Central Wesleyan College (MO)

The Pickler Memorial Library at Truman State University hosts the Central Wesleyan College Archives Digital Collection.  The resource contains yearbooks, course catalogs, student newspapers, and other materials.

The digital collection is a subset of a more extensive Central Wesleyan archive of print materials that include financial records and legal documents..

Central Wesleyan College was founded in 1884 in Warrenton, MO.  The institution started as both a home for Civil War orphans and an institute of higher education.  The primary mission of the college was preparation of ministers for the German Methodist Episcopal Church.  The college merged with the German College of Mt. Pleasant, IA in 1909 and became a junior college in 1930 before closing in 1941. Many of the school's early publications were produced in both English and German, reflecting the bilingual nature of the institution. 

Chickasaw Female College (MS)

Chickasaw Female College in Pontotoc, MS was initially founded as Pontotoc Female Academy in 1836.  The institution was later affiliated with the Presbyterian Church after 1852 and ultimately closed in 1936.

The Mississippi State University Libraries digital collections include two Chickasaw Female College catalogs from the 1890-1891 and 1902-1903 academic years.

KY Council on Postsecondary Education

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education maintains a web page listing institutions that have closed in the state.  The respective entries include contact information for requesting academic records.

Okolona College (Mississippi)

Okolona Industrial School was founded in Okolona, MS in 1902 by Wallace A. Battle to provide normal and industrial education for African-American young people.  Wallace led the school until 1927 when he became Field Secretary for the American Church Institute for Negroes.  His wife, Effie T. Battle then led the school.  The name was changed to Okolona College in 1932.  Effie Battle departed and A.M. Strange was elected by trustees to lead the institution.  In 1965, the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi decided to withdraw support and the institution soon closed.

A fascinating study of the Okolona site was published in 1997 by The Small Town Center, a unit at the time of the School of Architecture at Mississippi State University.  The case study of possible uses included an assessment of the existing buildings along with scale models for various alternatives.  The National Council of Negro Women had previously purchased the site and was hoping to develop facilities to serve multiple needs of the organization and the town of Okolona.  

Several more recent images of the Okolona College site have been posted on Panoramio.

Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure

There is a certain ebb and flow in the number of articles calling for significant changes or highlighting the financial stress of small colleges or universities.  We certainly appear to be in one of those periods where a new article or blog posting seems to surface every few days.  In a recent example, Nathan Harder writing for the The American Interest predicts, "In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist."

I found Changing Course: Reinventing Colleges, Avoiding Closure to offer a timely and interesting selection of case studies and essays edited by Alice W. Brown and Sandra L. Ballard.  Intended as a wake-up call, readers can certainly benefit from the experiences of the various authors involved with institutions that either closed or almost closed.

The book was published in 2011 as part of the Jossey-Bass New Directions for Higher Education series.  Chapters include:

1. Case Study of a College that Closed: Saint Mary's College, Alice W. Brown
2. Bradford College: Requiem for a College, Arthur Levine
3. A College that Reinvented Itself: The Wilson College Story, Mary-Linda Merriam Armacost
4. Case Study of Reinvention: College of Charleston, Alice W. Brown
5. Reinventing Black Colleges in Postethnic America: The Case of Knoxville College, Barbara R. Hatton
6. Antioch College: A Celebrated History and an Uncertain Future, Elizabeth R. Hayford
7. Advice to Presidents of Struggling Colleges, Michael J. Puglisi

Islamia College Peshawr, Pakistan

Sher Alam Shinwari authored an interesting article on the history of Islamia College Peshawr, in recognition of the institution's founding 100 years ago in 1913.

Dixie State University (UT)

Benjamin Wood's article for the Deseret News on February 13, 2013 indicates that Utah lawmakers approved a move to university status.  The bill also includes a change in name to Dixie State University from Dixie State College.  The institution founded in 1911 began with LDS Church sponsorship. Control then shifted to the Utah Board of Education from 1935-1969 and then to the Utah State Board of Regents after 1969.

Eleutherian College (IN)

There is a new brochure from Historic Eleutherian College, Inc.

Mystery Solved...Hamer Tech??

I received an e-mail inquiry the other day asking if I knew anything about Hamer College.  The individual saw an old tin in an antique store covered with colorful pennants...including one for Hamer.

I've learned a couple of things over the past decade of trying to come up with a relatively comprehensive list of colleges...#1...just when you think you found them all, another one appears....and, #2...Google search is amazing!

Thanks to the Google News, I found a column by Denver Howard in the January 22, 1999 issue of The Bryan Times with the explanation.

Polytechnic of Namibia

Lorato Khobetsi discussed implications of a name change for Polytechnic of Namibia to become the University of Science and Technology in the Namibia Economist on February 8, 2013. 

Comments by Niilo Taapopi, Chair of the Polytechnic Council are featured in an institutional publication that also notes that the proposal for a name change was linked to a nationwide review of  the entire higher education system.

The American College & University: A History

The American College and University: A History by Frederick Rudolph was first published in 1962. John R. Thelin's 1990 edition re-introduced the work to a new generation and added an important introductory essay, "Rudolph Rediscovered."  There is also an extensive "Supplemental Bibliography" that updates and expands Rudolph's initial bibliography.

I find Thelin's categories are particularly helpful when trying to bring some order to a group of titles:

• Institutional Chronicles: Vertical Histories
• Institutional Histories with a Difference:  Horizontal Histories
• Social History and Institutions
• Biography of Institutions
• Higher Education and Public Policy
• Periodicals and Journals

Meredith College (NC)

A History of Meredith College, by Mary Lynch Johnson, is available through the Internet Archive in a variety of formats.  Used copies are also available for purchase through AbeBooks.com.

Baptist Female University was chartered by the legislature of North Carolina in 1891 and the institution opened in Raleigh on September 27, 1899.  The institution enrolled 220 students in preparatory, baccalaureate and master’s programs during the first year. Its first graduating class of ten women in 1902 [one was awarded a M.A. degree and nine received B.A. degrees], who became known as “The Immortal Ten.”

In 1905, the name of the institution was changed to Baptist University for Women and in 1909, to Meredith College.