History of Arizona State University - Gammage Years

Gammage Years

In the early 1930s, Arizona State needed national accreditation to be recognized as an educational institution of quality, but eligibility requirements of accrediting organizations specified that a large percentage of faculty must hold advanced degrees, particularly doctorates. As a result, under the leadership of President Ralph Swetman many faculty contracts were terminated and new faculty hired. In 1933 Grady Gammage became President of the Arizona State Teacher’s College, and later that year the North Central Association (NCA) granted Arizona State Teacher’s College at Tempe its first permanent and unconditional accreditation. In 1937 Arizona State offered its first graduate degree, the Masters in Education. Although courses were offered in other academic and professional disciplines, the school remained a teachers college until 1945.

Arizona State College at Tempe dropped the teacher’s college appellation in 1945, and it was now governed by the newly established Arizona Board of Regents. The college offered a more diverse curriculum, but the only advanced degree available there was still the Master of Arts in Education. Military personnel who trained for their World War II service in the valley remembered the abundant sunshine and relaxed civilian lifestyle they witnessed before deployment. They returned to settle in the Valley of the Sun and advance their education with GI Bill dollars. As a result, ASC enrollment tripled between 1940 and 1949 to 4,094 students, and Valley manufacturing and industry exploded in this period as well.

In 1953 the Arizona Board of Regents (dominated by University of Arizona alumni), authorized the establishment of a College of Arts and Sciences and called for the United States Department of Education to evaluate the ASC program. Dr. Ernest V. Hollis’ 1954 report declared that ASC was "rapidly becoming a university" and proposed the establishment of four colleges: Liberal Arts, Education, Applied Arts and Sciences, and Business and Public Administration. The Hollis Report precipitated howls of displeasure from southern Arizona that echoed through the Board of Regents and the Arizona Legislature, but in the November 1954 Regents meeting Governor Howard Pyle cast the deciding vote to accept the recommendations, which were implemented the following year.

Meanwhile, a war of words erupted in legislative chambers, major city newspapers and alumni magazines over Hollis’ declaration that a second Arizona university was emerging in the desert. Arizona State College student leaders collected petition signatures, legislation was crafted and buried in committees, and Eugene Pulliam’s Arizona Republic justified references to Arizona State University as a matter of accuracy in journalism. But the powerful State Senator Harold Giss of Yuma unwittingly poured gas on the fire when in March 1958 he introduced legislation to name the institution Tempe University. Hundreds of angry students laid siege at the state capitol in Phoenix until Giss appeared at the balcony and promised to withdraw the bill. An embarrassed President Grady Gammage admonished the student behavior, and quietly appointed Alumni Association Executive Director James Creasman to coordinate the statewide initiative drive that would give Arizonans their second public university.

Five hundred and ninety-nine students formed a committee to collect petition signatures in the spring of 1958, assisted by the Alumni Association and the "Citizens for Arizona State University" led by Walter Craig and John B. Mills. They needed 28,859 valid signatures, but by July 1 they had collected 63,956 signatures and they delivered them to the capitol by armored car. Meanwhile the "Citizens for College and University Education" returned fire with editorials, radio ads and pamphlets declaring that the "name change" movement was wasteful duplication and poor educational policy. Mrs. Kathryn Gammage, first year football coach Frank Kush and college administrators and faculty toured the state to promote Arizona State University, while C.W. Laing and Tom Lillico barnstormed the state in their Yes 200 Piper aircraft. Opening day at the new Sun Devil Stadium featured the letters AS painted in the end zone, with room for the U to be added, while the opposition burned "No 200" into the turf at midfield.

Election day dawned on November 4, 1958 and an army of 1,500 student volunteers was deployed to assist with voter information and transportation to the polls. A communications center was established in the Memorial Union, and the students gathered outside as the polls closed at 7:00. The teleprinter chattered election results in favor of ASU two to one, and at 10:00 the Citizens for College and University Education conceded the election. Celebrations began, but thirty minutes later a wire service reported returns two to one against ASU and the tension was renewed. At 11:00 the teleprinter declared the previous reports inaccurate and Proposition 200 approved by a two to one margin. The celebration was renewed with the Sun Devil Marching Band, cheerleaders and pom-pom girls leading 5,000 jubilant students to Sun Devil Stadium. All that remained was the gubernatorial proclamation enacting the initiative results, and so on December 5, 1958, the governor signed the executive order that created Arizona State University.

ASU established itself as a university in name, and it had the public support and regential authorization to offer advanced degrees, but the talented faculty, graduate students and laboratory facilities needed to establish university research programs in the sciences were generally not available at ASU in 1958. University administrators and faculty realized that fulfilling the promise of a university required much more than a name change, and as early as 1955 they worked overtime to create a research university from scratch.