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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 27, 1984)
Monday, August 27, 1984AThe Battalion/Page 9C —evolve into a thriving institution Continued from previous page dents died while in service. In 1951, the Memorial Student Center was I dedicated to those former students who gave their lives while serving |heir country. The postwar period saw a massive influx of veterans returning as stu dents, most on the federally-spon sored GI Bill; enrollment grew from a 1943-44 low of 2,()()() to 8,65 1 for the 1946-47 school year. T he Col lege as a whole, however, retained the goals, aims and traditions of the 1920s and 1930s. Traditions such as bonfire, muster and yell practice took on a semi-sacred status and other less desirable traditions also became entrenched — such as ping. Hazing, prohibited by state law but nevertheles practiced at times, became so bad that in 1946 fresh- hten were moved to the annex at the [ Bryan Army Air Force Base. There, they were still a part of the Cadet llorps, but had their own separate ;,command structure and were spared the vast majority of the hazing. They |remained there for four years, many living in tents initially. i Returning veterans shunned not i only the hazing but the uniform it- |pelf they would not accept the idea ■ a “youngster” telling them what to : do. The Board of Directors disconti- liued the long-standing practice of I Irequiring non-military students to Bteara uniform. A dean of men was Bppointed in 1946, and the com- Handant was given responsibility [ only for students wearing a uniform. | [for the first time in its history, Texas M&M had a recognized civilian stu dent body. I Cadets resented the changes and pore than 200 upperclass cadets ] [ marched on College President Gibb The YMCA building hasn’t changed much over the years. ■ilchrist’s home, threatening to re- taryhisWlBgn unless the changes were re- tes." [pealed. When Gilchrist, to the it 6,500 AH marchers’ surprise, accepted the res ist were off ignations — “with regret” — the ef- decoraiftj fort collapsed. After three days of individual meetings, 143 cadet offi cers were reinstated, but the new ed on cat [rules remained unchanged. [rgieland K In 1948, the Texas A&M College lystem was formed, and Gilchrist moved up to th e System’s chan- studenis 91 cellor’s chair. The new System in- the aripKluded the main campus at College tied "WW :ame a [ arlfaW re than an' ggies J Meda^l oriner sW' ige Station, John Tarleton State College, the North Texas Agricultural Coil- and Prairie View A&M College. In 1954, after the Korean War- had soured the American public’s at titude toward military service in gen eral, College President David H. I Tnorgan, with the approval of the foard of Directors, abolished man datory military trairring starting with ■he Fall 1954 semester. A 1957 fac ulty survey included the question, ■Should military training be optional or compulsory?” The Academic [Council favored the optional plan |49-1, but the Board of Directors [voted 5-4 to restore mandatory mili tary training, effective September 1958. | Other than the military training fontroversy, however, the decade This viev of the Texas A&M campus was taken from the Academic Building before construction began on the Albritton Bell Tower. from 1948-58 was relative)/ peacr- ful. Oiwwih of the phvjira! plant anl the academic curriculum continuet, but enrollment stabilized at abort 7,000 and the number of agricultu ral and engineering students de clined slightly as the College of Arts and Sciences gained strength. James Earl Rudder, a 1932 Texas A&M graduate and retired Army brigadier general, came to the Sys tem in 1958 as the College’s vice president. The positions of System chancellor and College president had been combined, but were sepa rated again in 1959 when Rudder became president. Rudder, who commmanded forces in Wor ld War II’s D-Day inva sion, to the surprise of many — and the dismay of some — set out on a decisive course to bring the school into the modern day. In 1962, a Blueprint for Progress was adopted by the Board of Direc tors, which set both broad and spe cific goals for Texas A&M. Within a year, women had been admitted on a limited basis — they had to be a spouse or daughter of a student or a faculty member — and Texas A&M College became Texas A&M Univer sity. September 1963 saw 150 women enroll. The Board of Directors autho rized Rudder in 1965 to use his “dis cretion” in admitting women, and more applicants were approved. On Sept. 1, 1965, Rudder became presi dent of both the System and the Uni versity. All the changes were not accepted readily, either by the student body or the Association of Former Stu dents. Another change that was less than welcome for many was the abo lition of compulsory military train ing in Septertiber 1965. Freshmen and sophomores were given as choice as to whether they wanted to join the Corps or not. By the 1970s the Corps, once the all-encompas sing student organization, made up less than on quarter of the Universi ty’s enrollment. The Corps changed, but did not die. Concentrated in 12 dorms on the Quad, the uniformed portion of the student body gained a measure of enthusiasm and spirit of virtue by its all-volunteer status, and now bill themselves as the “bearer of the fla me” — preserving much of Texas A&M’s traditional heritage. Under Rudder’s supervision, Texas A&M began to be a university in fact as well as name. The cyclotron complex was completed, the library was expanded and the College of Education split from the College of. Liberal Arts. Rudder saw to it that The Clayton Williams Jr. Alumni Center will be the Association of Former Students’ first permanent home in its 105-year his tory. The building will occupy a five-acre plot on Houston Street at the southern edge of campus, next to the Floral Test Gardens and across the creek from the President’s Home. the unrh country’Sipuses did not interfere with thqucational process at Texas A& Sweeping many of the Smuses di< projects were com- rly Many t e pleted in larly 1970s were given their initia) e j us by Rudder, who died in \ The $10 million Zachry EnUring Center was fin ished in 19| ie University Center complex at e $8.5 million Com mons dorni complex were com pleted in 19 By Sepenjqy j t he Board of Directors hTppgj a u pretenses and admittel ien on an e q ua i ba sis with men, Admitting, anc [ abolishing mandatory in training marked the beginning ex pi os j ve decade for the forme na j e military col lege. Enrollml mb ed fi om the Fall 1970 fig u » 4,221 to 21,463 three years ^135,499 in 198 i ) pushing the Qity’s capacity to the limit. Jack K. Willi; () k over the re ins of both Sy; nd University leadership and l em unlil 197 7 when the positic e a g a j n sepa rated. Dr. Jarvis took over the University top S ter Willi am’s death, but was <l n I980 after losing a power - e to System Chancellor Frank Hu b ert over the responsibility University president. 7 Hubert reorgaL adminis _ trative functions <i stem to re _ fleet a more even! , Ihe College S.al,on s d| P' <>ach: 1 j ir r 1 T 5 ’ the orig;- inal and by far largi r .. lem. had long el out of proportion , |( . jn System s operations.. , . . heads of all System . t lad the port to himas chanc l ‘ onsre : of the System had | f f )aI ls to the University plP on ' iI ble for a confused chain nia *j in g ftand. Alter a year-loA den[ search by the T exaS^ Board of Regents Board of Directors — , . Vandiver became Ui ln . dent in September 19f^ IeSl took his place alongs 4 ie chief executive officen 0 “ ier • part of the System, the state-supported agricultural and engineering exten sion and experiment stations, Prairie View A&M, Tarleton State, the Texas Forest Service, the Texas Transportation Institute and Texas A&M at Galveston. What was once an agriculture and engineering-oriented military col lege now boasts 1 1 colleges: agricul ture, architecture, business adminis tration, education, engineering, geosciences, graduate stuclies, liberal arts, medicine, science, and veteri nary medicine. It also claims the largest and fastest-growing college of engineering in the nation, and largest college of agriculture any where. It annually commissions more military officers in all three services than any other school except the service academies. Academic standards have been raised to con trol the explosive enrollment growth, and a $21.5 million engi neering and physics building is slated for completion in 1986. The Board of Regents drew sharp criticism in 1981 when it began looking for a new athletic director. After being turned down by G.E. “Bo” Schembechler of the University of Michigan, what the Regents fi nally found was an athletic director- /head football coach. They lured Coach Jackie Sherrill away from his job at the Univesity of Pittsburgh with a six-year $1.6 million dollar contract loaded with both salary and benefits, making him the highest-fig- ure in the American education estab lishment at Ihe time. The revolving door in the head football coach’s office is not a new phenomenon, however: Coach Emory Bellard bowed to alumni dis pleasure in mid-season 1978, and Coach Tom Wilson — wfio moved up from the ranks to replace Beflard — was canned for the same reason after a 7-5 season. In July 1982 the Regents ap proved more than $19 million for design contracts alone; construction, expansion and improvement are the order of the day throughout the sys tem although spending is far from reckless. Today’s Texas A&M is a far cry from its tumbling start on the Texas prairie. r SyMS002£* , tH6. ^ r uwatto sthiuT au AOGifi KAy£ ' f** - At**" <CT iOMS to A ST Of MOWESS £r<| OP T«S tertOOi TKMM5, »c . *« » * 5 \ tut Them's : a kmn oak ~’l t them'S- a *«*>rmtM** SEPTEWSM s, >.»»» : ^ OP <»S» The Aggie Eternal Flame was out of commission this summer while Mark Bradley, a Class of ’83 building construction graduate, renovated the black granite pyramid.