Muhlenberg College - Ciarla Yearbook (Allentown, PA)

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into barracks and set up civilian dormitories in the Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Kappa Tau fraternity houses that had been leased by the College. Additions to the Commons were completed. An infirmary and dispensary were established in the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity house. Navy gear arrived by the truckload and gold braid became almost commonplace. That the war-time student body had been correctly estimated became evident on July 1, 1943 when the first semester of the new college year began. For that term Muhlenberg enrolled 596 men, 142 of them civilians and the remainder a group of former civilians as new to their Navy Blue or Marine Green uniforms as they were new to the campus. Proportions continued almost the same for more than a year -144 civilians and 418 military trainees on March 1, 1944, and 111 civilians and 425 trainees on July 1, 1944. Not until 1944, when V-12 units across the country were sharply reduced, did Muhlenberg's enrollment drop below the 500 level. Then, with 277 Bluejackets and 127 civilian students registered, it was possible to again use part of West Hall for civilians. There was another reduction in March 1945 when the student body totalled only 505 men, 192 of them Navy trainees and 113 civilians. While the V-12 training units were on the campus, military students and civilians attended the same classes, took part in the same activities, enjoyed joint social affairs. All men assigned to the program by the Navy were registered as Muhlenberg students and, except for their military drills and the more rigid per- sonal discipline, their work on the campus paralleled that of a normal student body. The picture changed in July 1945 when the V-12 units were replaced by the newer Naval Academic Refresher Training program QV-52 under which men who had seen service with the Fleet and had been selected as officer candidates were sent to the campus for special studies that were organized for them apart from the normal college curriculum. During the two terms the program was in operation, training units varied from 123 to 506 men assigned for eight-week periods. Civilian enrollment in July of 1945 was 142 and in November of that year increased to 301. Muhlenberg reached a new peak in March 1946 when returning veterans swelled the civilian enrollment to 568. At the same time the College began its last term as a Navy training center with a V-12 unit of 158 men. Although acceleration of the academic program and the extra chores and duties assigned to Navy men sharply reduced the time available for participation in normal extra-curricular activities, many of the traditions of campus life at Muhlenberg were continued. The Muhlenberg Weekly missed few issues during the war years, even though there were times when an entire issue was written, proofread, and made up by the editor himself. Publication of the Ciarla was, however, tempor- arily suspended after the Class of 1944 issued its volume in the Spring of 1943. A Student Council composed of civilians and military trainees set the pattern for campus life and preserved at least some of the customs that through the years Right: the Science Building, home of the Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Geology De- partments, as well as the College Little Theater. U21

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Chapter 1 REVIEW OF THE YEARS July, 1943-July, 1946 MERGING from the years of war, Muhlenberg College and those who were associated with it as students or as alumni, as Faculty or as administrators well may thrill with satisfaction at the honors it earned and the prestige it gained as it helped train men qualified to achieve victory and prepared to maintain peace. One of the first colleges in America to be selected as a training center for the men urgently needed to plug the gaps in the nation's battle lines at sea and in the air, it not only completed its military assignments with distinction, but also continued to meet its obligations to those students able to continue their education as civilians and to thecommunity that looked to it for leadership in the field of Adult Education. Through the years it operated its accelerated war-time program that divided the academic year into three terms of sixteen weeks each, Muhlenberg's student body ranged from a low of 265 men to a peak of 726. Except for two terms, the men in uniform far outnumbered those in mufti. The years of war were years of change but the changes were only in externals. The campus became accustomed to bugle calls, to men in uniform marching to classes and drilling on the playing field, to military reviews and inspections. Friend- ships were formed more quickly, for students counted their stay on the campus in months rather than years. There were new faces on the Faculty and new person- alities on the staff. There were new rules and a new jargon. Underneath, however, Muhlenberg was still Muhlenberg. Its campus remained friendly and democratic. Its academic program continued thorough and basic, emphasizing those subjects at the heart of the liberal arts curriculum that has always been its pride. Its Faculty, centered about those who for years were part of the College's life, manifested the same interest in each individual student that long has been recognized as one of Muhlenbergls outstanding characteristics. The College reiterated for military and civilian students alike its oft-repeated ideal that no education is complete unless it prepares a man to discharge all of his duties properly in this world and qualities him for the rewards and employments of eternity. Echoes of the Bicentennial celebration in which the College honored the family of Colonial American patriots whose name it bears were still ringing across the campus when the first pages of a new chapter in its history were being written. Preparing for its new student body in which men in uniform would far out- number civilians, an augmented College staff converted East Hall and West Hall Left: The spacious College Library, located in the midst of the Big Three-The Ad Build- ing, the Library, and the Science Building. E111

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