• Memories of the 1950s Alums and faculty remember the past Interviewed by Katlin Smith Chuck Clemans, '56 The character of the campus is so different. .. the University existed in the lincoln Building, lincoln Hall, referred to as "Old Main/' and one large Victorian whit.:h held the administration in it. .. The old lincoln Building wasn't that different from when it had been a high school. It w a ~ real interesting 10 look oul the wmdows. and I probably did look out, al so many of those rowhouse-type Victorians. ThaI had to go when Ihe campus expanded. That was kind of a loss. I hated [0 see those buildings destroyed . o In 1956 the school received its accreditation and there was some question as to whether or not we were going to be accredited. Some people departed, gOI nervous and transferred to other schools in the state system... For an awful lot of us that page 4 1 PSU Perspective, Spring 1986 wasn't an option. I wasn't very well off. I was working part-time at the paper mill in Camas supporting my way through school. We had a fair number of what we would call returning housewives who came back. I think thai the University in those early days afforded a chance for a lot of people who were place-bound... I recall lots of ladies who were coming back after having galien their kids into schooL I think that's a major tole for a city university. o I do remember this. We were in the throes of gelling accreditalion and part of that was a certain amount of academic rigor was expected and I Ihink that some of that rigor rubbed off on a few of Ihe instructors and so gelting a degree and getting grades for classes was not just an idle exercise. La Rae Koon 8ogh, '56 I'd say, in the fifties, they (students) were pretty conservative. not nearly as liberal as, say, the sixties. They were much more liberal then. .. We had thc students who wenl to school and were very serious about if and very dedicated. o We had a lot of veterans Ihen because of the Korean War... They constituted kind of an autonomous group. A 101 of Ihem were married. But It was really fun having them because, interestingly enough, they took more parI in the socitll life than a lot of the younger students. They were ready to have some {un, bUI Ihey took their studieo; very seriously. They made good students and a lot of them had to work a lot more say than ~ O l ( , who were younger but they made just as good grades because they really dedicated themselves. But they also look time to go 10 the dances and thai's probably the one thing that has changed a liltIe. Dancing was a big thing in the fifties... they were well auended, all kindssock hops, formals. Mostly it was just informal dances. o I took an active part in writing letters to congressmen. We'd wrile personal letters about making it a degree-granting institution. That was before 1956 . . . During my time at Portland Stale, I also spent a year al the University of Oregon and I had my choice. I could have golten my degree at the University of Oregon or come back to Portland State and I chose to come back to Portland State because it was the first year it was granting degrees... and besides, I honestly felt that Portland State had a better faculty, a more dynamiC faculty... The personalities who were there in the fjfties were people who were really active in community affairs, civic affairs, they were really comers, and I just felt like I received a better education and, for that reason, I came back. o I was talking about young and dynamic people but Dr. Dahlstrom, an older man. he was in his fjfties which seemed old at the lime you know, in years chronologically he wasn't young but he was such a dynamic professor that he made literature just come 10 life.
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