In 1893, Governor
William J. McConnell signed an act on January 27 authorizing the establishment of the
Lewiston State Normal School in Lewiston, "provided the mayor and common council of that city on or before May 1, 1893, donate ten acres, within the city limits and known as part of the city park, and authorizing the said mayor and council to convey to the trustees of said normal school the said tract of land," etc. The first Trustees on the school's Board were
James W. Reid (who had done the most to shepherd the authorization bill through the
Idaho Legislature),
Norman B. Willey (who had just stepped down as Idaho governor), Benjamin Wilson (a previous gubernatorial candidate), J. Morris Howe, and C. W. Schaff. Reid was elected President of the Board, a position he held until his death in 1902. Lewiston residents lost no time in obtaining the required space for the school. However, the legislature acted slowly in providing construction funds, and then construction lagged. George E. Knepper In keeping with the
normal school philosophy, Lewiston Normal focused on practical, hands-on training for new teachers. That meant the school provided a great deal of “manual training”—what is now called
vocational education. Also, to insure that teachers truly knew how to handle a classroom, the school ran an on-campus training school. In it, real teachers taught real pupils, and student teachers also learned-by-doing under the supervision of experienced teacher-critics. Until the 1920s,
one-room schools served well over half of Idaho's primary students. In most, only the teacher knew anything at all about running a school. Thus, “teachers assumed responsibility for shaping a district's entire educational policy.” later determined to be
arson by a student. Now with the ability to grant a
Bachelor of Education degree, school leaders took it upon themselves to use the name
Northern Idaho College of Education (NICE), and the legislature approved the name change in 1947. The school got another temporary reprieve from the cost-cutters when a deluge of veterans funded by the
G.I. Bill hit the campus after the war. However, that wave passed, and in 1951 budget hawks succeeded in closing the school, as well as its counterpart, the
Southern Idaho College of Education (SICE), which had previously been called
Albion State Normal School, in
Albion in southern Idaho. The state's other colleges had assured legislators that they could supply all the teachers needed. That promise proved disastrously wrong: In just three years, the state found itself issuing nearly 40% more provisional teaching certificates than it had in 1951. as a two-year school under the administration of the
University of Idaho, north in
Moscow. The first dean of the school was appointed for the third year in 1957, and enrollment was 319 in the fall of 1961. The arrangement with the university proved difficult and it ended abruptly in 1963 when the affiliation seemed like it might damage the university's academic accreditation. The ongoing need for teachers, a developing shortage of nurses, and a new push for vocational education from the
federal government combined to rescue the school from oblivion. The state legislature voted to elevate it to four-year status in 1963 but did not approve funding until two years later. Enrollment of the now-independent, four-year school grew, from 465 in 1964 to 1,033 in the fall of 1968. It continued to grow and in July 1971 the name was officially changed to
Lewis-Clark State College, and was the last normal school in the country to make the change. == Athletics ==