Macalester College history

With additional funding from the Presbyterian Church and its trustees, Macalester College opened for courses in 1885 with five teachers, six freshmen, and 52 preparatory students.

James Wallace joined the faculty in 1887 and later became president.

By the time he rejoined the faculty in 1906, Wallace had enabled the college to pay off its debt, maintain a balanced budget, and begin to establish an endowment to offer some protection against hard times.

Catharine Deaver Lealtad became Macalester’s first African American graduate in 1915; as a physician she spent a long career treating children affected by poverty, war, and famine around the world.

Until shortly before his death in 1939, James Wallace taught religion, Greek, and political science.

As a symbol of commitment to international harmony, he raised the United Nations flag on campus in 1950, and it has flown every day since then, just below the United States flag.

The first came in 1960, when the Macalester Board of Trustees voted to eliminate the requirement that two-thirds of their members be practicing Presbyterians.

IN SEPTEMBER 1967, Lucius Garvin, Macalester’s vice president for academic affairs, opened the academic year with a stirring convocation lecture highlighting the great strides made by the college.

In 1968, in response to student activism, Macalester embarked on an ambitious plan to expand the educational opportunities of disadvantaged students previously underrepresented at Macalester.

The second came in 1969, when the college dedicated a new chapel, the first building on campus devoted fully to religious work.

When significant cuts to the program were announced in 1974, student protesters occupied the business office for 12 days, winning a short-lived compromise.

A comprehensive fund-raising campaign completed in 2000 raised $55.3 million to help support some of those building projects as well as scholarship funds, student-faculty research stipends, academic programs, and annual operations.

In 2008 Macalester publicly launched a $150 million campaign.

By the campaign’s conclusion in December 2011, the college had surpassed that goal by raising over $156 million.

In 2012, Macalester opened its renovated and expanded Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center.