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G. Tyler Miller

University president's legacy was a full spectrum college

Excerpts from Madison Century, a commemorative book by Martha Graham
Condensed from the article in Winter 2008 Madison

G. Tyler Miller

G. Tyler Miller

G. Tyler Miller took the helm of Madison College in 1949. Though his appointment was controversial, his legacy would be undisputed. He quadrupled the size of campus and led Madison College to establish a graduate school and to become a coeducation college.

A few days after President Samuel Page Duke's resignation, the first five men graduated from the school's regular sessions. It was a harbinger of things to come.

By the time G. Tyler Miller would leave the presidency after more than two decades, the campus would be 240 acres larger with 19 new buildings. The curriculum would include both liberal arts and a master's program, the student body would number 4,000, up from 1,400, and Madison College would be fully coeducational.

Like his predecessors, G. Tyler Miller came to Harrisonburg with bold plans. In his inaugural address on Dec. 10, 1949, -- the first formal inauguration of a president in the school's history -- he announced growth, coeducation and expansion of the school's academic mission to include a full complement of liberal arts and graduate courses as achievable goals for the college....

Despite an inflation-driven national economy that made construction difficult, building and campus expansion continued throughout the 22 years of the Miller presidency.

Moving south and east

In 1952, President Miller nearly quadrupled the size of the campus by exercising an option requested by President Duke on the remaining Newman Farm. The 240 acres south and east of the campus would include the "Back Campus" and pave the way for substantial expansion during the second half of the century.

The easternmost stretch of the land would much later be used to develop new recreational facilities, most notably the Convocation Center and the University Recreation Center in the 1980s and 1990s.

President G. Tyler Miller inspects the newly purchased back campus.

Looking west from the rear of Wilson Hall, the first official dining hall on campus--the round and brick Gibbons Hall--is visible. In the foreground, President Miller (center) inspects the newly purchased back campus where in a few short years the campus would expand.

In 1957, the state highway department would take a swath of land that would eventually become part of the new Interstate 81 and divide the campus. ...

While firmly retaining its mission as a teachers college, Madison College was developing broad appeal. As a result, enrollment continued to rise and by 1964, enrollment would pass 2,000. By 1970, enrollment would top 4,000.

Graduate courses become a reality

Another of President Miller's inaugural goals, graduate-level courses, was also taking shape. The first graduate courses taught at Madison fell under the auspices of the University of Virginia and led to master's degrees awarded by U.Va. The agreement for the cooperative program between the two schools resulted from the recommendations of a State Board of Education commission headed by President Duke in 1948. In 1954, the board authorized Madison College to award graduate degrees on its own.

The graduate program, administered by a graduate council, fulfilled President Miller's inaugural goals and opened a new era in the college's history. In 1956, the first graduate degrees, two Master of Arts in Education degrees, were awarded to Vivian Fauver and Everett E. Wilfong. Two years later, 35 graduate degrees had been awarded....

A coeducational institution

Perhaps Miller's most significant contribution to Madison College was his belief in coeducation. Beginning with the first summer school session in 1910, men had studied continually at the Normal School. Following World War II some off-campus housing was provided for men. For the most part, however, admission of men was limited to day students who commuted or who found their own local housing.

That would all change in 1966 when the General Assembly designated Madison College as a fully coeducational institution. It was the last of Miller's inaugural goals to be implemented, and the one goal that most dramatically changed the face of Madison College. Two years later, Miller would open the first dormitory on campus for men, Shorts Hall. ...

A nonstop upward trend

The last decade of the Miller administration saw another flurry of construction. Development of the Back Campus continued with the beginning of what is now called "The Village," where six dormitories were constructed in six years. New dormitories accommodated an enrollment which, after dropping slightly following a post-war boom, started a nonstop upward trend in 1953 that in the school's second 50 years would grow to more than 17,000. ...

Download the PDFs for the full version of this feature and all of Winter 2008 Madison. "The Madison Century's Madison College Era" begins on Page 34.

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