Promise, Pessimism, and Perseverance: An Overview of Higher Education History in Kentucky

Promise, Pessimism, and Perseverance: An Overview of Higbey Education History in Kentucky BY JAMES C. KI.OTTER Ihe general outline of the + ,* « 4* i -r story is often repeated * S ,, 87 4 „ 41148' all fs /% 148{ 3'**, and usually well-known: How Kentuck> before the Civil 14* 47. 2 6 : B y . 11 , 54 / 2. 3,_ 2 4. , u War showed promise in higher - .· A«* i.* 07 : A* Z c/ TAL 1 ., 0' p„ u - - f ® education, f( unded numerous ':'--r46 x.:„,·. Solic., 1 of Engligh lite,·,( t„,· e.tlu· li· i·* id,•„ 1 « 11 ,£ Ii. j-,·* , 1 roads, and to fund other things, still remains stronger b,• Phey. Crinii, iriy:, a/Schrio/. P/· 0/' i'. v.>·/,/· ( //. 7'h,·/ s. Se} tof, I of iii' h)' i' 1·{ i: til Tlietd(illii Eli,bc.si, i, ,; ii' ili. than the will to buildand maintaina better higher TUITION, F i „„, /[ i//,* Nt , Im„ l„ y i IN/ 1,/ c. mi„. r / 0 ./ 10 12& 1·> 1% 1 ......... 1:,(; II, Fri„, 1 Ja" " ar, [/ 1 Iii ./[„· il 1/ 1. ' i'114· I·** 14·. 9,······· ········ ·· 1/ ,/, education system. Asphalt often seems more valued FE·: ...·'.. ..'' N (, 1 2 00: Thir, 1 44*:. %/ 54). a, 1,41;X, 1/ ,( m„ g m„, ( i I;e,· 91.,· t:. A fourth pattern in Kentucky education is that,over Nt / del /,/ I' ll„ 1„ 1,«· m„, it,HOmel, r„/ 1 , M m 11·I h,%, 'tE·, 1.11/ 1 : Iranii*: ar. ait, 1 C., 4, gripliy. ci„ 1, 4. recei,(· 41 i„, ,>; i;,I ' re,. a.·: il:t., Depart/ ne/*. Trrl: R/. M:* me %: rl :,] im, // m€ 41. hi· 1' rt/: n- I v time, the student population in colleges and universities I.. 4.... 4, 1„•.. REV. CHAS. TAYLOR, Pre# ideiii. w#' Lt.*, W. w. 1, 1» e.# 40,...* e-has become more diverse in terms of gender and race. 4-1 » R» ft___ Young men and women attended schools together from the earliest days of European settlement. Yet they typically went to separate schools at the highest rungs of the education ladder. Eventually,almost all Kentucky colleges became coed,though at widely different times. Berea College,for example,started that way;what is today UK first admitted women in 1880;Georgetown did so in 1885;Transylvania four years OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 50 after that; and Wesleyan in 1892. Centre, however, became coeducational only in 1926,and women did not reside on the campus until 1962. Women's colleges changed even more slowly. Villa Madonna College (today's Thomas More College)admitted men in 1945, and Spalding University did so in 1973. Only Midway College has resisted the coeducational trend. But change did occur over time. By 1929, UK had more women than men on cainpus, as did other schools. Attitudes, however,adjusted more slowly. Historians Dwayne Cox and 't' ir William Morison note how, at . ,.:, 1 5 U of L,women were not allowed to wear stacks in the library or in classes as late as 1967. But the situation has changed drastically,for women now outnumber men in most Kentucky institutions. Given that the I B & future demands a welleducated workforce, one demographer has concluded that in Kentucky, j Bubba is in trouble."'+ Ihe racial makeup of the commonwealth' s colleges has also changed. In antebellum times a fifth of the state's populationits enslaved peoplehad almost no access to any formal Kentitcky State Normal education. With the end of slavery that situation altered some, but higher School class of 1901. Tbe Filson Historical Society education choices remained limited. Berea provided truly integrated classes until the infamous Day Law ended them in 1904. Moreover, most whites, and many blacks,stressed that AfricanAmerican education should be vocationally oriented. The two statesupported black schoolsWest Kentucky Industrial College in Paducah and the school it merged with in 1938, present day Kentucky State University ( KSU)both emphasized that philosophy. KSU,founded in 1886, was a college in name only for its first four decades, not granting its first AB degree until 1929. Until then,most African Americans in Kentucky who received a college education did so at Berea, and later,with its forced segregation,the State University in Louisville. Formed in...