Editor’s note: This is the sixth article in a 10-part series examining significant events and the climate of the campus at Iowa State in each of this century’s decades. The stories are based on articles from the Daily during those time periods. Today’s article will look at the years 1950-1959.

The 1950s at Iowa State College were a time of expansion and change that would see ISC begin to form into the modern institution it is today.

Charles E. Friley was president for the first part of the decade, holding the office until 1953. During Friley’s time in the 1950s, enrollment went from a building-busting figure of about 10,000 students in 1950 to fewer than 8,000 students in 1952.

Arthur Gawan, assistant registrar during that time period, attributed the decline to the “thinning out of veterans” who had attended ISC by taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, which granted free college educations to veterans of World War II.

James H. Hilton took over the presidency in 1953 and immediately began to expand on his vision of a bigger, better ISC. Hilton, the first Iowa State president to be a graduate of the school (a B.S. in animal husbandry in 1923), presided over ISC during one of its greatest periods of growth.

By the time the end of the decade rolled around, enrollment was back up near 10,000 students, and in the meantime, several physical improvements were made on campus.

In a response to a lack of student housing, Friley Hall received additions in 1951 and 1954, Westgate Hall was built in 1955, and Helser and Linden halls were erected in 1957.

As for academic buildings, Coover Hall was built in 1950, Agronomy Hall went up in 1952, and LeBaron Hall was constructed in 1958.

Other developments also were putting ISC on the map during the 1950s. On Feb. 21, 1950, WOI-TV came on-air, the first educationally owned and operated television station in the country.

Students during the 1950s were active and, for the most part, relatively conservative.

The Iowa State Daily often published editorials pointing out the dangers of communism, and the Cardinal Guild, the predecessor to the Government of the Student Body, passed a resolution in 1950 lending its support to the Crusade for Freedom, an anti-communism group.

But student leaders on campus during the 1950s seemed to be more mired in their own politics than in national issues.

During the decade, the guild was an often-confused organization, revising their bylaws several times during the decade, drafting a new constitution in 1957 and establishing a judicial branch in 1958.

On Sept. 16, 1958, Guild President Tom Phelps, during his “state of the union” speech to the Guild Senate, claimed that ISC was not producing good students, and he described the student body as being full of “political illiterates, moral hypocrites and intellectual hillbillies.”

Athletics were still important to students, as evidenced by several riots following big victories, but as ISC began to grow, students seemed to focus their attention more and more on other interests.

Student parking was a heated debate throughout the decade, with the Guild providing ISC administration with several parking plans without ever reaching an agreement satisfactory with both sides. The administration finally decided in 1956 to ban all student vehicles from parking not only on campus but also from parking in an area within a one-mile radius surrounding campus, stretching as far west as Franklin Avenue and as far south as Storm Street.

As the end of the decade drew close, and shortly after the school celebrated its centennial in 1958, ISC was granted university status by the Legislature, and its Divisions were re-classified as Colleges. The change, which became effective July 4, 1959, came after repeated claims that ISC was growing too big to be a college and was supported by both faculty and students alike.

Now more than 100 years old, ISU was ushered by its name change into one of the most turbulent decades both in the country and on the campus.