The Scroll -- 1947

Arkansas State Teachers College

 

     The Arkansas State Teachers College was established as the Arkansas State Normal School by the General Assembly of Arkansas May 14, 1907.  In July 1907, the board of trustees of the Normal School accepted an offer by Conway and chose its location in this city.

 

     Building began in January 1908 on the first Normal building, now the Science Hall.  On September 21, 1908, the Arkansas State normal School was formally opened for instruction.  Summer sessions were inaugurated in the summer of 1910.

 

     The first diploma granted by the Arkansas State Normal School was the Licentiate of Instruction Degree or Diploma.  In 1920, the faculty and the board of trustees decided to offer the baccalaureate degree, and the first degree of this kind was granted in 1922, when Mattie Brown and C. K. Wilkerson were graduated.

 

     The name of the institution was changed from Arkansas State Normal School to Arkansas State Teachers College at the biennial session of the General Assembly of Arkansas in 1925 and by legislative enactment the board of trustees was given authority to grant appropriate degrees.

 

     Student publications have appeared on the campus of Arkansas State Teachers College almost since its founding.  The Echo, the college paper, first appeared in 1909.  It was then the Normal Echo and appeared monthly.  It has now grown to be a weekly publication.

 

     The Scroll first appeared in 1915, and despite difficulties at times, has appeared every year since then with the exception of one.

-         Dorothy Short, Editor (1947)

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