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November 2, 1964. You are seven weeks into your first quarter as an English major at CSU. You’re one of 10, 175 students enrolled at the university. The English department is at home on the third floor of the year-old Liberal Arts building. KCSU-FM student radio launched with a broadcast…

Referring to the 1960s as a tumultuous decade has becoming a cliché, but like all such expressions, it earned its overuse by ringing true. Calling a decade marked by war in southeast Asia, political assassinations at home, and violent responses to the civil rights and antiwar movements “tumultuous” seems an…

English hit the 20-year mark as a standalone department in 1959. It was the year that Gigi won nine Academy Awards, besting Gone With the Wind’s record eight; that Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway, and that Miles Davis released the groundbreaking jazz album Kind…

As Homecoming 2019 arrived on campus in October, the university officially kicked off its 150th birthday celebration. And as English at CSU observes its 80th year as a standalone department, we visit our homes on campus throughout the years. Our first home—of English classes and later the department—was Old Main,…

In spite of CSU President William Morgan’s strong belief in the value of humanistic education and of the renaming of the institution as a university, expanding the school’s emphasis beyond vocational training did not happen immediately. The research function of the university was well underway, increasingly paid for by public…

Ideally, a student who is getting his mathematics, his paleontology, his microbiology and all the other ‘ologies’ can come under the influence of a kindly professor in some area of the liberal arts who can motivate that student to make a larger contribution to society. –William E. Morgan, from Visionary…

The English Department entered its second decade in 1949 amidst the rapid and significant changes of the post-World War II era. Several icons of 20th century popular culture were born that year, including Billy Joel, Meryl Streep, Richard Gere, Jeff Bridges, Bruce Springsteen, and John Belushi. Harry Truman was the…

As we might expect, the World War II era changed life at Colorado State College of Agricultural and Mechanical Arts (CSC). The newly formed English department, however, (excuse the pun) soldiered on. Before the US even entered the war, classes were canceled on October 16, 1940 to allow all men…