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No plan for military training in engineering colleges had been
announced by the War Department in 1917, so the traditional curriculum
of the Institute was continued. There was much uncertainty about the
application of the selective draft to college students. Eventually it
was decided to exclude students of military age who stood in the upper
third of their class scholastically. In the meantime, however, drafts
and enlistments, coupled with the attraction of high wages in
industry, had depleted Institute enrollment to 418, a figure that
shrank to 352 in February, 1918, thereby severely taxing the slender
resources of the college.
A war committee of the faculty was organized, with Dr. Haynes as
chairman. Two mass meetings a month for war talks were
scheduled. Every effort was made to conserve coal, the most drastic of
which was the closing of the gymnasium for the winter. In December,
1917, a concentrated program was adopted which required seniors to
work Saturday afternoons and holidays in order that the date of
graduation might be advanced to April 15. Other classes were to omit
holidays and complete their assigned work one month later. Also, in
order to give students a long summer for work in war industries, the
opening of the next college year was postponed to October 2.
The instruction staff was still further depleted in the early months
of 1918. Dr. Duff joined the research division of the Signal Corps at
Washington, where he had charge of experimental work on bomb sights,
trajectories and stabilizers. Dr. Ewell became a major in the Aircraft
Armament Division, in charge of the test of bombs and their adaptation
to planes. Prof. A. L. Smith was assigned to the design of a special
gun by the National Research Council at Washington. Prof. H. B. Smith
spent about half his time at the New London Naval Experiment Station
on submarine detectors. Prof. P. R. Carpenter went to France with the
Y. M. C. A. and became director of athletics in the Foyers de Soldats,
recreational centers of the French army.
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