Family Social Science Timeline
1900 First college-level work offered in home economics.
1909 Courses offered under the category of household administration. These included The Family History of Family Economic Function, Psychology of Family Life, and The Legal and Economic Position of Women—Women as Wage Earners.
1914 Creation of a Home Management house as a laboratory.
1919 The University of Minnesota becomes first in the country to include a course in child training in its home economics department.
1932 First Ph.D. awarded in home economics.
1946 Home Management Laboratory course credit is made available to married students on an “independent study” basis, enabling them to use their own homes as a laboratory.
1952 School of Home Economics begins.
1970 The School of Home Economics is renamed the College of Home Economics and reorganized into five departments: Family Social Science; Food, Science, and Nutrition; the Family Education Program; Textiles and Clothing; and Related Art (Design).
1990 The College of Home Economics becomes the College of Human Ecology, comprised of the departments of Family Social Science; Design, Housing, and Apparel; Food, Science, and Nutrition; and the School of Social Work.
2000 The Department of Family Social Science celebrates its 30th anniversary as a formal department.
2003 The Department of Family Social Science embraces distance education by offering on-line courses.
2005 The Family Social Science undergraduate program becomes the first program in the Twin Cities to receive Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) designation.
2006 The Family Social Science department experiences a bittersweet transition from the College of Human Ecology (CHE) to the College of Education and Human development (CEHD) due to the elimination of the CHE after 106 years.
2007 The Family Caregiving Center was renamed Wayne Caron Family Caregiving Center to honor Wayne Caron, founder of the Center, who unexpectedly died in August of 2007.
2008 Family Social Science graduate students garnered support in the form of fellowships/scholarships in the amount of $320,000.