A Short History of UND and the School of Law

Founded by the Dakota Territorial Assembly in 1883, six years before statehood, the University of North Dakota is the state’s flagship institution of higher education.  Its location in the burgeoning boomtown of Grand Forks was considered a coup for the community. A group of Dakota Territory dignitaries witnessed the laying of the cornerstone for the first University building on October 2, 1883, a few miles outside of town. The University opened its doors to students in 1884, enrolling seventy-nine students during its first year of instruction.  During the 1880s, the new UND campus consisted of one building, Old Main, situated among twenty acres of freshly plowed Red River Valley black earth, with no demarcation from surrounding farms and nary a tree in view.  The University graduated its first class in 1889.  The eight graduates, six women and two men, formed the fledgling Alumni Association immediately following their commencement exercises.

Founded in 1899, the School of Law was the first professional school to begin operation within the University of North Dakota.  Guy H. Corliss, a Grand Forks lawyer and the first Chief Justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court, was selected as the first dean of the law school. The only full-time instructor during the early years of the program, John E. Blair, a recent Harvard Law graduate, served as the secretary of the law school and directed the curriculum and operations.  In 1904, when Andrew Bruce accepted the deanship, admission standards were lowered to require only two years of high school; nearly all students passed their courses and enrollment grew relatively strong. 

In 1905, the School of Law graduated its first woman, Helen Hamilton.  In honor of the accomplishments of Hamilton and other women graduates of the law school, an annual Helen Hamilton Day is hosted by the law school’s Law Women’s Caucus student organization. When Frank McVey became President of UND in 1909, incoming law students were required to possess a high school certificate and the program of legal education was lengthened to three years.  By 1917, incoming students were required to have completed two years of collegiate study, and the law school instituted new program and degree options. The School of Law’s first publication, the Law Bulletin, was introduced in 1914, and later evolved to become the North Dakota Law Review.

Enrollment at UND steadily increased as more and more people settled in the state.  With the onset of the first World War, however, enrollment declined, and in 1918, the influenza epidemic killed 1,400 in North Dakota, earning UND the dubious distinction of being the hardest-hit single institution of higher learning in the nation.  Like many universities, UND soon suspended classes and became an army camp, training students to fight in World War I.  University buildings were converted to Army barracks and administrative offices, while students practiced with wooden guns manufactured on campus.  During the 1920s, campus social life took center stage.  University fraternities and sororities flourished, while the administration banned cheek-to-cheek dancing at the school’s elaborate co-educational parties. UND’s athletic nickname at the time, the Flickertails, lent itself to campus events including the popular variety show, the “Flickertail Follies.”  During Prohibition, students flocked to East Grand Forks speakeasy Whitey’s, where a “mickey” of bootleg alcohol could be had for a dollar.  Still, the 1920s did not roar as loudly at UND as at other colleges.  Most North Dakota students held fast to the pioneer values of their parents and grandparents.

The School of Law was initially approved by the American Bar Association in 1923, and has been continuously accredited since then.  The law school was granted membership in the Association of American Law Schools in 1911 and has been a member of the Order of the Coif since 1925.

The Great Depression of the 1930s made higher education an unattainable luxury for many, and UND’s enrollment declined.  The University reduced living expenses for students as much as was feasible, converting ten abandoned railroad cabooses into student housing collectively known as “Camp Depression.”  During World War II, the University again provided military training for prospective soldiers.  Returning veterans enrolled at unprecedented levels and the student body reached nearly 3,000, crowding University facilities and forcing families to live in tin huts.  After the war, intercollegiate hockey made its first appearance at UND.  In 1948, UND beat the University of Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor, a victory that portended hockey as the centerpiece of the University’s athletic program.

Enrollment continued to rise in the 1960s, with over 8,000 students attending UND.  As had always been the case, the majority of UND students were North Dakota residents.  In 1962, UND’s first major student rebellion began as a water fight that escalated into a melee, with burned telephone poles, broken car windows, and co-eds thrown into the English Coulee – resulting in the institution of Spring Break to relieve student tensions.  Some student activism extended to more substantial controversies, such as the Vietnam War.  In 1967, faculty conducted a “teach-in” on the war, attended by 600 students.  And the killing of four students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, instigated UND’s largest student protest, when nearly 2,000 students gathered in front of Twamley Hall, the University administration building, to listen to speakers and rock music.  The 1960s saw the creation of the UND Indian Association, formed by seventeen Native American students to encourage Indians to attend UND.  The Association dedicated an Indian Cultural Center on campus in 1971, which has since evolved into the current American Indian Center, constructed in 2006.

The University celebrated its centennial in 1983.  In the 1980s and 1990s, the University enjoyed increased enrollment and relative economic prosperity.  UND’s aerospace program received national recognition and lucrative pilot training contracts, while other university programs continued to attract students.  In 1997, the Red River Valley was decimated by a flood.  The cities of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks were evacuated and residents watched helplessly as the downtown, already submerged in several feet of water, caught fire and burned.  The University closed before students could take their spring semester final exams.  Graduation was cancelled as the mandatory evacuation stretched from a few days to several weeks.  Throughout, UND students joined community members in fighting the flood and in leading recovery efforts.  In Fall 2000, UND announced that it had successfully rebounded from the flood, as enrollment topped 11,000 students.

The School of Law has been located in the heart of the main campus of the University almost since its establishment at the turn of the century.  Until the mid-1960s, the School of Law shared space in its building with the School of Commerce and occasionally other departments.  In 1973, the law school nearly doubled its space with the addition of a four-floor library annex, home to the Thormodsgard Law Library, named for Olaf H. Thormodsgard, Dean of the School of Law from 1931 to 1962.  At the same time, the main law school building was renovated.  In recent years, the law school has added office space and student workspace, as well as remodeled its largest classroom, the Molbert Room.  Thanks to a special gift from the family of Ralph Molbert, a 1941 law school graduate, the Molbert Room is a state-of-the-art classroom equipped with high-tech instructional technology.  Nearly all first-year courses are conducted in the Molbert Room.

Today, as it marks its 125th anniversary, the University of North Dakota is regarded as a national leader in rural and family health issues, aerospace sciences, energy and environmental research, and with more than thirty programs related to American Indians and tribes, a premier institution in the education of American Indian students.  As one of only about 40 universities with both a medical school and a law school, professional education plays an important role at UND.

And as the School of Law marks its 110th anniversary, we continue to offer a “best value” and personalized legal education for all of our students.