page_title: History of Texas A&M University–Commerce
section_title: East Texas State Normal College (1917–1923)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Texas A&M University–Commerce / East Texas State Normal College (1917–1923)
caption_attribution_description: English: Randolph B. Binnion, second president of East Texas State Normal College.
context_page_description: The history of Texas A&M University–Commerce began in 1889 when William L. Mayo founded a private teachers' college named East Texas Normal College in Cooper, Texas. After the original campus was destroyed in a fire in July 1894, the college relocated to Commerce. In 1917, the State of Texas purchased and transformed it into a state college, and renamed it East Texas State Normal College. Mayo died of a sudden heart attack the same day the Texas Legislature voted to buy the college, and he never heard the news. In 1923, it was renamed East Texas State Teachers College to define its purpose "more clearly", and in 1935 it began its graduate education program. From the 1920s through the 1960s, the college grew consistently, in terms of student enrollment, number of faculty, and size of the physical plant.
  The school was renamed East Texas State College in 1957, after the Legislature recognized its broadening scope beyond teacher education. It integrated in 1964 when ordered to do so by the Board of Regents. It was renamed East Texas State University in 1965, after the establishment of the institution's first doctoral program in 1962.
context_section_description: East Texas Normal College (ETNC) was renamed East Texas State Normal College (ETSNC) in 1917 after it was acquired by the State of Texas and transformed into a public college. Against the backdrop of significant institutional debt, a pressing need for repairs to campus facilities, and American entry into World War I, the Board of Regents selected Randolph B. Binnion, the Assistant State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as the college's second president in July 1917. Among Binnion's first accomplishments in office were enlarging the faculty and repairing the physical plant: in his first year, he more than doubled the number of professors on campus by hiring 18 new faculty members, and under his watch the Administration Building, Science Hall, and Willard Hall were all renovated or remodeled. Despite having an enrollment of just 234 when it reopened as a public school in 1917, by 1922 ETSNC was the second best attended normal college in the state, surpassed only by North Texas State Normal College in Denton.
  In the late 1910s, state normal colleges in Texas were not permitted to have on-campus dormitories, so the burden of accommodating students fell largely to Commerce citizens who were willing to host boarders. In 1920, ETSNC and the other state normal colleges pressured the board of regents to permit dormitories, largely to accommodate growth at the schools.
  Although Binnion generally adhered to the same principles regarding teacher education that Mayo did, ETSNC's conversion into a state school brought inevitable and extensive changes, including the reorganization of the college into four separate program "divisions". The retirement of the "sub-college" program that dated back to Mayo, along with new state requirements more generally, resulted in students who had not finished high school having more difficulty gaining admittance to ETSNC, which disproportionately affected rural students.
  The late 1910s and early 1920s were an era of marked conservatism at ETSNC, as all prospective faculty members were asked whether they danced or belonged to a church, while the school viewed itself as a surrogate parent for students in line with the principle of in loco parentis. Nonetheless, student life developed during this period, which saw the formation of student government in addition to ample opportunities for students to attend lectures and concerts as well as participate in extracurricular organizations. ETSNC also became known for its low costs as its reputation for quality grew, exemplified by the fact that the Cleveland, Ohio, school board offered to hire its "entire output of teachers" in 1920.
  By the time ETSNC became a state institution in 1917, blue and gold had been adopted as its school colors, and in 1919 its teams began using the nickname "Lions". During the late 1910s and 1920s, ETSNC fielded teams in football, men's basketball, women's basketball, and baseball, while the school gained admission into the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1922.
caption: President Randolph B. Binnion in 1920
exif: {}