The evolution of Moorhead State
By Dave Olson
The Forum
Moorhead Normal School opened in 1888 with five faculty members and 29 students.

The school's mission was to train elementary teachers to fill the growing number of rural schools springing up around the Red River Valley.

It performed that mission very well, according to Clarence "Soc" Glasrud, Moorhead State University professor emeritus.

"They produced marvelously competent teachers," said Glasrud, who attended the school from 1930-33, when it was called Moorhead State Teachers College.

In 1947, Glasrud joined the faculty and taught at the school for 30 years.

He has also written a history of its early years.

Diploma by barter

When Moorhead Normal School opened its doors as a two-year institution, options were limited when it came to class offerings; basic courses were provided in science, music, history, algebra, Latin, English and literature.

But the price was right.

Tuition was free to all students who promised to teach two years in Minnesota.

Low overhead was one reason college could be offered so cheaply.

Livingston Lord, the school's first president and namesake of the campus library, received a salary of $2,500.

The typical faculty salary was $800.

The first class to earn a two-year degree graduated in 1890.

By the early 1920s, demand for high school teachers in the region prompted the Legislature to authorize a four-year bachelor's degree. The school, which became Moorhead State Teachers College in 1921, began preparing graduates to teach at a variety of levels from kindergarten
through high school.

"Around the time of World War I, a high school education became common," Glasrud said.

"Before that, only sons and daughters of professional people, prosperous people, went to high school. For ordinary people, their education ended in the eighth grade."

The first students to graduate under the four-year curriculum received their diplomas in 1928.

Two years later, the architectural and academic centerpiece of campus - Old Main - was destroyed by fire.

President Ray MacLean vowed that classes would resume within a week, and they did. Students utilized Weld Hall, a student dormitory and the Moorhead Armory as classrooms.

By 1932, a new administration building - MacLean Hall - was completed, along with a new power plant and gymnasium.

The Great Depression put a damper on any further building projects until Ballard Hall, a men's dormitory, was completed in 1948.

The school's enrollment, which hit a high of 530 in 1930, sank to 429 students in 1943-44.

In 1943, President O.W. Snarr declared the school would become a training center for aviation students and from March 1943 to June 1944, 1,650 air crew members were trained there.

Peace dividend

At the end of World War II, the school's enrollment swelled and curriculum expanded to accommodate the needs of students who did not want to become teachers.

The change led to the authorization of a bachelor of arts degree in 1946.

Widespread change occurred in the 1950s and the school further broadened its liberal arts offerings. In 1957, the school's name was changed to Moorhead State College.

In the 1950s, enrollment continued to explode and the faculty ranks kept pace.

An ambitious building program was instituted under President John Neumaier and 11 new structures were erected.

Glasrud said Neumaier's tenure, which began in 1958 and lasted 10 years, represented one of two golden eras in the school's history.

"(Neumaier's) idea was that it should be a liberal arts college," Glasrud said. "He did a lot. He hired some strange faculty members from all over the world. Some of them oddballs, some of them very brilliant.

"He thought students going to Moorhead State were too insular - too many came from (this) area - and we needed a more cosmopolitan student body if they were going to get a proper education," Glasrud said.

"(Neumaier) brought in the first black students, for instance. He transformed the school. Most of it for the good."

Glasrud said former MSU president Roland Dille, who Neumaier "sort of designated as his successor," continued many of the trends Neumaier started.

However, Glasrud added, the liberal atmosphere Neumaier created presented problems for Dille in the late 1960s, when anti-war demonstrations were held on campus. "Dille had serious problems because of the student uprisings of that time."

The school's name was changed to its current moniker, Moorhead State University, in 1975.

It is scheduled to change again in July 2000, when it will become Minnesota State University Moorhead.

Golden age, hard times

The college's first golden age, Glasrud said, was during the 1930s. He said the great campus fire of 1930, considered a disaster at the time, led to invigorating changes. New buildings were built, which in turn contributed to a growing sense on campus that Moorhead State was no
longer just a normal school but an actual college.

"All during the 1920s this process (of becoming a college) was going on, but it really happened in the 1930s," Glasrud said.

"We were just becoming a college and we were annoyed that people in Moorhead still referred to us as a normal school."

At the same time, the number of men attending the school began to grow.

Glasrud said when he came to the college in 1930 he was one of about 30 male students. At the time, women numbered more than 400.

By the mid 1930s, the male population had grown to 200 and men became more involved in campus life, Glasrud said.

The 1930s were marked by financial hardship for many and Glasrud said he struggled for more than a year to find a teaching job after graduating from college. Eventually, he was hired by the junior high in Pelican Rapids, Minn., at a salary of $90 a month.

Times were so bad, Glasrud said, that even with free tuition and fees of less than $20 a quarter, Moorhead State Teachers College was still out of reach for many.

"The Depression was so desperate. There was no money and you didn't know anybody who had anything," he said.

"A college education meant everything to me," added Glasrud, who worked at a service station and sold shoes at JCPenney while he went to school.

"(College) gave me a leg up. It gave me a chance to see what I could do."

And, he said, "we had a tremendous amount of fun in the '30s. Even though we didn't have any money. It was absolutely a wonderful time.

"The opportunities at the college are infinitely greater (today). You can take almost any kind of course. But it's so big that the old college spirit that we had in the '30s is not there. It can't be," Glasrud said.

"Now, Moorhead has all these things that we couldn't even dream of, but you can get lost in all that."