of Oklahoma members.
== History ==
SWOSU was first established through an act of the Oklahoma Territorial Legislature in 1901 as "Southwestern Normal School", although no classes were held until 1903. Several towns fought a court battle to become the home of the new school, but Weatherford won the battle. The normal school included both a two-year degree program for teacher education and a preparatory school. In 1920, the preparatory part of the school closed and a four-year baccalaureate degree program replaced it. The first bachelor's degrees by the renamed "Southwestern State Teachers College" were awarded in the spring of 1921.
The Great Depression brought several attempts to close the school for financial reasons. It had to remove several presidents to survive politically. But it did survive. In 1939, the school added a vocational training curriculum to its teacher-training mission.
The school underwent significant expansion during World War II, adding additional programs in the arts and sciences as …
