"The Winning Personality": President Harvey Schofield, the Eau Claire State Teachers College, and the Great Depression

Abstract

During the Great Depression, funding for all government supported programs decreased, but perhaps none was more affected by the stock market crash than education, particularly higher education. Colleges and universities across the nation struggled to keep their heads above water in the midst of the vast financial crisis. However, teachers colleges fought especially hard to stay afloat. Catering to the least wealthy sectors of society, these schools and the degrees they granted were the only chance that working- and lower-middle-class children had to get a job during the financial havoc of the Depression, whether they planned on becoming teachers or not. President Harvey Schofield of the Eau Claire State Teachers College understood this. He knew the sacrifices his students? families were making for their education, having grown up on a farm and worked his way up the educational ladder. At once a warmhearted and obstinate man, his dynamic character navigated his unusually embattled school through the toughest time in its history. During the Great Depression, President Harvey Schofield realized that the Eau Claire State Teachers College and its students both depended on one another for survival; and using every tool at his disposal?including his statewide reputation as an educator, money out of his own pocket, and, most importantly, his powerful personality?he ensured the longevity of his school into the present day.