Above is Mary Mortimer, who taught here in the 1840s and enjoyed a long and prominent career as a pioneer in women's higher education. A dorm on campus is named for her.
The 1860s were an early phase of private vs public tension in NY higher education. Malcolm MacVicar, principal of the Institute, was a forceful proponent of expanding the state's support for teacher education. Other than the Normal school at Albany, all teacher education was done in special classes at the various academies. MacVicar and others felt strongly that in a time of increasing demand for education better teacher training was needed, and in 1866 four additional Normal schools were established, one of which was Brockport.
The picture above shows the Normal school ca1910, with the former Institute building in the center, and the wings added on as a state school. This building stood almost exactly where Hartwell Hall is today.
As a Normal school, the sole mission was to train teachers, specifically
teachers for the elementary grades. Normal school graduates received
not a bachelors degree, but a lifetime teaching license. Schools like
ours offered opportunities to women, minorities and low income students
during a time when such students would not have been generally welcome
at private colleges. Below, students in
the lounge ca1935.
Times changed and so did the state's educational needs. The length of
the curriculum went from two to three years, and then in the 1930s to
three years plus a summer school session, almost the full schedule of a
bachelor degree granting teacher's college. Ernest Hartwell, (below, on
left) principal from 1936-1944, was active in the campaign of the 1930's
to win teachers college status for the state Normal schools. This
battle was waged over several years, against the intense opposition of
the private schools. The support of teacher's associations and local
supporters won through and in 1942 all state Normal schools became
Teachers Colleges. (With Hartwell is Donald
Tower, president from 1944-64, who saw the school through the
earlier years of expansion.)
Ernest Hartwell also won for Brockport a new building, today's Hartwell
Hall. Seen from the air in the ca1945 photo below, one can see the
compactness of the school. One main building on a six acre lot
encompassed the whole school. This is the school as it would appear in
1945 just prior to the beginning of the SUNY era.
In 1948, SUNY was created. Prior to this there was a loose association
of the state Teachers Colleges, but now, in response to new demands, a
much more extensive and ambitious system was established. Seen below is a
photo from the first meeting of SUNY presidents in 1948. Our president,
Donald Tower, is second from the left, middle row.
Since the 1970s, SUNY Central Administration has been housed in the
former Delaware and Hudson Railroad headquarters in downtown Albany.
From here the work of coordinationg and supporting the work of the 64
different campuses is conducted.
Map of New York and the various SUNY campuses. Many of the SUNY schools
have a history similar to Brockport; first a private academy, then
Normal School, Teachers College, liberal arts college and then the
comprehensive college of today.
Late in the '40s the big post WWII expansion of colleges began. This was
a major factor in the establishment of SUNY - the many minorities who
were eligible for the GI bill but weren't accepted at the private
schools, and then the privates simply didn't have room for the sheer
numbers of entrants. In the photo below you can see the veteran's
housing and temporary classroom buildings erected in the late '40s at
the south end of Hartwell Hall. (All were torn down by the '60s.)
Below, the campus in the 1950s. During the 1950s the school expanded
greatly, adding the dorms on Kenyon Street, Lathrop (then the student
union) and Seymour, the first permanent building across Kenyon. When
what we call Hartwell Hall was erected, Ernest Hartwell had argued for
moving the school out to the western edge of the village to allow for
future expansion, but for various political reasons it was kept on the
present site. Thus when the expansion did come, it meant the acquiring
of many village homes, of which some were demolished and other moved.
In the 1950s as the school increased in size, many aspects of college
life that before had either not been present, or present in only limited
form, came into full being. Sports
blossomed for example with the addition of a football team in 1947, and
soccer became the big sport in the 1950s, as Coach Huntley Parker led
the team to victory after victory.
In the 1960s the expansion of the school acquired an almost frantic
pace. The early '60s is when the school ceased to be a Teachers College,
offering only degrees in either elementary education or physical
education and health, and moved to become a liberal arts college
offering degrees in a wide array of disciplines. Student, faculty and
staff numbers all grew at an exponential rate, doubling several times
during this period. Below, Professor Howard Kiefer's EDU101 class
ca1960.
The man at the center of the tremendous expansion of the 1960s,
President Albert
Brown (1965-1981.)
A typical campus under construction scene of the 1960s and early 1970s;
this is the 1967 addition to Seymour Union.
The art department posing in the 1960s in front of their soon to be
home, Tower Fine Arts. It was named after President Tower, who had
written several drama books for high school use. The late '60s saw an
unprecedented proliferation of departments and faculty at Brockport.
The "O'Brien House," in 1967. Taken in the last years of the era when students
living off campus stayed in homes operated by a landlord or
landlady, who lived in the home, oversaw the student's behavior and
whose treatment of the students was in turn monitored by the college.
By 1973, when this picture was taken, the campus was closest to acquiring its present dimensions.
Collaborative Training Dinner
5 pm - 7 pm
Faculty Staff Convocation
8:30 am - 10:30 am
Collaborative Training
1 pm - 5:30 pm
Red Cross Blood Drive
11 am - 4 pm
