gap. With the help of the Works Progress Administration, many of the buildings were renovated during the depression. In fact, Dr. Hibbs was quoted as saying, ...if it had not been for the WPA, the Richmond Professional Institute would not have amounted to much. In the days before the legislature made appropriations to RPI the WPA enabled us to survive and even grow a little. School of Art In 1928, Hibbs hired the Richmond born Theresa Pollak as the first full-time art instructor. She founded the School of Art, the forerunner to the VCU School of the Arts. It began as one night class with 8 full-time students the first year and 25 or 30 part-time students. Between 1943–45 Clyfford Still, an important member of the developing world of Abstract Expressionism taught art, and furthered his own distinctive style painting dozens of new works. When RPI became VCU in 1968, the School of the Arts was the largest professional art school in the country, with 1,200 full-time undergraduate students and 75 graduate students. An Entirely Different College and an Independent State University In 1939 the school was renamed the Richmond Professional Institute of the College of William and Mary. RPI suffered from having a campus with no new buildings and instead consisted entirely of renovated houses. In effort to improve the image of RPI, the first new buildings were created in the 1950s. In 1951, Franklin Street Gym became the first new building on RPI's campus constructed entirely with state funds. In RPI's 1953 pamphlet, An Entirely Different College, Hibbs defined a professional institute as a college or university that arranged most of its programs of study around occupations or professions. Not abiding to the traditional University system, RPI gained a reputation as a unique institution in conservative Virginia. This uniqueness found its way into many of the art and literature students during the 1950s and 1960s as they adopted the beatnik look and dress style. When George Oliver took over as President in 1959, he did not believe that RPI still needed the name recognition that William and Mary brought. This, along with growing radicalism among the students and faculty of RPI began to sever the relationship with the parent school. In 1960, RPI became part of The Colleges of William & Mary, a short-lived system consisting of W&M and its associated institutions. However, both RPI and the Norfolk