Scroll down to access recordings of SDSU alumni events, or click the name of the event. All events were recorded on audio cassette.
- Old Campus/Normal School Reunion, Homecoming 1978
- Old Campus/Normal School Reunion, Homecoming 1979
- Old Campus/Normal School Reunion, Homecoming 1980
- SDSU 90th Anniversary Celebration, 1987
- Campus Lab School Reunion and Farewell Party, 1991
Image credit: George Sorenson gives opening remarks at the Campus Lab School Reunion Party, 1991. University Archives Photograph Collection, Special Collections & University Archives.
Old Campus/Normal School Reunion, Homecoming 1978:
Download the PDF transcripts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.
On Saturday, November 4, 1978, at Montezuma Hall during SDSU's Homecoming Week, the campus held a reunion for "Old Campus" students: individuals who attended San Diego State prior to 1931, when the campus was still on Normal Street and went by the name San Diego Normal School or San Diego State Teacher's College. Alumni in attendance included Isabel Hammack, who graduated in 1910 and shared her memories of the Normal School days. (A transcript of her talk is included in Part 1 of the PDF transcript.)
Speakers at the event (captured in Parts 1 and 2 of this recording) included Fred Ausenberg, Ruth Verney Held, Guy Fox, Sue Earnest, and John Adams.
Short oral histories (captured in Part 3 of this recording) were conducted with the following individuals: Margaret Giles Correll, Marcella Clatsinger, Alfred E. O'Day, Pauline Barr White, Christopher Harris, Woodrow Tighe, Coretta Hancock, Hazel Miner Peet, Ruth Bickerton McNiter, George Merian, Marie Culbertson, Florence Murray Carroll, Ruth Elizabeth Dibble Beaujais, Marcia Helen Genet Menville, and Ray Genet.
Old Campus/Normal School Reunion, Homecoming 1979:
During SDSU's Homecoming Week 1979, the campus held another reunion for "Old Campus" students: individuals who attended San Diego State prior to 1931, when the campus was still on Normal Street and went by the name San Diego Normal School or San Diego State Teacher's College. Noted alumnus Art Linkletter was one of the speakers at this event.
Old Campus/Normal School Reunion, Homecoming 1980:
On November 1, 1980 at the Aztec Center, during SDSU's Homecoming Week, the campus held a reunion for "Old Campus" students: individuals who attended San Diego State prior to 1931, when the campus was still on Normal Street and went by the name San Diego Normal School or San Diego State Teacher's College.
The invocation was performed by Father William F. Copeland and opening remarks delivered by President Thomas B. Day. Speakers at the event included Richard Barbour, Hamilton Marston, Sue Earnest, and Charles Cannon.
A scan of the program cover can be seen in the images section below.
SDSU 90th Anniversary Celebration, 1987:
San Diego State University held an event celebrating its 90th anniversary on March 13, 1987. Speakers included President Thomas Day, Rudy Cervantes representing Mayor O'Connor's office, and Alumni President Dave DeVol. The event also featured a cake-cutting ceremony featuring alums Helen Hull and Saraellen Wueste, both of whom graduated in 1922.
For photographs of this event, check the images section below.
Campus Lab School Reunion and Farewell Party, 1991:
Initially named the Training School, the Campus Laboratory School (or Campus Lab School) was established in 1900, and located on the State Normal School campus. The school provided instruction for elementary, middle, and high school students in small classes where they could receive more individualized instruction. Besides serving as a grammar school, the Training School allowed Normal School students the opportunity to instruct the students themselves, thus providing practice and teaching experience. When Edward Hardy began his term as president in 1910, he discontinued the high school segment of the Training School because increasing enrollment (by 1910 the Training School had over four hundred students) was causing space problems. To accommodate the growth in enrollment the school moved into a separate building.
When the college moved to Montezuma Mesa in 1931, the Training School maintained its own separate building on the new campus as part of the science complex. This new facility featured classrooms, a library, and a playground. In 1936, the school set up a Child Study Laboratory for Home Economics students to earn credit towards their degrees. In 1953, during a period of campus expansion, the Campus Lab School again relocated to a new building, and officially changed its name to the Campus Laboratory School. Several years later, because of an influx of students in the School of Education, the Campus Lab School transitioned from its original purpose as a "practice" school to an observation and research center. Although students in the teacher program were still able to student teach at the school, the majority of students observed classes and instructional techniques at the school, and received their student teaching experience at other San Diego public schools.
Despite this shift in function, the school remained extremely popular, and had a long waitlist by 1960. In addition, the school's curriculum was innovative and on the cutting-edge of educational techniques, child development, and teaching training. The school experimented with individualized curriculum, a non-graded organizational structure, team teaching, self-directed learning, creative teaching, bilingual programs, and programs for special needs and gifted students, all of which propelled the Campus Lab School and San Diego State's teaching program to national recognition. In 1970, state budget cuts forced the closure of the Campus Lab School. The old Campus Lab site was razed in 1991.
Download the PDF transcript.
On February 24, 1991, the campus held a reunion for all faculty, students, administrators who had anything to do with the Campus Lab School. This event also gave all those involved a chance to bid a final farewell to the CLS building (built in 1952), which was razed in March 1991. Speakers included George Sorenson, Andrew Olson, Fred Schrupp, Bill Emery, Artha Barbour, Thor Carlson, James Retson, Ann Morey, Eileen Birch, John Dirks, Peggy Cliff, Jean Bruce, and Jay Hunter.
Note: Special Collections also houses the Campus Laboratory School records.
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Phone: 619.594.6791
Email: askscua@sdsu.edu
