Kent State University - Chestnut Burr Yearbook (Kent, OH)

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Marines wade ashore at a Tinian island beach- point to aid assault troops fighting inland. The draft or defense work causes the enroll- ment to dwindl e from 2,707 in September, 1940, to 696 by the spring of 1944. And, of 131 full- time instructors in the fall of 1941, 29 joined the armed forces and 10 others leave for work re- lated to the war effort. More than 5,000 stu- dents, faculty and alumni ultimately see active service in the armed forces. Raymond E. Manchester, Kent ' s first dean of men, is launching a penny carnival to make possible the mailing of campus publications to the thousands of men and women in service from Kent. They will receive copies of Dean Manchester ' s famed Saturday Letters, which he has been writing since 1935, along with other campus publications. In July, 1945, nature yields one of its most incredible sources of energy and the atomic age is born. A soldier returns to campus on furlough and becomes the center of a crowd of co-eds. George A. Bowman President, 1944-

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Fearl Harbor changes the plans of many Kent students. Enrollment decreases to some 600 women plus a handful of males. President Emeritus John E. McGilvrey by this time has returned to spearhead a vigorous campaign for federal aid for campus improve- ments. With his help, the school is granted over $500,000 from the Public Works Administration, to be used principally for the construction of a new science building (later McGilvrey hall) in 1940. Then comes Pearl Harbor and expansion plans once again are set aside. M

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Japan surrenders. Enrollment at KSU jumps from 1,279 in 1945 to 4,763 in 1946. On March 30, 1943, the 336th College Train- ing Detachment arrives at Kent. The campus has been selected as the training site for 500 air crewmen, and, in the next 18 months, more than 2,000 enlisted men will complete the program at Kent. Dormitories are converted into barracks and cafeterias become mess halls, while even the 197-acre airport landing field at Stow is pur- chased to facilitate training. Meanwhile, civilian students are being in- troduced to new courses, including morse code, fire-fighting and map-making. Some students, most of them chemistry majors, are assisting in experiments on the top floor of McGilvrey hall. There, the B. F. Goodrich company is conduct- ing research in the development of synthetic rubber. Experiments will lead to the develop- ment of GRS-10, helping to solve one of the most critical shortages of the war: rubber. Student union moves trom a War II army barrack to a new $900,000 building in 1949. Stopher hall, the first of four men ' s residence halls is built in 1949. It honors Emmet C. Stopher, former registrar and superintendent of the training school. ±£■1