The number of degrees issued by the school fluctuated between 700 and 850 during the late 1950s and early 1960s, before rising to 1,562 in 1966–67. This growth occurred despite the rising cost of an education at the college (tuition grew from $32.50 throughout the 1930s to $42 in 1948 to $87 in 1966), although "a college education at ET continued to be a great bargain". In the mid-1960s, a full semester of room and board cost between $292 and $319, depending on the dormitory. In 1959, ETSC built the James G. Gee Library, which cost over $1 million and provided capacity for approximately 200,000 volumes and of floor space. ETSC also launched on an "ambitious" project to build 32 small dormitories in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly for married students and single men, although there was still a "severe shortage" of rooms available to single women. This squeeze was resolved, at least in part, by the construction of five new dormitories for the Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Phi, Chi Omega, Gamma Phi Beta, and Kappa Delta sororities in 1962. Between 1962 and 1964, four additional dormitories, two each for female and male students, opened across Texas State Highway 50 on the west side of campus; the latter two were known as the New West Halls, although they were later renamed Sikes and Berry Halls. Perhaps the crowning achievement of the building program overseen by Gee was a new three-story student center, which included a bookstore, cafeteria, game room, and many meeting rooms, that was completed in 1963. Called by college historian William E. Sawyer the "Great Builder", Gee had increased the value of the school's physical plant from just over $2 million in 1947 to more than $22 million when he retired in 1966. In 1961, the college implemented an honors program for top students, giving them the opportunity to take "specially designed core courses" and write an honors thesis under the mentorship of select faculty. Structural changes to the college begun under Gee in the 1940s also continued during the ETSC era, with the Speech program moving from the Department of Journalism and Speech to the Department of Speech and Drama in 1966. In 1964, the college bought approximately of ranch land south of campus along Highway 50 that it had previously leased. Another major development occurred in 1962, when ETSC was authorized to grant doctorates by the Texas Commission on Higher Education, initially offering one in English and three in education.