Sam Houston State University: An Institutional Memory, 1879-2004

At various points in their history, institutions of higher education commission memories, reflections or histories. The 125th anniversary of its founding was the occasion for Ty Cashion's excellent and visually elegant reflection on Sam Houston State University, a former normal school and teachers college that has become a regional public university. Cashion's volume includes a foreword by alumnus Dan Rather, class of 1953, and an afterword by president and alumnus James F. Gaertner, class of 1965. Both selections provide interesting personal recollections of men who have attained prominence and have shaped their alma mater.

Cashion chose Sam Houston's twelve presidential administrations as the framework for his "institutional memory." The challenge of the presidential administrations structure is that important institutional themes such as student life, alumni accomplishments, and the university community (faculty and staff) must fit into a potentially rigid chronological pattern dominated by leaders whom graduates may not have known. Cashion and Tom Seifert, the volume's coordinator of art and design, succeed in incorporating various sidebars and photographs that reconcile the book's basic chronology with the need to provide thematic emphasis upon people and events. These include such as influential alumni Anna Hardwicke Pennybacker, Lee Drain, Dan Rather, Dana Andrews, and Col. M. B. Etheredge; "the first faculty authors"; the Alcalde (SHSU yearbook); Eleanor Roosevelt's visit to campus in 1937; and Tripod the campus dog (1941–1962). These vignettes and graphics give Cashion's history a readability and appeal that make it one of the finer volumes of its kind. The intended audience, alumni and friends of Sam Houston State University, will enjoy the final product.

Cashion's task was to create a commemorative volume, and his treatment of SHSU is generally upbeat, occasionally even promotional; however, he demonstrates the interest and skills of the professional historian. He has included sixteen pages of notes creatively linked to text paragraphs. This style minimizes academic trappings in a book designed for a general audience, but preserves the linkages that institutional researchers and scholars appreciate. Similarly, the work has italicized and included most of the book's photographic captions in the index and uses regular type for text references. Cashion takes particular interest in some of the modern crises that divided both the campus and the community of Huntsville such as the suppression of Rupert Koeninger's academic freedom, which earned an institutional censure from the AmericanAssociation of University Professors, and allegations of racism directed against a later vice president of academic affairs. Similarly, he describes early allegations of improper conduct and later concerns about drinking and "streaking." Cashion demonstrates here and elsewhere that the controversies of the past not only deserve attention, but contribute to understanding the evolution of the institution.

His organizational structure provides a clear account of when, how and under whom the campus grew or temporarily atrophied. He explains distinctive traditions such as the annual procession to Sam Houston's grave to commemorate both his birth and his contribution to Texas independence. One also learns that though the earliest leaders (Bernard Mallon, Hildreth Hosea Smith and Joseph A. Baldwin) had no previous associations with the new Sam Houston Normal Institute, seven of the nine subsequent presidents were either alumni or faculty prior to their selection. Though Cashion does not directly assess the importance of this legacy, few public institutions can claim greater local influence over institutional development. In sum, this is a book that will interest not only those with a personal interest in Sam Houston State University, but also those fascinated by the evolution of institutions.