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Enrollment records

 Collection
Identifier: 00.E

Scope and Contents

The collection of Enrollment records contain information pertaining to student enrollment at Eastern Michigan University. The records span from 1853 until 2011 and is arranged into five series: General Information, Reports, Eastern Michigan University, Classification Books and Registrar of Students, Grade Reports, and Teacher Training Records.

The General Information series contains newspaper clippings pertaining to University enrollment, statistical information about enrollment and correspondence. This series is an almost complete record of enrollment at the University from 1914 to 2011 with the exception of the years 1946-1948, and 1950-1953. Also included in this series are materials related to enrollment management, including divisional retreats, admissions processes, diploma production, grades, and graduation audits. The Reports, Eastern Michigan University series includes the annual enrollment report, corporate reports, State of Michigan reports, and the Department of Education report. The reports date from 1974-2010.

The Classification Books and Registrar of Students series is organized into two sub series: Michigan Sate Normal School, Michigan State Normal College; and three individual bound volumes: Daily Register, 1895; Student Classification Index, undated; and Graduates of Normal School, 1853-1916. The subseries of records contain indexes of students as they enrolled in Michigan State Normal School or Michigan State Normal College. Most volumes were kept chronologically with a separate alphabetical index of student names, home town, current address, and corresponding page that lists the classes each student was enrolled in, and which term. This listing is also organized alphabetically. The series dates from 1853-1949 with records missing from Summer 1918, Fall 1927, and Fall 1936.The Daily Register is for two quarters in 1895 and indicate student names, courses and absences. The Student Classification Index is undated, but is an alphabetical listing of students enrolled at Michigan State Normal. The Graduates of Normal School is a comprehensive listing of those students who achieved degrees from the Normal School between 1853-1899 and the Normal College between 1899 and 1916. Within the Michigan State Normal College subseries contains another subseries of Class listings that dates from 1902-1911. The items are arranged chronologically and are a list of classes, the department and faculty member teaching the class and the students enrolled for that term. The final item in the subseries titled Highschool 1909-1911, is a listing of courses, teachers and students, likely enrolled in the high school grades at the laboratory school, which for the time period of the documents would have been located at Welch Hall.

The Entrance Examinations date from 1885-1904 and lists students alphabetically, their high school and status of the examinations taken for entrance to the Normal School, i.e. Pass, Fail, Retest. The series Grade Reports contains a series of ledgers that document the grades of both graduate students and students enrolled in correspondence courses offered through Michigan State Normal College and is arranged as such. Also included in the Grade Reports series is a series of Distribution of Grade Reports from 1926-1960 with the bulk of reports from 1926-1945. They include lists of departments and the grades that they gave out to students for each semester. Of particular note are materials from the late 1930s in the Scholarship Indexes file that looks at the grades of sorority and fraternity members. Reports from the 1960s are not as complete as the documents from the 1920s-1940s.

The Teacher Training records series includes declarations of intention to teach, which was required of those who intended to enter the teaching profession after attending Michigan Normal; Record of the High School Department which includes a listing of students enrolled, course taken and grades assigned; Record of Practice Teaching is a confirmation of the completion of practice teaching requirements; and the Teacher's Semester Work Report is a one to two page report of the materials covered for the course being taught from the 1928-29 school year submitted by the student teacher.

Also included is information related to the UAW-Ford Tuition Assistance Eligibility Program. These UAW-Ford Prior Learning Assessments were part of a collaboration allowing UAW members access to testing programs and courses in order to determine educational opportunities.

This is a comprehensive documentation of early enrollment at the University but is not complete.

Dates

  • 1853 - 2011

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Researchers are asked to request materials 24 hours prior to visiting the the University Archives.

Conditions Governing Use

Duplications (photocopies or scans) of the volume Graduates of Normal School (Box 43) and the Daily Register (Box 44) are not allowed due to the fragility of the original bound documents. Please contact the University Archives with questions.

Historical Note

Established by the State of Michigan in 1849, Eastern Michigan University opened its doors as the Michigan State Normal School in 1853. Michigan State Normal School was the first teachers' training school west of the Allegheny Mountains and initially taught students at a basic secondary level, instructing them in teaching methods and material to cover at a variety of levels.

In 1899, Michigan State Normal School changed its name to Michigan State Normal College. Professor Richard Gause Boone lobbied to establish Normal as four-year college, rather than a secondary school. Normal entered the twentieth century as Michigan's premier teacher training school and became the first teacher training school in the United States to have a four-year degree program.

Between 1900 and 1950, at least 20 buildings were built on campus and by 1939, students, for the first time, were living in dorms on campus instead of in boarding houses off campus. During this period, the College added a number of programs to its expanding curriculum. In 1901, Normal was the first school in Michigan to offer an industrial arts program. The school was also the first in the nation to offer a program to train teachers of the disabled, starting in 1915. In 1940, it was the first teacher training school to offer a program in library services.

In 1956, the school became Eastern Michigan College and three years later, the school gained the status of a university by formally establishing the Graduate School (graduate classes had been offered since 1939) and changed its name for the final time, to Eastern Michigan University. The new name not only demonstrated that the school had become a university, but also broadened the emphasis of the school from teacher training to a wider range of baccalaureate programs. In 1959, the university established the College of Education and the College of Arts and Sciences as two separate entities.

From 1950 to the present, nearly 30 new buildings have been constructed and many more renovated to meet the needs of the institution. New dormitories and classroom buildings provide for the needs of new students. Today, Eastern offers a range of programs of study in a number of areas, including Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Health and Human Services, and Technology. As of 2016, more than 22,000 students from around the world attend EMU.

Extent

73 Linear Feet (7 record center carton, 28 archive boxes, 5 halfsize archive boxes, 32 oversize boxes, 1 clamshell box, 1 oversize folder)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The Enrollment records documents student enrollment at Eastern Michigan University. Materials are arranged into six series: General Information including enrollment numbers, and newspaper clippings from 1914-2011; Reports, Eastern Michigan University which includes the annual enrollment report, corporate reports, State of Michigan reports, and the Department of Education report, none of the reports in this series predate 1974; Classification Books and Register of Students which includes annual alphabetical by last name registers of students enrolled with some volumes and years including home town, parent names and occupations, religious affiliation, their previous experiences, and age at time of enrollment; Entrance Examinations, 1895; Grade Reports which are arranged by Correspondence Courses and Graduate Division; and finally Teacher Training records which documents the requirements and work of students enrolled in the teacher training program of the Normal School. The collection is not a complete record of enrollment at the University but it is a comprehensive record of student enrollment in the earliest years of the Michigan State Normal School and College.

Related Materials

Related materials can be found in the following collections:

Conservatory of Music Enrollment records [00.CME]:

https://aspace.emich.edu/repositories/2/resources/25

Class Schedules collection [00.CS]:

https://aspace.emich.edu/repositories/2/resources/32

Aurora Yearbooks [016.AY]:

https://aspace.emich.edu/repositories/2/resources/458

Listing of courses can be found in the annual Yearbook, Bulletin, and Class Schedule (found in the University Archives Reading Room, 310 Halle Library) or in the

Additional information on students enrolled at Michigan Normal and Eastern Michigan University can be found in the Annual Course Catalogs
.

Creator

Title
Enrollment records
Status
Completed
Author
Courtney Dornburg, Elizabeth Searls, Alexis Braun Marks, CA, Brooke Boyst
Date
2023 April 18
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Part of the Eastern Michigan University Archives Repository

Contact:
Bruce T. Halle Library, Room 310
955 West Circle Drive
Ypsilanti Michigan 48197
734-487-2673