Timeline
Celebrate the growth and maturation of our great university over the last fifty years, and remember the election of 1958 in which the citizens of Arizona voted to acknowledge and approve the name Arizona State University! View the timeline of events leading up to the dramatic election victory, visit the gallery of archival photographs, and add your own comments in our Sharing Memories blog.
March 12, 1885 -- Tempe Normal School founded after Governor F.A. Tritle signs House Bill 164. When the doors first open, there is room for 33 students to meet in a single room.
March 13, 1945 -- Gov. Sidney Osborn signs a bill granting the Tempe and Flagstaff campuses of Arizona State Teacher College the authority to confer non-teaching degrees. The college is renamed Arizona State College at Tempe.
May 1951 -- Arizona State College President Grady Gammage appoints an internal faculty committee, headed by Harold Richardson, to study the academic structure of Arizona State and to make recommendations for the future of the institution.
May 1953 -- The Arizona Board of Regents, responding to Gammage's presentation on the Richardson committee report, agrees to have the U.S. Office of Education study higher education issues in Arizona and make recommendations concerning the future of Arizona State College at Tempe. Ernest Hollis is designated to lead the study.
Sept. 1954 -- The Hollis Commission states in its report that Arizona State is "rapidly becoming a university" and recommends the creation of colleges within the institution to reflect this fact.
Nov. 20, 1954 -- The board of regents accepts the Hollis report by a vote of 5-4. It also hears a motion by regent (and Arizona State alum) Lynn Laney to change Arizona State's name to designate it "some sort of university," but protests by regents favoring the University of Arizona cause the consideration of the motion to be postponed.
Spring 1955 -- A bill introduced in the Arizona Legislature to change Arizona State's name dies in committee.
July 1, 1955 -- Arizona State's academic structure is reconfigured from 14 departments reporting directly to the college president into four colleges led by deans-the College of Applied Arts & Sciences, the College of Education, the College of Business Administration, and the College of Liberal Arts.
1956 -- The board of regents approves the granting of 10 new master's level degrees at Arizona State, all in non-teaching fields.
January 20, 1956 -- A picture appears in the Arizona Republic of a highway sign designating Arizona State College which has the word "college" covered up and replaced with "university."
February 1956 -- Supporters of the name-change efforts introduce House Bill 71, which after several attempts to kill it, passes out of committee and is passed by the Arizona House. However, the measure stalls when it reaches the state senate and is never passed.
February 17, 1956 -- The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson reports that the group Citizens for College and University Education has been formed to oppose legislation to change the name of Arizona State College at Tempe to Arizona State University.
July 2, 1956 -- Grady Gammage suggests that officials from "Company X" (later revealed to be General Electric) had offered to build a plant in the Phoenix area if a college in the area were granting bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering. Wildcat supporters protest, claiming two engineering schools in one state represents wasteful duplication.
January 8, 1957 -- In a speech to the Yuma Rotary Club, Grady Gammage suggests that instead of passing a bill granting his college's name change to Arizona State University, the Arizona legislature scrap the current higher education structure of the state and create a single University of Arizona system, with campuses in Tempe and Tucson. Name-change advocates react negatively to the suggestion.
1957 -- The regents approve the first two master's degree programs for the College of Business Administration: a master's of science in business administration and a master's of science in accounting.
September 1957 -- Arizona State establishes the School of Nursing within the College of Liberal Arts.
Spring 1958 -- With another Arizona State name-change bill foundering in the state legislature, State Senator Harold Giss of Yuma introduces a bill to change the institution's name to Tempe University. More than 2,000 students and supporters stage a protest in Tempe, then caravan to the state capital. Grady Gammage reprimands the student leaders of the protest.
April 18, 1958 -- The board of regents approve the renaming of the Graduate Division to the Graduate College. The unit will oversee the development of the advanced programs of study.
April 25, 1958 -- Name-change supporters unveil a signature-gathering campaign for a ballot initiative to change the name of Arizona State College to Arizona State University. Alumni Association executive secretary James Creasman is named by Grady Gammage to head the campaign.
July 1, 1958 -- Jubilant Arizona State students, alumni and supporters caravan to the state capitol to deliver 64,681 signatures in support of the name-change ballot initiative, more than twice the number required by the state to get the measure on the November ballot.
Fall 1958 -- Proposition 200 supporters fan out across the state to garner support for the name-change proposal. Highlights include an airplane barnstorming tour, a speaking tour featuring James Creasman, Kathryn Gammage, various faculty members and their spouses, and a commercial advocating the name change featuring former student and television personality Steve Allen.
Fall 1958 -- First-year football coach Frank Kush and his Sun Devils promote a yes vote on Proposition 200 while charging to a 7-3 season. Kush tours the state stumping for the measure.
Nov. 4, 1958 -- Proposition 200 passes.
Dec. 5, 1958 -- Gov. Ernest McFarland signs the proclamation officially changing Arizona State College's name to Arizona State University.
Arizona State University celebrates 50 years.