OCR Text |
Show 18 WEBER COLLEGE - OGDEN, UTAH Vocational: It provides specialized vocational curricula in the semi-professional fields, in trades, and in industry. Through its coordination and placement service, the institution surveys the locality for work opportunities and attempts to provide suitable employment for the graduates of these completion courses. Adult Education: It aims through its trade extension and adult education classes to extend to adults the same opportunities that it makes available to youth. History Weber College was founded as an academy in 1889. On January 7, 1889, Weber College was founded by a corporation, the Church Association of Weber Stake. It was then known as Weber Stake Academy. In January, 1916, the Latter-day Saint Church Board of Education established a Normal School by adding two years of college work to the four-year high school curriculum of the academy. By this action the school acquired junior college status. College instruction was begun in September, 1916, but the name of the institution was not changed to Weber Normal College until the year 1918. Weber College was organized as a junior college in 1922-1923. With the opening of the school year, 1922-1923, Weber College was organized with two distinct departments: The senior high school, consisting of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth years; and the college, consisting of two additional years. At this time the Commissioner of Education of the Latter-day Saint Church announced a new policy of the Church School System. It was decided that as soon as possible the church schools should confine their efforts to college work. In conformity with this policy the high school department of Weber College was discontinued in May, 1923. Weber College was transferred to the State of Utah in 1933. In 1933, the Utah State Legislature passed House Bill Number 120, which was an amendment of House Bill Number 101, as passed by the Utah State Legislature of 1931. To effect the provisions of this statute, on July 1, 1933, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints transferred by gift to the State of Utah the Weber College, buildings, grounds, and equipment. From this date, Weber College has been known as a state supported junior college under the direction of the Utah State Board of Education. Accreditation Weber College was accredited as a junior college in 1932. In the year 1932, Weber College was accredited by the Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools. It became a member of the American Association of Junior Colleges, fully recognized by the higher institutions of the state. WEBER COLLEGE - OGDEN, UTAH 19 Buildings Weber College buildings are adequate and modern. The Louis Frederick Moench Building, located on Jefferson Avenue between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Streets, opposite Lester Park, is the fourth home of Weber College since its founding January 7, 1889. Classes were first held in the Second Ward. In the autumn of 1889, the school was moved to the Ogden Tabernacle, and in the spring of 1890, to the Fifth Ward Institute. By the year 1892, Weber Academy was housed in the first building on the present campus, the east section of the Moench Building. In 1907, a wing on the west side of the original building was constructed, and in 1934, through federal and state aid, the west entrance to the Moench Building was added. From the early part of 1934 to the fall of 1935, extensive repairs and renovations were made through funds made available by the government. The College Gymnasium Building, erected at a cost of $300,000.00 is situated on Twenty-fifth Street between Adams and Jefferson Avenues. The building, dedicated January 9, 1925, serves both the communtiy and the college. Extensive remodeling on this building during the years 1934 and 1935 resulted in the addition of a west entrance and other improvements. The Vocational Education Building will be ready for occupancy by September 1, 1938. On August 25, 1937, the Public Works Administration made Weber College a grant of $65,592 as an increase to the State appropriation of $80,168 for the erection of a Vocational Educational Building to cost $145,760. Following this action, the State Board of Education purchased the Sheehan property adjoining the recently acquired Burt property in order to make a site for the building, 217 feet by 330 feet, facing Adams Avenue between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth Streets. On February 18, 1938, the contract was let for $112,000 with a change order which lowered the building cost to $98,170. There is available $36,751 for equipment. Lecture rooms, laboratories, auditorium, and library are located in the Moench Building. The Moench Building now has twenty-two lecture rooms, eleven well-equipped laboratories, an auditorium with a seating capacity of seven hundred, and a modern library with stack rooms and reading rooms sufficient to accommodate an enrollment of seven hundred students. The College Auditorium is supplied with modern devices for lighting and staging size able musical or dramatic performances. A collection of oil paintings and water colors adds appreciably to the cultural atmosphere of the hall; a pipe organ contributes an enjoyable feature to college assemblies and serves in the interests of community programs. The College Library occupies space for general reading rooms, circulating library, and a library office. It contains standard, general, and special reference books catalogued according to the Dewey Decimal Classification System; current periodicals selected with a view to the needs of departments of instruction; and newspapers of local and national reputation. The collection of the International |