By the time Northern underwent the first of its three name changes, it had technically been able to offer bachelor’s degrees (and thus be a “college” rather than a “school”) for 14 years.

Nonetheless, the move signaled that the effort to convert the two-year normal school into a four-year college had begun in earnest. A number of faculty committees began immediately to develop a four-year degree curriculum, deciding to offer the degrees in music, drawing, domestic science and general curriculum – all intended for those who wanted to teach at the high school level.

The McMurry Practice School on NISTC’s campus had been built for elementary students, so President J. Stanley Brown identified two nearby high schools just outside DeKalb where secondary-school teacher candidates could practice their classroom management skills.

Many new courses had to be added to the curriculum, including logic, surveying, Latin American history, social psychology, calculus, journalism and school administration, to name a few.

Other innovations included incorporating the findings of psychologists who were beginning to influence public education in the areas of guidance counseling and testing of teacher candidates to determine optimal teaching placements.

By the end of the decade, Northern Illinois State Teachers College enrolled more than 750 students, had nearly 70 full-time faculty, and counted among its building inventory five buildings: Altgeld, McMurry, Williston, Still Hall and Still Gym.

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