Few people know more about the history of SUNY-ESF than Hugh Canham.

Canham knows how the college came to be on Syracuse University’s property and why the name changed three times. He knows when every building was erected, the school’s long-standing traditions and exactly how many female undergraduate students were enrolled before 1950.

But most of all, Canham knows how the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry has evolved during the last 100 years. He knows all of this because his familiarity of the college goes back to 1955, when he visited the campus with his high school physics teacher.

Half a century after his graduation and nine years after his retirement, the emeritus professor remains knowledgeable about the school’s current climate and plays a major role in informing students about its history.

‘I think we can only understand the present by looking at history,’ he said. ‘You can only understand why this college is what it is by understanding the history.’

How it all began

During the late 1800s there was a rise in forestry degree programs in Europe, which led to calls for similar programs in the United States, Canham said. Several programs popped up around the country, including those at Yale University and Cornell University in 1898.

The man heading the Cornell program, Bernhard Fernow, started some radical silvicultural practices in the Adirondack Mountains, which upset wealthy landowners enough to call for an end to the program just five years after it began, Canham said.

SU’s chancellor, James Day, always wanted a state supported agriculture and forestry school and added William Bray to the SU faculty to teach a few forestry courses in 1907, Canham said.

Louis Marshall, an influential Syracuse lawyer who knew the legislatures in Albany, convinced them to move the forestry college to SU, effectively stealing the program from rival Cornell, Canham said. Both Bray and Marshall received recognition for their contributions to the school when buildings on the ESF campus were named in their honor.

In 1911, the New York State College of Forestry at SU officially opened with 52 students, two faculty members and a dean. Students met in the basement of Lyman Hall on SU’s campus until Bray Hall was opened in 1916, Canham said.

Canham said the origins of SU caused quite a controversy and nearly prevented the school from getting the forestry program.

The university was formed by Methodists and, up until 1962, SU always had an ordained Methodist minister as chancellor, Canham said. This led to debates within the New York Legislature as to whether or not a state-supported school should even be allowed at a religiously dominated university, Canham said.

Other questions arose about acquiring funding for a forestry building. To put the Legislatures’ minds at ease, SU officials agreed to transfer the appointment power of ESF’s Board of Trustees from the SU chancellor to the New York state governor, Canham said. This way they could ensure that religion would not be a factor in the school’s curriculum.

To this day, ESF is the only unit of SUNY that has its own board of trustees.

Had Louis Marshall not had friends in the Legislature, the forestry program at ESF would never have moved to SU, Canham said.

The school expands

By 1940, enrollment had jumped to 515 students, all of which were men. It wasn’t until the late 1940s that women began earning bachelor’s degrees, Canham said.

Post-World War II, the GI Bill attracted a different type of student to ESF, Canham said. The college saw a spike in graduate enrollment from older war veterans who came back to school for little to no cost. Canham said these students didn’t care to take part in some of the more silly ESF traditions, such as wearing freshmen beanies.

‘We didn’t like to, but we put them on,’ he said.

As enrollment began to pick up, a number of ESF clubs were created. The forestry club was the first student organization, created in 1912, and others followed, including the glee club, called Saegerbund. The forestry students were responsible for bringing the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity to SU, Canham said.

In 1948, the school became a unit of the State University of New York. Twenty-four years later, the name changed once again to State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, as it is known today. The ‘at Syracuse University’ ending was dropped this time, partly because the name was getting too long, Canham said.

During the late 1950’s the school introduced sizable changes to the curriculum. ESF began to move away from teaching forestry as a professional discipline and toward programs that have more of an academic discipline, such as math and English, Canham said. This marked a major turning point for the college, he said.

The college went through further changes in 1978 when officials decided to shift toward upper enrollment, only accepting juniors and seniors, Canham said. ESF hoped the change would foster better relationships with other SUNY units, but acknowledged the error when enrollment plummeted and became a four-year undergraduate program again in 1990, Canham said.

Modern day ESF

Throughout the years, ESF and SU developed a close relationship. Students took basic courses together, had joint commencement ceremonies and, until this year, lived in SU housing together.

Both the ESF and SU administrations are making a real effort to keep students integrated with one another, but during the past few years it has been increasingly difficult, Canham said.

Now ESF teaches its own foundation courses, so ESF students, for the most part, no longer sit next to SU students during their general chemistry and math classes.

Unlike in the past, ESF students have their own clubs and sports teams. And the completion of ESF’s first dormitory, Centennial Hall, creates a greater separation between students, Canham said.

While Canham said the new dorm builds spirit within the ESF community, as well as creates additional space for incoming freshman — SU was running out of room for them — he liked that students from both schools were forced to get to know each other in the past.

Canham said he didn’t mind living in SU housing when he attended ESF in the late 1950s and distinctly recalls the conversations he had with his roommate, who was a pre-theology major at SU.

‘It was a very broadening experience for both of us, and I somehow feel that you don’t get that when everybody you’re living with is a similar major,’ he said.

‘You tend to get upset when you see things change from what they were,’ he continued. ‘The relationship between the college and SU is a very unique part of the students’ experience here — I think it should be. I think that being a part of a large university is a very enriching experience, but at the same time, going to a small college is very nice.’

Claire Dunn, director of communications at ESF, said ESF is the oldest and the largest college in the country that focuses exclusively on environmental science and is striving to become a more permanent player internationally.

Dunn said ESF is extremely proud of its research, international scope and its commitment to continuing to make the college greener than it was in the past. The school will continue to strive for these things during the next 100 years, she said.\

Tivona Renoni, a senior conservation biology major at ESF, said the faculty is what sets the school apart from other environmental colleges.

‘I feel like I’ve learned from some of the best. I think they do a really good job — I love the school.’

But Canham said it was the students that kept him teaching at ESF for 31 years, and it is the students who keep him coming back now.

Said Canham: ‘The students always seemed interested.’

egsawyer@syr.edu 

Published on September 21, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Liz: egsawyer@syr.edu | @3sawyer