Editor’s note: This is the second 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 1910-1919.

The 1910s began much the way the century’s first decade ended. Iowa State College and its students were still struggling to establish their identity as an academic institution.

Albert B. Storms ushered ISC into the decade but left midway through the year in 1910. He was replaced until 1912 by interim President Edgar W. Stanton, who also had served as an interim president before Storms was hired in 1903.

In 1912, Raymond P. Pearson was appointed president of ISC. Pearson was a graduate of Cornell University and placed great emphasis on increasing the academic reputation of ISC.

This was evident in the many campus buildings that were erected during the 1910s — MacKay Hall was built in 1911, State Gymnasium in 1913, Gilman Hall in 1914 and Exhibit Hall in 1914.

Under the direction of Pearson, ISC also built three dormitories during the decade: Lyon, Barton and Freeman halls. All three were used as housing for female students.

It was during this decade that ISC could first boast a doctoral graduate — Leslie A Kenoyer, who received a doctorate in botany in 1916.

ISC also attracted several big-name speakers during this time, proof that it was becoming a bigger player in the academic scene. Students were treated to speeches by Booker T. Washington, James R. Garfield (the son of former President James H. Garfield) and former President William Howard Taft.

As in the previous decade, oratory contests and policy debates were still events that provoked student pride. But as important as speeches and debates were, athletics became an even stronger force at ISC during the 1910s.

Pearson was dedicated to making his school a consistent big-time winner in athletics. Increased revenue given to the athletic council to disperse to the basketball, baseball, football and track and field teams also brought with it increased fervor in supporting the teams.

ISC students enjoyed a play-by-play reenactment of the ISC-State University of Iowa football game in 1913 conducted by students getting reports about the game over a special constant telephone connection and then emulating the progression of the ball up and down a mock field on campus.

In 1915, a Student editorial before the annual football game against the Hawks encouraged students to greet each other on campus not with a traditional, “Hello,” but with the phrase, “Beat Iowa.”

The first ISC wrestling match, against the Hawkeyes, took place on March 8, 1913, in State Gym.

But the decade also saw students becoming active in issues beyond mere games and contests. The Cardinal Guild, the precursor to the Government of the Student Body formed in 1904, took on such issues as freshman hazing, women’s rights and smoking on campus.

The Guild passed a resolution in 1912 requiring all freshman students to wear green hats until the last week in May of their first year at ISC. Freshmen, however, opposed the rule and drafted a resolution in their own student government body declaring the policy as unfair hazing, although they said they would wear the hats.

The Guild also supported the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in 1919, and established a Women’s Guild to allow female students to let their voices be heard on campus.

A campuswide referendum was held in 1913 asking students whether they were in favor of banning smoking on campus. Students were overwhelmingly in favor of the ban, which was subsequently enacted.

But by the end of the decade, the campus mood took on a more serious tone due to the war raging in Europe. Generals and war heroes replaced academics as the mainstay speakers at assemblies, and athletic coverage on the front page of the Student began to dwindle as war reports gained a higher priority.

After the United States entered World War I, the Student professed support of soldiers abroad and urged students to invest in war bonds.

But the gloom of the first World War would soon fade, and ISC would enter the swinging 1920s.