enrollment over the years 2017
6,742 Students in front of Stroud Hall in 1898 for what is likely a field day event. Photo from Pride and Promise, A Centennial History of East Stroudsburg University.
1997
5,527
1994
4,023
It was U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal that spurred the biggest building expansion since the campus’s opening. The ZimbarLiljenstein Gymnasium – named for professors Genevieve Zimbar and Oscar Liljenstein – was built in 1940 as one of four projects on campus sponsored by the federal Public Works Administration. The others were the buildings that house Monroe Hall, DeNike Center and the Center for Hospitality Management.
1960
1,428
The quality of the faculty continued to improve as a uniform pay scale was instituted in 1926, which established raises for professors with advanced degrees. The Depression had spurred a 10 percent pay cut but salaries recovered in 1952 when a state law established faculty rank. By 1936, all but one member of the faculty had a master’s degree or doctorate.
1943
218
8 the alumni herald
In keeping with the times, women had to be in their dorms by 10 p.m. every night but Saturday, when they could stay out until 11:30 p.m., according to “Pride and Promise.” Men, on the other hand, could stay out until any hour as long as they didn’t get into trouble. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, many male students enlisted and the remaining students of both sexes helped out with the war effort, selling war bonds, collecting scrap metal and sending letters and care packages to the troops. Enrollment shrank from 468 in 1941-1942 to 212 in 1943-1944 and several sports seasons were canceled. By 1944, for the first time in the college’s history, all four senior class officers and the president of the Student Senate were women.
When the war ended in 1945, enrollments climbed, thanks in no small part to the GI Bill. That sparked shortages of housing and classroom space and the college started holding Saturday classes. Expansion and construction in the 1950s tried to keep up with the growing enrollment but overflowing dorms meant some students lived in old hotels nearby. In 1955, the Indian Queen hotel on Main Street became the rooming house of about 60 women students. Numbers would continue to rise as baby boomers reached college age. From 1959 to 1968, the college added nine buildings and from 1960 to 1967, faculty nearly doubled from 71 to 137 under President Koehler. In 1960, the word “Teachers” was deleted from the official names of all Pennsylvania’s state colleges, in recognition of the broadening mission and curriculum. Soon after, East Stroudsburg expanded its degree offerings, gradually moving from primarily a teacher training institution to a liberal arts college. That was key to giving students a tremendous variety of career paths and professions from which to choose, according to current ESU President Marcia G. Welsh, Ph.D. In 1962, the college started offering graduate courses leading to master’s degrees in biology, general science, and health and physical education. In 1964, the Graduate School was created with Eugene Stish as full-time director.
