NIU’s evolution from single-purpose college to multi-purpose university continued at a rapid pace in the late 1950s. President Holmes had earlier created a university structure with divisions of student personnel services, business services, regional services and instructional/academic services. The academic services area oversaw program clusters in education, humanities and liberal arts and sciences. But by 1959, the growth of students, faculty and academic programs required a more conventional academic organization.
Executive Vice President Francis “Bud” Geigle was the architect of the new collegiate structure. Three new colleges emerged from the reorganization: The College of Education, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the College of Fine and Applied Arts (later reorganized and renamed Visual and Performing Arts).
CLAS formed new departments of History, Economics, Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Journalism, Library Science, Psychology and Philosophy. The College of Education added new departments of Elementary Education, Secondary Education, Student Teaching, Outdoor Teacher Education, and Nursing, as well as new courses in Special Education. The College of Fine and Applied Arts included departments of Music, Art, Home Economics, Business Education and Industrial Arts.
Hundreds of new faculty were hired during the 1960s as new and expanded academic programs were implemented, and the university began work in earnest to create centers of excellence within the larger academic program.
Today the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is the largest of NIU’s seven colleges, with 19 departments spanning the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. CLAS touches virtually every new student to the university, regardless of major, through the wide array of general education courses housed within its departments.
The twenty-first century College of Education prepares teachers in early childhood, elementary, middle-level, special education and physical education. Its programs also prepare counselors, librarians, principals and superintendents, while graduates harness instructional technology, crunch test data, reshape curriculum and research how human beings learn.
The College of Fine and Applied Arts was eventually reorganized, with Home Economics, Industrial Arts and Business Education moving to new colleges and the emphasis solidifying around branches of the fine arts. Today the College of Visual and Performing Arts is comprised of three schools, each with award-winning educational programs, exciting performances and exhibits, outstanding art studios, theatres, concert halls and accomplished alumni.
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