History
In the early 1850s, a group of pioneers crossed the Oregon Trail. Upon arrival in the Willamette Valley, they founded both a church and a school. Monmouth University opened in 1856 with a small number of students.
Through the years, WOU has undergone seven name changes. In 1865, it merged with another private institution, Bethel College, in Bethel and became Christian College. In 1882, the Oregon State Legislature approved the college's bid to become a state-supported teacher training (or "normal") school, Oregon State Normal School. Later the name was changed to Oregon Normal School.
A period of growth in the 1920s more than tripled the school's enrollment to nearly 1,000 students. In 1939, the Oregon Legislature again changed the name to Oregon College of Education. The school entered an extended period of growth, except for a period during World War II when college enrollments dropped nationwide. New programs were added in the areas of liberal arts and sciences.
In 1977, the institution was renamed Western Oregon State College to reflect the school's growing academic programs in the liberal arts fields. In 1997 the school's name was changed to Western Oregon University.
Read more about this topic: Western Oregon University
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)