Ethel Clarke replaced Alice Fitzgerald as director of the Training School for Nurses when she left in 1914. Clarke served as director of the Training School for Nurses from 1915 to 1931. She continued Fitzgerald's efforts to grow and establish the program, and eventually oversaw the construction of Ball Nurses' Residence, the first official home of the Training School for Nurses. Before Ball Nurses' Residence opened, students lived in cottages in the neighborhoods surrounding Long Hospital. Ball offered nursing students safer housing, a more communal environment, and a home for faculty offices, dining facilities, and exercise facilities.
Clarke also created a nurses' alumnae association and brought a chapter of Sigma Theta Tau honorary society to campus. Her presence at the Training School for Nurses truly defined the early period of nursing education at IU.
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