General Information - Northern Arizona University

5

General Information

Authority

Northern Arizona University is authorized to operate under the jurisdiction of the Ariona State Board of Regents, a corporation composed of the Governor, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and eight members appointed by the Governor. The Board of Regents has the power and authority to control and manage the University and its properties and to adopt regulations governing the University.

Accreditation

The institution is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Professional programs in the colleges and schools within the university are accredited by corresponding national boards. For example, teacher education programs at Northern Arizona University have been accredited by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the School of Forestry has been accredited by the Society of American Foresters.

Northern Arizona University is affiliated with the American Council on Education, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education,. American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and many other major national and international associations. It has been approved by the American Association of University Women.

Accreditation and membership in these organizations assure the student that credit and degrees earned will receive full recognition from all other accredited institutions.

Curricula

Two-year curricula are offered in the following fields: nursing, secretarial studies, and technology. Four-year curricula are offered in many academic areas in liberal arts and sciences, leading to the degrees: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Music Education, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Science in Applied Science, Bachelor of Science in Engineering, Bachelor of Science in Education, Bachelor of Science in Forestry.

The following advanced degrees are offered: Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Education, Master of Music, Master of Music Education, Master of Science, Master of Science in Forestry, and Educational Specialist. Further information about all graduate programs can be secured by consulting the Graduate Bulletin.

Location

The institution is outstanding in the combination of location and educational advantages it offers. Flagstaff, in Northern Arizona enjoys a climate typical of high mountain country. The university has within ready access national parks and monuments, forests, deserts, mountains, lakes, unique geological phenomena, ruins of the earliest Indian cultures and Indian country--all the resources necessary for invigorating activity and first-hand serious study.

6

Flagstaff is at the base of the San Francisco Peaks, on the main line of the Santa Fe railroad, on U. S. Interstate 40 and 17 and Highways 66 and 89 and State Highway 79, within two-hour drive of the Grand Canyon of Arizona and 21/2 hoars' drive to Phoenix. It is also served by airline and by two trans-continental bus lines. The city is situated in the Coconino National Forest at an elevation of 7,000 feet. The elevation, the protection provided by the forest, and the Arizona sunshine give Flagstaff an unsurpassed all-the-year-around climate. In the summer it is one of the coolest cities in the United States, having an average temperature of 65 degrees. No location in the Southwest offers more ideal conditions for study and recreation.

Statement Of Purpose

This institution is multi-purpose, with responsibility to maintain an educational and social environment which will develop men and women:

1. Who are equipped and motivated through an understanding of the physical and social worlds and their inter-relationships to participate constructively in the family, social, political, and economic life of a democratic society;

2. Who assume responsibility for self discipline and accept those ethical standards which will insure continuous improvement in choices of conduct;

3. Who have acquired a sensitivity to aesthetic values which will contribute to their own vital enjoyment of life and which will stimulate them to promote directly or indirectly the best cultural interest of their communities;

4. Who are inspired to become intellectual and civic leaders in whatever position or location they pursue their life activities;

5. Who obey the basic laws of healthful living and have developed skill in some activity which will be a lifelong source of recreation;

6. Who have mastered subject matter, methods, skills, and personal attributes which will enable them to earn a living and serve society through reaching in the elementary or secondary schools or through other professional, business, or technical occupations;

7. Who have completed satisfactorily pre-professional study for medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine and law.

8. Who are adequately prepared to proceed to continued and to more advanced study.

The institution implements these objectives by: 1. Its administrative organization; 2. A well qualified faculty, 3. A liberal studies program; 4. Various curricula under supervision of seven Administrative Colleges and Schools; 5. An honors program to challenge the superior student to develop his abilities to the maximum by providing for the broadening and deepening of the student's experience in the major fields of human knowledge;

7

6. Graduate programs in those areas of the University which are qualified to make such offerings;

7. Institutional, faculty and student research program;

8. A library equipped with 210,000 volumes, 2,000 regular periodicals and a trained staff;

9. A counseling and guidance service maintained to aid students in a wise choice of vocational goals, in academic problems, and in personal problems relative to health, social and financial adjustment;

10. A supervised extra-curricular program offering opportunity to develop interests, skills in group activities, and leadership through participation in student government, interest centered organizations, social groups, honor societies, and athletic, dramatic, forensic, journalistic, and music activities;

11. Supplementary and extended services such as adult education by evening and off-campus instruction, correspondence courses, workshops, institutes, conferences, and consultant services to educational, business, community and social organizations in the state;

12. A campus and physical plant planned and designed to contribute to the accomplishment of the university objectives;

13. Use of a superb physical and varied cultural setting which furnishes excellent laboratories for Anthropology, Astronomy, Biology, Geology, and Social Sciences.

History

Hon. N. O. Murphy was governor of the Territory of Arizona when the Twentieth Territorial Legislature convened on January 16, 1899. He had previously served the territory as governor and as secretary and delegate to Congress, and was cognizant of the desires and needs of the territorial residents. In his message to the legislature, Governor Murphy recommended that the territorial building, erected at Flagstaff by action of the Seventeenth Territorial Legislature in 1893 and never put to use, be used to house a territorial normal school.

Henry F. Ashurst, young Coconino County representative to the legislature and elected Speaker of the House, introduced House Bill 41 on February 6, 1899, which authorized the establishment of the Northern Arizona Normal School. This met with the approval of the entire territory and the bill was speedily passed.

In March, 1899, plans for the Northern Arizona Normal School were completed. The first school term began September 11, 1899. In charge of the school was Professor A. N. Taylor of Jamestown, N. Y., with Miss Frances Bury assisting. Twenty-three students enrolled the first day, and ten more entered the following week.

Four young women made up the first graduating class in 1901. They received diplomas which warranted them life certificates to teach in the schools of Arizona.

Growth of the institution in enrollment and in importance to the educational system of Arizona led the state legislature on March 7, 1925, to change the institution's status from a normal school to a four-year degree-conferring college, granting the Bachelor of Education. In 1929 the degree was changed in name to the Bachelor of Arts in Education. The name of the school was changed to Northern Arizona State Teachers College in 1925, and to Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff in 1928.

8

In 1937. the state legislature granted the college the right to establish and conduct courses carrying graduate credit which would permit the conferring of the degree of Master of Arts in Education upon satisfactory completion of such courses.

In March of 1945 the name was again changed to Arizona State College at Flagstaff, and the legislature also placed all three state institutions of higher learning under the control of one Board of Regents which is now known as the Arizona Board of Regents.

In 1947 the Board of Regents authorized the college at Flagstaff to grant the Bachelor of Arts, the Bachelor of Science, as well as the (change of name) Bachelor of Science in Education and the Master of Arts in Education. In 1954 the Board of Regents authorized the granting of the Educational Specialist degree following a year of specialized study and research beyond the master's degree. In 1957 further authority was given the college to grant the Master of Arts and the Master of Science, in addition to the Master of Arts in Education.

On May 12, 1958, the Board of Regents approved the establishment of a four-year forestry curriculum at Arizona State College at Flagstaff, and authority was given to grant the Bachelor of Science in Forestry.

During the academic year 1959-60 the college, with the approval of the Board of Regents, reorganized into seven divisions of auricular areas, General Studies, Technology and Applied Arts, Science and Mathematics, Liberal Arts, Teacher Education, Business Administration, and Forestry.

Two years later these administrative divisions were changed to School of Business Administration, School of Education, School of Forestry, School of Liberal Arts, School of Natural Sciences, School of Technology and Applied Arts.

Beginning in the fall of 1962, a two-calendar-year nursing program leading to the Associate of Science Degree was initiated. This program is accredited by the Arizona State Board of Nurse Registration and Nursing Education. Graduates are eligible to write the State Board Examination to become a licensed registered nurse.

In a general meeting, on November 28, 1964, the Board of Regents, presided over by Regent President John G. Babbitt, Flagstaff, unanimously approved the changing of Arizona State College to university status, effective in May, 1966. In the following spring, 1965, the 27rh Arizona State Legislature passed Senate Bill 98 which authorized the change of the institution to a university and the change of its name to Northern Arizona University. The bill had been introduced by State Senator Fred Udine of Williams, an alumnus of the institution, was signed by Gov. Sam Goddard on April 6, 1965, and became effective May 1, 1966.

The university academic structure involved the establishment of five colleges and two schools. They are College of Graduate Study, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, College of Business Administration, College of Creative Arts, School of Forestry, and School of Applied Science and Technology.

The New Campus Center

Historically, Northern Arizona University has been regarded as not only one of the fine institutions of higher learning, but one in which students have retained their individuality. In other words, the University has been regarded as a "personal university.'" As long as the Insritution was relatively small this concept was rather easily maintained. With the expanded growth, however, it becomes more and more difficult to keep the same type of relationship between faculty and student that has been prized so highly.

9

The administration and faculty of Northern Arizona University in anticipating the growth that is to come, and in an attempt to find some means whereby this pride and relationship could be kept as it had been, have arrived at what it is hoped will be a unique approach to the question and one that has every opportunity of being successful.

Northern Arizona University is building a second academic center just to the south of the present campus site. Here will be built a second campus where the enrollment should never exceed 5,000 students. This will enhance, within the twocampus approach, the concept of not having a greater number of students than can be educated in an atmosphere of cordial relationships where the individuality of the student can be maintained. The present campus will be kept approximately at its present size. We will still have a single Northern Arizona University of which all students can be rightfully proud. At the same time, a single student as an occupant of one of the two academic centers will find himself with his own student body, his own faculty members and administration. What we are doing, in effect, is making the total resources of a major university available to every single student, but in an atmosphere where he will be able to know the students with whom he finds himself in class, and those faculty members with whom he is in contact by day, as well as members of the administrative group on his campus. This will permit us to retain the concept of the friendly university and still enhance the prospects of availability to the single student of every resource that the great universities have available today.

Dormitory living will be available on either academic center. Highly specialized laboratories requiring great financial resources will not be repeated on the two campuses. A relatively few times in a student's life will he find himself going from either campus to a second for a single class. At the same time, the University, when necessary, will be bringing instructors from one center to another in order to prevent students from having to be transported. Transportation facilities will be available, when necessary, to make certain that each student can have available to him all resources of either campus with no expense to himself and without having to furnish his own transportation.

The initial construction phase will be completed by September 1970. Proximity of one academic center to another is approximately VA mile, which will prevent any undue hardships being placed on a student on either center by any requirements or desire to take some work on a second campus.

This bold and imaginative step should be further evidence of the concern that Northern Arizona University feels for every single student in attempting to place him in a collegiate atmosphere that will enable him to have every educational resource available to him and yet be a part of a relatively small, friendly campus group whether it include student, professor or administrator.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download