teaching profession. In fact 93% of those
available did go into teaching and only 227 went out of Pennsylvania to teach in other states, while in the same year 820 teachers
from other states came to Pennsylvania.
The outflow of Pennsylvania trained teachers will be checked
'w hen Pennsylvania salaries are raised so as to more nearly equal
those of the surrounding States.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA STATE
TEACHERS COLLEGES AS INSTITUTIONS OF
HIGHER EDUCATION (1927-1948)
HARVEY A. ANDRUSS

An Abstract of a Dissertation
submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education
at
The Pennsylvania State College
January 1949

Pmi POSE

OF THE STUDY

Pennsylvania State Teachers Colleges have been in existence
twenty-one years ( 1927-1948). Since they are part of the public
school system of the Commonwealth, and their purpose the education and preparation of teachers, this study is undertaken to ( 1)
20

trace the legal background of these institutions, beginning in 1920,
so as to understand the administrative basis of State Teachers Colleges at the present time; ( 2) examine the five stages of development these institutions have passed through since 1920; ( 3) evaluate
the effects of the different stages of development of the State Teachers Colleges in: (a) organization and control; ( b) financial support;
( c) students; ( d) faculty; ( e) curricular offerings and services in
order to ( 4) relate the present status of Pennsylvania State Teachers
Colleges to (a) national trends in collegiate education, and ( b) current proposals for higher and teacher education so as to identify
avenues through which these institutions may make their maximum
contributions to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in educating
the on-coming generations of youth.
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Development depends on the relative amount of freedom colleges have to change their curricular offerings and services. The
basis of the determination of the stages of development are the
changes in the School Code of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
and the subsequent effects as reflected in actions of ( 1) State Council of education, (2) Beard of Normal School Principals, and later
the Board of Presidents of the State Teachers Colleges; and (3) the
Board of Trustees of the several State Teachers Colleges.
The five stages of development, which are about equal in length
of time, are as follows:
First Stage -

State Ownership and Control of Normal Schools
( 1920-1926)

Second Stage -

State Teachers Colleges -

in name ( 1927-1933)

Third Stage -

State Teachers Colleges -

in fact (1934-1940)

Fourth Stage Fifth Stage -

War and Post-War Adjustment
Transition of Teachers Colleges

(1941-1947)
( 1948-

)

AREAS OF DEVELOPMENT

For purposes of this study the following areas of development
have been examined: (1) organization and control in terms of the
legal process found in (a) constitutional law; ( b) statutory law; and
( c) administrative laws and regulations; ( 2) financial support divided into: (a) state subsidy grants and appropriations; (b) local
revenues which may be further sub-divided into funds arising from
housing and from instructional activities; ( 3) students in relation
to: (a) enrollments and local fees; (b) economic and social status
of teachers college students; ( c) admission; ( d) progress; ( e) and
graduation requirements; ( 4) faculty growth in terms of salary
schedules and degree holding status with due regard for the pres21

ence of the staffs of laboratory schools as a part of the college faculty; ( 5) curricular offerings and services as reflected in the (a)
uniformity of the two-year normal school curricula for elementary
teachers; ( b) lengthening of two-year to three-year, and finally to
four-year curricula; ( c) extension of three-year junior high school
and special curricula to four years to cover the whole secondary
school; ( d) present curriculum study for all pre-service teachers;
( e) offerings for in-service teachers.
SUMMARY

The direct control of the appointment of the Boards of Trustees
of the several State Teachers Colleges is in the hands of the Governor of the Commonwealth. The power to appoint Trustees for overlapping terms has not been exercised and, therefore, the intent of
Section 2013 of the School Code has not been carried out.
Faculty ranking is not likely to be introduced until it becomes
a part of a mandatory salary schedule yet to be enacted by the
General Assembly.
The reliance upon local fees for the financial support of
State Teachers Colleges is evidenced by the policies inaugurated
when these institutions were private Normal Schools, and these
colleges continue to collect more from students for instruction
and housing than the State subsidy. This policy conditions the
quantity and quality of students admitted to State Teachers Colleges,
and gives rise to a situation in which a faculty salary schedule, dating
from 1928, has been inoperative on account of budgetary limitations.
Curricular offerings and services have also been limited by
the reliance en local revenue, which has led to a policy by which
the State assumes less obligation for educating in-service teachers
than for pre-service teachers entering the profession. This accounts
in part for forty-five percent of the elementary teachers in Pennsylvania having less than four years post-high school education.
PROPOSALS FOR FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

Since the State Teachers Colleges are the only State-owned and
State-operated institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania, during the last twenty-one years there have been a number of proposals
for their use. Among them are ( 1) proposal to reduce, or close, a
number of State Teachers Colleges ( beginning in 1932); ( 2) arts
college proposal of 1933 to restrict the area of educational influence
of Teachers Colleges to the elementary field, leaving the secondary
field to the private institutions; ( 3) proposal for extension centers
in vocational education; ( 4) five-year proposal; ( 5) State Teachers
Colleges to become State Colleges; ( 6) Community College Proposal
of President's Commission on Higher Education; (7) Pennsylvania
Post-High School Study.
22

CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS

Organization and control factors to be developed are:
1. A re-constitution of the present State Council of Education
so that this board of nine members will be laymen. One term to expire each year to insure continuity of policy.

2. Election of the State Superintendent for a term of ten years
by the State Council of Education.
3. Appointment of the Presidents of State Teachers Colleges
by the State Council of Education after nomination by the local
Boards of Trustees and approval of the State Superintendent.
4. Appointment of Deputy Superintendent in the Department
of Public Instruction in charge of Higher Education.
Financial support of Teachers Colleges is to be based on the
spirit of Section 2009 of the present School Code by having the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shoulder responsibility for:
5. Payment of all costs of instruction, operation, and new construction so that students and other sources of local income will
be expected to carry the cost of books, supplies and housing ( board,
room, and laundry) only.
6. Providing opportunities for forty-five percent of teachersin-service to complete their education for the bachelor's degree by
special subsidies to institutions offering curricula and services par-·
ticularly adapted for experienced teachers. This includes summer
schools, extension courses, clinics, workshops, and other offerings
yet to be developed.
7. Permitting purchases of goods, services, or new construction in amounts not exceeding $5,000 on basis of two or more competitive bids by local institutions.
8. Maintaining the identity of the individual college budgets
from the time they are formulated until they are administered
by local institutions.
9. Upward revision of salary schedule to encourage well-educated and wide-experienced staff to seek positions in State Teachers
Colleges. Increments on a yearly basis shall be mandatory on the
part of the state. Provisions for sabbatical leaves of absence, administrative officers, definite contractual period of twelve months for
some personnel, and other safeguards should be included as a part
of a salary schedule.
10. Interpreting degrees earned, for purposes of granting increments, in terms of their relation to the field of teaching or administrative service.

23

Curricula offerings and services of the State Teachers Colleges
should be part of a general policy developed by the Department
of Public Instruction:
11. To educate pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and
other personnel as school nurses, psychologists, clinicians, secretaries, etc., so that after the general pattern of curriculum is approved
by the department of Public instruction, certification regulations
shall not be applicable to subject matter course titles.
12. Extension education, laboratory school experiences, and
experimental educational opportunities will be subject to the Department of Public Instruction only to the extent that there is
assurance that satisfactory teachers are available for the public
school system of Pennsylvania.
Among the various proposals described, the following have been
mentioned:
1. Proposal for Community Colleges;
2. Proposal for Regional State Colleges;
3. Proposal for Five Years of Teacher Education in Some
Fields;
4. Proposal for Extension Centers for Vocational Education;
5. Proposal to Limit Offerings
arranged in the order of the most
able in terms of the immediate steps
the youth of the Commonwr '.th of

or Change Services are here
desirable to the least desirto be taken in the interest of
Pennsylvania.

Providing two years of general and/ or technical education in
the State Teachers Colleges of Pennsylvania for worthy students
would give an opportunity for choosing those who possess the intellectual attainments and personality traits necessary for teaching.
This selected group would continue for two or more years and become teachers. Such a plan would tie-in with the 2 plus 3 plan for
five years of teacher education.
These are the next steps for the development of the Pennsylvania State Teachers Colleges as institutions of higher education.

24