Having declined in 1878 to allow university buildings to be made available for summer normal school free to teachers and at the expense of the university, the trustees, in response to a recommendation from the faculty, allowed professors McBryde, Lockett, and Nicholson, and Superintendent Smith of the Knox County Schools the free use of the buildings for a normal school free of tuition during the summer of 1880. The four-week session was highly successful, with approximately one hundred teachers in attendance. In 1881 (May 21), the trustees appropriated $300 in support of the school, which sum was matched by the Peabody Fund. “Summer Normal” continued through 1884, when it was abandoned as a result of the withdrawal of the Peabody Fund support. More than three hundred teachers attended the last session in 1884, most working for state certificates.