The sudden departure of President Joseph Clifton Brown just three months before the start of a new academic year left the Teachers College Board little time to find a successor. Yet their ultimate choice, Karl Adams of the State Teachers College of St. Cloud, Minnesota, ended up serving in Northern’s second-longest presidency (19 years).
Like all three of the men who had gone before him, Adams was a strong proponent of keeping NISTC a single-purpose institution – that is, a school strictly for the preparation of teachers. That said, Adams was equally committed to making Northern the very best teacher training school in the nation, beginning with massive upgrades to curriculum and the academic credentials of faculty. Most of all, he wanted NISTC to gain North Central accreditation – a goal he finally reached in 1935.
The Adams years (1929 – 1948) encompassed both of that era’s defining influences: The Great Depression and World War II. The first had somewhat less effect on Northern than one might imagine, as the state’s normal schools had always received less money than their broader-purpose counterparts. Yet on a personal level, Northern students felt the pinch: Part-time jobs in the community were scarce, loans were hard to come by, and some students were forced to drop out due to lack of funds.
With the collapse of the American economy came serious challenges to academic freedom. Certain reactionary elements in the state legislature attacked academic institutions, even demanding that faculty take loyalty oaths. One particularly conservative board member demanded that an editor at the student newspaper be reprimanded for writing an editorial criticizing the validity of these oaths of allegiance.
Throughout these and other political challenges, President Adams stayed on the side of his faculty and students. In one sharply worded reply, Adams wrote “I do not believe that an oath of allegiance by teachers would be of any significant help in making better citizens of our teaching group.”
Times were changing, and the much-improved faculty credentials demanded by Adams produced a teaching corps at Northern with its own ideas about running the school. After much debate and persuasion by trusted colleagues such as Romeo Zulauf, President Adams agreed to establish a Faculty Administrative Council – the precursor to today’s NIU system of shared governance.
Just short of his 20th anniversary at NISTC – and the school’s own 50th “Jubilee” anniversary – Karl Adams died in his sleep at the age of 60. He was memorialized with the naming in his honor of Adams Hall.
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