From Aesthetic Integration to Applying Art: Arnold H. Maremont, the EPEC seminar, and the Planning of SIU Edwardsville

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Spring 2004 by Kerber, Stephen

On 17 April 1961, President Delyte Morris of Southern Illinois University (SIU) appeared before a press conference at the Broadview Hotel in East St. Louis, Illinois. Morris announced that a "new dimension" had been added to the ongoing planning process for the embryonic Edwardsville campus of the university. The nature of that "new dimension" would be determined at a seminar to be held in East St. Louis on the first weekend in June. Morris then introduced to the assembled media representatives a man whose influence upon the development of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in the 1960s has never before been carefully examined.1

Arnold Harold Maremont, a wealthy Chicago industrialist and art collector, stepped to the podium and explained that a major planning exercise, called "Environmental Planning/Edwardsville Campus" (EPEC)," would be staged on 2-4 June in an air-inflated dome temporarily situated on a nearby parking lot. Participants in the opening seminar on Friday, 2 June, would include distinguished authorities from many disciplines. These guest speakers, some in person and some recorded on motion picture film, would discuss issues related to a challenging concept of "aesthetic integration" of the arts in the creation of a modern university campus.2

In addition to the 2 June seminar, Maremont stated that EPEC would include a public exhibition entitled "Manscape." This related exhibition on 3-4 June would involve the use of "film projectors set up in a conning tower arrangement permitting simultaneous projection of multiple images on the inside walls" of a dome and synchronized tape-recorded commentary on the images. Manscape would present a "continually changing record of man's attempts to organize his environment." The activities would be financed through two private sources: $20,000 from a $50,000 planning grant previously made to SIU by the Ford Foundation plus an additional $15,000 grant from the Kate Maremont Foundation. Maremont expressed the hope that the results of EPEC might mean "an enduring monument to aesthetic vision in the planning of an educational environment."3

Delyte Wesley Morris assumed the presidency of Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, in 1948, and directed that institution during a time of tremendous enrollment growth and physical plant expansion. Perhaps partly because of his great success in enlarging SIU, Morris evolved into a rather authoritarian leader with limited tolerance for dissenting views within the university. He came to enjoy his prominence and his power. By expanding the university campus, its programs, and its services, Morris sought to improve not just the educational, but also the economic and cultural opportunities available to the residents of the poorest region of the state. Morris also frequently evidenced a fondness for grandiose schemes and visions. Arnold Maremont's idea for a path-breaking campus planning conference featuring many prestigious participants strongly appealed to Morris's crusading spirit and to his appetite for bold gestures.

The saga of the origins and consequences of the EPEC seminar illustrates how politics, personal wealth, and individual aesthetic prejudices can profoundly influence public officers and public institutions. It also reveals how easy it can be for even well-educated people to delude themselves as well as others about their true motivations and how difficult it may be to foresee accurately the implications of their decisions.

The events that had led up to the EPEC news conference actually began back in 1949, when the SIU Board of Trustees authorized the establishment of a "residence center" in Belleville to provide area school teachers and administrators with continuing education opportunities.4 In 1955, SIU Dean of Extension Raymond Dey assigned a recently-hired faculty member named Harold W. See to become the first on-site coordinator of what had previously amounted to a minimal series of course offerings.5 See had received his doctorate in higher education administration from Indiana University in 1950. He had held positions with Evansville (Indiana) College and the University of Cincinnati, and had also served as a Fulbright lecturer in Burma.6

When See arrived in the Metro East area of Southwestern Illinois, he discovered immediately that many prominent residents badly desired to see a public institution of higher learning established in their vicinity. See promptly made contacts and established friendships through the region. He provided information and advice to the local activists and these individuals banded together as the Southwestern Illinois Council for Higher Education (SWICHE). See brought the SWICHE leadership together with Delyte Morris. He convinced Morris of the tremendous unmet demand for higher education in Southwestern Illinois and of the potential advantages of an alliance between SWICHE (influential representatives of the state's second-largest metropolitan area) and SIU.7 In 1957, the university designated See as executive dean and opened two major additional residence centers in Alton and in East St. Louis with greatly expanded course offerings.8 Enrollment at the residence centers increased at a remarkable rate each successive term.9