- Wilson Homer Elkins
Wilson Homer "Bull" Elkins (1909-1994) served as president of the University of Maryland from 1954 to 1978. Elkins received an A.B. and an M.A. from the
University of Texas in 1933 where he was a football star. He was aRhodes Scholar atOxford University , where he completed a Ph.D. Elkins served as president ofSan Angelo Junior College from 1938 to 1948. He left San Angelo to become president ofTexas Western College inEl Paso until beginning his tenure at the University of Maryland in 1954. At the University of Maryland, Elkins emphasized rigorous academic standards. In 1957, he created the "Academic Probation Plan," threatening 1,550 students -- 18 percent of the undergraduate enrollment -- with expulsion because their grades averaged less than a C. University administration sent fourteen percent of students home but by 1964, 82 percent of freshmen came from the top half of their high school classes, andPhi Beta Kappa -- which had turned down Maryland twice before -- had established a chapter on campus.Elkins supported the establishment of a faculty government and managed a major expansion and improvement of the physical plant, including the construction of the
McKeldin Library and the Computer Science Center. Elkins resigned in 1978 at the state's mandatory retirement age of 70. The Elkins Building, constructed in 1979, is located inAdelphi, Maryland and houses the offices of the University of Maryland Central Administration.References
[http://www.lib.umd.edu/archivesum/actions.DisplayEADDoc.do?source=MdU.ead.univarch.0062.xml&style=ead Records of the Office of the President, University of Maryland]
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