Scholars at the Starting Line Then and Now Glenn Kendall Charles Merrill- Osenbaugh Border Lines		When Charles Merrill Osenbaugh was appointed the seventh president of Chico Normal School on July 5, 1918, the United States was engaged in World War I, California had only eight Normal Schools, and the campus at Chico had just ninety-one graduating students. Throughout his tenure, Osenbaugh devoted himself to building and strengthening the teachers college at Chico. He regularly visited classrooms to listen to the lessons and visit with students and teachers alike. Osenbaugh earned a reputation, on and off campus, for his devotion to promoting the dignity and integrity of the teaching profession. President Osenbaugh also worked hard to increase attendance. Chico Normal School launched an innovative advertising campaign that included articles in local newspapers describing "the Normal, its activities, and its new opportunities." Osenbaugh and selected faculty visited high schools in Northern California. He also instituted "Senior High School Day" in 1919 to encourage enrollment in Chico Normal. ("Senior Day" eventually became "Pioneer Days.") In another innovative effort to attract new students, Osenbaugh invited the general public to attend classes. He opened a child development laboratory to local townswomen and personally invited over twenty young local businessmen to attend gym classes so the "Normalites" would have new opponents and to foster town-gown relations. Once these visitors were here, he reasoned, they would want to enroll officially. His strategy worked; in February 1921, forty-eight new students entered Chico Normal, the largest mid­year enrollment in the school's history. That year's graduating class was eighty-one, five more than in 1920. In fall 1921, the school was officially reclassified and renamed Chico State Teachers College. By 1930, Osenbaugh's last year as president, Chico's graduating class was 160. Chico State's first summer sessions at the Mount Shasta Open Air Summer School began under Osenbaugh's direction, and the campus continued to grow, including the completion of the new Industrial Arts building in 1921 (Colusa Hall, now the oldest building on campus), a dietetics kitchen, and a new well and pump. In 1926 the state legislature appropriated $25,000 to buy Bidwell Mansion and fourteen acres. The mansion, called Bidwell Hall, became the women's dormitory. President Osenbaugh's greatest challenge began on the morning of August 13, 1927, the day after the entire main building and nearly all the official records were destroyed by fire. Only a brick shell remained, and the future of the college was in jeopardy. Since only a few minor buildings remained, there was much concern that the legislature would decide not to fund the rebuilding of the campus. Osenbaugh acted immediately, determined to convince the legislature of the necessity of rebuilding Chico State. Just days after the fire, he was in Sacramento lobbying hard to save the college. Not only did President Osenbaugh convince the legislature to rebuild Chico State, he persuaded them to allocate additional funding for expansion. After the initial $230,000 to replace the administration building (now Kendall Hall), the legislature appropriated $228,793 for an auditorium (Laxson) and soon thereafter another $124,000 for an adjoining arts building (Ayres Hall). "It was a very crucial point in Chico State's history," said Ted Meriam, whose family lived next door to the Osenbaughs. (Meriam Library was later named after Ted Meriam and his father, a professor of psychology from 1902 to 1934.) "He showed his leadership very strongly after the fire.... He rescued [Chico State]." Charles M. Osenbaugh died of acute lymphatic leukemia in November 1930. Despite his illness, he worked tirelessly for Chico State until a month before his death. Casey Huff, Publications Office; research assistance by Kim Benbow, editorial intern (B.A., English, '97)
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