The ongoing need for teachers, a developing shortage of nurses, and a new push for vocational education from the federal government combined to rescue the school from oblivion. The state legislature voted to elevate it to four-year status in 1963 but did not approve funding until two years later. Enrollment of the now-independent, four-year school grew, by from 465 in 1964 to 1,033 in the fall of 1968. It continued to grow and in July 1971 the name was officially changed to Lewis–Clark State College. It was the last Normal school in the country to make the change.