Board of Regents was appointed with George W. Lilley acting as the school's first President.
The school started out with a faculty of five, with a student-body largely consisting of children from the surrounding community, who, if they were residents of Washington would have attended tuition-free. The year 1897 saw the first graduating class of seven men and women.
==== The Bryan years ====
Enoch Albert Bryan, appointed July 22, 1893, and serving for 22 years, was the first influential president of WSU and considered by many as the true founder of the university. Bryan previously served as the president of Vincennes University in Indiana and was an alumnus of Indiana University and held a graduate degree from Harvard. When Bryan learned he was nominated for the presidency by a friend in Oregon, he had never even heard of the college. Before Bryan's arrival, the fledgling university suffered through significant organizational instability. Under Bryan's term as president, the curriculum included both a practical …
