Clarion University History

"Teachers College students rate lower on college ability tests,” declared a description of teachers colleges in the United States (Report of the President's Commission on Higher Education, 1927) shortly before Dr. Riemer assumed the reins of leadership. “Teachers Colleges are rarely supported financially on the same level as comparable curriculums in the universities of the same state....Standards of faculty training and salaries are lower and buildings are poorer.”

Dr. Riemer, like his predecessor, was a Clarion State Normal graduate, held a bachelor's degree from Bucknell, and had taught in the public schools. Dr. Riemer also taught at Bucknell, served on the staff of the Department of Public Instruction, and held the principalship at Bloomsburg State Normal School the four years preceding his Clarion appointment. He was perhaps the first Clarion alumnus to earn a doctorate (Leipzig, 1905). Dr. Riemer was to need all of his educational skills to accomplish the task that confronted him.

The change to a State Teachers College had been slow and evolutionary, as was the process of attaining academic respectability. This process was carried on during the bleakest hours of the “Great Depression” and a World War, sometimes in the face of active opposition from entrenched private colleges fearful that their own vested interests would suffer from the growth of this phase of public education.

When Dr. Riemer became president he found a campus covering some 25 acres, ten buildings whose total value approached $800,000, and a school plant with a total value of $1,051,909. The capacity of the dormitories was 238 and the training school 300. Enrollment was near capacity and the institution received an annual allocation averaging $181,000 a year from the state.

One of the first innovations introduced by Riemer was a semester system to replace the three-term system of the Seminary and Normal School periods. Prior to the calendar change, statistics reported were the total for the three terms of the academic year. This seemed advisable because the opening fall enrollment figures usually reported would present an inaccurate picture of the normal school period. When the common schools closed for the year in early spring all the normal schools were swamped by the influx of teachers seeking additional training.

When the change to the semester system was made, this factor ceased to operate. There was no great discrepancy in enrollment figures for the two semesters. All such data hereafter cited will be the figures reported to the United States Office of Education for opening fall enrollment.

On May 28, 1929, when Clarion became a college and Dr. Riemer became its president, the nation was in the midst of an unparalleled economic boom. In a span of five short months the depression set in. On Oct. 24, 1929, “Black Thursday,” total panic seized the stock market and by October 29 the bottom had dropped out of it. This set off intricate forces that interacted to carry the United States into the depths of industrial and financial stagnation. Early that fateful October the value of stocks on the New York Exchange totaled $87 billion. By March of 1933 they had declined by 78 per cent to $19 billion. Education does not operate outside the pale of society, but rather is influenced by and influences society. The depression had profound effects upon state appropriations and student enrollment at Clarion.

Clarion and the state held their own until 1933 but all were aware of the ominous black clouds on the horizon. In 1930 funds were allocated for the Harvey Gymnasium. The building site was excavated to include a swimming pool. However, before the building could be completed in 1931 the allocation was cut and the pool was never completed. In the first four years of the depression the average annual state appropriation to Clarion was in excess of $181,000. The appropriations for the last four years of the Riemer Administration (1933-1937) were cut about 63 percent less than $67,000. Clarion was undernourished financially. On several occasions this proved to be a near fatal illness. As enrollment ebbed from 351 in 1932 to 193 in 1936 available revenue decreased further. All programs were considerably curtailed and faculty salaries were decimated in 1933-1934. When Prof. J.W.F. Wilkinson retired from the deanship in 1935 his post was left vacant for financial reasons.

A number of remedies were proposed. They may have staved off death but the situation did not improve. The charging of tuition, not practiced since 1901, was reinstated. For a time this was counterbalanced by funds made available through the National Youth Corps to pay students up to $15 a month to work for the college. Admission standards were lowered in an endeavor to attract more students. According to Dr. Chandler “the lowered standards brought many undesirable persons into the college and ultimately into public school teaching positions. A number of introverts as well as psychiatric and other mental cases gained access to Clarion and the other state teachers colleges thus further tarnishing the reputation at a time when it could at least afford to be tarnished.”

All the other state teachers colleges had a special curriculum such as home economics, library science, or business education. An additional fee was charged to students enrolled in the special curriculum. Efforts were made to have a special area approved for Clarion which would realize additional fees and ease the fiscal pressure. Many times during this “dark age” the Department of Public Instruction refused Clarion's appeal.

Throughout the state an often heard cry was “close the state colleges.” This sentiment was by no means novel or unique. Almost from their inception there were elements in society who felt, with some justification, that the taxpayers money was being squandered in the support of teacher training institutions. Because of the desire to reduce taxes during the depression the crescendo of criticism and opposition reached its zenith. In 1932, 52 private colleges recommended that eight of the state teachers colleges be closed or converted into institutions subcollegiate in character. The low enrollment in state teachers colleges, the over-supply of teachers, and the depression were reasons given for the recommendations (Minutes of the Board of State Teachers College Presidents, 1932). The Harrisburg Patriot in its July 2, 1932, editorial “Market Glutted” and other publications raised the question editorially. “Why should the taxpayers of Pennsylvania be compelled to subsidize teacher education when the arts colleges do it and have been doing it for years with no State monies?” Fortunately saner heads prevailed and the movement to close the institutions never materialized.

Another disconcerting occurrence was the fire inspector's report submitted to Governor Earle in early 1936. Although the report did not have the accompanying effects of the “rake off” scandal the institution was roundly criticized by the press, particularly the Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph. Admittedly there were inadequacies on the Clarion campus but in calling the buildings squalid fire traps and the classification of the buildings as ill-kept, unsanitary or dilapidated was a “malicious over-generalization” (Letter from Dr. Riemer to State Superintendent Ade). Illustrative of the general inaccuracy of the article lies in its description of Clarion as a college of 500 students (less than half the number were enrolled). Other statements were equally unrealistic. Fire hazards did exist. They were due to errors of omission on the part of the college and the stringency of the depression era budget. Governor Earle's fire inspection teams found similar conditions in other state teachers colleges, hospitals, penitentiaries and orphanages.

Dr. Riemer played a vital role both locally and on a state-wide basis in the verbal battle to save the teachers college from extinction. Tired and exhausted from the more or less “hand to mouth” existence of the institution and the perpetual struggle for survival he retired Jan. 31, 1937.

Dr. Donald Pierce served a short period as acting president until Dr. Paul Gladstone Chandler assumed the presidency. Dr. Chandler, the son of an itinerant Methodist preacher, arrived in Clarion as the nation was emerging from the doldrums of the depression. Educated at Kentucky Wesleyan College and Columbia University, experienced as a public school teacher, private school principal and proprietor, and college professor at Kent State University and Millersville State Teachers College, he led Clarion toward great heights during his 23 year administration.

At the onset of his administration no pretense of grandeur for Clarion existed in his mind because the battle of survival was paramount. Early in his tenure economic conditions improved slightly. Enrollment rose from 193 in 1936 to 307 in 1940. Similarly appropriations rose from $66,500 to $90,000 over the same span of years. Since Clarion opened its doors April 12, 1887, the school ranked lowest in opening fall enrollment of the thirteen State Teachers Colleges for Caucasian students. In 1939 it rose to twelfth place and in subsequent years it moved even higher in position.

In spite of these encouraging developments recovery was difficult to achieve. In this era the teachers college was still what Dr. Chandler referred to in an interview as “the poor man's college and they were treated as such by the Legislature, being given as little money as was possible and still let them exist.” “In those days,” continued Dr. Chandler “the state allowed 21 cents per person per meal in the college dining hall. Twelve cents of this was to pay wages. The meal was adequate for the girls but most of the males left the table hungry.”

In an effort to induce more students to enroll at the State Teachers College, authorization was granted in 1937 to offer the first two years of a liberal arts curriculum. During 1960, the last year of Dr. Chandler's administration, the Legislature changed the names of the respective institutions to state colleges. This allowed a four year liberal arts course to be offered. Also in 1937 the efforts of Dr. Riemer, Dr. Chandler, and the trustees to secure a special curriculum finally bore fruit. Clarion was designated as the library science school for the western third of Pennsylvania.

In an effort to pump life into the economy Governor Earle's administration created the Public Works Administration. Through this organization and partly as a result of the previously cited 1936 fire inspector's report Clarion received three new buildings: a laundry, Davis Hall, and Egbert Hall. The planning of Egbert Hall, a men's residence hall, was typical of the shortsightedness which was characteristic of school building construction for many years. Many readers are aware that in Pennsylvania new buildings often have been outmoded or inadequate shortly after completion. When Egbert Hall was being planned the college needed living accommodations for 42 men. Therefore, the state selected architects designed the building to house exactly that many students. Within a few years Egbert Hall proved inadequate and students were once again living in the same fire hazards, the third floor of both Seminary and Science Hall.

The passage of a Selective Service Act in September 1940, the military buildup, and the increased needs of a retooling American industry placed great demands upon the manpower pool. The result was a downward enrollment trend greater in scope than that of the depression. In September 1941, 18 year-olds were made eligible for the draft. By February 1942, able-bodied males had become as extinct at the “college on the hill” as had the dodo on Mauritius Island.

Fully recognizing the plight of the teachers colleges and visualizing the potentialities their facilities offered for wartime utilization the 1941 State Legislature amended the School Code (Sect. 2002.1) thereby granting the right to “... cooperate with municipal, State, Federal or other agencies in the furtherance of national defense programs and activities....” The enactment did not constitute a fait accompli but rather signaled the onset of intensive efforts on the part of Dr. Chandler to secure a federal training program for Clarion and thus stave off disaster. Pursuit of the program involved long, strenuous, frustrating, and sometimes seemingly futile effort. The first program, for 22 men, was organized in September 1942 to train airplane and glider pilots. A more profitable venture began the following February when three hundred Air Force Cadets arrived on campus for four months training. Dr. Chandler related how this brought prosperity of two types to Clarion. “The government paid well for the training received by the Cadets. This carried us through those very strenuous financial times and nineteen Clarion girls found mates from among the trainees.” Similar groups of cadets arrived on campus every four months until the program was phased out in May 1943.

Throughout the War years, as during the depression, the state teachers colleges were hard pressed to forestall action by state agencies to close all or some of them. Early in 1943 Governor Martin proposed to lease or sell the colleges to the federal government and later the same year Dr. Francis Haas, Superintendent of Public Instruction, announced plans to close six to eight of the State Teachers Colleges after the war. Once again, such plans were successfully opposed. Typical of the evidence amassed in the renewed battle to save the state teachers colleges was this example from The State Teachers Colleges of Pennsylvania, a publication of the Alumni of the State Teachers Colleges.

“In view of the suggestion that some of the teachers colleges should be closed, it is interesting to note that Pennsylvania stands thirty-sixth among the 48 states and the District of Columbia in the number of teachers colleges which it supports per unit of population,” states the publication. “It may be said that this is due to the large number of private and denominational colleges in Pennsylvania, but our State stands thirteenth in the number of degree-granting institutions other than teachers colleges per unit of population. Thus Pennsylvania, the second wealthiest state, is actually ill-provided with institutions of higher learning and stands thirty-third in the total appropriation for teachers colleges per unit of population.”

Despite all the consequences of World War II its aftermath was characterized by a period of progress unprecedented in the annals of American higher education. Clarion was to have more than its share of such prosperity. A large backlog of potential college students which had built up during the war periods plus the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (June 1944), better known as the “G.I. Bill” brought scores of students to the small teachers college in rural northwestern Pennsylvania. Enrollment mushroomed expanding from 127 in 1944 to 723 in 1949. During 1948 and 1949 over three hundred of these students were veterans. The Pennsylvania State University also suffered from enrollment pressures and formulated an agreement whereby some of their freshmen were “farmed out” to the state teachers colleges. Clarion's quota averaged about one hundred such students per year (1946-1947 to 1950-1951) over and above the regular enrollment figures.

Andress and Bonder, in their respective dissertations, noted that this cooperative arrangement was without parallel in the history of American higher education. Bonder stated that “It marked a period of new development for the State Teachers College and proved that the future uses of these institutions were unlimited.” Andress characterized the period as one in which they were “...in the process of changing through addition to the original function of teacher education.” The success of the program led the State Teachers College presidents to request state authorization to grant the liberal arts degree. Dr. Chandler had called for such a change in the law in his report to the Board of Trustees dated April 20, 1948.

In the period of post war boom (1946-1951) Clarion ranked eleventh among the State Teachers Colleges in student enrollment. As the flow of veterans to American colleges and universities abated, enrollment at Clarion receded to 412 (1953) then rebounded with the coming of the Korean veteran.

Although crises kept intruding during the two decades of turmoil from 1930 to 1950, the period was a time of continuing thoughtful inquiry and soul-searching into the philosophy, organization, structure, and operation of the educational program. These efforts resulted in the primary achievement of the Chandler administration, academic respectability. In 1948 Clarion was accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. The accreditation was vital because it implied that Clarion's course offerings were now of collegiate quality in name as well as in fact.

In addition to Clarion's gains in academic prominence under Dr. Chandler was its national recognition for accomplishments in athletics. During the 1950-1951 basketball season the team, under the guidance of coach Benton Kribbs, compiled a 15-2 record. This was a complete reversal of the previous season's record and as a result it was acclaimed the most improved basketball team in the nation according to the Dick Dunkle ratings of the Associated Press. It would seem impossible to improve upon this record, but the following season the squad went undefeated through nineteen games before losing in the first round of the NAIA championships at Kansas City. During the summer of 1952, Kribbs, also football coach, resigned to become coach at Bucknell University. In the fall Waldo Tippin and Thomas Carnahan became co-coaches of the football squad and led it through an undefeated season capped by a victory over East Carolina in the Lion's Bowl.

Efforts to relieve crowded residence hall conditions and to halt the use of the upper floors of Seminary and Science Hall as living quarters resulted in the construction of two new dormitories during the final decade of Dr. Chandler's administration. Ballentine Hall, with accommodations for 115 men, was completed in 1951. Givan Hall, a residence hall for 250 women, was completed in 1960. This construction satisfied one of the recommendations of the 1925 Pinchot Report.

Dr. Chandler reached retirement age in 1960 and left the institution September 1 after 33 years of service to the Commonwealth. His administration reflected the ups and downs of the depression, World War II, and the Korean War. Despite these exigencies, enrollment increased from 193 in 1936-1937 to 1099 in 1959-1960 and the state allocation increased from $66,500 to almost $500,000 during the span of time. More significant and important was the improvement in the educational program which resulted in accreditation.

Great as the Chandler achievements were even greater things were to come as a result of Legislative Act 788 signed by Governor Lawrence on Jan. 8, 1960. This enactment signed during the twilight of Dr. Chandler's term, enabled the State Teachers Colleges to retitle themselves State Colleges. The titular change meant little but the act opened the door to many developments which Dr. Chandler probably would have considered fantastic in 1937 when he took office. It remained for his successor, Dr. James Gemmell, to chart an expanded and maturing period of growth.