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History of
Geography and Environmental Studies at SRU
by Tom Hannon, Jim Hathaway, and Jim
Hughes,
December 2003
Revised by Jim Hathaway
April 2008
During the middle to late 1800’s
Pennsylvania organized fourteen normal schools, with Slippery Rock’s
dating from February 1, 1889. Geography has been taught at Slippery
Rock University since the school opened. This report will review key
developments in geography at SRU over the past
century.
Slippery Rock State Normal School and its
sister institutions were designed exclusively for the training of
teachers in either two- or four-year programs. Given the poor quality of
transportation at the time and the hilly terrain, students came from
nearby communities and rural areas.
Slippery Rock’s first catalog was issued in
the spring of 1889. It lists six faculty members for the entire
institution. One of these, Maude Bingham, was assigned to teach
geography, geometry, and drawing. Three geography courses were
offered at the institution: “Geography of the U.S. and Europe,”
“Political Geography,” and “Physical Geography.” All students at the
normal school had to take at least one of these courses, no matter which
teacher preparation program they had chosen. Harper’s Geography
and Houston’s Physical Geography were listed as the required
texts in the first catalog.
Maude Bingham’s credentials appear in the 1892-1893 catalog. She held
an M.E. degree, but the granting institution is not provided. She was
assigned to teach geography, history, and civil government. Slippery
Rock’s faculty had increased to thirteen.
The 1908-1909 catalog included Geography, but no faculty member
was identified. Geography was listed under “Historical Science,” which
included the following courses: “U.S. History,” “Civil Government of the
U.S. and Pennsylvania,” and “Political Geography.” These were
recommended as junior year courses for the B.Pd. (Bachelor of Pedagogics)
Degree. The 1908-1909 catalog offers a description of
Political Geography as follows:
The subject of Political Geography is
carefully taught as presented in modern textbooks with abundant help in
the form of maps, globes and illustrations. Facts and causal
relationships discovered in the study of home surroundings prepare for
the study of distant and unseen natural features, resources, industries,
commerce, modes of communication and unfamiliar peoples. Students who
expect to enter the Junior class are urged to prepare themselves
thoroughly upon this branch before entrance upon normal work.
The description of Physical Geography as
presented in the same source follows:
A thorough course in Physical Geography is
given. Geological agencies now operative are first studied; the forces
producing changes and the laws of their operation are considered; also
the structure and development of the earth and its adaptation to the
support of life are traced. The development of the nation is considered
with reference to its dependence upon climate and general geographic
conditions. Modeling in chalk, sand and paper pulp is taught.
The deterministic
character of this description is in keeping with the environmental
determinism then prevalent in the discipline.
The 1921 catalog listed
Geography with the sciences . One of the two
geography faculty members was John F. Allison. He held B.S. and
A.M. degrees from unidentified institutions, and was responsible for
teaching both geography and mathematics. The other faculty member, Alma
Rice, was shared between geography and pedagogics. The catalog listed
eleven courses which, given the staffing, were most likely not offered
frequently. “Principles of Geography,” “Economic Geography,” and
“Teaching of Geography” were the main electives listed in the 1921
catalog.
On August 13, 1927, the name of the institution was changed to Slippery
Rock State Teachers College, reflecting its focus
on teacher preparation.
The Geography Department came into existence
with the hiring of its first chairperson, Dr. Warren Thoburn Strain, for
the 1936-1937 academic year. Dr. Strain received his B.S. degree from
Indiana State University [Indiana], and A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from
the University of
Wisconsin. While Gamma Theta Upsilon had been chartered in 1932, it
came into its own under Dr. Strain. Slippery Rock’s Zeta Chapter of the
Gamma Theta Upsilon honorary is among the oldest in the country. The
1936-1937 catalog listed twelve
courses totaling 36 credit hours .
Faculty members at the time were responsible for 15 credit hours per
semester. However, Dr. Strain and Ms. Alma Rice were the only faculty
members listed in the institution’s catalog until the following year,
when Elizabeth Stadtalander was hired. Geography course work consisted
of eight regional and four systematic courses in 1936-1937.
By the 1941-1942 academic year, Herbert
Rasche was hired as Assistant Dean of Men and a geography instructor.
He received both his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Wisconsin.
Sixteen courses for 39 credit hours were listed in the 1941-1942
catalog. Alma Rice was no longer on the faculty, and Elizabeth
Stadtlander had been assigned to Education and no longer taught
Geography.
During the 1944-1945 academic year Dr.
Strain was the entire department. That may well have also been true
during one or two additional years of World War Two.
Course offerings from the 1930’s into the
1960’s were balanced between regional and systematic courses. Courses
dealing with all major world regions are listed in catalogs, as well as
systematic courses covering “Physical Geography,” “Economic Geography,”
and “Cultural Geography.” Dr. Strain, who had shaped the department,
passed away in 1961 at the age of 59. Roy T. Hickman, who held a B.S.
and an M.A. from Ohio State, was hired in 1958. He would ultimately
serve as Chair during the period of Dr. Strain’s failing health.
On June 8, 1960 the institution became
Slippery Rock State College. Then, by 1963, there were three faculty
members including Dr. John Ball, acting chair; Roy T. Hickman, and
George West. The faculty increased to five by 1965, and to seven by
1970.
The early 1970s saw
the arrival of an interdisciplinary environmental program with three
tracks involving nine departments. The ecological planning and social
and economic planning tracks develop into environmental studies, and the
water and air pollution track develops into environmental science.
In the 1972-73 academic year there were nine
geography faculty. One of the recent hires was Paul Rizza,
Ph.D. (University of Georgia), and he would chair the department for
most of the next 25 years. The major required 21 hours, selected from
regional and systematic course offerings. In addition, a course in
elementary statistics was required. “Environmental Problems” and
“Conservation” were offered for the first time.
In the middle 1970s geography majors had a choice of three
concentrations: Rural and Urban Planning, Human Ecology, and Liberal
Arts Geography. In addition, a program for secondary education majors
was available. Nine regional courses and twenty topical and systematic
courses were offered. In 1977, the credit hours required for each
concentration were: Liberal Arts Geography, 30 semester hours; Human
Ecology, 39 semester hours, and Rural and Urban Planning, 30 semester
hours.
In 1983, the fourteen-member State System of Higher
Education was created. As
part of the SSHE system, Slippery Rock State College’s name changed to
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
By 1993, SRU was offering a B.A. in
Geography in two concentrations: Environmental Planning and Liberal Arts
Geography. It was also offering a B.S. in geography with the choice of
two concentrations: Applied Geography and Environmental Planning.
Paul Rizza retired in 1998. Not long after his retirement his
mother-in-law, Mrs. Ethel Carruth, donated 2.5 million dollars to SRU.
This money was used to renovate West Hall, which was built in 1900.
This beautifully restored building is now called Paul and Carolyn
Carruth Rizza Hall. It is the second building on campus to be named
after a geographer. Some years earlier, the Behavioral Science Building
was named the Strain Behavioral Science Building in honor of Warren T.
Strain, the geography department’s first chairperson.
The Geography Department merged with
Geology in July, 2001, becoming the Department of Geography, Geology,
and the Environment. The combined department presently has six
geographers, one geographer/geologist, four geologists, a soil chemist,
and a meteorologist. James Hathaway (Ph.D., University of Minnesota)
chaired the department 1998-2007 and was followed by Jack
Livingston Ph.D. (University of Kansas). A B.A. degree is available in
the Liberal Arts/Geography requiring 37 semester hours, while a B.S.
degree is available in Applied Geographic Technology that requires 55
semester hours. The department's B.S. in
Environmental Studies has a 55-semester hour
requirement. Twenty-one credit minors are available in both Geography
and Geographic Information Technology.
The department has endeavored to advance the
perspectives and insights of geography, and in more recent years,
environmental studies, via high quality curricular programs for majors
and high quality general education courses for non-majors. At least
eight SRU students have gone on to obtain doctorates in geography.
These include James McConnell at SUNY Buffalo, Susan Hardwick at the
University of Oregon, Lizbeth Pyle at West Virginia University, and
Carolyn Prorok, who is a member of the SRU department.
Given SRU’s Normal school origins and the
faculty’s four-course teaching load each semester; it is not surprising
that the department’s mission focuses on teaching. But faculty also try
to extend knowledge in our discipline through research and to provide
service to the university and our region. Our departmental website
shows some of the contributions we have made in these areas.
Geography has a long and productive
tradition at SRU. At present we face challenges common to most of
higher education and to other geography programs, but we will do our
best to build on what our forebears have provided for us.
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