The History of Gallaudet University: 150 Years of a Deaf American Institution

3. From College to University, 1957–1988

Alice Lougee Hagemeyer graduated from Gallaudet in 1957 with a degree in library science. She worked at the DC Public Library from 1957 until 1991, and in that time she established programs to provide and encourage access for deaf patrons and to promote public awareness of Deaf culture. She is the founder of Friends of Libraries for Deaf Action (FOLDA), and since her retirement she has continued to be an advocate for the deaf community, pursuing full library services to American deaf people. From College to University, 1957–1988 CHAPTER 3 p I n 1955, prior to Gallaudet’s accreditation, the college enrollment totaled 294, including 61 preps, 219 undergraduates, and 14 graduate students. Undergraduates could major in biology, chemistry, mathematics, economics, history, political science, psychology, sociology, art, English, philosophy, business administration, education, home economics, library science, or physical education. In 1966–67, ten years after receiving accreditation, Gallaudet had 823 students—205 preps, 576 undergrads, and 42 graduate students. Total enrollment continued to grow through the 1960s, reaching more than 1,000 by 1970, and the size of the faculty also continued to increase, rising to just over 200 in that year. As the student body and faculty grew, so did the potential for the college to have an impact on the public perception of deaf people and their abilities. By 1969, the last year of President Elstad’s tenure, the federal appropriation for the college had increased to $6.5 million and total revenues stood at almost $9 million.1 During the 1960s and 1970s the range of programs and services that Gallaudet offered increased dramatically, and these programs fueled the aspirations of deaf people throughout the nation. In 1960, almost seventy years after the founding of the Normal Department (renamed the Graduate Department), Gallaudet finally admitted deaf students to the master’s degree program. Clearly, things were changing rapidly. Greek life flourished on campus during this period, with the addition of the Theta Nu Tau Fraternity in 1969 and the Chi Omega Psi Sorority in 1970, and Gallaudet athletes found success in a number of sports, especially track and field under the leadership of Coach Thomas O. Berg (BS 1944). The number of buildings on the campus also continued to grow.With increasingly abundant federal funding, the college added several new buildings during the early 1960s, including the Washburn Arts Building (named in honor of Cadwallader Washburn),The Mary Thornberry Building (which housed the hearing and speech  Stained glass windows in Ole Jim. Photograph by Carla D. Morris. 72 the history of gallaudet university Aerial view of the Gallaudet campus in 1962.  The Gallaudet College Auditorium, now Elstad Auditorium, is a 762-seat theater that is used for theatrical productions and lectures. Photograph 1963.  The Mary Thornberry Building, built in 1958, was home to the Department of Hearing, Speech, and Language Sciences. An extension of the building was completed in 1964. Photograph 1959. 73 from college to university, 1957–1988 center), the Walter Krug and Alice Cogswell Residence Halls, and the Gallaudet College Auditorium (later renamed in honor of Leonard M. Elstad).The new auditorium provided a home for the performing arts program that eventually had an impact outside of the campus. All of this growth also brought profound changes to the way deaf people viewed their role in the governance of the Institution.These changes in attitude would be accelerated by research conducted at Gallaudet on the nature of the language and culture of the signing Deaf community. Research at Gallaudet The responsibilities of American universities are often said to be threefold: teaching, research, and public service. Research on deaf education and on the Deaf community was a feature of scholarly activity at Gallaudet almost from its founding. Edward Allen Fay conducted important research on marriage patterns among deaf people in the latter part of the nineteenth century, work that has since been used in research on the nature of genetic deafness. However, truly organized and sustained research efforts did not begin until the 1950s. At that time, the college faculty included few individuals with doctorates. For example, in the 1955–56 academic year, just prior to accreditation, the college faculty numbered fifty-eight, including six individuals with PhDs, three with EdDs, thirty-one with MAs, and eighteen with no advanced degree.2 The push to increase the number of faculty with doctorates continued after 1957, and eventually included significant numbers of deaf people...