Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, January 27, 1998

College was one of the keys that made Lafayette grow

by Jim Bradshaw

It was created by Act 162 of the 1898 Louisiana Legislature. The bill was introduced by State Rep. Robert Martin, who had pushed through the same legislation two years before, only to see it vetoed by Gov. Murphy Foster for lack of money.

Foster signed the second bill on July 13, 1898, and appointed a board of trustees to, first, decide where to put the school, and, second, who would run it. Members of that board included Foster himself, Martin, Dr. James Lee of New Iberia, Gen. Albert Estopinal of St. Bernard Parish, Prof. Brown Ayres of New Orleans, Capt. John C. Buchanan of Lafayette, Amos L. Ponder of Sabine Parish, Major. J.G. Lee of Ouachita Parish, Thomas L. Lewis of St. Landry Parish, and State Education Supt. J.V. Calhoun.

The trustees met on Jan. 3, 1900, to hear arguments from delegates from Lafayette, New Iberia, St. Martinville, and Scott, each of which wanted the school.

Charles D. Caffery represented Lafayette. He pointed out that the area was "the geographical and actual center of Southwest Louisiana with unusual railroad facilities" and was "one of the most thickly settled parishes of the state." He also noted that Lafayette had voted a two-mill property tax to donate to the school for the next 10 years.

New Iberia's proposal was based on the offer of 50 acres of land "picturesquely beautiful, and from a sanitary standpoint well drained and healthy." New Iberia voted a five-mill property tax for 10 years.

Scott businessman Alcide Judice offered 100 arpents of land or $50,000 if his town was chosen.

The trustees weighed the decision until May 15, when they announced that Lafayette was the winner. The trustees said that it was an important agricultural center, being the "junction-point of the chief industrial interests of Louisiana -- those of sugar, cotton, and rice."

In addition, the governor said the decision was based upon the donation of 25 acres of land for the campus, a $5,000 cash bonus put up by the citizenry, another $3,000 put up by the Police Jury, and the two-mill property tax.

The new Institute would be located just outside the then-limits of the town, on land donated by Mrs. Maxim E. Girard and her son, Crow Girard, who was president of the Bank of Lafayette.

The board also selected Edwin Lewis Stephens as the first president of the school and commissioned an architectural firm to draw up plans for an academic building. This building, the first Martin Hall (since replaced) was completed in early June 1900. In a meeting held on the campus on the day Martin Hall was dedicated, the trustees made plans to build a girls' dormitory to be named Foster Hall (for the governor). At the same time, the trustees approved a faculty of seven men and women to teach science, manual training, domestic science, freehand drawing, gymnastics, English, French, music, and stenography.

The first day of class was Sept. 18, 1901. Candidates for admission to the first-year course in 1901 were required to be 14 years old and to be competent to do seventh-grade work. On that first day, 100 students appeared for class. This number had increased by the end of the session to 150, 55 girls and 95 boys. In 1903, telegraphy and agriculture were added to the course of offerings.

In 1907, requirements for admission were raised to the eighth-grade level. This process continued until 1916, when SLII became a combination senior high school and junior college. It became a college offering a bachelor's degree in 1920.

When SLII opened, the library was housed in a single room in the main building. It contained 675 bound volumes and the current issues of about 25 periodicals. By 1916, thanks primarily to gifts from supporters of the school, the library held about 2,000.

Also by 1916, the physical plant had expanded to a 50-acre campus with four brick buildings -- the main building, a boys' dormitory, a girls' dormitory, and an arts and crafts building. There were five frame structures -- the president's residence, a laundry, gymnasium, a second girls' dormitory (called the St. Charles Hotel), and a barn.

According to a brief history of the university, "The years 1916 to 1923 were transitional. At the beginning of the period, the 322 students enrolled were about equally divided between the senior high school grades and the junior college ranks. But by 1920 the emphasis had shifted so heavily to the collegiate courses that two years were added to the college-level academic course, to make it a four-year course leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In the same year four-year courses in home economics and in education -- both leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science -- were added to the curricula. ...At the same time, plans were made to close out the high school department at the end of the 1922 - 1923 session. The scholastic requirements for admission to any course became high school graduation."