OAC Barometer "Football
Number" commemorating the football team's undefeated season,
1907.
Coached by F. S. Norcross, a former University of Michigan quarterback, the
1907 football squad was never scored upon the entire season and compiled
a 6-0 record. They won the Pacific Coast championship by defeating
St. Vincent College of Los Angeles, 10-0. (St. Vincent is now known
as Loyola Marymount University.) [OSU Archives MC-Barometer.]
The first president of the Student Assembly (now known as the Associated
Students of Oregon State University), Charles H. Horner, elected in January.
Four-year curriculum in mining established in the Department of Chemistry.
For the 1900-1901 academic year, all athletic programs were prohibited by the
Board of Regents.
U.S. Commissioner of Education defined subjects of instruction for land grant
institutions under the Morrill Acts on December 7.
Department of Commerce established; the 11th in the United States and the first
in the Pacific Northwest.
Main campus: 45 acres in size. First sewers installed.
Enrollment: 405 for 1899/1900 academic year.
Population in Corvallis: 1,819; in Benton County: 6,706; in Oregon: 413,536.
Four-year Literary-Commerce curriculum organized.
First Branch Experiment Station established at Union (15 miles southeast of La
Grande).
Dr. James Withycombe appointed Director of Experiment Station.
Debut of OAC men's basketball; W. 0. Trine, coach (1901-1903).
Self-sustaining Department of Music established.
Trysting
Tree stone memorial presented to the college by the senior class
of 1901; the first in a tradition of class gifts to the university.
Prior to this presentation, each class planted a tree as a memorial
to the college.
The Agricultural College of the State of Oregon joins the Northwest Intercollegiate
Association.
"Lady of the Fountain" presented to the college by the senior class of 1902.
Publication of the Agricultural College Bulletin series initiated (continued
until 1932; 423 bulletins issued).
Corvallis was characterized by wooden sidewalks, unpaved roads, and unlighted
streets. One train a day arrived and departed for Portland. There was one freight
boat from Portland to Corvallis weekly.
Approval
given by the Board of Regents to allow international students to attend
the college for the first time.
Gamma
Delta Phi became the first permanent Greek letter social organization
on campus in April. (There was a brief appearance on April 1, 1882
of Alpha Tau Omega, but the college was not yet ready for the introduction
of social fraternities and the charter was withdrawn six months later.
Alpha Tau Omega was re-chartered in 1916.)
Four-year Forestry curriculum established.
Debut of OAC track and field; W. O. Trine, coach (1905-1907).
Congress passes the Adams Act on March 16 for the further endowment of experiment
stations.
College budget: $88,230.71.
Faculty totaled 36 members (30 males and 6 females).
William
Jasper Kerr, B.S., D.Sc., LL.D., (July 17, 1907-September 6,
1932) appointed by the Board of Regents as the sixth president of
the Agricultural College of the State of Oregon following the retirement
of President Gatch. Kerr led the college through a 25-year period
of growth in terms of students, faculty, academic and research programs,
and physical facilities. Kerr departed Oregon State College in 1932
to become the first Chancellor of the Oregon State System of Higher
Education.
First professional degree conferred; an M.E. degree in engineering.
Waldo
Hall completed (named in honor of Dr. Clara Humason Waldo, regent
of the college from 1905-1919).
Nelson Amendment to the Second Morrill Act passed by Congress. This federal legislation
gave additional appropriations to those land grant institutions training teachers.
Students came from all counties in Oregon except one, from 17 other states and
territories, and two foreign countries.
Faculty totaled 40 members.
Two-semester
calendar adopted.
College Book Store established in connection with the Business Office on July
15.
Former OAC student Forrest Smithson won the gold medal in the 110 high hurdles
at the Olympics in London. Smithson set a world record with his time of 15.0
seconds.
Summer School for teachers offered for the first time.
Preparatory Department discontinued; entrance requirements raised. It was necessary
to have completed two years of high school or equivalent, except
for entry to vocational courses.
Industrial Arts Building (now Merryfield Hall) and Shepard
Hall (for YMCA) erected.
Establishment of professional schools in Agriculture (Arthur Burton
Cordley, M.S., Dean; 1908-1931), Commerce (John
Andrew Bexell, A.M., Dean; 1908-1932), Engineering and Mechanic
Arts (Grant
Adelbert Covell, M.E., Dean; 1908-1927), and Domestic Science
and Art (Juliet Greer, A.B., Dean; 1908-1911); the first academic
dean position appointments by the college.
College professors traveled throughout Oregon giving lectures from railroad cars
provided by the Southern Pacific and the Oregon Railway and Navigation railroad
companies.
President Kerr recommended that the name of the institution be Oregon Agricultural
College and that veterinary medicine should be offered.
Ida
Angeline Kidder appointed as the first professionally trained librarian.
Kidder received a degree in librarianship from the University of Illinois in
1906, shortly before her 50th birthday.
Yearbook began publication on an annual basis--titled the "Orange." (Now titled
the "Beaver," the yearbook was published by the junior class until 1927 and thereafter
by the senior class.)
Administrative organization within the college: Administrative Council; College
Council; the Faculty; and the Experiment Station staff.
Name of institution -- Oregon Agricultural College (this is the name recommended
and used by President Kerr).
Faculty totaled 53 members.
State
Board of Higher Curricula established on March 15-16. The function
and mission of Oregon Agricultural College were defined. Until 1929,
the Board determined the allocation and development of curricula at
the Oregon Agricultural College and the University of Oregon.
Gamma Sigma Delta ("The Honor Society of Agriculture") chapter established.
John C. Olmsted (son of New York City's Central Park designer Frederick Law
Olmstead) presented his long-range
campus plan to President Kerr on October 1.
Professorship of Industrial Pedagogy established.
Debut of OAC wrestling.
First unit of Agricultural Hall (currently Strand Hall) erected.
In addition to tuition, a student fee of $2.00 per term approved.