Highlights of Hubert M. Dawson’s presidency (1959-1973)
Events during Dawson’s presidency:
1959
September: Temple Junior College begins its first semester as an institution separate from the Temple public school system.
December 1: The College received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (SACS).
1960
November 17: Temple College was granted a charter for a chapter of Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), the international junior college honor society. The chapter is known as the Lambda Theta chapter.
1961
October 23: A student center was dedicated. The student center was located in what is now the Instructional Service Center.
1963
Spring: English instructor Mozilla Arnold is Temple College’s first faculty member to receive the prestigious Piper Professor Award, which is awarded annually by the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation.
Fall: Temple Junior College became one of the first junior colleges in Texas to purchase IBM data processing machines and begin offering classes in their use.
1964
January 28: A bond election was held for the construction of a library and a science building.
September 21: Temple Junior College registered its 1,000th student.
November: Construction began on the new science building.
1965
January: Construction began on the new library.
1967
Spring: The college organized a rodeo club called the Temple Junior College Rodeo Association. The club was a charter club of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.
March: The college’s Board of Regents voted to name the library after Hubert M. Dawson following several petitions from the Ex-
1968
Spring: An organization for Catholic students called The Newman Club was organized.
February 17: The newly constructed student union building opened to students. The building included a bookstore, a snack bar with a fully equipped kitchen, and a color television set.
March: Temple Junior College published its first literary magazine.
April 27: The Temple Junior College Ex-Students Association held its annual gathering. During this gathering the newly constructed student union and applied arts and sciences buildings were dedicated and named. The student union was named in honor of Mozella Arnold and Marian Arnold, and the applied arts and sciences building was named in honor of Gracie Watson. The college’s library was acknowledged after it had been named in honor of Hubert M. Dawson by the Board of Regents in 1967.
1969
May: The Board of Regents participated in the college’s commencement exercises for the first time.
November: The college received its first copy machine, which was installed in the library.
1970
March: The college removed the track team from its athletic program, adding baseball in its place.
Fall: The college implemented a “common calendar” system that allowed fall semester finals to be taken in December instead of January. The student handbook was revised in order to allow female students to wear pants to class.
September: The Texas Highway Department approved the funding for a crossover, which would connect the east and west campuses.
October: On the 20th, a bond election was held to fund the building of a fine arts building, a health and physical education building, and to install air conditioning in Berry Hall and the administration building (the present-day Instructional Service Center). At the college’s 45th convocation on the 22nd, the science building was named in honor of long-time faculty member Anne Penney Newton.
November: Temple Junior College linked a computer console to an IBM processer in California in a demonstration that drew 500 students.
1971
February: The Hubert M. Dawson library added the 20,000th book to its collection.
August: The College received approval for a grant to build a dormitory.
September: The faculty dress code was changed to allow female faculty and staff members to wear pants to work. The college established a computer science degree program in partnership with the University of Mary Hardin Baylor, as well as a law enforcement program. The college also began offering non-credit courses for the first time. The courses included floral design, home interior design, and blueprint reading.
1972
January 30: The newly constructed health and physical education building, located on the college’s east campus, was dedicated.
1973
January: Temple Junior College began offering allied health courses to train medical lab technicians, medical record technicians and inhalation therapy technicians.