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The World Is Ours: The History of UWSP 1894-1994
After a brief period of adjustment to the new
position, Baldwin turned to the tasks at hand.
He correctly viewed his major challenge to be
the preparation of the school and its faculty
for its new role as a four-year college. He noted
that he saw the change as the "beginning of a
new era in the history of our school, [one
which] calls for many new adjustments and
changes if we are to function to the highest
degree in our new status."
The requirements which were established
for obtaining a degree included a minimum
of 128 hours and a maximum of 144 hours.
Stevens Point decided initially to grant
degrees in education in the fields of home
economics and rural education, and to add a
degree in secondary education the following
year. Diploma courses in primary, inter-
mediate, and junior high school education
were continued, as was the one-year course
that prepared students to teach in a one-
room school.
To give incoming freshmen a better oppor-
tunity to experience all of the four-year
courses, Baldwin and the faculty developed a
new program. Beginning in September, 1928,
incoming freshmen were given the oppor-
tunity to survey all of the fields in which
teaching programs were available at the
campus. The program was intended not to be
just a brief review, but a "birdseye view of the
whole field in each particular branch."
Baldwin did have a concern about the possi-
bility of setting limits on granting degrees,
especially in the area of junior high education.
He observed the trend developing that would
join the junior and senior high school courses
into a single Secondary Education Depart-
ment, and in a letter to his counterpart at
River Falls, he expressed his belief that the
presidents should consider "abandoning the
distinction between the junior and senior high
schools in preparation for this movement
within the public schools themselves." He
also advocated two other points: the schools
must maintain a very high standard in all
courses, and they must guard against what he
called "flimsy majors."
Funding remained another area of par-
ticular concern by 1927. State resources, hurt
by the agricultural depression in progress
since the early 1920s, were not being provided
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to the normal schools in adequate amounts.
Baldwin received a letter from President
Brown of Oshkosh in which Brown lamented
the lack of funding support by the state and he
appeared to attribute the low level at least in
part to the lack of commitment to teacher
training by the legislature. He noted that
while the university received the best budget
in its history, "we are flat on our backs in the
teachers colleges with meager funds for oper-
ation and nothing at all for maintenance or
capital." Baldwin agreed that it appeared to
be easier to get funding for a liberal arts
education than for teacher training, but indi-
cated his belief that the "reincarnation of the
college course" would not be the best route to
go for the teachers colleges. Instead, he urged
that the emphasis be placed on convincing the
board that quality counted, and that it was
the board "which has been growing restive
with the lessened enrolment [sic] even more
than the legislature." Thus, he felt that the
struggle was to get greater commitment first
from the Board of Regents. This struggle over
budget and state funding carried overtones of
the long argument about the role of "college
courses" in the state teachers colleges, and the
budgetary struggle did not diminish through-
out the course of Baldwin's presidency.
In June of 1927, the first class to receive
bachelor's degrees marched across the plat-
form at the newly renamed Central State
Teachers College in Stevens Point. A great deal
of publicity preceded the event, but resistance
from the faculty was not easily overcome. Only
on a second vote did the faculty approve the
plan to make this event a formal occasion,
complete with caps and gowns. Genevieve and
Mayme Cartmill of Plover received the first
Bachelor of Education degrees granted by the
school. Both specialized in domestic science.
After the excitement of the graduation
ceremony, thoughts returned to the needs of
the school and the ever present problem of
funding. Those seeking an increase in state
support for the teachers colleges noted that
the schools appeared to have been funded
more adequately as normal schools. Despite
the inadequate funding, Baldwin applauded
the efforts of his campus to increase the
standards for graduation and to raise the
overall level of student achievement.