Berry College: A History

FOUR. Expanding the Charter

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [First Page] [62], (1) Lines: 0 to 2 ——— 0.0pt PgV ——— Normal Page PgEnds: TEX [62], (1) Between 1926 and 1942, the Berry Schools faced serious financial problems and received their first significant national negative criticism. Despite these challenges, a junior college and then a senior college were added, and campus facilities, landholdings, the endowment, and enrollment increased significantly before Martha Berry’s death. chapter four Expanding the Charter The Beginning of Berry College In the fall of 1923, Berry planned to begin offering collegecoursesandtherebytoenableitsgraduatesto enter other colleges and universities as sophomores or juniors. Berry high-school graduates had performed well at many of the South’s leading colleges and universities, but other students who wished to continue their education beyond high school could not do so because of financial limitations. Consequently , Berry’s principal, Leland Green, indicated, manyBerrygraduateswhodesiredfurthereducation had no option but to attend second-rate colleges or junior colleges. He recommended that Berry begin to offer two years of post-high-school study, with emphasis on agriculture, premedical, and teacherpreparation courses.1 Like Berry’s high-school students , those in the college program would have the opportunity to work to cover their educational expenses , and graduates of other high schools would also be able to continue their education at Berry. Despite this expansion, the Berry Alumni Quarterly reported, “there was no thought of placing less emphasis upon the grammar- and high-school work. It is expected that these two departments will constitute the chief interest of the Schools as heretofore.”2 StudentsgraduatingfromtheBerryhighschools would be encouraged to remain at Berry for the college courses, and Green suggested that the first two years of the boys’ high school could be moved to the mountain campus, while students in their last two years of high school and first two years of college could reside on the lower campus.3 Berry Junior College initiated its two-year college program in the fall of 1926, with Green serving as the new school’s president. The college offered agricultural , commercial, home economics, and literaryscienti ficprogramsofstudyaswellasfifteensemester hours of education courses, which a student could combine with any of the four programs of study 62 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 [63], (2) Lines: 25 to 38 ——— 0.0pt PgVar ——— Normal Page * PgEnds: Eject [63], (2) to receive a professional high-school teaching certi ficate. To earn a diploma required sixty semester hours of college courses in addition to courses in the Bible and in music. Like the high-schoolers, the college students attended classes four days each week and worked for two days. Unlike the Berry high schools, however, the junior college was coeducational , enrolling ten men and nine women in its first year, four of the women and two of the men from other high schools. The first twelve students received diplomas from the junior college in 1928, and a total of 137 graduated from 1928 through 1931, when the last junior-college diplomas were awarded.4 When the junior college opened, along with a newlibrarybuilding,Berrybegantoincreasethesize of the faculty and to recruit more teachers with graduatedegrees ,butnofacultymemberin1928–29had earned a doctorate, although Martha Berry and Leland Green had received honorary doctorates. Only six faculty members held masters degrees.5 Despite the shortcomings of the fledgling junior college, the early graduates did well at other colleges and universities , and the Southern Association of Colleges andSecondarySchoolsgrantedaccreditationinDecember 1929.6 The two separate high schools, the Mount Berry School for Boys and the Martha Berry School for Girls, continued to receive emphasis as major parts of the total institution, and the boys’ and girls’ foundation schools continued to prepare students for the high schools. All of the high-school boys had moved to the mountain campus by 1931 to makeroomforthecollegemenattheformerlocation of the boys’ high school. The cost for attending any of the schools was $215 for the first year—$150 for tuition, $50 for uniforms, and $15 for books. Many students earned their tuition by working on campus during the summers or full-time during a semester. After the first...