Tennessee State University's first president, William Jasper Hale's thirty-four year tenure has been the longest tenure of any of the institutions of chief administrators. When the institution opened in 1912, President Hale assembled the University's first faculty, outlined its curricula, and generally laid the foundation for its future growth. In 1922, after eleven years of his presidency, the institution was changed from a two-year college to a four-year college. In 1938, the institution became the first black college with an all-black faculty to attain membership in the American Association of Teachers Colleges. In the last decade of Dr. Hale's administration two significant strides were made: the University achieved membership in the Teacher's College Extension Association, and in 1941 the General Assembly authorized the awarding of a master's degree in education.