1990s
Events include: first Gulf War, bombing of
the World Trade Center, expansive growth of the
World Wide Web, cloning is achieved, human genome
project begins, Hubble telescope launched, creation
of the European Union, financial crisis in East
Asian and Southeast Asia, shootings at Columbine
High School
Dolly the sheep with her offspring
U.S. presidents:
George H.W.
Bush (1989–1993)
Bill Clinton (1993–2001)
1991 | The concept of public school choice
is extended between districts
in Minnesota’s statewide system. By 2000, 16
states have similar interdistrict choice systems.
1991 | The first charter school in the nation opens in Minnesota.
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Timeline
1999
The University establishes
an Academy of Distinguished Teachers. Through
mid-2005, eight faculty members of the college have
been honored with membership.
1998
The state legislature
approves the implementation of the Profile of
Learning, which sets high school graduation
standards in such areas as U.S. history, business
management, physical education, and technical
reading. Controversial from the start, it draws
praise, as well as criticism from groups who believe
its standards are too low or too far removed from
the basics.
 1998
Steven R. Yussen becomes
the 12th dean of the college and the first in
decades to arrive from another university, The
University of Iowa, where he also headed the College
of Education. He is an alumnus of the college, having received a Ph.D. from the Institute
of Child Development in 1973. Known for his research
on children’s learning and cognitive development, he
begins his deanship with the declaration, “The
college has an opportunity to be a real leader—for
the University, for the state, for the nation and
beyond. I want people to look to us as a model
because we’re doing the right things and doing them
well. If that happens often, I’ll know we’re doing a
great job.”
1997
Amy Jean Holmblade Knorr
(M.A. ’45) establishes a graduate assistantship in
family education in her name. Knorr's interest in
curriculum theory and development spanned her career
in home economics education. She earned a Ph.D. in
home economics education from Michigan State
University in 1954. She came to the University of
Minnesota in 1956, teaching a curriculum course to
students preparing to become teachers. She went on
to work as a curriculum development consultant and
continued to teach curriculum theory even after
retirement from the University of Arizona as
professor of home economics. Among her many honors
is the 1992 Distinguished Service Award of the
American Home Economics Association.
1997
Dean
Robert Bruininks is named
provost and executive vice president under new
University President Mark Yudof. Charles Hopkins,
professor of work, community, and family education,
steps into the role of interim dean for one year.
1996
A comparative study of
University of Minnesota divisions shows the college—through its international education courses and
graduate minor in international education—to be a
leader in its efforts to incorporate international
perspectives throughout its curriculum.
1995
 To better reflect the depth
and expanse of its programs, the College of
Education officially becomes the College of
Education and Human Development.
1994
The college’s budget has
shrunk $3.1 million during the previous five years.
Yet it keeps its ability to offer strong programs by
increasing its outside funding.
 Home economics education
evolves into the family education program, with a
focus on graduate education, parent education, and
secondary school licensure in family and consumer
science.
1993
Dorothy McNeill Tucker
(B.A. ’45) establishes the Dorothy McNeill and
Elbridge Ashcraft Tucker Chair for Women in Exercise
Science and Sport. This chair—the first of its
kind in the world—is the cornerstone upon which the
Tucker Center is built. The Tucker Center is
dedicated to exploring how sport, recreation, and
physical activity affect the lives of girls and
women. Tucker went on to earn a doctorate and to
become the first woman tenured at California State
Polytechnic University in Pomona.
 1992
Josef Mestenhauser joins
the faculty of the college, having begun his career
at the University of Minnesota as a graduate student
from Czechoslovakia working in the international
student adviser’s office. He serves as director of
the system-wide Office of International Education
from 1986 until 1992. His work as an adviser to
international faculty and scholars on all the
University campuses and as an intercultural trainer
provides an institution-wide role. In the college he
helps to build the graduate program in comparative
and international development education (CIDE) and a
freestanding minor in international education.
During his career he won Fulbright awards for
research and lecturing in the Philippines, Korea,
Japan, and the Czech Republic. He has consulted with
education ministers of many nations on international
issues, including those in his native Czech and
Slovak Republics, and was appointed Honorary Consul
for the Czech Republic in the Midwest in 1999.
 1991
Robert Bruininks,
previously director of the University’s
Institute on
Community Integration, becomes the new dean of
the college. A 23-year veteran of the faculty of the
educational psychology department, he immediately
runs into a budget crunch and a month after entering
office announces that the college will lose 20
faculty members and $2 million in University funds
over the next five years. “I could have conceived of
easier circumstances for beginning a new job,” he
says.
1990
When college Dean William
Gardner retires, he voices his fear that his
successor will face impossible budgetary challenges.
Ellen
Delaney receives a master’s degree in education. A
mathematics teacher in North St. Paul, she is
honored as 1998–99 Minnesota Teacher of the Year. “I
learned during my master’s work to go beyond
teaching math for math’s sake, and to teach in a way
that allows kids to get beyond simply moving numbers
and letters around on a page, to truly understand
the concepts behind the numbers,” she says.
Chicago businessman and
philanthropist Irving B. Harris makes the first of
many large gifts to the college in support of child
development, endowing two professorships and
providing support to create the Harris Training
Center for Infant and Toddler Development.
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