Auburn University

Main article: History of Auburn University "Old Main", the first building on Auburn's campus, was destroyed by fire in 1887. The Alabama Legislature chartered the institution as the East Alabama Male College on February 1, 1856, coming under the guidance of the Methodist Church in 1859. [ 10 ] The first president of the college was Reverend William J. Sasnett . The college started operations with a student body of eighty and a faculty of ten in 1859. Auburn's early history is inextricably linked with the Civil War and the Reconstruction -era South . Classes were held in "Old Main" until the college was closed due to the war when most of the students and faculty left to enlist. The campus was a training ground for the Confederate Army and "Old Main" served as a hospital for Confederate wounded. To commemorate Auburn's contribution to the Civil War, a cannon lathe used for the manufacture of cannons for the Confederate Army and recovered from Selma, Alabama , was presented to the college in 1952 by brothers of the Delta chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity. [ 11 ] It sits today on the lawn next to Samford Hall . Post-Civil War The school reopened in 1866 after the end of the Civil War, its only closure. In 1872, control of the institution was transferred from the Methodist Church to the State of Alabama for financial reasons. The Reconstruction-era Alabama government placed the school under the provisions of the Morrill Act as a land-grant institution , the first in the South to be established separately from the state university, which in this case was the University of Alabama . This act provided for 240,000 acres (970 km 2 ) of Federal land to be sold to provide funds for an agricultural and mechanical school. As a result, in 1872, the school was renamed to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. Under the act's provisions, land-grant institutions were also supposed to teach military tactics and train officers for the United States military.

In the late 19th century, most students at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama were enrolled in the cadet program, learning military tactics and training to become officers. Each county in the state was allowed to nominate two cadets to attend the college free of charge. Samford Hall in the 1890s The university's original curriculum focused on engineering and agriculture. This trend changed under the guidance of William Leroy Broun , who taught classics and sciences and believed both disciplines were important for the growth of the university and the individual. In 1892, two historic events occurred: women were admitted to the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama and football was played as a school sport. Eventually, football replaced polo as the main sport on campus. The college was renamed the Alabama Polytechnic Institute (API) in 1899, largely because of Broun's influence. [ 12 ] API Cadets drill on Ross Square in 1918. On October 1, 1918, nearly all of API's able-bodied male students 18 or older voluntarily joined the United States Army for short-lived military careers on campus. The student soldiers numbered 878, according to API president Charles Thach, and formed the academic section of the Student Army Training Corps. The vocational section was composed of enlisted men sent to Auburn for training in radio and mechanics. The students received honorable discharges two months later, following the Armistice that ended World War I . API struggled through the Great Depression , having scrapped an extensive expansion program by then-President Bradford Knapp . Faculty salaries were cut drastically and enrollment decreased, along with state appropriations to the college. By the end of the 1930s, Auburn had essentially recovered but then faced new conditions caused by World War II . As war approached in 1940, there was a great shortage of engineers and scientists needed for the defense industries. The U.S.

Office of Education asked all American engineering schools to join in a "crash" program to produce what was often called "instant engineers". API became an early participant in an activity that eventually became Engineering, Science, and Management War Training (ESMWT). Fully funded by the government and coordinated by Auburn's Dean of Engineering, college-level courses were given in concentrated, mainly evening classes at sites across Alabama. Taken by thousands of adults – including many women – these courses helped fill the wartime ranks of civilian engineers, chemists, and other technical professionals. [ citation needed ] During the war, API also trained U.S. military personnel on campus; between 1941 and 1945, 32,000 troops attended the university in some manner. Following the end of World War II, as with many other colleges around the country, API experienced a period of massive growth caused by returning military personnel taking advantage of the GI Bill 's offer of free education. In the years following the end of the war, enrollment at API more than doubled that of pre-war enrollment. [ 13 ]

Recognizing the school had moved beyond its agricultural and mechanical roots, it was granted university status by the Alabama Legislature in 1960 and renamed to "Auburn University" which came from it being unofficially called "Auburn" since at least the 1930s, when Jordan-Hare Stadium opened in 1939 as "Auburn Stadium". [ 14 ] [ 15 ]