Seventy Years Of The Worcester Polytechnic Institute: Page 355

purpose of displaying the work of the college to prospective students, was held in 1930. That year, also, a fall sports banquet, to honor athletic competitors, was inaugurated.

The Alumni Association continued to expand its functions arid to increase its usefulness to the Institute. The income from the Alumni Fund during the boom years reached substantial proportions, with a maximum of $37,300 in 1929. There were also numerous improvements in the journal and in the technique of graduate placement. George C. Graham, '13, served as president of the Association from 1927 to 1929, when he was succeeded for a two-year term by Dr. S. S. Edmands, '99. Truman D. Hayes, '07, was elected president in 1931, arid reelected in 1932.

Devastating effects of the depression, into which the world was plunged in 1930, did not descend upon the Institute until two or three years later. In fact, the financial problem of the college during the six-year period of national distress was never acute. Retrenchments were necessary; very little money was available for new equipment, or even for ordinary maintenance; some retiring teachers were not replaced; but at no time was there a reduction in salaries of the staff.

Chief causes of reduced income were moderate losses in investments, largest of which was caused by the failure of a local bank, a falling off in investment income, and a reduction in tuition income, a consequence of shrinkage in enrollment. The class that entered in 1932 numbered 156, a close approximation to the number advocated in the faculty plan. In 1933, however, the freshman registration dropped to 130, causing the administration much alarm. That was the low point, for larger classes were admitted beginning in 1934. The smallest total enrollment of this period was 556 in 1933.

In every year between 1931 and 1936, despite the business depression, the Institute received gifts or bequests that increased the total of its endowment. Largest of these was $87,800 from the estate of Mrs. Leonard P. Kinnicutt. This

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Last Modified: Fri Jul 30 11:15:25 EDT 1999