Presidents
- Henry A. Tape
- Edgar L. Harden
Campus
- Olson Library
- Hedgcock Fieldhouse
- Remodeled Peter White Hall of Science
- Spooner Hall (first dorm for men)
- Carey Hall
- More married student housing on Summit Street
- Faculty apartments on Center Street
- First Lincoln Street apartments
Student Life
- Northern College News becomes Northern News.
- The Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame is established.
Events and speakers: Eleanor Roosevelt, Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Actor Charles Laughton, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur and the Harlem Globetrotters (who return often).
Staff of the Northern News
The 1950s are sometimes referred to as the Golden Age. Color TV was invented, the polio vaccine was discovered, Disneyland opened in California, and Elvis Presley gyrated his hips on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
The Cold War continued as the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union heated up. The 1950s also saw segregation ruled illegal in the U.S. and the beginning of the civil rights movement. movement.
Enrollment is very low at many state schools in the early 1950s, with only 21 students in the Northern Michigan College of Education June graduating class of 1955.
After Harden is selected as president, the campus starts to greatly expand from its original footprint in the latter part of the decade. “Why, that man thinks we will have 4,000 students here some day!” —Luther O. Gant. Enrollment in 1955 is 888; in 1964 - 4,200; 1967 - 7,085.
The Common Learning Program starts in 1962 (also known as the Four-Course Plan) “to provide each student with basic learning skills, to awaken his intellectual curiosity and develop his concern for contemporary issues, and to help him understand the relationship of man and his environment.” It morphs into the Liberal Studies program in the ’70s and today is the General Education program, which is also undergoing an evolution.
Bowling is popular and The Bowling Club forms at Northern with teams such as the Bums, Oddballs and Five Kegs. In 1966 when the University Center expands, bowling lanes are added and enjoyed until a renovation in the 1990s.
“…higher education should be accessible to all who have sufficient mental, physical, and moral competence to profit from an opportunity to attend college.”
—Edgar Harden, NMC Bulletin, Educational Aims and Objectives for Northern Michigan College, 1957-58
"Anatomy of a Murder," a book written by John Voelker ’24 under the penname Robert Traver, is made into an Academy-Award nominated movie filmed in Marquette County in 1958.
Student body president Robert Bordeau organizes a dance at Lee Hall Ballroom so that Director Otto Preminger can pick couples to be included in the bar scenes at Mount Shasta Lodge in Michigamme, as Duke Ellington plays the piano. Students cut classes to get a glimpse of James Stewart, Lee Remick and other stars.
A few who land visible roles are Dr. Stan Moody of the Speech Department as a bartender and Dick Caron, who grows a beard to be more noticeable, in various courtroom scenes. President Harden presents Eve Arden, one of the stars, a certificate as an honorary faculty member for her portrayal as a teacher in "Our Miss Brooks."
