Hamline University
Hamline University is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the second oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities. The university is named after Bishop Leonidas Lent Hamline of the United Methodist Church. As of 2017, Hamline had 2,117 undergraduate students and 1,668 graduate students.
In 2022, the university attracted widespread criticism after firing an adjunct professor for showing paintings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in a class on the history of Islamic art.
History
Red Wing location (1854–1869)
Hamline was named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church whose interest in the frontier led him to donate $25,000 toward the building of an institution of higher learning in what was then the territory of Minnesota. Today, a statue of Bishop Hamline sculpted by Michael Price stands on campus. Founded as a coeducational institution, Hamline was among the first coeducational universities in the United States. Hamline's first home was in Red Wing, Minnesota. The school's charter stipulated Hamline be located "at some point on the Mississippi between St. Paul and Lake Pepin". The city of Red Wing pledged about $10,000 to enable construction of a building and the beginning of an endowment, and donated a tract of land on a hillside overlooking the Mississippi River.Chartered in 1854, Hamline University is the second oldest university in Minnesota, and the first coeducational university in the state, graduating its first collegiate class in 1859.
The first classes at Hamline were held in rooms on the second floor of the village general store while the construction of the classroom building was in progress. Students moved into the Red Wing building in January 1856. The original building contained a chapel, recitation rooms, a school room, a library, laboratory, reading rooms, and dormitory quarters. Seventy-three students enrolled at Hamline in its opening year. The catalog lists them separately as "Ladies" and "Gentlemen", but most of them were children or adolescents, and all were enrolled in either the primary or the preparatory department. There was no collegiate division in 1856—this area of the frontier had not yet produced students ready for college. Tuition per term ranged from $4.00 to $6.66.
With the start of the American Civil War, enrollment in the college division dropped from 60 to 16 in one year, and there was no graduating class in 1862. Records indicate that 119 Hamline men served in the Union armies during the war. In 1869, the university shut down. The first building at the Red Wing site was torn down in 1872.
Saint Paul campus (1880–1914)
It had been expected that Hamline would reopen on a new site within two years after the closing at Red Wing; however, indecision in the selection of a new site caused a delay. In the end, a Saint Paul prairie plot halfway between the downtowns of Minneapolis and Saint Paul was selected. Construction began in 1873, but by then an economic depression had overtaken the planners, and there were repeated postponements and delays. University Hall, begun in 1873, was constructed in installments, and was completed during the summer of 1880.The doors opened on September 22, 1880, and Hamline's history in Saint Paul began. The catalog for that year lists 113 students, with all but five of them being preparatory students. Tuition in the collegiate division was $30 per year. Two degrees were offered at the time: the B.A. and the B.S. In 1883, the bachelor of philosophy degree replaced the B.S., and remained in use until 1914, when the faculty dropped the PhB. and restored the B.S. degree.
On February 7, 1883, University Hall, barely two years old, burned to the ground. To replace the structure, plans for a new University Hall were prepared. Eleven months later, the new structure, the present Old Main, was completed. Emergency space for classrooms was provided by Ladies' Hall, which had opened in 1882. Other new construction included Science Hall, which was completed in 1887, the Carnegie library in 1907, and the new gymnasium, which was completed in 1909.
World War I and postwar years (1915–1929)
When World War I came in April 1917, track and baseball schedules for spring were cancelled as enlistments and applications of officers' training depleted the teams. Hamline was designated one of 38 colleges in the country to supply men for ambulance work in France. Twenty-six men were selected for the unit and served in France with the 28th Division of the French Army. Ambulance work during World War I involved great personal danger and took great expertise to stay alive. Three former students of Hamline University, Wallace Ramstad, Glen Donaldson, and Walter Gammel died in battle. One of the more notable situations the Hamline ambulance unit, otherwise known as Section 568, was involved in was the fighting in the Meuse-Argonne territory, which lasted 47 days. During the war, Section 568 retained the banner that students from Hamline had sewn for them before their training. At the end of the war Section 568 received the Croix de Guerre from the French government for their service. In the fall of 1918, a unit of the Students' Army Training Corps was established at Hamline, and almost every male student became an enlisted member. The Science Hall was used for military purposes, with the basement becoming the mess hall and the museum and several classrooms being marked for squad rooms and sleeping quarters.The Great Depression and World War II (1930–1945)
The Great Depression and World War II created significant challenges for Hamline. The most difficult were the years in the early 1930s, in which the repercussions of the depression were intensified by conflicts over internal reorganization. Increased enrollments reflected the belief that it was better for students to be in college than to be sitting at home in idleness and despair. The college tried to help, providing jobs and financial aid, and lowering tuition. Jobs of any kind were at a premium, with the most prized being board jobs in the Manor House and at the Quality Tea Room on Snelling Avenue. Also in top demand were board and room jobs for women in private homes. In the meantime, the portion of the college endowment invested in farmlands turned unproductive, and the university's income fell following reductions in tuition. All of this led to annual deficits and substantial cuts in faculty salaries.It was not until 1935 that Hamline began to recover from the depression. During the war years, Hamline's enrollment held above 600, except in 1943 and 1944. Although males registrations dropped as men entered the armed services, women's enrollment increased as nursing students arrived.
Hamline and the Asbury Methodist Hospital of Minneapolis launched a new venture in 1940 when they collaboratively established the Hamline-Asbury School of Nursing, which offered a five-year program leading to a Bachelor of Science in nursing. Hamline moved with a growing trend to provide academic training for women preparing for careers in nursing. A three-year program leading to a diploma in nursing was also offered. In 1949, the Mounds-Midway School of Nursing joined the school, and the newly enlarged institution took the name of the Hamline University School of Nursing.
Post World War II (1946–1966)
A flood of veterans entered or returned to college after World War II under the G.I. Bill of Rights. The first reached the campus in the fall of 1946, when registrations passed 1,000 for the first time. Enrollment reached a new high in 1949 when 1,452 students, including 289 in the nursing school. The nursing school, which had been an integral part of Hamline since 1940 and had won wide recognition for the excellence of its program, was discontinued in 1962 following a decision to concentrate resources and staff on liberal arts programs. The last class in the three-year program graduated in 1960 and the last class in the degree program graduated in 1962. A total of 447 women completed the degree program, and 758 women finished the three-year program.After World War II, two new residence halls were built—Drew Residence for men and Sorin Hall for women. A new fine arts center was completed in 1950, and the Drew Hall of Science was dedicated in 1952. The old science building was taken over by the social science and other departments and was renamed Social Science Hall. In 1963, the A.G. Bush Student Center was completed and became the social, recreational, and cultural center of the campus. Throughout this period, buildings were enlarged or remodeled to keep pace with new needs and standards. Wings were added to the Manor House and Drew Residence. The seating capacity of the library was increased to 100 with the completion of a new periodical room, and the old student union was remodeled and turned into a laboratory with classrooms and office space for the language departments. In the summer of 1966, extensive alterations and improvements were made in Hutton Arena and in the theater of the fine arts center.
Between 1953 and 1966, faculty members received grants totaling more than $600,000 for education and research programs.
New academic publications (1966–1987)
Hamline broke ground in May 1970 for the $2.6 million Bush Memorial Library. The library, a three-story, building housing some 240,000 volumes, opened in the fall of 1971. The Paul Giddens Alumni Learning Center, linked to the Carnegie library and named for a former university president, opened in October 1972. The social science and humanities divisions and the department of education are now housed within the center, which also contains classrooms, study areas, and laboratories.The university began construction on a new $4 million law school building in January 1979, which was dedicated in October 1980. The Hamline University School of Law received accreditation from the American Bar Association in 1975. The law school began publishing the Hamline Law Review in 1978. The Hamline Law Review ceased publication in 2015 and merged with the William Mitchell Law Review to form the Mitchell Hamline Law Review.
A second student-edited journal began publication in the spring of 1980. Originally titled as the Journal of Minnesota Public Law, it became the Hamline Journal of Public Law and Policy in 1986. In 2016, this journal was combined with the William Mitchell Journal of Law and Practice to create the Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice
In 1983, in collaboration with the Council on Religion and Law at Harvard University Divinity and Law Schools, the Hamline School of Law launched a faculty-edited journal, the Journal of Law and Religion.
After the Charles M. Drew Fine Arts Center opened in 1950, Hamline began to gradually acquire a permanent art collection, especially after Paul Smith became chair of the fine arts department in 1965. By 2003, the permanent collection included more than 600 original works.