President Donnal V. Smith (1943)
Dr. Donnal V. Smith was the fourth president of the Cortland State Normal School, serving from 1943 to 1959. An Ohio native, Smith earned an undergraduate degree in Physical Education from Bowling Green State University and spent several years as a high school teacher, coach, and principal in his home state. From there, he began his graduate studies in Physical Education at the University of Illinois, but soon transferred to the University of Chicago to study history. After earning an M.A. and Ph.D. in American history, Smith taught at the University of Texas for two years before becoming the chair of the Social Studies Department at the State Teachers College at Albany. In 1943, the Board of Visitors unanimously recommended Smith to replace Harry DeWitt DeGroat as Cortland’s President, signifying a new direction for the college.
Within Smith’s first two years as president, enrollment at Cortland was as low as 357 students. However, due to to the passage of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (the G.I. Bill) and the conclusion of World War II, enrollment rates grew to over 2,325 by the end of his presidency in 1959. To meet the demands of increases in enrollment, Smith quickly began to aggressively recruit new faculty. By 1943 the college faculty consisted of 70% women, with two faculty members having just a normal school education and only seven (other then two administrators) possessing doctorates. Smith wanted to build a faculty with higher qualifications and varied backgrounds to give students a “greater breadth of point of view.” In order to achieve this, he traveled all over the Northeast and Midwest to graduate schools to recruit new faculty each spring. By 1950, there were seventeen professors, twenty-four assistant-professors, and forty instructors. Smith purposely hired young faculty and retained only those who were successful in the classroom, which in turn created a hierarchical system which rewarded faculty achievement by advancement in rank.
The hiring of younger faculty members and the changes in student demographics altered the relationship between the college and the local Cortland community. Principal DeGroat was accommodating to community sentiments, whereas Smith’s relations with the town were much more independent. This shift was exemplified when President Smith terminated the appointment of Fannie Metcalf DeGroat (Principal DeGroat’s wife) despite protests from the local community and Board of Visitors. Further, the strain between the college and community relations can be seen throughout Smith’s presidency as faculty and students became increasingly politically active. Faculty running for local office and a 1952 Election Commissioner ruling, which verified students eligibility to vote in city elections, generated tensions as the ideals of the increasingly professional and cosmopolitan faculty and students did not always align with that of the community.
Similarly, the new faculty initiated a change in Cortland’s curriculum. The more academically oriented faculty called for a greater focus on “liberal studies,” and a reduced emphasis on “methods.” In attempt to reconcile the tension between methods and general education, a faculty committee was formed to evaluate the curriculum in 1950. Despite the addition of a new health major in 1945, the recreation program in 1946, a science major in 1947, and a Master’s program in 1950, when the committee finally submitted its findings in 1955 to Dean Donovan Moffett, rejected the proposal stating that the college, “simply did not have the facilities or the faculty to implement the recommendations.” A revised basic curriculum was put in in place of the proposal, and it was not until 1962 that Cortland established the Division of Liberal Studies.
Perhaps the most significant change Smith oversaw in his tenure as president was the signing of SUNY law on April 4th, 1948. In response to greater demands for higher education in the postwar era, the creation of the SUNY established a cohesive public university system which provides colleges within a comprehensive academic and financial framework. Capitalizing on the benefits of such a system, Smith expanded the Cortland campus to accommodate a growing student population. Under President Smith, Cortland completed the construction of the new HPER building (Moffett), Cheney, DeGroat, Brockway, Bishop, and Shea Hall. Smith also oversaw the acquisition of Camp Huntington at Raquette Lake, the Jeman Tract, and property on Water Street, Prospect Terrace, and Graham Avenue.
In November 1958 President Smith announced his resignation and acceptance as an advisor to the minister of education in East Pakistan through the Foreign Service program at the University of Chicago. When Smith began his presidential term, Cortland’s campus was confined to one building on 33 acres that served 443 students. By 1959 when Smith resigned, Cortland’s campus had grown to over 100 acres, six completed buildings, six buildings under construction, five in development, and a student body of 2,325. Under President Smith’s leadership, the Cortland established a new graduate program and had a budget that drastically increased from $203,494 to $1,767,196. The significant changes that occurred during Smith’s presidency set the stage for a transformation in Cortland’s mission in the following decade from that of a teacher’s college to one with an expanding focus on liberal arts.