SOURCE
Oklahoma Department of Education, The Eighteenth Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction (Oklahoma City, 1940).
ANALYSIS
One challenge faced by many early public junior colleges was the often ambiguous, and frequently antagonistic view of these institutions by chief state school officers (CSO). Such attitudes are, in fact, understandable, if one sets aside any bias favoring junior colleges. As CSOs understood, the operation and funding of elementary and secondary schools were constitutionally-mandated, in direct contrast to junior colleges, which were often established by local school districts without sanction in law. The obligation of CSOs to ensure that local school districts fully met their legal responsibility to adequately fund the elementary and secondary schools under their jurisdiction, set against the desire of many aspiring small cities and towns to extend educational opportunity to include legally questionable junior colleges created an obvious potential for continuing controversy and even, as occurred in North Carolina and Kentucky, conflict.
Evidence of the ambiguity, or even antagonism, with which many CSOs viewed
the rapid growth in the number of public junior colleges after 1920 is most
frequently found in the annual or biannual reports CSOs were mandated to
present to their respective state legislatures. Few state reports provide
a better insight into these attitudes than the 1940 biannual report prepared
by Oklahoma's state superintendent, A. L. Crable's. For Crable, the public
junior college was not "democracy's college" but a serious threat
to the financial well-being of his state's elementary and secondary schools.
As he recognized, in a state of sparsely populated and poor school districts,
the maintenance of a credible junior college would invariably force a sponsoring
district to draw on its scarce public funds that should be more properly
spent on the constitutionally-mandated elementary and secondary schools.
Even the imposition of a substantial tuition (and virtually all of Oklahoma's
junior colleges charged a tuition equal to half of a student's direct cost
of instruction) could not adequately fund a junior college that, as was
most often the case in Oklahoma, would be unlikely to enroll a mere 40 students.
Unfortunately for Crable, Oklahoma's school districts -- like those in Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota -- largely ignored his concerns. Indeed, the small cities and towns of Oklahoma established more junior colleges before 1940 than any states other than California and Iowa. At the same time, the frequency with which Oklahoma's early junior colleges closed or reduced their programs to a single year suggest that Crable's assessment of the capacity of his state's small cities and towns to support a viable junior college was well founded. If one compares Crable's list of operating junior colleges for 1939 with those included in Maurice Cotton's 1929 Master's thesis and Ohland Morton's 1934 survey of Oklahoma's junior colleges, it seems very likely that Crable's estimate that more than a third of junior college's established in the state (10 of 29) were closed actually understated the mortality rate of these institutions. A number of junior colleges, for example, opened, closed and then re-opened, but would be counted by Crable as continuously operating.
As Crable correctly observed, in attempting to maintain a junior college
Oklahoma's small cities and towns faced two major obstacles. The first,
and more serious, was simply the perennial problem of insufficient resources.
Morton's study, in particular, documented the fundamental financial challenge
faced by the state's smaller communities when compared to conditions in
the far larger and wealthier city of Muskogee. As Morton found, each of
the six small town junior colleges operating in 1934 offered a curriculum
limited to freshman-level courses, borrowed a faculty of three or four from
its sponsoring high school, and at no time enrolled more than 40 students.
By contrast, the municipal Muskogee Junior College employed a faculty of
nine, including a dean, to instruct 85 students, divided between 55 freshmen
and 30 sophomores. Moreover, Oklahoma's small town junior colleges were
all forced to levy a substantial tuition charge, even upon local residents,
because they could not rely upon local tax revenues or private contributions
to meet merely their basic operating expenses. Muskogee's school board,
however, was able to fund its junior college entirely from local tax revenues
without compromising the funding of its grammar and high schools.
The second challenge facing Oklahoma's public junior colleges, much like
the situation in Iowa and, to a somewhat lesser degree, Kansas, was one
of saturation. As he noted, "Every one of the nineteen cities in the
section of the state west of Oklahoma City with 2500 or more population,
except Hollis, (1) has its own junior college, (2) has a state or church
college, or (3) is in commuting distance of a state college." In a
state with a stagnant population, low high school completion rates, and
the automatic exclusion of many potential junior college students due to
segregation, there were simply too many institutions, in too close proximity,
for all to maintain adequate enrollments and the all-important tuition revenue.
While local boosters in such small Oklahoma communities as Pawnee and Pryor
may have initially been sufficiently persuasive to sway district taxpayers
to take on the cost of opening a junior college, it was not powerful enough
to overcome the dual effects of inadequate enrollment and the growing drain
on local school tax revenues required to maintain what were, on the whole,
failed ventures. Until state aid programs were introduced generally in the
late 1940s and 1950s, the vulnerability of Oklahoma's small town junior
colleges was the common plight of all small town junior colleges nation-wide
and provides the primary explanation for the significant, though generally
overlooked, decline in the number of public junior colleges of the first
part of the 1950s.
TEXT
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CHAPTER IV
PUBLIC DISTRICT JUNIOR COLLEGES*
Public district junior colleges in Oklahoma are organized and maintained by local boards of education. Such junior colleges are not district junior colleges in the sense that a certain territory has been legally designated as the unit for administrative and tax purposes. Public district junior colleges are organized in connection with public senior high schools and, except in one case, are located in the same building with the high school. The local boards of education generally assume responsibility for the formulation of policies and programs of study and the employment of teachers, who frequently teach part time in the high school division. The local superintendent of schools is designated as the president or head of the junior colleges, responsible to the board of education. A dean is sometimes named to assume active charge of the college program.
There is a need for close articulation and active cooperation between the administrative and teaching staffs of the high school and the junior college. Otherwise, the junior college division is likely to overshadow and dominate the high school program. This condition has characterized the situation in a few cases. The Committee on Higher Institutions of Learning, appointed by the State Board of Education to inspect and recommend for approval or disapproval junior colleges, is attempting to discourage and prevent the offering of junior college work at the expense of the high school and elementary grades. There is a definite and rather urgent need for legislation which will furnish the legal basis for the development of a sound program of junior college education in Oklahoma, one that will not sap the resources so badly needed for maintaining a decent minimum standard of educational opportunity in the public secondary and elementary schools. The junior college law passed by the Seventeenth Legislature did almost nothing for the junior college program except legalize what was already going on on an extra-legal basis.
GROWTH OF PUBLIC DISTRICT JUNIOR COLLEGES IN OKLAHOMA
Table 30 is a directory of the public district junior colleges in Oklahoma for the years 1938-1939 and 1939-1940 giving the following information for each college: name, location, head of institution, classification, and year established. This table does not include state maintained junior colleges or colleges operated by private and parochial organizations. It includes only those public district junior colleges which were in operation during one or both of the years covered by the present biennium. It is based on in-
*Prepared by E. E. Brown, Director of Curriculum.
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formation taken from the official annual reports of the junior colleges and the record of accredited institutions of higher education in Oklahoma for 1938-1939 and 1939-1940.
Table 30 reveals that in 1938-1939 there were 11 two-year and 10 one-year public district junior colleges in Oklahoma. In 1939-1940 there were 17 two-year and 3 one-year public district junior colleges. During 1939-1940 Holdenville Junior College was re-etablished. Junior college work was dropped at Pawnee and Pryor and at Okemah at the end of that year. This brings to 29 the total number of public junior colleges established in independent school districts in Oklahoma since 1921. Of the 29 public district junior colleges which have been established at one time or another since 1921, only 19 are in operation now (1940).
Table 30. Directory of Public District Junior Colleges in Oklahoma 1938-1939, 1939-1940
College |
Location |
Head of Institution |
Classification |
| |
| 1938-39 | 1939-40 | ||||
| Altus Junior College | Altus | A. G. Steel, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1925 |
| Bartlesville Jr. College | Bartlesville | M. W. Glasgow, Supt. | 1 year | 2 year | 1927 |
| Bristow Junior College | Bristow | E. H. Black, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1928 |
| Capital Hill Jr. College | Okla. City | H. E. Wrinkle, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1928 |
| Carnegie Junior College | Carnegie | B. F. Johnson, Supt. | 1 year | 2 years | 1938 |
| Duncan Junior College | Duncan | N. L. George, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1937 |
| El Reno Junior College | El Reno | Paul R. Taylor, Supt. | 1 year | 2 years | 1938 |
| Frederick Junior College | Frederick | J. O. Shaw, Supt | 1 year | 2 years | 1938 |
| Hobart Junior College | Hobart | Bennie A. McElyea, S'pt | 2 years | 2 years | 1934 |
| Holdenville Jr. College | Holdenville | G. S. Sanders, Supt. | -- | 1 year | 1939 |
| Mangum Junior College | Mangum | Elmer Fraker, Supt | 2 years | 2 years | 1937 |
| Muskogee Junior College | Muskogee | J. R. Holmes, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1920 |
| Okemah Junior College | Okemah | Cecil E. Oakes, Supt | 1 year | 1 year | 1933 |
| Okmulgee Junior College | Okmulgee | W. Max Chambers, Supt | 2 years | 2 years | 1926 |
| Pawnee Junior College | Pawnee | S. J. Bryant, Supt | 1 year | a | 1934 |
| Pryor Junior College | Pryor | Dan Baker, Supt. | 1 year | a | 1938 |
| Sapulpa Junior College | Sapulpa | James L. Prince, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1932 |
| Sayre Junior College | Sayre | Oscar McMahan, Supt. | 1 year | 2 years | 1938 |
| Seminole Junior College | Seminole | John G. Mitchell, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1931 |
| Shidler Junior College | Shidler | M. B. Nelson, Supt. | 1 year | 1 year | 1936 |
| Wetumka Junior College | Wetumka | L. F. Battles, Supt. | 1 year | 2 years | 1938 |
| Woodward Junior College | Woodward | R. R. Russell, Supt. | 2 years | 2 years | 1932 |
a - discontinued for 1939-40
LOCATION AND ENROLLMENT OF PUBLIC DISTRICT JUNIOR COLLEGES
About eighteen hundred students in Oklahoma attend nineteen public district junior colleges located in seventeen counties. Nine of these colleges, attended by about eight hundred students, are located in nine different counties in the section of the state west of Oklahoma City. Nine of these colleges, also attended by about eight hundred students are located in seven different counties in the region east of Oklahoma City. The nineteenth college is located in Capitol Hill, a suburban section of Oklahoma City.
Every one of the nineteen cities in the section of the state west of Oklahoma City with 2500 or more population, except Hollis, (1) has its own junior college, (2) has a state or church college, or (3) is in commuting distance of a state college. The nine junior colleges
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on the east side are all situated in communities that have experienced oil development. One west side and two east side municipal junior colleges are located in cities with populations below 2500. Capitol Hill and five east side junior colleges are located in cities with populations above 10,000. This leaves eight west side and only two east side junior colleges in towns falling in the population bracket 2500-10,000. Population data are from the 1930 census.
Table 31. Total Registration of Regular Day-Session Students at Close of First Month of Second Semester in Public District Junior Colleges of Oklahoma, 1938-1939, 1939-1940
| Junior College | 1938-1939 | 1939-1940 | ||||||
| Freshmen | Sophomore | Unclassified | Total | Freshmen | Sophomores | Unclassified | Total | |
| TWO YEAR: | ||||||||
| Altus Jr. Col. | 164 | 44 | 27 | 235 | 127 | 75 | 16 | 218 |
| Bartlesville Jr. Col. | 36 | -- | -- | 36 | 79 | 23 | 4 | 106 |
| Bristow Jr. Col. | 70 | 38 | 6 | 114 | 94 | 34 | 13 | 141 |
| Capitol Hill Jr. Col. | 154 | 25 | 37 | 216 | 128 | 33 | 10 | 171 |
| Carnegie Jr. Col. | 49 | -- | -- | 49 | 30 | 25 | 1 | 56 |
| Duncan Jr. Col. | 52 | 10 | -- | 62 | 46 | 10 | -- | 56 |
| El Reno Jr. Col. | 69 | -- | -- | 69 | 60 | 13 | 1 | 74 |
| Frederick Jr. Col. | 36 | -- | -- | 36 | 36 | 16 | -- | 52 |
| Hobart Junior Col. | 41 | 18 | -- | 59 | 76 | 17 | -- | 93 |
| Mangum Junior Col. | 59 | 81 | 2 | 142 | 70 | 28 | 2 | 100 |
| Muskogee Jr. Col. | 58 | 28 | -- | 86 | 47 | 27 | -- | 74 |
| Okmulgee Junior Col. | 99 | 39 | 30 | 168 | 62 | 39 | 20 | 121 |
| Sapulpa Jr. Col. | 66 | 22 | 11 | 99 | 57 | 24 | 3 | 84 |
| Sayre Junior Col. | 55 | -- | -- | 55 | 70 | 26 | 1 | 97 |
| Seminole Jr. Col. | 115 | 28 | 17 | 160 | 80 | 37 | 13 | 130 |
| Wetumka Jr. Col. | 23 | -- | -- | 23 | 56 | 18 | 3 | 77 |
| Woodward Jr. Col. | 43 | 23 | 2 | 68 | 50 | 17 | 14 | 81 |
| TOTAL, TWO-YR. COL. | 1189 | 356 | 132b | 1677 | 1168 | 462 | 101 | 1731 |
| ONE YEAR: | ||||||||
| Holdenville Jr. Col. a | -- | -- | -- | -- | 48 | -- | -- | 48 |
| Okemah Junior Col. c | 26 | -- | 2 | 28 | 16 | -- | -- | 16 |
| Pawnee Junior College d | 15 | -- | -- | 15 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Pryor Junior College d | 32 | -- | -- | 32 | -- | -- | -- | -- |
| Shidler Junior College | 20 | -- | -- | 20 | 30 | -- | -- | 30 |
| TOTAL, ONE-YR COL. | 93 | -- | 2 | 95 | 94 | -- | -- | 94 |
| TOTAL, ALL JR. COL. | 1282 | 356 | 134b | 1772 | 1262 | 462 | 101 | 1825 |
a - Re-established in 1939
b - Amount not included in tables in appendix
c - Discontinued for 1940-41
d - Discontinued for 1939-40
SOURCE OF JUNIOR COLLEGE ENROLLMENT
Public district junior colleges in Oklahoma are designed primarily to serve the needs of students who live in the city or town in which the college is located or its immediate vicinity. In the one-year colleges during 1938-1939, 70 per cent of the students enrolled were graduates of the local high school. These data imply that the size of the local high school, its drawing power from the surrounding territory, and the size of its graduating class are factors to be considered in the establishment and maintenance of public district junior colleges in connection with senior high schools in Oklahoma.
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As long as tile chief financial support for the operation of junior colleges must be obtained by charging tuition, it is quite dear that junior colleges should be organized only in connection with high school with graduating classes large enough to contribute at least 40 to 60 junior college students annually. Otherwise, it is doubtful that the minimum enrollment of 60 students for two-year colleges, as required in the standards of accrediting, can be met.
HOLDING POWER OF JUNIOR COLLEGES
Table 31 shows that there were 1282 freshmen in 1938-39 and in 1939-40 there were 462 sophomores. If it may be assumed that the sophomore enrollment for the second year was drawn from the freshman enrollment for the first year, the municipal junior colleges are holding in the sophomore enrollment about one out of three that enroll as freshmen. This is a fair index of the holding power of these colleges.
ESTABLISHMENT OF JUNIOR COLLEGES
Three junior colleges now operating were established in the fall of 1936; two, in the fall of 1937; and one, in the fall of 1938. None has been established in either 1939 or 1940. Two colleges now operating have been reopened after being closed for a time. All but one of the colleges now operating have two year courses in effect. These facts indicate that the municipal junior college movement in Oklahoma has practically stabilized for the time being.
If a town of 2500 is taken as the minimum population center in which a junior college can be supported, the area west of the meridian of the west line of Oklahoma County has practically reached the saturation point for municipal junior colleges. The area east of this meridian is nearly as near to saturation. Hollis, Idabel, Pawhuska, Hominy, Heavener and Wilson have no local colleges and are too far from a state college for commuting to be considered. Cleveland, Hugo and Poteau are over 40 miles from state colleges, but road facilities invite commuting and considerable commuting is done from these centers.
Additional statistical tables relating to enrollment, tuition charges,
income from various sources and expenditures for various purposes are published
in the appendix (Tables Nos. 137-140, inclusive).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cotton, Maurice. "The Local Public Junior College in Oklahoma."
Master's thesis, University of Oklahoma, 1929.
Morton, Ohland. "Municipal Junior Colleges in Oklahoma." Junior
College Journal 5, no. 3 (1934): 124-128.