HISTORY OF LSU
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College had its origin in certain land grants made by the United States government in 1806, 1811, and 1827 for use as a seminary of learning. In 1853, the Louisiana General Assembly established the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana near Pineville, Louisiana. The institution opened January 2, 1860, with Col. William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent. The school closed June 30, 1861, because of the Civil War. It reopened on April 1, but was again closed on April 23, 1863, due to the invasion of the Red River Valley by the federal army.
The seminary reopened October 2, 1865, only to be burned October 15, 1869. On November 1, 1869, the institution resumed its exercises in Baton Rouge, where it has since remained. In 1870, the name of the institution was changed to Louisiana State University.
Louisiana State Agricultural & Mechanical College was established by an act of the legislature, approved April 7, 1874, to carry out the United States Morrill Act of 1862, granting lands for this purpose. It temporarily opened in New Orleans, June 1, 1874, where it remained until it merged with Louisiana State University in 1877.
Today, LSU holds a prominent position in American higher education. One of only 25 universities nationwide designated as both a land-grant and sea-grant institution, it also holds the Carnegie Foundation’s Doctoral Research—Extensive designation. LSU 2010, the national flagship agenda, brings into focus the University’s commitment to excellence at every level. The goal of the agenda is to have LSU reach the upper tier of national prominence by the year 2010, the University’s 150th anniversary.
NOTEWORTHY DATES
1853 Louisiana General Assembly passes legislation for state institution of higher education, creating the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana.
1859 The institution's main building is completed near Pineville, Louisiana. Col. W.T. Sherman accepts position as superintendent.
1860 Seminary opens with five professors and 19 cadets. Name changed to Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. General Assembly agreed to support as many as 150 cadets with scholarships for boarding expenses. These cadets were referred to as "beneficiary" cadets.
1861 State militia takes control of the federal garrison known as the Baton Rouge Arsenal. Only later would Louisiana officially secede from the Union. Col. Sherman resigns. Student and faculty begin resigning in order to enlist in the Confederate cause. Seminary closes.
1862 Seminary reopens under the Rev. W.E.M. Linfield as acting superintendent.
1863 Prof. William A. Seay becomes superintendent. Seminary closes after invasion of Red River Valley by federal forces under Gen. Banks. Military equipment donated to the Confederate Army, but library and other items destroyed by order of Gen. T. Kilby Smith of the U.S. Army. Structure saved thanks to Gen. W.T. Sherman.
1865 The Civil War ends; seminary reopens and David F. Boyd is superintendent.
1869 Pineville campus building burns. Classes resume in Baton Rouge at Institute for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind.
1870 Seminary changes official title to The Louisiana State University.
1872 The Reveille is first published but has no regular schedule.
1873 Last class to graduate until after Reconstruction. Five classes had graduated up to this point. Supervisors passed an executive motion to place "beneficiary" cadets on "indefinite leave" when the state failed to appropriate funds for their scholarships. Enrollment after dismissal: 45. Only three professors remain.
1874 Louisiana State Agricultural & Mechanical College is opened and domiciled at the University of Louisiana, in New Orleans, while waiting to occupy the Chalmette campus.
1875 Title change of A&M College to Louisiana A&M College. The institution is racially integrated at the Chalmette campus.
1876 Acts 103 and 145 of 1876 combine LSU and Louisiana A&M College.
1877 Reconstruction ends. Merger of LSU and Louisiana A&M College prompts the final title change to Louisiana State University and A&M College. LSU becomes a land-grant institution. Classes resume. Title of superintendent changes to president.
1878 City of Baton Rouge offers land for dairy farm.
1880 David F. Boyd resigns. Gov. Wiltz appoints a new faculty and Col. William Preston Johnson appointed president.
1882 LSU confers bachelor degrees for the first time since 1874.
1883 Col. Johnson resigns and James W. Nicholson is appointed president.
1884 J. Nicholson returns to teaching and resigns position. David F. Boyd returns from Alabama A&M and assumes presidency. W.C. Stubbs hired from Alabama A&M to begin experimental sugar station.
1886 LSU moves from quarters at the Institute for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind to the federal garrison grounds. Department of the Interior transfers title of Baton Rouge Arsenal to the state. D.F. Boyd conducts repairs on new campus without reimbursement from the Board of Supervisors and resigns to teach. LSU moves to new campus. Thomas D. Boyd is named interim president and withdraws his name so that David may be rehired. " Beneficiary" cadet program reinstated.
1887 James W. Nicholson renamed president.
1888 The Boyd brothers depart: Thomas to the State Normal School; David resigns.
1893 LSU plays first football game, a 34-0 loss to Tulane.
1896 James W. Nicholson resigns. Thomas D. Boyd returns as president. LSU adopts the tiger as the official mascot.
1897 Audubon Sugar School transferred to LSU, requiring two years of study in Baton Rouge and two years of work in New Orleans. First issue of the new, permanent Reveille printed.
1899 David F. Boyd dies.
1900 First edition of The Gumbo published.
1902 LSU gets title to the Pentagon Barracks and campus for educational use only.
1904 Olivia Davis transfers to LSU to become its first female student, she graduates in 1905.
1906 First women enroll as freshmen, among them Annie Boyd, Thomas Boyd's daughter. Law school opens.
1908 Formation of the Colleges of Agriculture, Arts & Sciences, Engineering, and Education.
1909 Graduate department opens.
1916 National Defense Act passes requiring military training. LSU issues the olive drab uniform in November.
1917 US enters World War I. Prof. James W. Nicholson dies.
1918 Nine LSU friends, including Deans Atkinson and Dodson, purchase Gartness Plantation. Dances at LSU banned. Armistice signed and Central Powers concede defeat.
1919 T. Boyd elected president of Association of State Universities.
1921 T. Boyd elected president of Association of Land Grant Colleges.
1922 Board of Supervisors choose Olmsted Brothers' campus plan, but later accept Theodore Link's plan. Construction of present buildings begins.
1923 Thomas D. Boyd offers resignation at age 70, but the death of Link prevents Boyd from leaving. Wogan & Bernard finish the late Theodore Link's plan.
1924 LSU receives first live mascot named "Little-Eat-'Em-Up" as a gift from an alumnus in South America. The tiger was a black bobtailed tiger. He was quickly deposed after the football season for "failure to act." Tulane vs. LSU was first game on new campus at the temporarily named Tiger Stadium, a name it still retains. Division of Continuing Education opens.
1925 Students enroll on the present campus. Dances allowed again.
1926 Present campus is dedicated. T.D. Boyd offers resignation.
1927 Campbell Hodges chosen as president, but Dean Thomas W. Atkinson retained pro term status.
1928 LSU receives Class A accreditation by the Association of American Universities. Huey Long elected governor. College of Business Administration is formed.
1929 Board of Supervisors terminates Gen. C. Hodges for failure to appear. Atkinson is appointed president.
1930 Student body adopts alma mater still in use today. Whangdoodle published, openly criticizes faculty. Pres. Atkinson expels editor K.K. Kennedy one week shy of graduation from law school. Gov. Long begins interfering in LSU affairs. Gov. Long increases band from 28 to 125 pieces. Atkinson resigns due to failing health. Board meeting held at the Executive Mansion votes James Monroe Smith from SLI into presidency.
1931 LSU School of Medicine, New Orleans, opens down the street from Tulane Medical School. Graduate School of Library Science, College of Chemistry & Physics, and School of Music are established.
1932 Thomas D. Boyd dies and is buried at Magnolia Cemetery. The move to the new campus is finally complete.
1933 Junior Division, the underclassman college, opens.
1934 The Northeast Center established in Monroe. It is the first branch school of LSU. The Reveille Seven expelled for exposing Sen. Long's censorship of the paper at "his" school.
1935 LSU Press founded. Graduate School created, replacing Graduate department . The Southern Review first published. US Sen. Huey Long is shot by Dr. Weiss and subsequently dies on September 10.
1936 Mike I arrives by rail from the Little Rock Zoo. Students block-off campus; classes canceled.
1937 School of Social Welfare opens.
1939 President Smith resigns due to scandal. Paul Hebert assumes interim presidency. Lake Charles Junior College opens under LSU direction with Dean Joe Farrar as head.
1941 Gen. Campbell Hodges named president, again, and appears for service. US enters World War II.
1943 LSU Band invites first coed member.
1944 Gen. Campbell Hodges resigns. William B. Hatcher assumes presidency.
1945 World War II ends and GIs return to take advantage of Montgomery GI Bill of Rights.
1947 Pres. Hatcher dies, Fred C. Frey acts in presidential capacity until Dr. Harold W. Stoke is finally appointed president. Former Prof. Robert Penn Warren wins Pulitzer Prize for his novel, All the King's Men.
1948 Francis T. Nicholls Junior College opens in Thibodaux under Dean Charles Elkins.
1950 McNeese Junior College gains autonomy as a four-year institution. LSU Board of Education enrolls black students into graduate program.
1951 Dr. Stoke steps down and Gen. Troy H. Middleton is appointed president. University College is formed.
1953 A.P. Tureaud, Jr., LSU's first black undergraduate student, was admitted under court order to the 3-2 undergraduate pre-law and law degree program, which was unique to LSU. He transfers before the end of the fall term.
1954 Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, strikes down racial segregation in public schools.
1956 Legislature approves LSU branch in New Orleans. Mike I dies. Mike II ascends to the throne after February birth in New Orleans Zoo. Nichols State separates from LSU.
1957 LSU leases vacated Naval Air Station (New Orleans) from Orleans Parish Levee Board.
1958 Board of Supervisors approve the official seal of a mother pelican with three young. Mike II dies of pneumonia. Mike III, from Seattle Zoo, ascends to the throne. Classes begin at LSU-New Orleans under Dean Homer Hitt.
1960 LSU-Alexandria opens on land deeded in 1945.
1962 Gen. Middleton resigns and John A. Hunter is named president.
1964 Six black students enroll in undergraduate studies.
1965 By act of Legislature, LSU System established, Hunter becomes president of the LSU System. Cecil Grady Taylor becomes first chancellor of LSU (main campus in Baton Rouge). School of Environmental Design is formed.
1966 The Sea Grant Program is passed by the US Congress.
1967 LSU-Eunice opens under Dean Anthony Mumphrey. LSU-Shreveport opens under Dean Donald Shipp.
1968 School of Veterinary Medicine opens.
1969 LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport opens.
1970 Graduate School of Education opens. Professor T. Harry Williams wins the Pulitzer Prize for his biography Huey Long.
1972 John Hunter resigns as president of the LSU System and Martin Woodin accepts presidency. Center for Agricultural Sciences & Rural Development established.
1974 Chancellor Taylor resigns and Paul W. Murrill becomes chancellor. New state constitution officially creates the LSU System.
1976 Mike III dies. Mike IV ascends to the LSU throne from his home in Busch Gardens of Tampa, Florida.
1977 Hebert Law Center becomes an autonomous unit in the LSU System. First class graduates from the School of Veterinary Medicine.
1978 LSU becomes the 13th university to be named a sea-grant institution.
1979 Law School changes name to Paul M. Hebert Law Center.
1980 LSU Press publishes John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces.
1981 Chancellor Murrill resigns and Otis B. Wheeler is named acting chancellor. James H. Wharton becomes chancellor. John Kennedy Toole posthumously wins the Pulitzer Prize for A Confederacy of Dunces.
1982 Center for Agricultural Sciences & Rural Development changes title to LSU Agricultural Center.
1985 Allen A. Copping becomes third president of the LSU System.
1987 LSU is ranked a Research I institute by the Carnegie Foundation.
1988 Chancellor Wharton resigns. LSU-Shreveport Chancellor E. Grady Bogue becomes interim chancellor of LSU-Baton Rouge.
1989 Williams E. "Bud" Davis becomes chancellor.
1990 Mike IV retires for health reasons to the Baton Rouge Zoo. Mike V ascends to throne.
1995 Mike IV is put to eternal rest after 20 years and 9 months, of which he reigned as LSU mascot for 14 years.
1996 Chancellor William E. Davis resigns chancellorship. William L. Jenkins appointed the sixth LSU chancellor.
1998 LSU receives 114th patent.
1999 Williams L. Jenkins resigns as LSU chancellor and is appointed president of LSU System. Mark Emmert is appointed chancellor of LSU.
2000 The LSU's baseball team and women's track and field team each captured a national title. The women's track team earned its 12th national championship and the baseball team won its fifth championship title. LSU's Diamond Jubilee, commemorating 75 years on the current Baton Rouge campus.
2004 LSU Football Team wins 2004 Nokia Sugar Bowl and captures the 2003 BCS National Title. Mark Emmert resigns as LSU chancellor. William L. Jenkins appointed interim chancellor.
2005 Honorable Sean O'Keefe becomes chancellor of LSU. New habitat for Mike V is officially opened and Mike moves into his new home.
2007 Mike V dies. Mike VI introduced to campus.
2008 Sean O'Keefe resigns as LSU chancellor. William L. Jenkins appointed acting chancellor. Michael V. Martin becomes chancellor of LSU.
2009 LSU Baseball Team wins National Championship.
2010 LSU celebrates its sesquicentennial anniversary.
