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

During the spring of 1958, SIU explored land options in Madison and St. Clair Counties.10 On 31 October 1958, the Board agreed to accept monetary contributions raised by SWICHE toward the purchase of land for a second SIU campus in the Metro East.11 See served as the coordinator of a very successful fund raising effort.12 On 19 January 1959, the university purchased the first parcel of land for another campus near Edwardsville in Madison County.13 See received promotion to vice president of the Southwestern Illinois campus on 1 April 1959, and subsequently moved his office to a house on the Edwardsville property on 18 December 1959.14

Thanks to an alliance with Chicago interests, legislators from southern Illinois managed to place a bond issue to support public universities on the November 1960 statewide ballot. This arrangement allocated funds for the construction of new campuses for the University of Illinois in Chicago and for SIU in Edwardsville.15 The university staged its first Edwardsville commencement on 14 June 1960 to celebrate this legislative achievement. Governor William G. Stratton, the commencement speaker, promised to campaign vigorously in favor of the Universities Bond Issue (UBI).16

The Board of Trustees on 15 June 1960 selected the St. Louis architectural firm of Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum (HOK) to prepare an Edwardsville campus master plan.17 Harold see continued to administer the Southwestern Illinois campus activities, directed the fundraising effort, collaborated with President Morris and Gyo Obata of HOK on the Edwardsville campus plan, and managed the publicity effort in support of the bond issue as well. See arranged for a UBI rally event on campus on 3 October 1960. and for the participation of residence center students in a multi-school torch marathon run to Chicago over 2-5 November.18 With strong support from Cook, Madison, and St. Clair county voters, the Universities Bond Issue won approval on 8 November.19 Despite the bond issue victory and the admiration accorded See by local notables and newspapermen, not everyone in Southwestern Illinois favored the expansion of SIU. Some Madison County landowners did not wish to sell their property to the university. Others feared the onslaught of urbanization and the prospect of zoning in unincorporated areas. In addition, a reporter from a Chicago daily paper repeatedly accused Delyte Morris of squandering taxpayer money while enhancing the Carbondale facilities and establishing the Edwardsville campus.20 On 6 April 1961. Morris appeared before a session of the legislature's state higher education visitation commission to refute and defuse such allegations.21

See's initiative, successes, and local popularity had seriously undermined his working relationship with Morris. In terms of educational philosophy, See advocated a distinct instructional program for Edwardsville geared to the needs and aspirations of an emerging metropolitan region. Morris, however, favored a common curriculum for both locations.22 Perhaps more significantly, on a personal level, Morris did not care to share his leadership role. The prominence that See had attained likely did not please Morris. The president may have resented the fact that people in Southwestern Illinois often saw Harold See as the symbol of SIU rather than Delyte Morris.