The_Rambler_1962-03-27

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VOL. XXXM-No. 16 STATE UNIVERSITY AGRICULTURAL AND TECHNICAL INSTITUTE AT FARMINGDALE March 2 7 , 1962
Tri-Semester
Program
Planned
Parmlngdale has been selected
by the State University System of
hfew York as one of the three units
to participate in an experimental
program that may lead to year-round
operation of all units of the
State University.
The plan, according to Dr.
Laffin, is designed to provide
places for a greater number of
students by increasing the uti-lization
of facilities. The balanced
twelve-month program will also
enable qualified student to
accelerate their education.
Besides SUATI, other partic-pating
units will be Harpur
College at Binghamton, which
offers undergraduate study in the
liberal arts and some graduate
work, and the College at New
Paltz which emphasizes teacher
education. Each of the colleges has
been selected to represent a
different type of unit within the
university system. One of the
reasons why these three schools
were chosen was because of the
heavy enrollment pressures now
existing in their specific areas.
The experimental program was
announced by Governor Rocke-feller
as outlined by Dr. Thomas
H. Hamilton, President of the
University.
The tri-semester system at
SUATI will bo into effect during
the summer of 1963. Dr. Laffin
said that the year would be divided
into three equal terms with
students attending for two se-mesters
with one off in between.
This will permit more students to
attend our school by admitting new
students three times a year instead
of just once as at present. Dr.
Laffin stated, "More efficient
•utilization of school plants by
operating the year round is
inevitable in the future if we are
to meet the continually rising tide
of college-bound high school
graduates." The effect will be to
provide the same careful quality
of education available at our school
for more students without costly
new construction. However, Dr.
Laffin said that this action does
not diminish in the least the
urgency of completing construc-tion
previously planned at SUATI.
Dr. Laffin stressed that our school
is pushing ahead with a planned
construction program for a
library, classroom -laboratory
building, a student union building,
a new gymnasium, and additional
dormitories.
WHAT'S MISSING?
complimentary reservation.
The contest closes April 15th
and winners will be announced
following the Easter vacation. All
questions and essays become the
>FOUR CAMPUS
Oh Sfydents Come
To The Rescue
Ornamental Horticulture stu-dents
at S.U.A.T.L, armed with
property of the Patiiway to Peace ^ffil'^
and cannot be returned. Exclusive rS^ n J^l
use of the essays is granted for years the US. NavU ^
Grand Central Nation; New York
Y runways.
' • ' Defeated in previous trys to
^ - - ^ conquer the flying sand, the base
m W I U O QOfpS V i s i t s has now enUsted the aid of the
^ college's Landscape Design maj-
The U.S. Marine Corps Officer ©rs who will try ground cover and
Selection Team wiU visit our low-growing bushes and trees for
school campus on April 25,1962.^ the new soil stabiUzation try. The
A Marine Officer wlU be hereto students wiU select the materials
WihA VacotioR
At JheCoH€0rd
Do you have a question you would
like to ask a world leader? A
short essay on why you feel it
essential can win you a compli-mentary
reservation at the
Concord Hotel, Kiamesha Lake
Concord Hotel, Kiamesha Lake,
New York, during the Pathway to
Peace Seminar and World Jazz
Festival, Wednesday to Friday,
June 6-8, 1962.
It may be on the Peace Corps,
peace marchers, an issue blocking
world peace, the U.N.. YAF, ADA,
Rod China, world trouble spots
or disarmament. One hunted
college students wUl r^elve a
discuss the Marine Aviation Cadet
Program with Interested students.
The MARCAD program leads to a
second lieutenants' commission
and the gold wings of a Marine
Pilot. TTiis new program is de-signed
specifically for men at-tending
Junior Colleges.
The MARCAD program consists
of eighteen mtxiths of intensive
that flourish best In sand under the
onslaught of heavy winds and salt
spray.
The college will conduct a sci-entific
study - something the deso-late
Naval Air base hasn't done -
on what to plant, not only for soil
stabilization but for beauty as
well.
' I'm very much interested In the
flight training at Pensacola,Flori- project," President Laffin added,
da. Freshman ai)d Sophomores are fg^j students will get ex-eligible
to apply and if found to be perience doing it and the college
fully qualified, will not be ordered be doing something to help one
to active duty until they have com- ou^ pybUc agencies.
pleted their academic require-ments.
The visiting Marine Officer will
furnish full details on the MARCAD
program during his visit, including
eligibility requirements and how
to Initiate an apidlcition. He will
be located In th Tech. Building
from 9:30 to 2:30.
ATTENTION: All newly
elected officers of clubs.
Be sure to attend the Third
Annual Leadership Training
Program - Knopp Hall,
7:00, April 3 and April 10.
A Brief History Of Our ScAoof
This month Is our school's 50th anniversary. SUATI has made
considerate advancements during these fifty years. It is our ob-jective
to give you an inside glimpse of the progress made during
this time. The following Is a brief history of the beginning of our
school.
The idea of an agricultural school for Long Island simmered in
the minds of many people, rural and otherwise for a long time. Fi-nally
Dr. Franklin W. Hooper, Director of the Institute of Arts and
Scirace, Brooklyn. New York, stimulated certain eminent residents
of the Island to press for legislative action. Resulting from this ef-fort
was the Harte - Thompson Act of 1912, which provided for the
establishing of the N. Y. State School of Agriculture, later known
as the State Institute of Applied Agriculture and still later The State
Institute of Agriculture until 1946 when it was given its present
name - The Long Island Agricultural and Technical Institute. The
original purposes of the Institute were to prepare students for ag-ricultural
occiq>ations and to advise farmers and people in related
enterprises with regard to their problems.
After a board of trustees was appointed, a site on the Nassau -
Suffolk County line consisting of the R. S. Mott farm and three smal -
er farms was agreed upon and purchased by the State. Small additions
since have brou^t the holding to about 350 acres. The first Director
(1912-1923), Mr. Albert A. Johnson from Milwaukee, did much of
the early planning and developing of the Institute. Extension service
activities were underway even before students were admitted. Though
buildings were not completed, the Institute accepted its first group
of students, about 60 in number, in March, 1916. Enrollment, though
fluctuating, has generally increased until reaching its present Qan-uary
1947) figure of 679.
Mr. Johnson resigned the Directorship early in 1923, shortly be-fore
the passage of the Antin BUI whereby the school came imder the
jurisdiction of the State Board of Regents and the Commissioner
of Education. In the fall of 1923, the Directorship was tendered to
Mr. Halsey B. Kni^, who had previously organized and developed
the N. Y. State School of Agriculture at Cobleskill. N. Y. Increas-ing
public endorsenient and more or less-constant expansion in kinds
and amounts of services have come through the years. Concurrently,
the physical plant has been enlarged by the addition of a large dor-mitory,
several classroom and laboratory buildings, bams, and green-houses.
A seven-hundred fifty acre farm was acquired in the Hudson
Valley, near Beacon, in 1942. In accordance with the Institute's phi-losophy
of "learning by doing", large scale farming operations and
practices not suited to Long Island conditions are conducted there
as part of the student training program.
In 1946 a large building in the village of Farmingdale, formerly
known as the Nazareth Trade School, was leased as temporary quar-ters
for a new Industrial-Technical Division. In prospect are plans
for several new buildings and services for the established Agricul-tural
and Horticultural Campus. Negotiations have been completed
for purchasing a farm adjacent to the present Campus as a permanent
site for new buildings of the Industrial-Technical Division.
In its early years, the school offered regular four year courses
and some storter training programs in Agriculture. The regular
courses reduced to three years in 1920, and again to two years in
1935, consisted of general information for beginners and areas of
specialization including animal husbandry, fruit growing, poultry
husbandry, v^etable production, dairying and rural engineering for
upper classmen. A program in i»«par8tk>n, processing and mer-chandising
of frozen foods and tocker plant management Is now being
organized. A division of Ornamental Horticulture offering special-ized
training in floriculture, nursery, & landscaping has been in op-eration
since 1937. Among the many special courses given during
the years, the Teacher Training Program from 1924 to 1934, the
Women's Land Army Training programs in both World Wars and the
War Industries Training Programs of World War II were most out-standing.
In addition to the Instructional programs for students, a
larger clientele - the rural people of the Hudson Valley and Long
Island - has been served not only by the Institute's regiilar exten-sion
work, but also by virtue of its evening courses, its Country Life
Program, the Poultry Disease Laboratory, and the New York State
Egg Laying Test maintained on Its grounds.
The establii^ment of the Industrial-Technical Division doubled en-rollment
in 1946. and will give the Institute over 1,000 students when
die two year technical program is in full operation in the fall of 1947.
The long time plan anticipates a total full time enrollment in all
programs of 1500 - 2000 with a like number in part time Adult Ed-ucation
Courses. All full time courses require graduation from high
school. Courses in Building Construction, Aircraft Maintenance and
Operation, Radk) Electronics, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning,
Mechanical Design, Industrial Chemistry and Dental Hygiene, are
given in the Industrial-Technical Division. Others are to be added
in accordance with local interests and needs. The Industrial Tech
Building was opened in the fall of 1952.
The Institute has made a strong effort to fill the educational needs
of veterans by arranging courses and schedules to fit individual re-quirements.
On this basis, one hundred forty veterans completed
their training in the Agricultural Division prwr to January. 1947.
The present enrollment of the Agricultural Division is three hun-dred
thirty-five, of which two hundred fifty are veterans. Of the
Industrial-Technical Division's enrollment of three hundred fony-four,
two hundred sixty-three served in the Armed Forces.
In addition to the original purposes, the present expanded role of
the Institute in the overall educational picture is to help people to
earn a living and to live more effectively in a changing and increas-ingly
complex society.