Melissa Martin Dawes Oral History Interview, November 11, 1956

LILLIAN VAN LOAN: Oregon State College, its past, its present and future is being discussed by Professor Melissa Martin Dawes. Professor Dawes.

MELISSA MARTIN DAWES: Dr. William Jasper Kerr had been president of our college for eight years when I joined the staff in 1915. I had received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon, but had not yet completed all work for a Master's degree in liberal arts. Dr. Kerr offered me a yearly salary of $900, I accepted. At that time, our college was offering courses in three foreign languages; French, German and Spanish. We offered three years training in each of these languages. The staff of the department of modern languages consisted of two people, Professor Bach and myself. That year, however, a big increase in enrollment in foreign languages made it necessary to engage another instructor after classes had begun.

President Kerr believed that along with the distinctive work in any of the technical courses, the demand for a liberal training is imperative and cannot be ignored. Consistent with his recognition, that when two institutions of higher learning are maintained by a state, there must be a division of function between them. Dr. Kerr developed the non-technical phases of the state college curriculum as supporting elements of the curricula of the degree granting schools. For some years the departments of English, foreign languages and social sciences and the natural sciences were either administered as independent departments outside the schools, or in some cases as parts of some of the technical schools. As the institution grew and standards were raised, deficiency demanded some plan of common administration for these service departments. This was first accomplished by grouping twelve departments of general instruction into a unit, termed the division of service departments, with Dr. E.J. Kraus in charge as dean, in 1918 to 1919. Dr. Kraus, having resigned to go to the University of Wisconsin, Dean M. Ellwood Smith succeeded him in 1919. In 1922, the name of the division was officially changed to the school of basic arts and sciences. But, the character of the division as a non-major service organization, supplementing the professional schools was unchanged.

All these developments in organization and curricula had been considered and officially approved by the State Board of Higher Curricula. This organization, established bylaw in 1909, on the initiative of state superintendent J.H. Ackerman with the cooperation of the honorable A.C. MacArthur, speaker of the House of Representatives, was the authoritative board, determining the allocation and development of curricula in the University of Oregon and Oregon State College for a period of exactly 20 years. In 1929, it was succeeded by the State Board of Higher Education.

Through the rulings of this board, between 1912 and 1917, engineering curricula were concentrated at the State College. Architecture and the fine arts were centered at the University of Oregon. Undergraduate commerce, leading to the Bachelor's degree, was conferred to the State College. The graduate curriculum was assigned to the University. Economics and political science, except for work in rural sociology and agricultural economics were centered at the University where the graduate school was also centered.

In 1913, the first millage tax measure providing continuing support for the instructional divisions of the State College, the University of Oregon and the Oregon Normal School, became a law by the action of a state legislature. Following the war and the vast influx of new students along with the new demands upon higher education, a campaign for increasing millage tax was jointly undertaken by the State Institutions for Higher Learning under the directions of President Kerr. The new measure, which was generally supported by the vote of the people, provided a total of two mils on the dollar of the assessed evaluation of property in the state. Requirements for entrance to the State College were regularly advanced from year to year, as the high schools of the state were developed. In 1915, a full four-year high school course was required of all matriculates in degree curricula. Corresponding advances were made for graduation. Since Oregon State was recognized as one of the three or four leading separate land grant colleges in the country, little attention was paid to the matter of accreditation, except as the respective professional and technical schools were recognized by their respective associations.

In 1922, however, Dr. George F. Look, specialist in higher education of the Bureau of Education, United States Department of the Interior, after an inspection of the institution, reported it as fulfilling each requirement of the standard college. In 1924, the American Association of University Women, having sent specialists to investigate the institution, admitted the State College to membership in that organization, comprising at that time about 150 of the leading colleges and universities of the country. In 1926, the Association of American Universities placed the State College on its accredited list. Thus, within ten years of the first requirement of the full four years high school preparation of entrance, Oregon State College had gained full recognition of the authoritative rating associations as having standards of scholarships parallel with the best institutions of the country.

In the meantime, the enrollment of students had increased to 3371 undergraduate and graduate students in 1924 and 1925. With a total including a total of short courses and summer sessions of 4551. By 1928-1929, these figures had risen to, 3828, for regular degree course students and 5462 for all students, including summer session and non-collegiate short courses. Naturally, the physical facilities for taking care of the expanded functions of the institution in resident instruction, research and extension had to be extended as the people made use of them in a constantly increasing degree. Before undertaking any important developments, Dr. Kerr sought expert counsel.

Fortunately, John C. Olmsted, representing the distinguished Brookline, Massachusetts firm of landscape architects, was in Seattle, preparing the plans for the Alaska-Yukon exposition. Dr. Kerr prevailed upon him to come to Corvallis and make a survey of conditions and draw up a plan for future development. This plan, which called for groups of buildings, chiefly of quadrangles, was followed until 1926, when the problem of the Memorial Union was the occasion that demanded a new survey and an expanded plan of development. The eminent landscape architect, A.P. Taylor of Cleveland, Ohio, was the author of the new general plan of development of the campus. This was worked out with the most careful consideration of all factors involved.

Having prepared his plans of development, Dr. Kerr began adding one by one buildings most seriously needed. Often unable to build a complete structure adequate to future needs, he adopted the unit plan for obtaining adequate facilities for agriculture, home economics, physical education, and residence halls. Beginning with engineering and the industrial arts group, moving on to agriculture, he next built the Armory, the Dairy Building, Farm Mechanics, Stock Judging Pavilion, the Mines Building, Home Economics, the Men's Gymnasium, in 1915; the Forestry Building in 1917; the Library, 1913; Horticultural Products in 1919, Engineering Laboratory in, 1920, Margaret Snell Hall, 1921; Commerce Hall, 1922; Pharmacy, 1924; Poultry, 1927; and finally the group including the Women's Building, in 1927; the Men's Dormitory, the Physics Building and the Great Memorial Union, in 1928. The Farmer's Institutes and short courses of the old days had developed into the extension service, with the counties, the state and the United States Department of Agriculture, operating an All Oregon Program for the advancement of the farm, the home, and the industries of the people. Thus, the campus in a real sense had become state-wide.

In the meantime, events had occurred that would lead to the selection of Dr. Kerr for larger and more exacting duties than those of a president of a single institution.

The state legislature of 1929 passed a law, providing for the unification of several of the state supported institutions of higher education under a single board, to be known as the State Board of Higher Education. This board, composed of nine members appointed by the governor, each for a normal term of nine years, displaced the three Boards of Regents of the University, Oregon State College and the three Normal Schools. Also, the State Board of Higher Curricula, based on a survey, to be conducted by a nationally recognized, disinterested educational commission. This board was to effect a reorganization of higher education with the view to eliminate unnecessary duplication of equipment, courses, departments, schools, summer schools, extension activities, offices, laboratories, and publications. Taking control July 1, 1929, the unified board arranged for a survey under the auspices of the Office of Education, United States Department of the Interior, and received the report of the survey commission in the spring of 1931. Based on this report, the board, following a year of study and deliberation, adopted a program of reorganization on March 7, 1932.

The principal element of reorganization involved reciprocal functions on the part of each of the state institutions of higher education, in order to make up a University of the State of Oregon, with units at Ashland, Corvallis, Eugene, La Grande, Monmouth and Portland. The training of teachers for elementary schools was to be the sole function of the three Normal Schools. Lower division work, freshman and sophomore years, in the liberal arts and sciences was to be available on equal terms at the University and State College. The great school of science was to be developed at Corvallis, where all technical and professional curricula, resting on the biological and physical sciences, such as agriculture, engineering, home economics and so forth, were also to be centered. A great school of art, literature and the social sciences, was to be developed at the University.

The significant and dramatic changes involved in this plan of reorganization were the transfer to Eugene of our great school of commerce, and the transfer to Corvallis of the major curricula in science. These changes in curricula were not effected without protest. The years between 1929 and 1935, in fact, with the problem of reorganization aggravated by drastic retrenchment in budgets, which greatly reduced salaries as well as funds for material, were years of anxiety and upheaval in higher education. Nevertheless, they were marked by achievements in the direction of unity, coordination, and the establishment of solid foundations for future harmony than any equal period in the history of any of the several institutions. Improvements were initiated, moreover, they have since benefited each of the units in the system.

Dr. Kerr was elected Chancellor of the state system of higher education on September 6, 1932. Having developed the fundamental structure established by the Board into an efficient working organization, announced his intention in the spring of 1934, to retire from the Chancellor: ship, whenever the board was ready to designate a successor. It was not until the summer in 1935, however, that the board engaged Dr. Fredrick Hunter, Chancellor of the University of Denver, to take over the duties of the office. On September 1, Dr. Kerr, after 23 years in the active service of Oregon, retired as Chancellor Emeritus.

Out: department bad grown normally up 'til the time of the reorganization of education in our five institutions. At that time our enrollment fell terrifically. It was only after several years after the enrollment in our department was very low that we attained the numbers that we had before. When the World War came, and Oregon State was among the schools selected to give intensive courses in foreign languages to a picked group of soldiers, our department grew very rapidly. This Army Student Training Program included conversation and cultural courses in Chinese, Russian, French, and Spanish. Our staff numbered 23.v Almost all of these instructors were natives. Our students ranked near the top in the national, examinations given at the end of the training period. In the years following the war, many servicemen enrolled in the language courses. We continued to offer Chinese, Russian, German, French, and Spanish, and were authorized to give two years of training in Brazilian Portuguese. Years ago, our students had limited practice in conversation. Today with the help of native instructors and assistants from France, Germany, Brazil, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, China, and Russia. Some students can converse fluently in more than one language. We have also made great strides recently in our offerings for the Ph.D. candidates. Special courses have been organized which allow them to acquire a reading knowledge in a foreign language in a relatively short period. Each year several of our students are awarded scholarships for study and travel in foreign lands.

Dr. Kerr once said "The college aims to bring its advantages as near to all people as possible. To provide a liberal, thorough and practical education. Special emphasis has been placed upon the importance of practical education. Special emphasis has been placed upon the importance of practical training. The application of scientific principles, yet the disciplinary value of education is kept constantly in view. It is recognized that the man and the woman come before the vocation and or the profession. In all work through in the institution the object is to develop high ideals of manhood and womanhood to foster all that makes for a right living and a good citizenship." In our Oregon State College Creed, our pride in the past of our college as well as our faith in the future is declared. As we say "I believe in her traditions. A heritage from the deeds and dreams of yesterday; In her aspirations and ideals, the assurance of a magnificent tomorrow. An institution whose yesterday can show an earnest a spirit of service and as substantial a record of accomplishment as Oregon State College has already made a matter of history, can rest assured that with a continuance of that splendid spirit it is bound to realize a magnificent tomorrow.

LILLIAN VAN LOAN: Thank you, Professor Dawes.