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Indiana University first offered extension classes in South Bend in 1922, but for many years the classes were few and scattered. South Bend and Mishawaka were industrial cities where most young men went directly into factory jobs while young women took clerical positions or settled early into family responsibilities. Higher education was chiefly for the children of parents who could afford the expense of tuition and campus housing. The two colleges just beyond the city limits accepted few students from the local community.
Indiana University opened an extension center in South Bend in 1933, a part-time office in the school administration building. Lynton Keith Caldwell, then a graduate student at the University of Chicago, was named as the first full-time director in 1940, with the title of "executive secretary." Classes were offered in the evening at Central High School, taught chiefly by local high school teachers for an enrollment of about 500. Dr. Donald F. Carmony, a young historian from central Indiana, became director of the extension center in 1944 and guided it through a postwar enrollment boom which crowded the Central classrooms well into the night. University officials believed that the extension center should offer only freshman and sophomore classes, with students transferring to Bloomington to complete their degrees. Local students argued that financial and family circumstances made this impossible, and asked for degree programs to be offered in South Bend. By 1950, when Dr. Jack J. Detzler, a native of South Bend, became director, there were 1100 credit students and an active program of non-credit classes as well.
Local civic leaders aided the university in buying six acres of land along the St. Joseph River, and in 1958 construction began on the South Bend-Mishawaka Center. Northside Hall opened in 1961, already too small for the needs of its 1500 students. The 1960s brought rapid growth in programs, faculty and facilities, as well as enrollment. The University finally recognized the need for four-year degree programs at what were now called "regional campuses," and in 1967 the first class of 23 students was graduated at ceremonies in the elegant campus auditorium. For 23 year beginning in 1964, Indiana University at South Bend was guided by Dr. Lester M. Wolfson, first as dean and director and then with the more appropriate title of chancellor. By the time of his retirement in 1987 the campus had grown to 40 acres and six major buildings, with the long-awaited Franklin D. Schurz Library under construction. A resident faculty of 150, along with an adjunct faculty of about the same number, now teacher 6,000 students in 75 majors, awarding annually more than 700 associates', bachelors' and masters' degrees. Cultural and intellectual offerings for the residents of north central Indiana, Indiana University at South Bend has become the leading institution of higher education.
- By Dr. Patrick Furlong, IUSB Professor of History Emeritus
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