By: Alexandria Ruschman, Bicentennial Intern, Class of 2021, International Studies and Central Eurasian Studies, IU Bloomington
Edited by: Ellie Kaverman and Bre Anne Briskey, Bicentennial Graduate Assistants
During Alice McDonald Nelson’s 45-year career at IU Bloomington as the Director of Residence Life, she “built” more than 100 buildings valued at more than $60 million.[1] She is responsible for establishing numerous critical components of student residential life at Indiana University today, including the residence program.
During her time at IU, Nelson effectively met the rapidly evolving needs of the campus as it went through landmark events of the twentieth century, such as the Great Depression and World War II. Through it all, Nelson worked to improve residence life for students.
Nelson had a variety of nicknames that represent her persona in IU culture, including the “IU Landlady,” “Mrs. I.U.,” “Queen Alice,” “the General,” and even “the damn Mrs. Nelson.” Whatever nickname you choose to call her, Alice McDonald Nelson is no doubt responsible for IU Bloomington’s current physical campus.
Early Life and Education
Alice McDonald Nelson was born in Warren County, IN in 1894. Her father was Malcolm McDonald, an IU alumnus who graduated in 1870 and is known as the “Father of IU Baseball,” as he was the captain of the first baseball team at IU and received the first athletic “I.”[2] Nelson was one of twelve children in her family.
Nelson attended the University of Chicago and graduated with a degree in home economics in 1920. Immediately after graduation, she began working at her alma mater as an assistant instructor and with the university’s residence program.[3]
Coming to Indiana University
Nelson first came to Indiana University in 1920 as a “loan out” from the University of Chicago. Upon her arrival, she was put in charge of the first residence hall for women, Alpha Hall, which was in disarray.
Alpha Hall had opened in 1906, but by the time Nelson came to IU, the hall was $800 in debt and housed 151 students.[4] Under Nelson’s direction, the hall was quickly out of debt and turned $1100 in profits.[5] IU administrators, frantic to keep Nelson from returning to Chicago, offered her three raises within the course of one week.[6]
Nelson decided to stay, and said in retrospect, she “had myself a circus ever since.”[7] Within a few years, Nelson established the residence hall program and became the director of halls and residences. Nelson’s arrival at Indiana University marked the start of residence halls as we know them today.
Alpha Hall, the dormitory Nelson initially helped run, was privately managed, not located on university property, and not owned by IU until 1936. When Nelson arrived, the state of residence halls rapidly changed. In 1924, IU became the first school in the United States to construct dormitories using state issued bonds.[8] By using bonds, construction could take place without all of the funding in place. After construction, the bonds were repaid using room and board fees. [9]
This decision under Nelson’s direction was followed by rapid growth in the university’s landscape. By 1924, Washington Hall was built as the first men’s dormitory.[10] The following year, in 1925, Memorial Hall opened as the first women’s dormitory owned and operated by IU.[11]
By 1940, Morrison Hall and Sycamore Hall were added to the area that housed Memorial Hall and Goodbody Hall; the four buildings together formed the Agnes E. Wells Quadrangle. The Men’s Residence Center (now Collins Living Learning Center) was expanded with the addition of Cravens Hall and Edmondson Hall.[12] In 1940, IU opened its first halls of residence library in the Men’s Residence Center; this idea was inspired by the tours Alice McDonald Nelson and Herman B Wells took of east coast universities.[13]
The Great Depression and World War II at IU
The 45-year tenure of Alice McDonald Nelson bore witness to the many landmark events of the 20th century and its impact on IU. In 1929, nine years after Nelson’s arrival, the Great Depression set in.
During this crisis, many students were faced with a difficult financial reality that threatened to make them give up on their education due to lack of funds. Nelson, who was face to face with students every day in the residence halls, refused to accept that. One former student wrote in 1978 about the legacy of Nelson during the Great Depression:
“But the thing with depression kids, at least at one place, Indiana University at Bloomington, was that they had a benefactor, a virtual ticket to education if they wanted to work hard enough at it. Her name was Alice Nelson.”[14]
Nelson gave struggling students work in her kitchen, doing small jobs such as busing, dishwashing, and waiting tables. If a student, male or female, came to her for help, she was always ready to help as long as they were ready to work hard. One former student recalled that in his job as a dishwasher he would find up to a dollar’s worth of loose change during each shift. “Without that job, I wouldn’t have made it.”[15]
As President Roosevelt instituted a bank moratorium, limiting the amount of circulating cash, Alice Nelson instituted a policy of her own. Under her own co-op dining room program, students were able to work while receiving two meals a day for $1.50 a week, $2.00 less than the university’s prices, and in this program, for under $5 a week, a student could have 12 meals and pay their own rent.[16]
When struggling students were unable to find affordable housing during the Depression, Nelson provided space in her basement where the student could sleep on a cot. Nelson’s generosity and kindness made it possible for many of her students to attain a college degree and go on to live successful lives as lawyers, doctors, and (in one case) even a governor of Indiana.[17]
Nelson’s acknowledgement of student need helped to establish Residence Scholarships in the early 1950s. “I’m always in favor of giving all the boys and girls an equal chance when it comes to getting a college education,” she said. “That is why I originated the resident scholarship plan for needy students. These students live in a co-operative dormitory where they share the maintenance duties…This first year, I have 75 students working their way through on this plan.”[18]
Nelson was also known to be a passionate supporter of students’ academic progress and livelihoods. She fought to make all students as comfortable as possible, wanting to create the best learning environment so that she could, “expect them to make A’s.” [19] She believed so strongly that each student should have their own desk that it became a standard item in all dorm rooms.[20] Keeping in mind student well being, Nelson founded the first student counseling system at Indiana University.[21]
When the United States entered World War II in December 1941, life changed yet again at Indiana University and Nelson was ready to meet the challenges. Between 1940 and 1944 regular male student enrollment dropped by nearly 75%.[22] However, by July 1942, the campus became inundated with 1200 Navy recruits and 594 WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) recruits and the current residential facilities did not have the capacity to be split strictly by gender.[23]
Thus, the co-ed housing experiment at IU was born–the WAVES and the Navy recruits were allowed to reside in the same building for the first time.
Nelson later said of the experiment, “I think it is silly to spend all your money to put the girls on one side of the campus and the boys on the other, then having mixers to get them acquainted…This is more like family living, and the boys act toward the girls more protectively.” Nelson reported better behavior from both boys and girls, more joint-studying and interaction, and a better community overall.[24]
With this new population housed on campus, Nelson became creative with housing facilities. Some students had to be temporarily moved to the Biddle Hotel in the Indiana Memorial Union.
As the U.S. celebrated victory in World War II, Nelson braced for the influx of students. President Roosevelt signed the GI Bill in 1944, making college education more accessible. In 1946, there were 2200 veterans enrolled in classes at IU, and many were housed in Quonset huts, trailers, and the gymnasium while the university went to work on building new facilities.[25] By 1960, three new residence halls and five apartment complexes for married couples opened up for IU students.[26]
The Campus that Nelson Built
Once, when Nelson was asked if she would ever write a book about her experience at IU, she responded, “My friends are always asking why I don’t write a book. My answer is that I AM writing a book in Indiana limestone, each chapter of which is a building [on IU’s campus]!”[27]
When Nelson began her 45-year tenure in 1920, there was just a single dormitory that housed 115 students, and when her tenue ended in 1965, the campus had a first-of-its-kind residence hall program that housed 10,000 single student and 1500 married couples.[28] As the Indianapolis Star wrote on the first page of their October 25, 1947 edition, “Alice Nelson…firmly but kindly she performs a man-sized job.” [29]
IU President Herman B Wells viewed Nelson’s attitude, determination, and candor as assets, and once reflected, “It has been said that some of the most precious recollections of student life cluster around campus personalities. This must indeed be so in the memories of thousands of students who have known Mrs. Alice Nelson.”[30]
Her presence on the Bloomington campus was felt on nearly every level. In a 1963 interview, Nelson revealed that she had an ongoing bet with IU football players – every week she would bet $10 that the team would lose that week’s game. When the team would win, she would send $10 to their scholarship fund. “I am happy to say that I have lost a lot of $10 bills this season” [31]
In 1965, after 45 years of directing residence hall programs, Nelson retired from Indiana University. In her retirement, she served as a consultant for mass housing to clients such as the US Defense Department, the state of California, Texas Tech, and Indiana University.[32]
Nelson’s Legacy
Throughout her life, Nelson won many awards. In 1967, at the age of 72, Alice Nelson was “flabbergasted” when IU officials presented her with the Distinguished Alumni Service Award. Nelson was particularly shocked because she had received an alumni award despite having only completed nine credits at IU.[33] Nelson also received the prestigious Sagamore of the Wabash award from Indiana.[34]
In 1953, there was a proposal that a new women’s dormitory be named Alice McDonald Nelson Hall. However, due to a university policy that does not allow honorary naming for living persons, this did not occur.[35]
During her 45 years at Indiana University, Nelson was responsible for reading building blueprints, arguing at negotiation tables, and meticulously planning the Residence Programs and Services program.[36] At one time she managed more than 1,000 employees, 600 of those being students, and served more than 28,000 meals a day on a three million dollar budget, making her a pioneer in the field of university housing, a male-dominated field. [37]
Nelson passed away in 1978 at the age of 83 in Bloomington. On August 7, 1984, the IU Board of Trustees approved the renaming of the Halls of Residence building to be the Alice M. Nelson Halls of Residence Administration Building.[38]
Whether she is known as Queen Alice, “the General,” or IU’s Landlady, IU Bloomington has Alice McDonald Nelson to thank for the campus as it stands today, with 24 residence halls in four neighborhoods and 30 dining locations on campus.
Bibliography
- McKesson, Jon. “Alumni Service Medal Flabbergasts ‘Mrs. I.U.’” The Indianapolis Star, 20 Jun 1967, [First Edition], P. 8
- Alice McDonald Nelson Timeline. IU RPS. https://housing.indiana.edu/alicenelson/index.html
- Alumni Directory, the University of Chicago, 1919. Page 242
- Myers, Hortense. “I.U. ‘Landlady’ to Retire.” Logansport Pharos-Tribune [Logansport, Cass, IN], 29 Jun 1965, P. 7
- Indiana University Archives. Chronology of IU. IU Libraries. https://libraries.indiana.edu/iu-chronology
- Power, Fremont. “Thanks a Lot, Alice Nelson.” The Indianapolis News, 15 May 1978, Other Editions. P. 2.
- Lamb, Don. “Mother to 5,000.” The Courier-Journal. Page 34. February 17, 1952.
- Holmes, Leila. “I.U. Campus Termed Measure of Mrs. Nelson’s Accomplishment.” The Indianapolis Star, 1 Dec 1963, [First Edition], p. 88
- Indiana University Archives, IU and World War II, Digital Exhibit. http://collections.libraries.indiana.edu/iubarchives/exhibits/show/iu-and-world-war-ii/iu-during-the-war-years
- IU Residential Programs and Services, The history of on-campus housing and dining. https://housing.indiana.edu/history/index.html
- Indiana University Board of Trustees Minutes. May 18, 1953.
- Indiana University Board of Trustee minutes, March 2, 1985, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington
- “Rites Saturday For Alice Nelson of I.U.” The Indianapolis News, 11 May 1978, Main Edition, P. 46
Notes
[1] McKesson, Jon.
[2] Alice McDonald Nelson Timeline, IU RPS.
[3] Alumni Directory, the University of Chicago, 1919. Page 242.
[4] Myers, Hortense.
[5] McKesson, Jon.
[6] McKesson, Jon.
[7] McKesson, Jon.
[8] Lamb, Don.
[9] Indiana University Archives. Chronology of IU
[10] Indiana University Archives. Chronology of IU
[11] Indiana University Archives. Chronology of IU
[12] Indiana University Archives. Chronology of IU
[13] Alice McDonald Nelson Timeline, IU RPS.
[14] Power, Fremont.
[15] Power, Fremont.
[16] Power, Fremont.
[17] Power, Fremont.
[18] Lamb, Don.
[19] Holmes, Leila.
[20] Power, Fremont.
[21] Lamb, Don.
[22] Indiana University Archives, IU and World War II, Digital Exhibit.
[23] Myers, Hortense. 7
[24] Myers, Hortense.
[25] IU Residential Programs and Services, “The history of on-campus housing and dining.”
[26] IU Residential Programs and Services, “The history of on-campus housing and dining.”
[27] Holmes, Leila.
[28] Holmes, Leila.
[29] Power, Fremont.
[30]Lamb, Don.
[31] Holmes, Leila.
[32] Myers, Hortense.
[33] McKesson, Jon.
[34] McKesson, Jon.
[35] Indiana University Board of Trustees Minutes. May 18, 1953.
[36] McKesson, Jon.
[37] “Rites Saturday For Alice Nelson of I.U.”
[38] Indiana University Board of Trustee minutes, 02 March 1985.