Fabulous 50: Chancellor Caldwell Retired

This blog post contributed by Campbell Dunne, Special Collections Desk Assistant, and edited by Todd Kosmerick. 

John Tyler Caldwell served as chancellor of NC State from 1959 to 1975. This year we celebrate Caldwell’s time as chancellor and remember his legacy since his retirement 50 years ago.

Caldwell was born December 19, 1911 in Yazoo City, Mississippi. After graduating high school, Caldwell continued his academic studies at Mississippi State College, graduating with a B.S. in Political Science, before going on to gain two Master’s degrees from Duke and Columbia Universities in 1936 and 1937, respectively. Caldwell then became a Julius Rosenwald Fellow at Princeton University, where he received a Ph.D. in Political Science in 1939. Afterward he spent time teaching at Vanderbilt University, before joining the Navy and receiving a Bronze Star medal for his service in Okinawa.

In 1947 Caldwell became the President of Alabama College (now University of Montivallo). He held this position for five years before taking the role of President at the University of Arkansas. Caldwell served at the University of Arkansas from 1952 to 1959, before being offered the position of Chancellor at North Carolina State College (now University) in 1959.

The years of 1959-1975 are colloquially referred to as “The Caldwell Years,” due to the incredible amount of work he did to further the academic, social, cultural, and institutional goals of our university. 

At his formal installation in March 1960, Chancellor Caldwell is quoted as saying “State College mirrors the new America with its fresh concern for beauty of form, sight, sound and eloquence of thought. Our educational objectives are fully contemporary with emerging emphasis on fundamental science as the basis for advance[sic] technology,” according to the Wilson Daily Times.  Chancellor Caldwell worked diligently to empower North Carolinians’ education. At his installation address, he said, “Man’s greatest enslaver has always been ignorance. Man’s greatest emancipator has always been truth understood. North Carolina State College is dedicated to the process of freeing men’s minds.”

According to North Carolina State University: A Narrative History by Alice Elizabeth Reagan, Caldwell’s “dynamic personality” helped to set the tone for his administration. He is credited with giving the chancellorship the “necessary power and prestige” which Reagan notes that Carey Bostian, Caldwell’s predecessor, lacked. Like Bostian, however, Caldwell worked to foster relationships with students, often eating in Leazar Cafeteria and inviting students to dine at the Chancellor’s Residence.

Cultivating Community

Along with being friendly with students, Caldwell advocated for closer ties between NC State and the greater Raleigh community. The Friends of the College Series was one of Caldwell’s major efforts to strengthen community connections. The Friends of the College sponsored hundreds of concerts from 1959 until 1993 in Reynolds Coliseum. Some of the visiting performers included the New York Ballet and the New York Philharmonic with Leonard Bernstein. This series was a great success, generating positive publicity for the school and fostering goodwill between NC State and the Raleigh Community. 

The Caldwell Years also saw the expansion of the College Extension, another area which supported the Raleigh community. In September 1961, both day and night extension courses carried resident credit, “thus allowing the institution to provide a night degree program for Raleigh’s working population,” according to Reagan. Due to increased demand for these programs, they were renamed the Division of Continuing Education in July 1965. This allowed Raleigh’s growing population alternative access to courses and degrees.  Further expansion of continuing education programs eventually led to the building of the McKimmon Center, which opened just after Caldwell retired.

With Raleigh continuing to grow in size and population, racial tensions and the well-to-do flocking to the suburbs, many looked to NC State to offer leadership in helping to improve the situation. Caldwell’s response to these concerns was the establishment of the Urban Affairs and Community Services Center in 1966. With financial support from Title I of the 1965 Higher Education Act, the Center researched housing, the environment, social services, economic development, and more. Later a committee was established to study the possibility of an urban studies program, leading to a collaboration between NC State’s School of Design and UNC Chapel Hill’s Department of City and Regional Planning to create a masters degree in Urban Design in 1969.

Another action taken to benefit the Raleigh area was the 1967 creation of the Cooperating Raleigh Colleges program. As the program evolved, it provided “inter-institutional degree programs in forestry and engineering with historically black Shaw University; a library exchange agreement; and cross campus course registration with Meredith College, St. Mary’s College, St. Augustine’s College (also predominantly black), and Peace College” (Reagan 173). 

Academic Initiatives

Caldwell’s initiatives were also curriculum and degree-related. His administration saw a significant amount of growth in student enrollment, and he laid the groundwork for a multitude of new degree programs.

One of Chancellor Caldwell’s greatest accomplishments was the establishment of the Bachelor of Arts degrees and a liberal arts school to award them. Clashing against the Board of Trustees and Consolidated University President Bill Friday, Caldwell, with faculty from the General Studies program and students, pushed for liberal arts degrees. In 1962 a Bachelor of Science proposal was granted allowing the School of General Studies to grant degrees, though there was a continued focus on science and mathematics more than traditional humanities programs. After a committee recommended approval of B.A. degrees with the support of the state Board of Higher Education, the Board of Trustees finally approved a Bachelor of Arts degree at NC State in 1963. That same year the General Studies school became the School of Liberal Arts, which was later renamed the College of Humanities and Social Sciences). 

Along with growth in the humanities programs, NC State saw incredible growth within the School of Agriculture (now the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences). New areas of study were developed to address the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization within the state. The Biological Sciences Institute was created in 1962, and in 1968, “the first conservation degree program in the Southeast was established” (Reagan 177). In 1964 the school changed its name to the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, providing a more accurate title referencing their many programs across the sciences. At the same time the two-year Agricultural Institute was established to recognize the influence of science in agriculture.

Caldwell’s administration also saw significant grants awarded to the university’s programs. The School of Engineering (now the College of Engineering) obtained a Ford Foundation grant in 1961 and in 1966 was awarded a $3.55 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The School of Education (now the College of Education) obtained the largest federal grant in N.C. State history to that date, receiving $4,672,582 from the U.S. Office of Education in order to develop a Center of Occupational Education. 

UNC-Raleigh or NCSU?

During Caldwell's term as chancellor, the biggest controversy was the renaming of the university. Consolidated University officials and then-Governor Terry Sanford wanted to rename the institution “the University of North Carolina at Raleigh” in order to retain the unity of the Consolidated University system. Chancellor Caldwell, faculty, alumni, and students all vehemently opposed this name change, even going so far as to picket the Chancellor’s Residence and start letter-writing campaigns. They opposed the name change as many people did not want to be “viewed as a branch of its sister institution at Chapel Hill” and insisted the name would hurt State College traditions (Reagan 182). In 1963, when it became clear that “UNC-Raleigh” would not be accepted, a compromise was reached, and the university became “North Carolina State of the University of North Carolina at Raleigh.” The new name was awkward, and some labeled it embarrassing. Alumni and students continued to push for the name “North Carolina State University,” and proposals to make this happen were written and rejected again and again.

The issue persisted until Representative George Wood, class of 1950, introduced another name-change bill and threatened to make it an issue in the 1967 elections. With support from then-Governor Dan. K. Moore, the Senate approved Wood’s bill in 1965, and NC State officially became North Carolina State University at Raleigh.

End of an Era

Caldwell remained as chancellor until his retirement in 1975. Under Caldwell’s leadership the student body grew by more than 8,000 students, strong programs in liberal arts were established, and State College successfully became North Carolina State University – as we know it today.

After his retirement, Caldwell remained at NC State for the next ten years teaching Political Science and Education courses. From 1975 to 1982, he served as President of the Triangle Universities Center for Advanced Research. He also served as a Harvard University trustee, a trustee of the National Humanities Center, and chairman of N.C. Common Cause.  He led a successful campaign for a $104 million Wake County school bond issue. In 1987, Caldwell won the North Carolina Award – the state’s highest civilian honor. He was also named one of Mississippi State’s 10 distinguished alumni by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges in 1988.

A year after his retirement from the chancellorship, NC State created the John T. Caldwell Merit Scholarships (now Caldwell Fellows program). Caldwell was also honored in 1987 with a building named after him. Built in 1981, Caldwell Hall (formerly the Link building), was built to connect Winston and Tompkins Halls. The three buildings house the Communications department, English department, and other units within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Due to his part in creating the Bachelor of Arts degree at State, Chancellor Emeritus Caldwell was recognized when the Link building was christened Caldwell Hall. According to a Technician article, Caldwell said “he is pleased with the honor the board of trustees bestowed upon him. ‘It’s a high honor to have a building named for one,’ he said.”

John T. Caldwell passed away on October 13th, 1995. He was 83. At his death, Chancellor Larry K. Monteith said that Caldwell distinguished himself as “a champion of education and civil rights during a critical period for North Carolina and the nation.” An editorial in the Charlotte Observer following his death stated that “the thing people remember most about John Caldwell is not how he helped build a comprehensive university and a vibrant engine of the state’s economy. They remember his warmth, his affection for people, and his interest in building a decent community” (Mississippi State University Obituaries).

To learn more about Chancellor Caldwell, check out the Office of the Chancellor, John Tyler Caldwell Records or the John Tyler Caldwell Papers. Additional information about the Caldwell Fellows can be found in the Caldwell Fellows Program Records. Some materials from the Office of the Chancellor, John Tyler Caldwell Records are also available online. 

If you have any questions or are interested in viewing Special Collections materials, please contact us at library_specialcollections@ncsu.edu or submit a request online. The Special Collections Research Center is open by appointment only. Appointments are available Monday–Friday, 9am–6pm and Saturday, 1pm–5pm. Requests for a Saturday appointment must be received no later than Tuesday of the same week.