The University of Tennessee offered its first training program for teachers in 1844. Unfortunately, both this program and a similar curriculum established in 1873 failed soon after their founding. The University's first formal Education Department began operating under Professor Frank Smith on February 12, 1891. It was created in large part due to President Charles Dabney's belief that the only way to improve the state's public schools was to improve the quality of their teachers. The department collapsed after Professor T. C. Karns, who had done most of the teaching, resigned in 1899. It was reestablished in 1902 and supplemented with a summer teacher training program (called the Summer School of the South) under Professor P. P. Claxton as well as a practice school. Although both the practice school and the Summer School were discontinued, the Education Department survived and was merged with the domestic science and art programs in 1902. This combined department was transferred to the College of Liberal Arts and renamed Home Economics in 1904. The separate education program was reestablished as the School of Education in 1911 and obtained College status in 1926. The program continued to grow and develop until 2002, when it was combined with the College of Human Ecology to form the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.