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THE
HISTORY OF UWA
The University of West Alabama was chartered in 1835 as a
church-related female academy and admitted its first students
in 1839. After difficult times during the Civil War and Reconstruction
periods, the school reopened in the late 1860s or early 1870s.
Although it appears that a few male students were admitted
following the reopening, a resolution by the Board of Trustees
in 1876 excluded boys, and this policy was followed until
the beginning of the present century.
From 1881 to 1910 the school at Livingston was under the direction
of the noted educator and reformer Julia Tutwiler, who succeeded
in getting a small appropriation from the State Legislature
in 1883 to establish normal school training for girls at Livingston
Female Academy. According to statements in the University
archives, this is believed to be the first State appropriation
in Alabama made exclusively for the education of women. The
first normal school diplomas were granted in 1886.
Livingston Female Academy and State Normal College continued
as a private institution with some State support until 1907,
when the State assumed full control. It remained under its
own board of trustees, however, until the Legislature created
a State Board of Trustees for all the normal schools in 1911.
In 1919 this board was abolished and all state normal schools
were placed under the supervision of the State Board of Education.
During these early years the school offered both secondary
education and normal school programs for the training of teachers.
Dr. G. W. Brock succeeded Miss Tutwiler as President in 1910,
and under his tenure of more than a quarter of a century,
the institution continued to grow and develop. Presidents
since Dr. Brock have been as follows:
- 1936-1944 Dr. N. F. Greenhill
- 1944-1954 Dr. W. W. Hill
- 1954-1963 Dr. D. P.Culp
- 1963-1972 Dr. John E. Deloney
- 1972-1973 Dr. Ralph M. Lyon (Acting
President)
- 1973-1993 Dr. Asa N. Green
- 1993-1994 Dr. James Bob Drake (Interim
President)
- 1994-1998 Dr. Donald C. Hines
- 1998-2002 Dr. Ed D. Roach
- 2002-present Dr. Richard D.
Holland, President
In 1929
the school at Livingston became State Teachers College, Livingston,
Alabama, with authority to confer the degree of Bachelor of
Science. The Bachelor of Arts degree was authorized in 1947.
Although the institution had begun accepting male students
soon after 1900, the student body remained predominantly female
through the 1950s.
In 1957
the name was again changed by an act of Legislature --this
time to Livingston State College and the following year the
mission of the institution was broadened when the Graduate
Division was established and the College was authorized to
confer masters degrees in the field of professional education.
In 1967 an act of the Legislature created Livingston University,
with its own Board of Trustees. In 1995
the institution recognized its broader mission as a regional
university serving the educational needs of all the citizens
of the area by changing its name to The University of West
Alabama.
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