West Virginia University History

The Early Days: 1867-1899

WVU unsealed in September of 1867 as an all-male, all-white establishment with six faculty users, six college students, and 118 preparatory department pupils (large school-aged pupils have been preparing to do college work).

WVU used the previous Woodburn Female Seminary building, in which Woodburn Hall has become, given that very first residence hall, and our very first president, Alexander Martin, lived truth be told there using the pupils.

“Woodburn” means “streamlet in a questionable glen” and arises from Sir Walter Scott’s Guy Mannering; the “streamlet” was Falling Run, which then ran through a wooded area where the Business and Economics Building happens to be. WVU built its very own very first building in 1870 and later named it Martin Hall, for Alexander Martin.

WVU provided programs mainly within the humanities and sciences procedures. The Morrill Act needed a farming program, so pupils planted a yard in Woodburn Circle, kept for summertime getaway, and gone back to a garden saturated in weeds. The Morrill Act additionally needed Cadet Corps, which became the ROTC system during World War I. Some people argued that women could not attend WVU since ladies cannot be in the Cadet Corps.

Today’s pupils would have enjoyed paying for their particular knowledge in 1867, since the tuition for a 13-week term ended up being only $8.00. Area and board was $3.50 each week. The common pupil would have compensated between $187.50 and $249.00 for a full educational year.

Through the 1880s, WVU began to be a more diverse organization. In September 1889, the first ten ladies entered WVU as degree prospects (various women had taken occasional classes early in the day). One of many ten ended up being Harriet Lyon, who transferred here from Vassar university. Two Japanese students had been accepted to the University that 12 months additionally. In Summer 1891, Lyon became the first lady for a degree from WVU, graduating on head of the woman class. In 1989 Tower II inside Evansdale Residential advanced was committed as Lyon Tower, and WVU’s Housing and abode lifestyle workplace produced a scholarship in her own memory. Levi Holland, an African United states whom lived-in Morgantown, attempted to enter WVU’s Law School as early as 1883, but every one of West Virginia’s community schools had been racially segregated by state law, and he was not permitted to attend.

President Jerome Hall Raymond (1897-1901) hired the initial feminine faculty user, added art, music, and domestic technology (forerunner of family and consumer sciences today) to attract females students. President Raymond in addition started the very first summertime school and hired the very first graduate students to help professors in training undergraduates.

There were numerous components of early WVU life that today’s students would get a hold of extremely challenging. Until 1895, students had been expected to go to chapel exercises each and every morning and one church solution on Sunday. Although this necessity eased significantly through the 1895-96 school 12 months, students still must appear each morning for roll-call. By 1898, compulsory chapel attendance finished, a lot to the chagrin for the administration. Students participated in extracurricular activities then, as now. In 1887, WVU started publishing the Athenaeum, the forerunner of today’s Daily Athenaeum. Many students belonged to literary communities that sponsored debates, and the men might participate in fraternities. 1st sorority had been an area team labeled as Kappa Delta, launched in 1899 and not related to the current Kappa Delta sorority on university. To provide additional help for women on campus, Josephine Hall Raymond, President Raymond’s spouse, arranged the Women’s League, which united ladies faculty, staff, and students with ladies in the Morgantown neighborhood.

The Turn of the Twentieth Century: 1900-1910

WVU hired its first Dean of females, Hanabell Clark. Clark served as Dean from 1899-1903, when she ended up being changed by Susan Maxwell Moore. Moore ended up being the girl of Elizabeth Moore. At this time, the University had an insurance plan of acting in loco parentis, a Latin expression meaning, “in host to the moms and dads.” Students had been likely to follow WVU’s guidelines as though they were following instructions of their own moms and dads.