DEPARTMENT HISTORY |
|
During the late 50's the interest in mining had been on the decline to the point that there was concern that even having the word "mining" in the College’s name could be a detriment. After considerable discussion, Van Pelt and the Board of Control settled on a new name: Michigan College of Science and Technology, MCST. Since the State constitution was being rewritten at the time, the new name was incorporated into it.* Before the new laws took effect, the name was changed again to the current name: Michigan Technological University, MTU. An interesting bit of trivia is that for legal reasons** the College is claimed to have had the name Michigan College of Science and Technology for the first hour of New Year’s Day, 1964, the effective date of the new constitution. The MTU name did not take effect until 1 am. In 1964 the Physics department found itself in a new building at an institution with a new name, about to have a new President, Ray Smith, who had a new vision for the University. They also had a new department head, Dean Stebbins, who took over from Bill Longacre. Stebbins was the first external hire for department head since McNair in 1893 and also served as Dean of the Faculty (causing some confusion with his first name) and as Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA). For a time he would occupy all three jobs simultaneously.
* see article VIII, Sec. 4, of the Michigan Constitution. ** This supposedly arose since the new constitution had already been adopted and included the words "by whatever names such institutions may hereafter be known." The simple solution was to allow the MCST name to take effect so that the MTU name could be considered a simple name change. Apparently 1 hour was considered sufficient for this purpose. At least it makes for a good story (more).
|
