1856

May 8. The board elected J.B. Glenn president of the trustees of East Alabama Male College.

December 10. The board appointed an agent at an annual salary of $1500 to collect subscriptions for the college and resolved to pay the president of the faculty a salary of $2250 and the professors $1500 each.

1857

August 13. The board elected persons to fill chairs of mathematics, ancient languages, natural history, and English literature. They also elected William A. Smith of Virginia president of the faculty.

November 4. Smith responded to the call, but did not accept it. Some of those offered professorships accepted, but some did not.

1858

November 3. The board elected W.A. Sasnet president of the faculty. They also raised the salary of the college agent to $2500, an amount equivalent to the faculty president.

1859

July 14. The board created a committee to petition the legislature to change the college charter so that future trustees should be selected by the Alabama Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. They also changed the by-laws so that the president of the faculty could be an ex-officio member of the board of trustees.

October 4. The board appointed Professor J.W. Glenn treasurer of the faculty. His duties included distributing pro-rata among the faculty funds received from tuition.

1860

July 9. At this point, the legislature had approved the previous request regarding appointment of trustees.

1861

July 8. The board resolved to confer the degree of A.B. on eight candidates. They further resolved that tuition collected for previous years be paid to faculty members who had salary balances due for that year.

1865

July 13. The executive committee reported that Mrs. Battle had proposed to pay her subscription in Confederate money.

November 8. The board resolved to give three professors certificates of indebtedness to be paid from interest on the endowment fund "when...collected."

1866

March 20. The board charged the auditing committee with preparation of a report classifying college assets as "good," "bad," or "doubtful."

May 15. The board resolved to furnish each minister in the Montgomery Conference with the names those in their vicinity who are in debt to the college.

1868

July 6. The board appointed a committee to propose a plan for eliminating the college debt. They reckoned that at least $10,000 would be needed for that purpose.

July 7. The committee charged on July 6 presented its report. First, they recommended that each citizen of Auburn make some donation, "according to ability." Second, they assessed each district in the Montgomery Conference a specific amount, with the provision that every minister could keep ten percent of the funds he raised. Third, they recommended preparation of a circular letter "full of facts" and "eloquent with earnestness."

December 22. The trustees have been unable to fill the vacant chair of mathematics. For this and other reasons, the past year has been less successful than they had hoped it would be.

1869

July 13. The board resolved to admit women as regular students. President J.T. Dowdell had submitted his resignation and the board appointed a committee to investigate the expediency of accepting or rejecting it.

July 14. The board elected Dowdell president of the faculty for the coming year.

1870

April 28. The board resolved that the academic year consist of two terms of twenty weeks each, ending the last Wednesday in June.

July 12. The board adopted a committee report that had recommended the following: abolition of the faculty presidency; empowerment of the faculty as a board to govern the college; and distribution of tuition income to the faculty. Under this arrangement, the faculty consisted of one professor in each of the following four areas: moral science and belle lettres, languages, mathematics, and chemistry and natural history.

July 13. J.B. Glenn, who served as president of the board for fifteen years, died on August 9, 1869.

1871

June 26. The faculty reported to the board that their governance of the college had not been as successful as they had anticipated. After expenses, their salaries for the year's labor would be no more than $800 each. Furthermore, the college edifice had been seriously damaged as a result of the leaky roof. They urged the trustees to consolidate their strength, by which they intended a combination with another Methodist college in the Alabama Conference.

June 27. The board discussed turning over the college property to the Alabama Conference.

June 28. The board appointed a deputation to visit with officials of Southern University at Greensboro to discuss unifying the educational interests of the Alabama Conference.

October 12. The board discussed a resolution which would have given the college property to the state for establishment of an agricultural and mechanical college.

December 9. The board resolved to turn the college property over to the state for the purpose of establishing an agricultural and mechanical college.

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