During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Lucas Ainsworth.

Two women overlook the construction of the Chemistry Building, now Gilbert Hall, 1938.^[i]

Introduction

As World War II escalated, more and more resources were required from the home front, leading to sacrifices needing to be made. Colleges and universities across the United States were hotbeds for social and economic changes due to the war, with Oregon State College being no exception. Still a growing academic center, the college had aspirations to expand and build up its college campus, with new buildings and projects needing to be planned and constructed. However, wartime reductions of labor and finances made these projects difficult to plan and even more difficult to build. Throughout this blog, we will explore evidence from a variety of sources, including the President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, that add clarity as to what challenges Oregon State College (OSC) faced when planning out building programs for years following the outbreak of war in Europe.

Document Description

A memo promoted and adopted by the Wage and Hour Commission of the State of Oregon on May 23, 1941 mandated a list of orders that all firms, corporations, and private entities, including Oregon State College, must adhere to.^[ii] These orders outlined building and occupational conditions that employers of women and minors must meet, including the availability of drinking water, adequate lighting, heat, and general cleanliness. The order ends with a declaration that any individual, firm, or corporation that is found to have disobeyed the mandate would be charged with a misdemeanor and fined no less than $25 and no more than $100 (roughly $540 and $2,150, respectively, in modern US dollars). This document was typed and printed on bright pink paper, ensuring it would be seen and read, as it was meant to be displayed publicly in spaces where workers would gather.^[iii] While the document itself does not directly reference Oregon State College, it provided a list of mandates that the college would have to comply with should they hire any women as employees. With much of the male population being drafted into the war, this was a likely scenario. Additionally, the order would impact any future building plans, as it functions as a new building code that subsequent projects would have to adhere to.

Snell Hall under construction, circa 1942.^[iv]

The Broader Issue

The 1941 memo from the Wage and Hour Commission highlights the changes made to construction projects following the outbreak of war in Europe. At the time the previously discussed memo was published, the United States had not yet entered the war, but economic changes to labor and housing were impacting agricultural workers and minorities looking for housing.^[v] After the U.S. entered the war, construction projects slowed due to a lack of funding and/or a lack of labor. Many buildings took much longer to complete, with several being started during the war but not being completed until well after.^[vi] These impacts left colleges like OSC with a decision: what projects should be completed—and which would be left on the cutting room floor?

Connection to OSU History

Due to limited resources during WWII, OSC had to shelve several campus projects that were initially planned and approved. On October 20th, 1943, a memo from the Oregon State System of Higher Education (OSSHE) was sent to several Oregon college presidents requesting that each institution provide a list of building projects planned for the following ten years. The OSSHE asked colleges to list the cost, status, site, and finances of each project. The OSSHE would then review and approve the proposals.^[vii] Additionally, a November 9, 1943 letter from OSC President August LeRoy Strand to the college deans passed along the request and acknowledged the time constraints, as the building program was due back to the board by December of that year.^[viii] Importantly, Strand mentioned that any future project not included on the list would have to be brought to his office and the Campus Plan Committee. On November 23, 1943, landscape architect Arthur. L. Peck and architect L.N. Traver listed proposed building projects, including a social science building and the president’s residence.^[ix] The short timeframe of the OSSHE request and the acknowledgement of the difficulties in getting this list completed suggest that budgets for construction projects were running thin and that projects deemed unnecessary or overly expensive were potentially at risk of being denied. 

Notably missing from the proposal brought to President Strand were plans for a Naval ROTC building, which letters from Mr. Traver and Naval Captain J. Carey discussed in December 1945. These letters state that preliminary plans for the NROTC building/Naval Sciences Building were cleared by the naval and architectural offices and now needed presidential approval, as directed by the 1943 memo from President Strand.^[x] The blueprints and sketches of the building’s exterior show how finalized these plans were, with classrooms, offices, and military equipment storage all present.^[xi] However, this building was never built, potentially due to limited budgets during wartime and because the project was not included in the initial ten-year plan requested by the OSSHE. As stated in William Robbins’ chapter, “the State Board of Higher Education reduced the system’s budget by $141,000 for the 1944–1945 biennium” due to declining enrollment, meaning fewer funds were available for construction projects.^[xii] As the previously mentioned building projects were already submitted in the years prior, funds were not allocated for future projects, resulting in the Naval Sciences building never breaking ground. This alludes to a greater issue within higher education: decreased budgets led to fewer funds available for campus projects and maintenance.

Floorplan for planned Naval ROTC building, 1945.^[xiii]

National Context      

OSC was not the only college in the nation dealing with labor shortages and/or forced changes to previously established building programs. Across the U.S., colleges and universities faced depleted capital funds for campus projects. In his chapter about WWII’s effect on higher education, V.R. Cardozier states that the expenditures for building programs were “virtually halted on most campuses during the war not only because of lack of money but due to unavailability of materials, shortage of labor, and in recognition of the need to conserve resources.”^[xiv] Most importantly, between 1941 and 1943, administrators from some 130 colleges reported that expenses for construction and capital equipment faced a reduction of nearly 70%, with additional reductions in funds for athletics, instructional salaries, and library purchases.^[xv] Military training during the war resulted in reduced funds for less-essential expenditures. The reduction of enrollment and tuition income led to decreased funds for these projects.^[xvi] Michael Bezilla’s 1991 article from the Penn State Libraries outlines how Penn undertook expansion in a budget-conservative manner. An influx of enrollment after the war led to the need for more residence halls and campus facilities, but wartime expenses depleted budgets.^[xvii]

In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, otherwise known as the G.I. Bill. This law sought to prepare veterans for civilian life and made many buildings available for housing, which allowed for depleted budgets to be saved for other areas.^[xviii] OSC felt these challenges as well, where reduced budgets called for new plans for construction and campus facilities.

Picketing outside the Sackett Hall construction site protesting the unfair conditions and expectations, 1947.^[xix]

Conclusion

To conclude, Oregon State College, as well as other institutions of higher education around the nation, faced financial and labor shortages during the Second World War. These reductions in resources led to the delaying or cancelling of construction projects, as well as causing preapproved projects to take much longer. Universities had much to adjust to following the war escalating and eventually ending, including preparing for veterans to return from war as well as adjusting existing construction projects. Because of requests from the board of education and resource management, some projects, including OSC’s planned NROTC building, never had the chance to break ground.

Works Cited

Bezilla, Michael, “Challenges of the Post-War Era” in Penn State: An Illustrated History. Penn State Special Collections Libraries, Penn State University Press, 1991

Cardozier, V.R., Colleges and Universities in WWII, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993

Historical Images of Oregon State University, Oregon State University. “Picketing adjacent to the Sackett Hall construction site”, 1947. Oregon Digital. Accessed 2025-02-15. https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df719c417

Historical Images of Oregon State University, Oregon State University. “Snell Hall under construction” Oregon Digital. Accessed 2025-02-15. https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df72s7363

OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University. “Chemistry Building (Gilbert Hall)”, 1938. Oregon Digital. Accessed 2025-02-15. https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df70d2774

OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University. “President’s Office General Subject File, Physical Plant – Buildings, Saddle horse barn, 1941” Oregon Digital. Accessed 2025-02-15. https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/5x21th01w

OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University. “President’s Office General Subject File, War Activities, Office of coordinator, 1942” Oregon Digital. Accessed 2025-02-15. https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/g445cf551

President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, “Memo from Oregon State System of Higher Education to Oregon College Presidents”, RG 013-SG 11, 174 https://oregonstate.app.box.com/file/1781119845278 

President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, “Letter from President Strand to Deans of Oregon State College”, RG 013-SG 11, 175 https://oregonstate.app.box.com/file/1781119845278

President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, “Building Program Proposals”, RG 013-SG 11, 176-180 https://oregonstate.app.box.com/file/1781119845278 

President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, “Naval Sciences Building Plans”, RG 013-SG 11, 334-343 https://oregonstate.app.box.com/file/1781119845278 

President’s Office General Subject File, Physical Plant, Building program, 1940-1941, 26 https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/m900nv99b 

Robbins, William, “Wartime: 1938-1950,” in The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University (2017), 145-169

Springate, Megan E., The American Home Front During World War II: The Economy, National Park Service, last updated February 2025

Wage and Hour Commission Order No. 16,  May 23, 1941. OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center, Oregon State University. RG 193

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^[i]  “Chemistry Building (Gilbert Hall),” 1938, OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC), Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df70d2774 

^[ii] Wage and Hour Commission Order No. 16,  May 23, 1941,  SCARC, RG 193, Buildings.

^[iii] Wage and Hour Commission Order No. 16, SCARC, RG 193, Buildings.

^[iv] “Snell Hall under construction,” 1942, Historical Images of Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df72s7363

^[v] Megan E. Springate, “The American Home Front During World War II: The Economy,” National Park Service, last updated February 2025

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/wwii-american-home-front-economy.htm

^[vi] “Snell Hall under construction.”

^[vii] “Memo from Oregon State System of Higher Education to Oregon College Presidents,”1943, SCARC, President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, RG 013-SG 11, 174.

^[viii] “Letter from President Strand to Deans of Oregon State College,” 1943, SCARC, President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, RG 013-SG 11, 175.

^[ix] “Building Program Proposals,” 1943, SCARC, President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, RG 013-SG 11, 176-180.

^[x] “Navy ROTC Building (Not Built),” SCARC, RG 193, Buildings.

^[xi] “Naval Sciences Building Plans,” 1945, SCARC, President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, RG 013-SG 11, 334-343.

^[xii] William Robbins, The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University (Oregon State University Press, 2017), 164-167.

^[xiii] “Naval Sciences Building Plans,” 1945, SCARC, President’s Office General Subject and Correspondence Files, RG 013-SG 11, 334-343.

^[xiv] V.R. Cardozier, Colleges and Universities in WWII (Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993), 213.

^[xv] Cardozier, Colleges and Universities in WWII, 214.

^[xvi] Ibid., 213.

^[xvii] Michael Bezilla, “Challenges of the Post-War Era” in Penn State: An Illustrated History, Penn State Special Collections Libraries, Penn State University Press, 1991, https://libraries.psu.edu/about/collections/penn-state-university-park-campus-history-collection/penn-state-illustrated-1

^[xviii] Michael Bezilla, “Challenges of the Post-War Era.”

^[xix] “Picketing adjacent to the Sackett Hall construction site,” 1947, Historical Images of Oregon State University, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df719c417

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Logan Bledsoe

Many Oregon State College (OSC) alumni and students gave up their education and even their lives to serve in WWII. These young men and women faced all the horrific trials and tribulations that WWII had to offer, among the worst being the Japanese-perpetrated Bataan Death March. Captain Howard H. Amos, an OSC alumni, was one among thousands of men marched to the Japanese death camp, or their deaths.

Captain Amos received a degree in Chemical Engineering from Oregon State University in 1940 and subsequently joined the U.S. Army as a field artillery officer on July 1st, 1940. After the American loss at Bataan, Captain Amos and his brothers in arms were forcibly marched and tortured in the Bataan Death March. Six weeks after the death march concluded, Captain Amos succumbed to his maltreatment in Japanese captivity.^[i]

The Oregon State Archives contain a record of Amos’s War Service Record, as OSC tried to keep a comprehensive record of students and faculty who served during WWII. This document was also shared with Amos’s parents. Attached to the document is a newspaper clipping containing his obituary. The newspaper clipping was an obituary and a tribute to his life and service. Captain Amos’s date of death is listed in his Oregon State University (OSU) War Service Record as June 27, 1942, notified by the War Department, Office of Adjutant General. His OSU War Service Record is a typed military format document and filled in by hand in pen by an unknown administrator at OSC. The newspaper clipping is reproduced from the original. Despite the age of his original War Service Record, it is in fairly good condition with slight bending of the sides of the paper, and yellowing. This document was archived by Luther S. Cressman as part of OSC’s Oregon State College History of World War II in the Special Collections & Archives Center (hereafter SCARC), for the purpose of commemorating OSC’s wartime history and contributions to the war effort on an individual community member basis.

The impact of WWII on the student population of The Oregon State College (OSC) proved to be dynamic and multifaceted in nature, beyond the deaths of singular students in war, and on to the more personal, social, and educational losses of the OSC community. Captain Amos’ story serves as a severe example of the temporary loss of an OSC community member, which given the lethality of WWII, often had the potential to be a permanent loss for the community.

A picture of the Cadet Corps. Published by the Agricultural College on December 9, 1921. This corps, like other pre-military programs, would become the bedrock for training in universities and indoctrination into the armed services with the onset of WWII.^[ii]

The Bataan Death March, both directly or indirectly, affected OSU students, faculty and Alumni who served. The Battle of Bataan lasted from January to April 1942, and the subsequent American defeat prior to the Bataan Death March considerably dampened American morale, which was naively optimistic after Pearl Harbor. This is due to the American people’s enthusiasm to quickly strike a blow against the Empire of Japan which is reflected in the newspapers of OSC and the greater news establishments of the time. Even as Bataan and its surrounding areas were crumbling under the weight of the Japanese offensive, The Daily Barometer, OSC’s daily student newspaper, continued to publish updates on the second page, depicting the battle as a hard fought stalemate.^[iii] These news stories from The Daily Barometer offer a stark contrast to the realities on the ground. Pending the devastating loss, the attitude of the time was briefly reflected on by The Daily Barometer, and then promptly summarized as a slight delay of victory rather than the foreboding specter of reality that would come to epitomize the war in the Pacific.^[iv] Approximately 35 OSU students and faculty were summarily killed in the Battle of Bataan and its encompassing engagements, or taken as POWs. Indicative of the Japanese Empires attitude towards POWs, which was one of disdain and non-cooperativity towards any of its adversaries, many soldiers and military personnel taken prisoner were listed as MIA.^[v] This included members of the Oregon State University community who joined the military at the onset of WWII.^[vi]

There was a period of shock at this time, as Americans, and more specifically the OSU community, were deeply involved in supporting the war effort. There was eventually a piece in The Oregon Stater, published in June 1942, that listed approximately 35 OSC community members who were missing.^[vii] For the OSC community, these losses must have been more personal, beyond a warring nation tasting its first real even-sided defeat, it would bring the reality of the war home far more personally than Pearl Harbor had. As OSC community members read the front pages of popular newspapers littered with anything but good news of the war, they also grappled with the personal loss of their peers, as reflected by The Evening Herald April 9, 1942, published in Klamath Falls, Oregon stating, “…We have known from the beginning that no other end was possible. We have been merely waiting.”^[viii]

OSC students taking the Oath of Service to be sworn in as new cadets ca. 1942. Many students at many different universities would be doing the same thing in 1942.^[ix]

While many OSC students went missing or perished early on in the war, some Oregon State College community members who were lucky enough to survive such brutal defeats ended up dying in Japanese captivity later on in the war. As the war progressed, it slowly robbed Oregon State College of the great generation of men who could have returned home after the war to continue their education. One of these survivors was First Lieutenant Harry Burton Black who died in Fukuoka Military Prison Camp on the Island of Honshu, Japan on February 11th, 1945. An all too familiar theme, the American Military listed First Lieutenant Black as MIA until his death was confirmed by the Japanese Government months after his death on September 9th, 1945.^[x] Unfortunately, Lieutenant Black’s experience was not an isolated incident, men like him from every department at Oregon State College joined the service in their hundreds. Men like Captain Amos and Lieutenant Black are just a few of the OSC community members who would leave OSC to serve their country. Their absence alone would drastically affect the college.

The population of the College of Liberal Arts alone went down by almost one thousand students in 1941-1942 due to America’s silent preparation for the war.^[xi] From the years of 1942-1943 to 1943-1944, the ratio of men to women students went from 5:3 to 1:3.^[xii] Nationally, the ratio of male to female undergraduates approximately followed this trend, but there was a steady decline that started from 1942 onwards.^[xiii] The records of the OSC Alumni Association indicate an official still-actively-growing list of 5,000 men in service, out of an approximate estimate of 8,500 men in total in their service in 1944.^[xiv] This means that approximately 3500 men still had yet to be officially registered with the OSC Alumni Association records. Oregon State faculty and staff were no different in their commitment to serve their country, with 89 men and 8 women getting approved for leaves of absence for military service from 1940-1946.^[xv] The Oregon State College Community lost many members temporarily in their service to the nation at war, and in grave cases, permanently.

ROTC Students of Third Detachment at “Retreat” next to Strand Hall. Although this picture was taken before World War II, it is a shining example of the military programs at OSC who had helped take on the challenge of preparing OSC for war.^[xvi]

Just like at Oregon State College, the pull of young men and women from universities to take part in the fight of WWII was felt all throughout American universities. Higher education institutions were the most highly affected branch of education, more than any other branch in the American education system.^[xvii] The U.S., at this time, grappled with the issue of young men in college, and how and when they would enter service to fill the growing ranks of the U.S. military as it gathered steam for the years ahead. Originally the U.S. government developed a rushed plan to give occupational deferments to college students so they could continue their education before entering military service. Unfortunately, this led to shortages in manpower across the military in varying fields, which would then be filled with young men who were still continuing their college education.^[xviii] Students and universities knew that selective service was just over the horizon, regardless of their current enrollment status, and universities like the University of Virginia offered accelerated courses to try to quickly graduate their students before leaving for war.^[xix] The accelerated courses served a double purpose, as this also freed up students’ time to participate in pre-military programs provided by the universities, or by ever expanding military programs already on campus^[xx] During this time, campus life, as well as the individual students’ day-to-day activities changed almost in every aspect, as even the education they were receiving was slightly and afterthought, as their primary focus was now inevitable wartime service.

WWII affected everyone in the United States, and many college students would never return to higher education again because of the war and its consequences for them. For the universities of this time, one would be hard pressed to find another group of entities who were as severely affected by the onset of WWII, and whose community members would be directly affected as well. Not only did the sudden absence of thousands of men and women from the college drastically affect enrollment and campus life, but their sacrifices would leave holes in the OSC community for decades to come.

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^[i] Luther S. Cressman, Howard Amos Service Record, 1944, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC), Oregon State College History of World War II project records, Box 01 SC 33 03 02 11.

^[ii] “History of the Military Department,” Oregon State Agricultural College Pamphlet, 7, stamped December 9, 1921, SCARC, Memorabilia Collection, Box 106, Folder 17.

^[iii] “Japs Concentrate on Pany,” Oregon State Barometer, April 25, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71p741f.

^[iv] Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University, Oregon State Barometer, April 10, 1942,” Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71p7316.  

^[v] “Listed Among the Missing,” Oregon Stater, June 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71bk924.

^[vi] “Listed Among the Missing.”

^[vii]  “Listed Among the Missing.”  

^[viii] “Bataan Defenses Finally Fall,” The Evening Herald, April 9, 1942, Historic Oregon Newspapers, https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn99063812/1942-04-09/ed-1/seq-1/#words=Bataan. 

^[ix] “ASTP and Navy V-12 Program swearing in ceremony, circa 1942,”Oregon State College History of World War II Project Records, Military Photographs (P 002), Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df71zj280.

^[x] Oregon State College history of World War II project record, 1944, Box 01 SC 33 03 02 11, MSS OSCWW2.

^[xi] “Ratio of Male to Female Students at OSC 1940-1944,” SCARC, Annual and biennial reports, Office of the President, Box 09 RG 013 – SG 12, Box 09 SC 43 02 04 20.

^[xii] “Ratio of Male to Female Students at OSC 1940-1944,” SCARC, Annual and biennial reports, Office of the President, Box 09 RG 013 – SG 12, Box 09 SC 43 02 04 20.

^[xiii] Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz, and Ilyana Kuziemko, “The Homecoming of American College Women: The Reversal of the College Gender Gap,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, no. 4 (2006): 133, https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Fjep.20.4.133&fbclid=IwAR2YgNWGj5pMpZpEpG5a97ahef4Dwi8Wk7rUpLqqRGPMqwOGOnJYmGvcLys.

^[xiv] “Military Records at Office Of Alumni Association,” SCARC, Oregon State College history of World War II project record, 1944, Box 01. 

^[xv] “Ratio of Male to Female Students at OSC 1940-1944.”

^[xvi] “Oregon Agricultural College, Education for Enlisted Men,” December 15, 1918, SCARC, Memorabilia Collection, Box 106, folder 17.

^[xvii] I. L. Kandel, The Impact of the War Upon American Education (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948), 123.

^[xviii] Kandel, The Impact of the War Upon American Education, 123.

^[xix] Jennings L. Wagoner and Robert L. Baxter, Jr.,“Higher Education Goes to War: The University of Virginia’s Response to World War II,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 100, no. 3 (1992): 404, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4249294?casa_token=nGrQ7uf5ndAAAAAA%3AN128Mv94tKlGmPT8VvizaAUDL1JcZQfNJ5Q7h1VPhv-TPtHNvbWEDPXidF5g-nFj9uBpJlzzuJZTSX4oWMszTgkUm6wk5HCuszvBttLSLvA794j7NVY.

^[xx] Wagoner, “Higher Education Goes to War,” 407.

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Kelly Tabel

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, which resulted in the United States’ declaration of war on Japan. After the attack, the government and other American citizens grew suspicious of Japanese Americans, believing they were engaged in espionage. Two months later on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which authorized the relocation or internment of Japanese American citizens on the West Coast. Executive Order 9066 designated the western portions of Washington, Oregon, and California as the Western Defense Command – an active military area. Nobody suspected of espionage could be in an active war zone, causing the forced relocation of over 120,000 Japanese Americans. This included both Issei, meaning the first generation of Japanese immigrants to the U.S., and Nisei, the second generation of Japanese ancestry born in the U.S., citizens by birthright.^[i] This order affected Japanese Americans throughout the West, with 70,000 of the 120,000 evacuees being American citizens.^[ii] With no direct charges against Japanese Americans, there could be no appeal, causing Japanese Americans to lose their homes, property, jobs, businesses, and opportunities for an education. This order also imposed hardship on all Japanese American university students attending schools in the Western Defense Command, including those at Oregon State College (OSC).

In the fall of 1941, thirty-eight Japanese students were enrolled at OSC, with a majority of them being from Oregon. Only two had been born in Japan.^[iii] On December 11, 1941, four days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, thirty-six students of Japanese descent at OSC signed a letter to the acting President of OSC, F.A. Gilfillan, stating, ​​“… we the undersigned American citizens of Japanese ancestry desire to express to you, our College President, our unswerving loyalty to our country, the United States of America, and to all her institutions.”^[iv] It is likely that after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese American students at OSC faced some level of fear, which motivated them to sign a letter pledging their loyalty to their country and OSC. Their fears were soon a reality with Executive Order 9066 and the War Relocation Authority (WRA), a federal agency created in 1942 that cared for the Japanese Americans removed from the West Coast and placed in internment camps.^[v] On April 2, 1942, OSC President Gilfillan addressed a letter to all Japanese American students concerning their status at the college. The letter stated, “‘American-born Japanese students as well as all aliens will only be allowed to remain in school until such time as evacuation is announced by the Commanding General. The exact time is not known but will be in the near future.’”^[vi] The fears students had addressed in their December letter were becoming true. Due to their ancestry, they were being stripped of their education and their freedoms. Sam Naito, who was forced to abandon his studies at OSC due to Executive Order 9066, later described it as “‘the most devastating feeling I ever had.’”^[vii]

A May 1942 Barometer article, Oregon State College’s student newspaper, addresses the status of Japanese American students at OSC to the students and the public. A short article published on the paper’s second page, states, “Oregon State students affected by the new order may, by fast work, finish the term, for the evacuation will not begin until next Monday and will be over by noon Wednesday, June 3.”^[viii] While Japanese American students were granted the ability to finish the school year by OSC, the evacuation orders still stood as the Western Defense Command included Corvallis. With this being on the second page of the paper, we can conclude that for many students, this was not a priority or a major issue, with little documented backlash or protest from OSC.

The removal of Japanese American students from their established institutions in the West resulted in the creation of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council (NJASRC). NJASRC was a branch under the WRA that helped resettle Japanese American evacuees and college students from the West to colleges in the Midwest and East Coast. NJARSC worked with students, families, private organizations, government agencies, colleges, and the larger Japanese American community.^[ix] Two students from OSC, Tony Takashiman and Jack Kato, both Americans of Japanese ancestry, received permission from OSC executive secretary TP Cramer to transfer to the University of Utah, if they were permitted travel permits.^[x] This was an opportunity that many Japanese American students took because they were no longer permitted to attend school in the Western Defense Command and forced by the government to reside within the internment camps, many not having anywhere else to go as their homes, belongings, and everything they once knew existed in the West.

University and college leaders throughout the West Coast began to discuss with each other what the next steps should be for their Japanese American students, and these conversations included OSC administrators. After Executive Order 9066, Japanese American students at OSC and other institutions throughout the West were still enrolled. However, on April 22, 1942, the Oregon State System of Higher Education sent a letter to President Gilfillan addressing the fact that California institutions had begun to gather numbers in regards to the enrollment of Japanese American students and asking OSC to do the same.^[xi] The relocation of Japanese American students became a growing topic within institutions across the West Coast, as this was considered an impending issue. OSC received a letter from the University of Washington addressing the goals of the Student Relocation Committee that they needed to adhere to, “One of our chief functions, as I understand it, will be to accumulate information about each of the students for the Army and the institutions to which they transfer. Evacuation of the Nissei college students in Oregon and Washington is imminent.”^[xii] Schools in Washington, Oregon, and California began to collaborate to collect information on their students and explore colleges willing to accept transfer students. It was important for the schools throughout the West to be in contact with each other to share as much helpful information as possible for a safe relocation for the students, but also to follow the looming demand of Executive Order 9066.

With the NJARSC’s help, many Japanese American students succeeded in transferring to new universities. In October 1944, a brief article in the New York Times addressed the topic of Japanese American students. It explained that the college population of Japanese Americans had returned to the same rates as before Pearl Harbor, with 2,500 Japanese American students enrolled in 550 colleges across the country, most of them being young evacuees who desired college training after leaving the assembly centers.^[xiii] However, receptivity to Japanese American students varied across the country. For example, Indiana University denied Japanese American students in June 1942 allegedly due to the uncertain military status of southern Indiana, where the university is located. However, in a town hall meeting discussing the topic, responses diverged, with one attendee asserting, “‘Can’t be done – this is war!’”^[xiv] With the differing receptiveness to Japanese American students across the country, a new pressure for Japanese American students emerged as more eyes were on them than ever.

With Japanese American Students transferring to universities across the country, specifically the Midwest and East Coast, the NJASRC stressed the importance of these students being “ambassadors of goodwill.”^[xv] Japanese American students were arriving at new colleges and communities that may have been unfamiliar with Japanese Americans. To make an excellent impression, the students were pressured to be involved and receive good grades. It was believed this would help create a safe environment for Japanese Americans and help create a safe postwar period.^[xvi] In July 1942, an editorial in the Santa Anita Peacemaker, details the scrutiny these students experienced, “Upon their scholarship, their conduct, their thoughts, their sense of humor, their adaptability, will rest the verdict of the rest of the country as to whether Japanese Americans are true Americans.”^[xvii] With the scrutiny Japanese American students were under, they took the role of being an “ambassador of goodwill” seriously. For example, Kenji Okuda, who had been a student at the University of Washington, transferred to Oberlin University in Ohio, where he was elected student body President.^[xviii] Another example is Kaz Tada, who attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, played on the basketball team, and was editor of the student paper.^[xix]

The relocation of Japanese American students to the Midwest and East Coast had an impact on individuals throughout these regions. Ruth Nomura Tanbara, whose parents were from Japan, states, “‘The dispersal of the Japanese American community from the West Coast to the Midwest and East was a ‘blessing in disguise.’ It broadened our knowledge of the United States to get away from the ghettos of the West. It also widened educational opportunities for the Japanese American students.’”^[xx] She believes that this opportunity expanded opportunities for many who would have never left the West. Yoshiteru Marukami, who attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota during World War II and then graduated, chose to stay in Northfield where he taught choir at the high school and raised his family. ^[xxi] The relocation of Japanese American students created a lasting impact on regions within the United States and the students themselves. The students’ perseverance and resolve after Executive Order 9066 helped ease the country into a post-war period; their contribution and what they were forced to endure cannot go unnoticed.

With the help of the NJARSC, these Japanese American students broadened the viewpoints of Americans, bringing diversity to new places and helping everyone across the country acclimate for a postwar period. This is a difficult period of history to examine, but it is important, as it influenced our country and is a grim reminder of what the government is capable of. During my research, I could not find many secondary sources relating to Japanese American students during WWII. Yet it is essential that we discuss this history so that it can be brought forward and heard. This history is integrated throughout the West Coast and Western universities/institutions, including OSC, leaving an impact for many today.

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^[i] “Executive Order 9066: Resulting in Japanese-American Incarceration (1942),” National Archives,  https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066

^[ii] “Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II,” National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation

^[iii]  “List of Japanese Students – Fall Term 1941, 1941,” Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724m06c

^[iv] “Letter to the President from Japanese American Students,” December 11, 1941, OSU’s WWII Era Japanese American Students Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724m117

^[v] “War Relocation Authority,” Densho Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/War_Relocation_Authority/ 

^[vi] “Official Letter to All Japanese American Students,” April 2, 1942, Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k98w

^[vii] Ian Halcomb, “Oregon internees to get honorary degrees,” High Country News, May 11, 2007, https://www.hcn.org/articles/oregon-internees-to-get-honorary-degrees/

^[viii] “Japanese Are Ordered From 11 Counties,” May 26,1942, OSU Special Collections & Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC), Oregon State University (OSU), Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k72r

^[ix] “National Japanese American Relocation Council”, Densho Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.densho.org/War_Relocation_Authority/

^[x] “Telegram Regarding Student Transfer,” May 20, 1942, Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k81q

^[xi]  “Letter from the Oregon State System of Higher Education,” April 22, 1942, Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k90p

^[xii] “Letter Regarding the Northwest College Personnel Association Student Relocation Committee,” May 5, 1942, Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k83

^[xiii]  “2,500 Japanese American Studying in 550 Colleges,” October 29, 1944, New York Times, 101, https://nyti.ms/3CYSq5e

^[xiv] Katie Martin, “‘Can’t be done–This is war!’: The Admission of Japanese Students During World War II,” Indiana University Bloomington Libraries Blog, April 18, 2016, https://blogs.libraries.indiana.edu/iubarchives/2016/04/18/japanesewwii/

^[xv] Allan W. Austin, From Concentration Camp to Campus: Japanese American Students and World War II (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004), 3.

^[xvi]  Austin, From Concentration Camp to Campus, 2.

^[xvii]  “Students Bear a Great Burden,” July 11, 1942, Santa Anita Peacemaker, 6, https://cdm16855.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16855coll4/id/10370 

^[xviii]  “Courage and Compassion: Student Biographies.” Oberlin College and Conservatory, 28 July 2022,www.oberlin.edu/courage-and-compassion-student-biographies.   

^[xix] Taylor Harwood, ““It feels mighty good to go to classes again”: Experiences of Japanese American College Students in the Midwest During World War II.” in a History Senior Seminar (May 2015) 13. https://tcharwood.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/history-senior-project.pdf

^[xx] Harwood, Taylor. ““It feels mighty good to go to classes again,” 7.

^[xxi] Harwood, Taylor. ““It feels mighty good to go to classes again,” 20.

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Ian Busby

The demands of the United States’ war effort broadly reduced male college enrollment during WWII. Science and engineering were both part of a push and pull between a need for soldiers and a need for technically trained individuals for other aspects of the war effort. Due to the School of Science structure, changes in curriculum, and losses in faculty, the war led to increasingly freshman and sophomore dominated sciences at Oregon State College (OSC). General catalogs provide key information on both enrollment and courses at OSC, and are a critical resource when investigating trends in enrollment.

The summary of enrollment and degrees in the 1943-44 Oregon State College General Catalogue helps describe student focuses going into the height of wartime. The Oregon State Board of Higher Education published the catalogue in August 1943 to inform incoming and on-going students of the available degrees and courses. Of particular interest are pages 378 and 379, which detail the demographics and numbers for enrollment in the previous academic year of 1942-43. In the catalogue, OSC splits curriculum primarily between professional schools and liberal arts and sciences. Upper division coursework in the school of science is divided into the subjects of General Science, Bacteriology, Botany, Chemistry, Entomology, Geology, Mathematics, Physics, Zoology, nursing education, and science education, the last two not explicitly shown in Figure 1.^[i] This catalogue is neatly typeset, and is clearly mass-produced. At nearly four hundred pages, the catalogue is quite large. It appears to be in good condition, and presumably due to its mass-produced nature a number are still in existence. In 1942-43, there was a total enrollment of 709 Lower division students in the Liberal Arts and Sciences and only 91 total students in the upper division.^[ii] That said, only 421 students are enrolled in lower division science courses. This means that the ratio of upper division to lower division science students is less than one to four, in other words for every four lower division students there is less than one upper division student.

It is first necessary to understand what the Lower Division was in order to contextualize its enrollment information. Established in 1932, the Lower Division and School of Science are recent additions to Oregon State College (OSC) as of the early 1940s.^[iii] Particularly, OSC President Francois Gilfillan in his 1941-42 Biennial report stated the goal of the Lower Division was to provide two years of generalized education, after which students focused on science would continue at OSC and those focused on the liberal arts would attend the University of Oregon.^[iv] The Lower Division was specifically connected with science; all students studying liberal arts or science would have spent their first two years in the Lower Division. This is confirmed in a 1944 advertisement for the college where OSC describes the Lower Division as a balanced set of classes for those studying liberal arts and sciences, with opportunities for students to test several different fields.^[v]  It seems that students of science would not choose a particular major until after completing two years of Lower Division study. This may seem like the current “Bacc core” system, however, this was isolated to the School of Science. For example, in the 1943-44 Catalog, a bachelor’s in Agriculture required freshman to take zoology, botany, astronomy, chemistry and English composition all from the Schools of Science and Liberal Arts.[vi] Most engineers on the other hand only have to take English composition and possibly general chemistry.[vii] At this point, aside from two years of required military instruction for all male students under age 26 and possibly English composition, there is appears to be no college wide general requirements like the modern “Bacc core” system. [viii]

The bottom-heavy enrollment in 1942-43 raises two questions. First, was the bottom-heavy enrollment a one-time occurrence, or did OSC consistently exhibit this sort of enrollment during WWII? Second, if OSC did consistently show bottom-heavy enrollment, why were so many more students enrolling in lower-level science courses?

 To answer the first question, this bottom-heavy enrollment indeed continues into the 1943-44 academic year. Enrollment data shows only 49 students combined across the various science majors and a comparably huge 303 students in the Lower Division sciences.^[ix] Comparing enrollment to the other six schools, Agriculture, Education, Engineering, Forestry, Home Economics, and Pharmacy, reveals that even prior to the war the School of Science was bottom heavy with about two upper-level students to every five lower-level students.^[x] The School of Science as well as Engineering both saw steady increases in enrollment until the 1943-44 and 1944-45 academic years, where there were large dips in enrollment across the board except in Home Economics, Pharmacy, and Education.^[xi] While not shown in Figure 3, near the end of the war, OSC appears to have removed Secretarial Science from the Professional Curricula and instead there was a new Division of Business and Industry.^[xii] Post war, most schools saw both an increase in total enrollment and in the ratio of upper level to lower-level students, while Education and Home Economics remained mostly steady in both metrics throughout the entire date range.^[xiii] This is likely due to the higher female enrollment in these fields, particularly in Home Economics. Full graphs of total enrollment, ratio of upper to lower-level enrollment, and enrollment by class can all be seen in detail by year in Figure 3. Broadly speaking, the School of Science had the most bottom-heavy enrollment of all the schools for a vast majority of the eleven-year span considered.

To answer the second question, the uniquely bottom-heavy enrollment in the School of Science was likely caused by a combination of the Lower Division Structure and war related changes. As already mentioned, the Lower Division was meant for a general education, so it is natural to expect a high enrollment compared to the upper-level majors. Students focusing on liberal arts likely would have still taken science courses boosting lower-level science enrollment. Other likely causes of this bottom-heaviness include open defense jobs which may have drawn students from completing their studies and moving on to the upper division. The February 23, 1943 edition of the Oregon State Barometer includes a call to students with at least two years of electrical engineering or physics to work as radio interception operators without completing their degrees.^[xiv] Jobs like this may have been quite a draw for students wanting to contribute to the war effort. The Lower Division also contained classes aimed at war time training. The proposed course changes for the 1944-45 academic year include a dropped Z215, “Practical Physiology for the Wartime Needs,” initially introduced to meet early war needs.^[xv] Such wartime classes likely created larger draws for students to enroll, even those not majoring in science. A lack of professors may also have affected upper division teaching. At least ten School of Science professors are listed as in war service, with several noted as needing replacements or departmental adjustments.^[xvi] This sentiment is echoed in the 1941-1942 Biennial Report where Gilfillan plainly states that as of 1942, thirteen School of Science staff had joined the war, and that “Their replacement presents a serious problem.”^[xvii] While a lack of staff could affect both lower and upper level courses, the upper levels would have been more technical and required more qualified staff. It is natural then to assume that this lack of faculty impacted upper-level enrollment disproportionately. Additionally, OSC may have shifted existing staff more towards the Lower Division where the higher enrollment meant higher demand, further contributing to the bottom-heaviness.

            Throughout the war, most of the different Schools at OSC experienced only moderate increases or decreases in enrollment until the 1943-44 academic year, where enrollment dropped drastically, followed by a sharp rise after the war. OSC was not unique in these aspects. V.R. Cardozier discusses enrollment of state universities in the book Colleges and Universities in World War II, and specifically describes how Indiana University saw modest declines until 1943, when enrollment boomed due to army and navy programs.^[xviii] Indiana University’s enrollment trend matches much of what was seen at OSC, though OSC saw its enrollment in Science and Engineering rise before 1943 and drop sharply afterward. In a national sense, state universities appear to have hemorrhaged students the least during WWII due to, as Cardozier puts it, “the variety of training programs they could offer.”^[xix] That said, state universities often still saw large declines, with Berkeley’s and UCLA’s pre-war enrollment being reduced by more than half by the 1944-45 academic year. OSC wasn’t entirely immune either, and although there was growth especially in the School of Engineering early in the war, OSC’s enrollment decreased drastically in 1943-44 and 1944-45. This early growth very well could have been influenced by the Army Specialized Training Unit (ASTP), with ASTP making up 381 of 3078 total male enrolled students in 1942-43 and 1614 of 2159 total enrolled male students in 1943-44.[xx]  While discussing the impact of WWII on California community colleges, Edward Gallagher describes the concerted effort for national defense, particularly how in California junior colleges “Courses were structured to meet war needs and their content emphasized military use.”^[xxi] The 1944 Serviceman’s Readjustment Act (henceforth G.I. bill) provided returning veterans free access to higher education, among other benefits. After the war, students at California community college largely enrolled in lower-level courses mirroring courses at universities, and most of the veteran students “planned to transfer to four-year institutions.”^[xxii] Lower-level classes once again emphasized preparation for upper-level coursework; in the case of the California community colleges this meant a transfer to universities and at OSC this meant moving on to specific School of Science majors or transferring to the University of Oregon for the humanities. Enrollment at OSC ballooned in the post WWII era, and this was mirrored nationally, with an increase from 1.5 million students pre-war to 2.3 million by 1947.^[xxiii] Ryan Skinnell argues that lower-level courses, particularly first-year composition, were instrumental. Writing skills allowed students, many of whom were returning G.I.s, to complete either two or four years and remain employable and acted as a selling point “come to college, learn to read and write so you can rejoin the workforce with state of the art, practical skills for the modern economy.”^[xxiv] This mirrors OSC’s Lower Division marketing that students could learn broad technical skills, with a 1944 advertisement stating “liberal education is combined with practical education in every professional school at Oregon State.”^[xxv] Altogether, the enrollment trends and course structure at OSC during and after WWII diverge little from institutions across the country.

            The OSC School of Science show freshman and sophomore dominated enrollment over a period from before to after WWII spanning eleven years. This bottom-heaviness is most prevalent at the height of the war, likely due to changes in curriculum for the war effort, a loss of faculty, and the structure of the Lower Division. Most of the other OSC schools demonstrated similar bottom-heaviness during the war, albeit typically to a less degree. Discussions from the OSC president, faculty war leave reports, and administrative council meeting minutes have all expanded these enrollment trends in science beyond just the numbers. OSC is broadly like the enrollment trends at other state institutions, but using specific enrollment data has revealed additional trends in enrollment lost when looking at just overall institution numbers. Not every School at OSC demonstrated the same behavior, and each was affected by the war in unique ways.

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^[i] “Oregon State College Catalog, 1943-44,” August 1943, Oregon Digital, Special Collections and Archives Research Center (Hereafter SCARC), Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, 3, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v93w.

^[ii] “College Catalog, 1943-44,” 378.

^[iii] Francois A. Gilfillan, “Biennial Report of Oregon State College, 1941-42,” 1942, 32,37, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon Digital,  https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71d395d.

^[iv] Francois A. Gilfillan, “Biennial Report,” 32.

^[v] “This is Oregon State, 1944,” 1944, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71cs65n, 14.

[vi] “Oregon State College Catalog, 1943-44,” 175.

[vii] “Oregon State College Catalog, 1943-44,” 264-268.

[viii] “Oregon State College Catalog, 1943-44,” 67-68, 339.

^[ix] “Oregon State College Students Enrolled, 1943-1944,” May 1944, Oregon Digital, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/qf85nc515, 45.

^[x] “Oregon State College Catalog, 1937-38,” April 1937, 457, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https:/oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v350; “Oregon State College Catalog”, 1938-39,” April 1938, 477, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v86g; “Oregon State College Catalog, 1939-40,” August 1939, 490, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v899; “Oregon State College Catalog, 1940-41,” July 1940, 497, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v902; “Oregon State College Degrees Conferred and Students Enrolled 1940-41,” July 1941, 70, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/1g05fc83z.

^[xi] “Oregon State College Degrees Conferred and Students Enrolled 1941-42,” October 1942, 69, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/0z708x48s; “Oregon State College Catalog, 1943-44,” August 1943, 378, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v93w; “Oregon State College Catalog, 1945-46,” June 1945, 409, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v87r; “Oregon State College Catalog, 1946-47,” April 1946, 405, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v856.

^[xii] “Oregon State College Catalog, 1945-46,” 407.

^[xiii] “Oregon State College Catalog, 1947-48,” March 1947, 414, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v84x; “Oregon State College Catalog, 1948-49,” March 1948, 424, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v82c; “Oregon State College Catalog, 1949-50,” 1949, 453, SCARC, Historical Publications of Oregon State University, Oregon State University General Catalogs, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v813.

^[xiv] Pat Glenn, “Scouting the Campuses,” February 23, 1943, Oregon State Barometer, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj53x.

^[xv] “Proposed Course Changes for 1944-45,” December 15, 1943, SCARC, Admin Council Records, Meeting minutes, Box-folder 2.4, 114.

^[xvi] “Full Time Staff in War Service,” October 8, 1942, SCARC, Oregon State College History of World War II Project Records, 1940-1947, List of Staff Granted Leaves, 1940-46, 4.

^[xvii] Francois A. Gilfillan, “Biennial Report,” 37.

^[xviii] V. R. Cardozier, Colleges and Universities in World War II (Praeger, 1993), 116.

^[xix] Cardozier, Colleges, 115-116.

[xx] “Oregon State Catalog, 1943-44,” 378;“Oregon State Catalog 1945-46,” 409.

^[xxi] Edward A. Gallagher, “Short-term military needs or long-term curricular reform? The impact of World War II on California Community Colleges,” Michigan Academician 36, no. 3 (2004): 302.

^[xxii] Gallagher, “Short-term military,” 306.

^[xxiii] Ryan Skinnell, “Enlisting Composition: How First-Year Composition Helped Reorient Higher Education in the GI Bill Era,” Journal of Veterans Studies 2, no. 1 (2017), 79.

^[xxiv] Skinnell, “Enlisting Composition,” 81.

^[xxv] “This is Oregon State, 1944,” 14.

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Emma Romeo

Oregon State College (OSC) played an active role in supporting the American Red Cross (ARC) during World War II, contributing significantly to the nation’s wartime relief efforts as the campus became a hub for Red Cross activities. Under the umbrella of the ARC, students organized fundraising events, participated in offered training programs, and volunteered for various service projects to aid the national effort and support American soldiers fighting overseas. Archival documents and wartime articles in the campus’s student newspaper, the Oregon State Barometer, reveal how much OSC students supported the American Red Cross’s wartime efforts, and how the student efforts helped to shape the home front during World War II.

Founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, the United States Government historically has tasked the American Red Cross with aiding in relief for victims of disaster or accidents, improving public health, developing nurses and other healthcare volunteers, and instructing the public in hygiene and first aid issues.^[i] Congress recognized the Red Cross in a 1900 charter that granted the independent, non-profit institution certain responsibilities in exchange for tax-exemptions, including the obligation to uphold the provisions of the Geneva conventions of 1864 and 1929  and to provide disaster relief domestically and abroad.^[ii] Furthermore, due to the connection between the organization and the federal government, beginning with Woodrow Wilson in 1913, the sitting President of the United States has served as the honorary Chairman of the Red Cross and is allowed de facto leadership of the organization’s functions.^[iii]

During WWII, the Red Cross and its numerous volunteers worked to provide aid to those affected with wartime suffering by providing hospital staff and trained nurses, producing emergency supplies such as bandages and surgical dressings, collecting donations of money,  scrap metal, and clothing, and operating training programs for nutrition, medical care, and water safety. The Red Cross expanded its wartime services by creating the Blood Donor Service Program in 1940, which collected blood from millions of donors for medical personnel to treat traumatic injuries on the war front.^[iv] During WWII, the Red Cross was the United States’ sole organizer in charge of collecting, testing, storing, and transporting whole blood, plasma, and serum to help soldiers overseas, often sent as dried plasma that could be rehydrated with water to be given to soldiers and did not require refrigeration.^[v] At the end of the war, the total amount of blood from 6.7 million volunteers was tallied at over 13 million pints.^[vi]

Along with aid through medical services, the ARC collected donations and raised funds on the home front starting in 1939 and continuing through the war. Similarly to what was done during WWI,  the ARC created War Funds and drives to gather donations sent to overseas military services as well as domestic communities, such as providing financial aid and volunteer services to families who had lost their main breadwinners to the war.^[vii] Volunteers and donations for the Red Cross soared during WWII, with the height of membership being in 1945 when the organization boasted 7.5 million volunteers and 39,000 paid staff, and the total donations collected by September 1945 amounting to more than $784 million. Nearly every family in the United States had a connection to the ARC services in some capacity, either by donating to the organization or being a recipient of its aid.^[viii]

Due to the rise of war-based activism and charity across the country, the ARC began to extend its chapters to university campuses starting in 1942. Before the establishment of an official chapter on a college campus, often high numbers of student volunteers were already hosting Red Cross-related activities to donate to the organization without being officially recognized as a member of the ARC. The national organization eventually included 187 universities in war-related or regular chapter activities through which students contributed to war fund campaigns, participated in volunteer services such as blood donation, and enrolled in training courses for first aid, nutrition, and water safety.^[ix]

On the Oregon State College (OSC) campus specifically, newspaper articles and yearbooks document student support for the American Red Cross during the war. Even before the establishment of OSC’s ARC chapter in October 1945, the War Council of Oregon State, a women-run group in charge of on-campus charity projects for the war effort, organized donations to the Red Cross, along with orchestrated service projects, raising funds for war bonds, and other charitable contributions.^[x] In collaboration with student government and the Associated Women’s Legislative Council (AWLC), the War Council encouraged students and faculty on-campus to donate funds to the war effort through Red Cross Week at OSC.^[xi] Red Cross Week started on Friday, February 20th, 1942, with the Associated Student Body of Oregon State College’s (ASOSC) Red Cross Committee overseeing the event. Over the course of this week, the OSC campus hosted festivities, including military speakers such as Col. William R. Scott, professor of military science and tactics, performers such as the OSC Glee Club and the college orchestra, as well as vesper services to raise money and awareness for the activities of the Red Cross both overseas and domestically.^[xii] Multiple articles and advertisements in the Oregon State Barometer strongly urged studentsto do their part by donating at least a dollar, and the newspaper highlighted student organizations who raised or donated the most money with written recognition on the cover page of the issue.^[xiii] The week concluded with the Nickel Hops, which was a donation-based dance held in the Memorial Union of OSC and generated the largest collected donation made by any organization.^[xiv] The final tally of money collected by OSC was $1300, adjusted for inflation to be roughly $25,000 raised by student organizations on campus.^[xv]

Because the Special Collections & Archives Research Center, OSU’s official archive, does not have extensive documentation about the Red Cross during the war, the Oregon State Barometer,  the daily newspaper, is the best source of information about the ARC during WWII. This student-published newspaper, written and edited by students to document important events and issues on campus and off, provides first-hand insight into the issues of the day, especially regarding WW2. Multiple articles document the role of the Red Cross on campus, which suggests the importance that newspaper editors placed on students’ participation in the organization’s war-related services, as it was viewed as paramount to supporting the Americans overseas. This is especially relevant in the numerous advertisements that newspaper published to encourage donations of funds, blood, especially apparent throughout Red Cross Week editions.

The Barometer writers frequently published persuasive arguments to attempt to draw student volunteers to the organization, an example being the October 3, 1944 edition of the paper, where numerous first page articles describe the functions of the Red Cross during the week, including surgical bandage rolling, weekly meetings, and availability of blood donation for interested students.^[xvi] These newspaper articles illustrate the deeply intertwined nature of the functions of Oregon State College and the war effort, and how home front charity and volunteering opportunities were viewed by the public as an important mission to help the war effort. Furthermore, it showed the attempt at balancing traditional college life with the stress of an active war.

Numerous volunteer opportunities existed on Oregon State College’s (OSC) campus during World War II, with one of the largest contributors to the home front war effort being the Red Cross. Although the Red Cross did not establish an official chapter at OSC until after the war, the university and organization did work closely together during the war to offer several key training programs on campus, as seen in OSC’s offering instructional programs for students, including water safety courses and surgical dressing folding.^[xvii] The Red Cross also worked with OSC to expand the first aid courses students could take through the university to acquire Red Cross certification and learn first aid on real patients within a controlled environment. Beginning in the 1940-41 school year, students from any major or school at OSC could take PE 358 or PE 359 through the university to earn training in emergency medicine, which could be used for future work and volunteer opportunities through the Red Cross after graduation from OSC.^[xviii]

The presence of the Red Cross on OSC’s campus did not go unnoticed by the National Red Cross Organization, and due to ample student service to the charity throughout the war effort, the Red Cross granted Oregon State an official charter on October 4, 1945, thereby making OSC a recognized member of the National Red Cross community.^[xix] Continuing service to the organization, the newly created chapter continued to host services including blood donations, with thirty students a month donating blood to help soldiers in 1945.^[xx] Members also organized participation in more artistic ventures, including collecting donations of knitted afghan squares to make blankets for hospital wards, creating scrapbook collections, and giving overseas servicemen donations to remind them of home and maintain morale.^[xxi]

The American Red Cross played an integral role in the World War II home front effort by providing essential medical training and aid, administering disaster relief services, and organizing and promoting widespread volunteer and donation campaigns in communities throughout the United States. Oregon State College’s connection to the war effort demonstrates how universities were a key contributor to this effort, with students actively participating in Red Cross activities, raising funds, donating blood, and participating in training programs. Furthermore, the creation of official Red Cross chapters on college campuses during the war marked a formalization of student contributions to the larger national cause. The legacy of these efforts can be seen in the continued influence of the American Red Cross and its lasting relationship with academic institutions like Oregon State, which, to this day, hosts one of the largest blood drives in the Pacific Northwest, proving how local contributions have a documented impact on home front efforts during periods of national emergency.^[xxii]

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^[i] Foster Rhea Dulles, The American Red Cross: A History (Harper and Brothers, 1950): 15-16; Laszlo Ledermann, “The International Organization of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies,” The American Journal of International Law 42, no. 3 (1948): 637, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2193966.

^[ii] United States Fifty-Eighth Congress, “An Act to Incorporate the American Red Cross,” Office of the Law Revision Council, https://uscode.house.gov/statviewer.htm?volume=33&page=599.

^[iii] “World War II and the American Red Cross,” American Red Cross, 2025, https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/National/history-wwii.pdf.

^[iv] Thomas A. Guglielmo, “‘Red Cross, Double Cross’: Race and America’s World War II-Era Blood Donor Service,” The Journal of American History 97, no. 1 (2010): 63,  http://www.jstor.org/stable/40662818.

^[v] Rebecca L. Trecek, “War Relief in World War II: Women and the American Red Cross,” Graduate Review 3, no. 1 (2022): 25. https://openspaces.unk.edu/grad-review/vol3/iss1/2.

^[vi] Guglielmo, “‘Red Cross, Double Cross’: Race and America’s World War II-Era Blood Donor Service,” 63.

^[vii] Trecek, “War Relief in World War II: Women and the American Red Cross,” 27.

^[viii] “World War II and the American Red Cross,” American Red Cross, https://www.redcross.org/content/dam/redcross/National/history-wwii.pdf.

^[ix] “World War II and the American Red Cross.”

^[x] William Robbins, The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University (Oregon State University Press, 2017), 280, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/osu/detail.action?docID=5106032,; “War Council,” The Beaver 1945, Oregon State University Yearbooks Collection, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/12579s71x, 202.

^[xi] Robbins, The People’s School: A History of Oregon State University, 279; “Red Cross Unit Here? That is the Question.” Oregon State Barometer, April 21, 1944, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk49j?locale=en, 3.

^[xii] “Vesper Service Will Be Given in Men’s Gym,” Oregon State Barometer, February 21, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71p705k;  “Curtain Rises on AWS Carnival Tonight,” Oregon State Barometer, February 20, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71p7049.

^[xiii] “Curtain Rises on AWS Carnival Tonight,” Oregon State Barometer, February 20, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71p7049, 1.

^[xiv] The Beaver 1942, Oregon State University Yearbooks Collection, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/f7623d013, 110-113.

^[xv] “Red Cross Passes Goal,” Oregon State Barometer, February 28, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71p710f, 1. 

^[xvi] ‘Bandage Work Starts Today,” Oregon State Barometer, October 3, 1944,Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk65x.

^[xvii] Annual meeting of Benton County chapter American Red Cross, 08 October 1945, 1987-061.0006, Myrl Haygood Collection, Benton County Historical Society Collection, Philomath, Oregon, https://bentoncountymuseum.catalogaccess.com/archives/125130, 8; “Red Cross Charter,” The Beaver 1945, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/12579s71x, 205.

^[xviii] “General Catalog, 1945-1946,” 1945, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719v87r, 373.

^[xix] “Red Cross Mgr. Says College Unit Valuable,” Oregon State Barometer, October 6, 1944, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk666.

^[xx] “Red Cross Council,” The Beaver 1945, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/12579s71x, 206-7.

^[xxi] “It’s Your Tomorrow at Oregon State,” 1945, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71cs277, 13.

^[xxii] Oregon State University, “Blood Drive Association,” Clubs & Organizations, https://clubs.oregonstate.edu/bda.

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Dylan Brady

Picture yourself and your family living your lives when, out of nowhere, you’re forced to leave that life behind. You and your family are moved into a camp with others families and people like you. The conditions are poor and constantly surveilled by armed soldiers and guards within and outside the camp. You don’t have to keep picturing that scenario any longer because all of that was real and experienced by thousands of Japanese Americans who were forcibly relocated by the U.S. government and military into internment camps in reaction to Imperial Japan’s attacks on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. These orders impacted over 100,000 Japanese homeowners, businesses, athletes, and families, but plenty of college students living in these designated west coast military zones dealt with them as well, meaning they also had to leave behind their friends and their studies due to the forced evacuations. A true symbolization of Japanese treatment within these facilities is poem by Janet Matsuda who described her people’s journey as an “Upward Trail.”^[i] Within this environment of anti-Japanese sentiment, it is worthwhile to examine how Oregon State College administrators resisted the orders to the best of their ability, which helped give their students the best opportunity to continue their lives outside of internment camps compared to how the rest of the American public reacted. The OSC administration during this time was able to show resistance and determination to clarify questions asked by their students and help them escape being sent to the internment camps.

On April 2, 1942, acting president of Oregon State College, F.A. Gilfillan, sent a letter to all students of Japanese descent who were currently enrolled on campus. The letter itself contains questions that were sent from the office of the president to Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt, commanding lieutenant general of the U.S. Army within the Western Defense Command, on March 27 concerning various proclamations that involved curfews and prohibited areas for those affected by EO9066; the letter also contains DeWitt’s answer to these questions.^[ii] This letter was also printed in the Oregon State Barometer, the daily student newspaper,on April 4, 1942, for the whole student body to see.^[iii]

The letter asked and answered questions that were an obvious reaction to President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and in reaction to that and rising tensions within the U.S., Roosevelt signed the EO on Feb 19, 1942, for reasons that included, “protection against espionage and against sabotage to national-defense material, national-defense premises, and national-defense utilities.”^[iv] This order forcibly removed many Japanese Americans and forced them into so-called “relocation camps.” Many Japanese Americans were incarcerated until they were released or most of the camps themselves shut down in 1945. Over 100,000 people were affected and this included plenty of Japanese nationals and those of Japanese descent born in America; plenty of non-Japanese Asian Americans suffered as well.

A notice of civilian exclusion order no. 96 issued John L. Dewitt concerning all “alien” and “non-alien” people of Japanese ancestry and their relocation into military zone 1. Also concerns curfews and the consequences involved if reporting and curfews are not followed.^[v]

Despite the U.S. Government and DeWitt not mentioning any specific group, curfews were announced only for Japanese Americans which Gilfillan inquired within his letter to Japanese American students.^[vi] The west coast was split by the U.S. government into military zones and at first, DeWitt asked for voluntary evacuations until the president and Congress forced thousands into complying under the threat of imprisonment and fines in March 1942.^[vii] The May 26, 1942 issue of the Oregon State Barometer talked about how the U.S. Government issued civilian exclusion orders within 11 counties of Oregon and Washington, including Benton County (OSC’s county), and how students affected would be able to finish the term if they worked fast enough before the orders would kick in on June 1.^[viii]

            The reactions to this order were mixed; different groups offered plenty of diverse takes on the topic. Many different organizations and groups took to speaking their opinion whether it be to express their support or their disagreements with this act. For example, The Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, a group appointed by the U.S. Congress in 1980 that conducted a study into the internment of Japanese Americans, and Professor of American Ethnic Studies Tetsuden Kashima, state that West Coast groups like the California Farm Bureau Association and the Western Growers Protection Association demanded stern measures against the Japanese as they felt that this would lead to less economic competition between white and Japanese residents within the agricultural industry; this highlights the animosity that many held towards the those of Japanese descent living in America.^[ix]  Historian Roger Daniels says that Roger N. Baldwin (1884-1981), the head of the American Civil Liberties Union, responded in a letter stating that protestors had “a strong moral case” but “no legal case at all,” speaking about an upstart movement in Heart Mountain, Wyoming that resisted the orders made by the government.^[x] Protestant and Quaker groups provided some resistance, but nothing substantial enough.^[xi] Columnists in newspapers as well raised issues involving this forced evacuation like Ernest L. Lindsey of the Richmond Times-Dispatch of Richmond Virginia who argued that third-generation Japanese Americans were devoted to supporting the United States despite himself agreeing with the evacuations for military reasons.^[xii] This sentiment was commonplace even after the bombing of Pearl Harbor as some members of the public supported Japanese Americans who were native-born citizens and supported this country. It was unfair to lump them in with the actions of the Imperial Japanese and this belief was further highlighted within the lines of the Oregon State Barometer on December 9, 1941, in a column called “The Unfortunate.”^[xiii]

List of students of Japanese ancestry enrolled during the winter term 1942 which would’ve been when EO 9066 would be ordered.^[xiv]

            Gilfillan and the administration in comparison to the rest of the public offered some resistance. In his aforementioned letter to Japanese American students, he questioned the restrictions that the U.S. government had placed on the Japanese American population, which can be read as a form of pushback. Instead of blindly following such orders, the President asked clarifying questions of DeWitt and even pushed back and asked if students could continue until the current quarter in May or go to summer school.^[xv] The OSC administration seemed to have looked for any way to help those affected by the evacuation orders. The archives of the President’s Office of OSC in 1942 contained a proposal for the continued collegiate training of citizens of Japanese ancestry for their purpose involving the leadership of future generations of Japanese Americans. There would be an administration established for an educational program for these students being placed in the hands of a committee of a college/university representing them all.^[xvi]

A letter concerning a Hawaiian-born Japanese student enrolled on campus written by T.P. Cramer, Acting Executive Secretary, asking if he can return to his birthplace. He says he would be more equipped to work if he went back home instead of staying on the mainland where he knows little or nothing.^[xvii]

Several OSC administrators wanted to help their Japanese students to the best of their ability and that meant helping them travel to other colleges outside of the designated military zones despite the U.S. government’s travel restrictions and avoid the forced relocation onto camps. They asked clarifying questions. T.P. Cramer, Acting Executive Secretary of OSC, sent a telegram on May 20, 1942, to the Wartime Civil Control Administration. In it, he talked about two students of good standing and their possible transfer to the University of Utah; he questioned if they could receive travel permits.^[xviii] Another letter that highlighted this care for Japanese American students came in December 18, 1941, from Gilfillan to student Tom Arai where he emphasized with the experiences they’ve faced and will face due to the Pearl Harbor attacks; their loyalty to their college and to America was recognized and felt.^[xix]

            The responses among the upper faculty within the school highlights something empowering. The care and empathy shown towards their students serves in stark contrast to the responses shown towards Japanese Americans throughout the country and in reaction to the orders of forced evacuation by the government. The administration at OSC wanted to give these students a chance to escape life within these internment camps and somewhere safe at least towards the start of the forced evacuations. This display shows a unity within such a dark period of history showing that OSC treated these students not as enemies, but as fellow peers. Unfortunately, there isn’t much evidence showing that this will to help from OSC administration stayed consistent throughout the period of Japanese internment. It would be nice to think that it did, but there’s just their initial responses we can look at.

This response, unfortunately, wasn’t universal as the attack on Pearl Harbor unified the America against the Imperial Japanese and provided a rationale for denying civil rights to people that were never a danger to U.S. safety. The wave of American nationalism meant justifying the conditions and consequences thousands of Japanese Americans faced. So much was stacked against Japanese Americans at this time from the media, courts, public, and the government themselves. It serves to remind many that real people lived through these forced relocations with their lives forever changed afterward. This is something that still affects generations of Japanese Americans today and even though it may seem easy to think that these events are a thing of the past, the responses of the American public from the highest to lowest in power still ring true in our current world. It is an ugly stain on American history and displays the racism rooted in this country despite its national pride.

            Yet within that racism can lie a unity. While it is important to highlight moments of prejudice within our society, it is also important to recognize moments where people come together and stand up for their peers in the face of certain injustices. We need to see examples like that to exemplify and mimic that same behavior when we see others going through their own grievances.

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[i] Janet Matsuda, “The Upward Trail,” University of Arkansas Digital Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries, https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/digital/collection/Civilrights/id/1548

[ii] F.A. Gilfillan, “Official Letter to All Japanese Students,” April 2, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k98w.

[iii] “Japanese Students,” Oregon State Barometer, April 4, 1942, 2, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k71g

[iv] Franklin Roosevelt, “Executive Order 9066: Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas, February 19, 1942, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066.

[v] U.S. Army, “Civilian Exclusion Order No. 96, 1942,” 1942, Digital Public Library of America, http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt1j49p9dz.

[vi] Gilfillan, “Official Letter to All Japanese Students.”

[vii] U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, “Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese Americans,” National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/executive-order-9066.

[viii] “Japanese are Ordered From 11 Counties,” Oregon State Barometer, May 26, 1942, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k72r

[ix] Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians and Tetsuden Kashima, “Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians,” University of Washington Press, 1997, 69.

[x] Roger Daniels, “The Japanese American Cases, 1942-2004: A Social History,” Law and Contemporary Problems 68, no. 2 (Spring 2005), 163.

[xi] Ibid., 163.

[xii] Ernest L. Lindley, “On Capitol Hill,” Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 12, 1942, 11, https://www.newspapers.com/image/828036540

[xiii] “The Unfortunate,” Oregon State Barometer, December 9, 1941, 2, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71p670p

[xiv] “List of Japanese Students – Winter Term 1942,” Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724m053.

[xv]Gilfillan, “Official Letter to All Japanese Students.”

[xvi] “Proposal for the Continued Collegiate Training of Citizens of Japanese Ancestry Forced by Evacuation Orders to Interrupt Studies,” Oregon Multicultural Archives, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k79p.

[xvii] T.P. Cramer, “Letter Regarding Student Travel to Hawaii,” April 14, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k89x.

[xviii] T.P. Cramer, “Telegram Regarding Student Transfer,” May 20, 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724k81q.

[xix] F. A. Gilfillan, “Letter to the Japanese American Students,” December 18, 1941, sent in response to the December 11, 1941 loyalty letter, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/df724m08x#citations

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Cooper Lake

At the heart of America’s wartime strategy was an unexpected hero: corn. As the nation raced to secure its food supply, Oregon State College (OSC) emerged as a hub of groundbreaking research. Led by visionary agronomist R. E. Fore, OSC faculty tackled the challenges of adapting corn to the unique climate and soils of the Pacific Northwest. These efforts would not only meet the immediate needs of wartime production but also lay the foundation for post-war agricultural success in Oregon and elsewhere.

Central to OSC’s pioneering efforts was R. E. Fore’s A Summary of Corn Improvement Research in Oregon. 1936–1967, a document published in 1967 preserved in the Oregon State University Archives. This typewritten report, produced on thin paper and bound for long-term preservation, summarizes thirty-one years of experimental work aimed at developing a corn strain uniquely suited to Oregon’s climate and soils. Fore, then the college’s leading agronomist, compiled this report for fellow researchers and practitioners, detailing experimental methods, results, and the challenges posed by wartime resource reallocation.^[i] The document’s physical characteristics, its fragile paper and careful binding, speak to its dual role as both a working document and a historical artifact.

Fore’s work on corn improvement is part of a broader spectrum of faculty research conducted at OSC during the war. Collaborative studies, such as the joint work by G.W. Kuhlman and Fore on the Cost and Efficiency in Producing Hops in Oregon, publishedin 1939, illustrate that while corn was central to the war effort, other crops were also scrutinized under the pressures of wartime necessity.^[ii] Jack Sather’s Hop Agronomic Experiments 1939–1946 further details these investigations, highlighting how nonessential crops like hops received focused attention despite limited resources.^[iii] In a time when every experimental initiative had to justify its cost and labor input, these studies were vital for diversifying OSC’s agricultural output.

Corn was not only essential for feeding a nation at war but also for sustaining the cattle industry. Cattle played a dual role: providing meat for domestic consumption and manure that enriched soil fertility, which in turn supported continuous crop production. Remarkably, the stability of corn production even enabled the U.S. to share beef with Allied nations, linking agricultural innovation directly to both national resilience and international support.^[iv]

A January 9, 1943 article in OSC’s Daily Barometer captured the national urgency for increased corn production to meet the rising demands for livestock feed, a critical need given the war-induced shifts in meat production.^[vi] Similarly, the Oregon State Land Use Planning Committee’s report, Oregon State Agricultural Program to Meet the Impacts of War and National Defense (May 1941), contextualizes local agricultural policies within the broader national strategy for food security.^[vii] Together, these sources reveal that OSC’s research was both a local response and a component of a comprehensive wartime effort.

The contributions of OSC faculty during World War II must be viewed within a larger national framework. Corn was not merely a crop; it was a vital component of the war economy, essential for producing livestock feed and stabilizing market prices. Scott H. Irwin and Darrel L. Good’s article, “Market Instability in a New Era of Corn, Soybean, and Wheat Prices,” documents how wartime disruptions led to volatile agricultural markets, thereby emphasizing the importance of a reliable domestic food supply.^[ix]

Furthermore, Alvin T. M. Lee’s 1947 study on “Use of Military Land for Agriculture during World War II” demonstrates how government initiatives repurposed military assets to boost agricultural production, a strategy that fit together with OSC’s research efforts.^[x] Grover T. Sims’s 1951 monograph, “Meat and Meat Animals in World War II,” reinforces the idea that the availability of high-quality corn was directly linked to efficient meat production, highlighting OSC’s role in national food security.^[xi] These national studies, coupled with local initiatives, illustrate the symbiotic relationship between OSC’s research and the broader wartime strategy to stabilize food supply and economic conditions. Moreover, the analyses provided by E. C. Sherrard and F. W. Kressman in 1944 in Review of Processes in the United States Prior to World War II offers important context. Their work shows how long-standing agricultural practices were disrupted by the circumstances of war, prompting a necessary evolution in research and production methods.^[xii]

OSC’s innovations were not confined solely to experimental research; they also extended to infrastructural developments that have had lasting impacts on regional agriculture. The deep well irrigation projects documented in the OSU Special Collections & Archives’ “President’s Office General Subject File, Agricultural Experiment Station, Deep well irrigation project, 1929–1940” exemplify how OSC’s scientific efforts were complemented by practical advancements in farm infrastructure.^[xiv] Equally, the archival record of the “Class of Producing Dairy Cattle Shown at the Oregon State Fair, 1938” highlights the applied side of OSC’s work, showing how improved agricultural methods led directly to enhanced livestock production.^[xv]

These efforts emphasize that OSC’s wartime innovations were not isolated experiments; they were part of a broader transformation in American agriculture. As Lizzie Collingham discusses in The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food, the transition from wartime scarcity to post-war consumer abundance was marked by significant shifts in food policy and production practices, a transformation to which OSC contributed meaningfully by successfully adapting corn to climates in the pacific northwest.^[xvi]

The archival journey through OSC’s wartime records reveals a story of determination, innovation, and strategic adaptation. R. E. Fore’s comprehensive report on corn improvement, alongside studies on hops production, labor mobilization, and infrastructural projects, paints a picture of an institution that rose to meet the unprecedented challenges posed by WWII. Through creative research initiatives and adaptive labor strategies including the mobilization of nontraditional workforces, OSC not only addressed the immediate demands of World War II but also laid the foundation for lasting agricultural reform.

By aligning its local research with national priorities, as documented by scholars such as Irwin, Good, Lee, and Sims, OSC contributed significantly to the stabilization of the nation’s food supply during a period of economic volatility.

Revisiting OSC’s pivotal contributions during World War II reveals how targeted scientific inquiry became the backbone of national resilience. Through groundbreaking research epitomized by Fore’s innovative corn improvement study, OSC not only addressed the immediate challenges of wartime food security but also set the stage for enduring advances in agricultural production. This focused approach ensured a stable food supply, underscoring the critical link between local research and national prosperity. The integration of diverse primary sources from the Oregon State University Archives reveals a story of resourcefulness and resilience. OSC’s adaptive strategies, innovation in crop research, and aligning local practices with national priorities demonstrate how institutions can drive significant societal change under pressure. These insights not only illuminate a critical period in American history but also offer enduring lessons for contemporary challenges in food security and resource management. In reflecting on OSC’s legacy, we are reminded that the intersection of scientific inquiry, governmental policy, and community mobilization is not merely a historical curiosity but a blueprint for building resilient systems in the future.

Citations

Collingham, Lizzie. The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food. New York: Penguin Press, 2012.

Daily Barometer, The. “Wickard States Aims Of Farm Program”, Oregon State Barometer, January 9, 1943.

Fore, R. E. “A Summary of Corn Improvement Research in Oregon. 1936–1967.” SCARC, Agricultural Experiment Station (RG 25), Box 13, LOC: 8/3/6/20.

Irwin, Scott H., and Darrel L. Good. “Market Instability in a New Era of Corn, Soybean, and Wheat Prices.” Choices 24, no. 1 (2009): 6–11.

Kuhlman, G. W., and R. E. Fore. Cost and Efficiency in Producing Hops in Oregon. Oregon State College Agricultural Experiment Station, 1939.

Lee, Alvin T. M. “Use of Military Land for Agriculture during World War II.” Journal of Land & Public Utility Economics 23, no. 4 (November 1947): 349–359.

Oregonian, The. “Farm Help Due in Northwest.” May 12, 1943.

Oregon State Land Use Planning Committee. Oregon State Agricultural Program to Meet the Impacts of War and National Defense. May 1941.

“Class of Producing Dairy Cattle Shown at the Oregon State Fair, 1938.” SCARC, Agriculture Photograph Collection, 4‑H Photograph Collection (P 146). Accessed February 19, 2025.

“President’s Office General Subject File, Agricultural Experiment Station, Deep well irrigation project, 1929-1940.” Oregon Digital. Accessed February 19, 2025. https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/h128nf96p.

Sather, Jack. Hop Agronomic Experiments 1939–1946. Oregon State University Archives, Agricultural Experiment Station (RG 25), Box 13, LOC: 8/3/6/20.

Schwartz, Harry. “Hired Farm Labor in World War II.” Journal of Farm Economics 24, no. 4 (1942): 826–44.

Sherrard, E. C., and F. W. Kressman. Review of Processes in the United States Prior to World War II. Madison, WI: U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, 1944.

Sims, Grover T. “Meat and Meat Animals in World War II.” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Monograph 9 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951).

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^[i] R. E. Fore, “A Summary of Corn Improvement Research in Oregon. 1936–1967,” Special Collections & Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC), Agricultural Experiment Station, RG 25, Box 13, LOC: 8/3/6/20, 11.

^[ii] G. W. Kuhlman and R. E. Fore, Cost and Efficiency in Producing Hops in Oregon (Oregon State College Agricultural Experiment Station, 1939), SCARC, RG 25, Box 13, LOC: 8/3/6/20, 19.

^[iii] Jack Sather, Hop Agronomic Experiments 1939–1946, SCARC, Agricultural Experiment Station, RG 25, Box 13, LOC: 8/3/6/20, 6.

^[iv]  Lizzie Collingham, The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food (New York: Penguin Press, 2012), 481.

^[v]  R. E. Fore, “A Summary of Corn Improvement Research in Oregon. 1936–1967,” SCARC, Agricultural Experiment Station (RG 25), Box 13, LOC: 8/3/6/20, 15.

^[vi] “Wickard States Aims of Farm Program,” The Daily Barometer, January 9, 1943, 4.

^[vii] Oregon State Land Use Planning Committee, State Library of Oregon Digital Collections, Oregon State Agricultural Program to Meet the Impacts of War and National Defense (May 1941).

^[viii] “Class of Producing Dairy Cattle Shown at the Oregon State Fair, 1938,” SCARC, Agriculture Photograph Collection, 4‑H Photograph Collection (P 146).

^[ix] Scott H. Irwin and Darrel L. Good, “Market Instability in a New Era of Corn, Soybean, and Wheat Prices,” Choices 24, no. 1 (2009): 8.

^[x] Alvin T. M. Lee, “Use of Military Land for Agriculture during World War II,” Journal of Land & Public Utility Economics 23, no. 4 (November 1947): 349–359.

^[xi] Grover T. Sims, “Meat and Meat Animals in World War II,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Monograph 9 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1951), 35.

^[xii] E. C. Sherrard and F. W. Kressman, Review of Processes in the United States Prior to World War II (Madison, WI: U.S. Forest Products Laboratory, 1944), 11.

^[xiii] “Wickard States Aims of Farm Program.”

^[xiv] “President’s Office General Subject File, Agricultural Experiment Station, Deep well irrigation project, 1929-1940,” Oregon Digital, accessed February 19, 2025, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/h128nf96p, 14.

^[xv] “Class of Producing Dairy Cattle Shown at the Oregon State Fair, 1938,” SCARC, Agriculture Photograph Collection, 4‑H Photograph Collection (P 146).

^[xvi] Collingham, The Taste of War, 477.

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by August Gadbow

“Collegiate sports revolutionized campus life, turned institutions of higher education into athletic agencies, brought changes in the curriculum, and influenced administrative policy.”^[i] The rise of college sports not only integrated athletics into university structures but also expanded their influence beyond academia. Legislators, university administrators, and even U.S. presidents recognized the role that collegiate athletics played in shaping national identity, fostering school spirit, and connecting colleges to the broader public. College athletic history is American history and a powerful tool for measuring the effects of world events. During the Second World War, college sports were severely disrupted, forcing universities to adapt their programs to the realities of wartime. Oregon State’s experience during this time gives insight into how the global crisis reshaped college athletic programs.

Oregon State College’s (OSC) Athletic Board Minutes from 1942-1943, used as a bookkeeping tool, provides a detailed account of how the college managed its athletic programs during the uncertainty of WWII. The minutes record important administrative discussions, including budget reports, letters between directors, sports schedules, and business decisions. The document’s tidy and straightforward format and to-the-point writing style suggest that it was intended for administrative use only, and used to track decisions and financial records. However, because the broader societal context was the US involvement in WWII, its pages are riddled with war-related issues including economic uncertainty, travel restrictions, and athlete shortages. The report provides useful insight into how OSC administrators dealt with the realities of wartime while trying to maintain the athletics program.

WWII forced Oregon State athletics to shift from traditional college competition to a model focused on adoption, survival, and military preparedness. During the war, OSC boasted a prominent ROTC program and had deep ties to the war effort; many competing athletes were also enrolled in its military programs. In August 1943, the US War Department banned training members of the military from participating in intercollegiate athletics, thereby disrupting all sports and most notably leading to the suspension of OSC’s football team until the end of the war.^[ii]  Despite this setback, the Oregon State athletics Administrative Council remained committed to student athletic programs, reaffirming in April 1944 that sports were an essential part of student life and long-term campus planning.^[iii]  While the majority of sports still did run at some capacity, financial uncertainty and the declining enrollment in the school led faculty members to be cautious about major athletic investments.^[iv] During this time, Oregon State College athletics simply could not combat the setbacks of wartime.  Understanding that its resources could also be useful elsewhere, OSC reshaped its approach to sports beyond competition. In 1942, the university’s women’s physical education programs greatly expanded, emphasizing health and fitness as patriotic duties in support of the war effort.^[v]  These changes, combined with ROTC athletes, added to OSC’s wartime efforts beyond STEM and agriculture.

Athlete participation was limited, travel was restricted, and priorities were shifted towards the war effort. Oregon State’s athletic history during this time was greatly stunted. In 1942, students enrolled in the ROTC programs were not allowed to travel off campus.^[vi] This led to much less success in away events for the school and also limited students’ abilities to be eligible for varsity letters and awards.^[vii] Furthermore, this may have been the last time athletes were able to compete as students before being deployed to war. Those who were not enrolled in the military program also faced challenges pertaining to travel. Wartime restrictions led to the use of school-owned cars for transportation instead of the bus or train, whose prices were overinflated at the time. This decision was also supported by the war effort to reduce the number of people on public transport.^[viii] Wartime fears made other schools weary of travel toward the West Coast, leading to the postponement and relocation of football games.^[ix] Directly before the program’s temporary pause, OSCs competed against Duke in its first Rose Bowl appearance, taking place in Duke’s stadium in North Carolina, away from its usual location, Pasadena, California.^[x] (Oregon State beat the undefeated Blue Devils 20-16 marking the team’s only Rose Bowl victory to date.) As the nation mobilized for war, OSC’s athletic department redirected financial resources to support the war, shifting its priorities from sports to national service. Funds from the previous Rose Bowl game were donated to the Red Cross along with investment into defense savings bonds by the athletic department.^[xi] Oregon State athletics were dampened by WWII, athletes were suspended from competition, travel was severely limited, and their resources were directed elsewhere.

Scholarly sources on college athletics during WWII that are not football-oriented are limited. It’s reasonable to presume, however, that the problems Oregon State athletics faced were widespread among colleges throughout the nation. Like Oregon State, many college football programs could not continue to function during the war due to a  “shortage of cars, tires, fuel, and students.”^[xii] Low spectator turnout and the loss of top players due to enlistment gave universities little incentive to spend the money and time to continue to compete. By August 1942, nine months after the US entered the war, 52 colleges had paused football and some, including Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, and NYU, cut it completely. A majority of these schools were located away from major metropolitan areas and relied on spectators to travel, which was discouraged during wartime.^[xiii] By 1943, over 200 schools, including Alabama, Michigan State, and Stanford, suspended their football programs until the end of the conflict. While civilian universities’ athletic departments struggled, in contrast, military academies teams and service teams dominated, benefiting from direct government support and unique advantages.^[xiv] The US government believed that having strong football programs promoted morale within the ranks and boosted voluntary military recruitment. Military officials went to great lengths to maintain the prestige and appeal of military academies during the war. In 1942, President Roosevelt insisted that the historic Army vs. Navy game still take place despite many other games being cancelled and there being restrictions on nonessential travel. Furthermore, the matchup between West Point (Army) and Notre Dame was canceled due to Army officials’ fear that a bitter rivalry matchup between big Catholic schools would undermine Catholic support for Army. The Black Nights (Army) government connection even improved their recruiting systems. The head coach at the time, Earl Blaik, used West Point graduates around the country as scouts for the team. When the best high school players were determined, Blaik would ask members of Congress to appoint the athletes to the academy. These benefits did not fall short of results: during the war, Army boasted a seventy-seven percent win rate and won two undisputed titles.^[xv]  In modern college football, the chances of any military academy winning a national championship are close to none.  World War II completely reshaped college football. While civilian universities like Oregon State battled the setbacks of wartime, military academies directly profited from it.

The study of college athletics is uniquely positioned to illustrate the effects of war. The war impacted tradition, competition, and national identity. The same men who represented their schools in football represented the nation in war. As college life was more broadly disordered by the war, OSC athletics was completely disrupted. Football was suspended, travel restrictions limited competition, and financial resources were redirected toward the war effort. The school campus, meant to be a hub of school spirit, became a place of military preparation, with sports doubling as physical training and athletes enlisting. The war didn’t just subdue and pause college athletics, it redefined their purpose, making schools like OSC adapt to wartime America.

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^[i] Guy Lewis, “The Beginning of Organized Collegiate Sport,” American Quarterly, 22, nr. 2 (Summer, 1970): 222-229.

^[ii] “’World War II’ in Where’s Waldo? Exploring Waldo Hall History,” Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC), https://scarc.library.oregonstate.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/waldo/wartime/wwii.

^[iii] Administrative Council Minutes, April 20, 1942, SCARC, Administrative Council Records, Box-folder 2.4, Minutes.

^[iv] Administrative Council Records, April 20, 1942.

^[v] Brooklyn Blair, Grace Matteo, and Ruiqi Zhang, “Promoting Physical Health for Women at Oregon State College During World War II,” Oregon State University Special Collections Blog, February 8, 2024, https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/scarc/2024/02/08/promoting-physical-health-for-women-at-oregon-state-college-during-world-war-ii.

^[vi] Letter to the athletic director regarding ROTC athletes, April 19 1943, Intercollegiate Athletic Board Minutes 1942-1943,8, SCARC, Intercollegiate Athletic Records, RG 007, Box 1.

^[vii] A track coach’s recommendation for an athlete to earn a 2-stripe award even though he did not compete in the required amount of events do to army regulations, May 25, 1943, SCARC, Intercollegiate Athletic Board Minutes 1942-1943, 2, Intercollegiate Athletic Records (RG 007), Box 1,

^[viii]OSC Athletic Director to a Member of the Corvallis Ration Board, April 15, 1943, Intercollegiate Athletic Board Minutes, 1942–1943, 9–10,SCARC, Intercollegiate Athletic Records (RG 007), Box 1. 

^[ix]Michigan State Athletic Director letter from 1942 requesting postponement of a football game due to fears of traveling to the West Coast, Intercollegiate Athletic Board Minutes, 1942–1943, 15, SCARC, Intercollegiate Athletic Records (RG 007), Box 1.

^[x] Oregon Stater, February 1942, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx71bk57j.

^[xi]  Letter to the Vice chairman of the Red Cross, March 9 1943, Intercollegiate Athletic Board Minutes 1942-1943, 31 SCARC, Intercollegiate Athletic Records, RG 007, Box 1.

^[xii] Joseph Paul Vasquez III, “America and the Garrison Stadium: How the US Armed Forces Shaped College Football,” Armed Forces & Society 38, no. 3 (2011), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0095327X11426255

^[xiii] Brenden Welper, “Like 2020, College Football Was Very Different During World War II,” NCAA.com, October 7, 2020, https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/article/2020-09-21/2020-college-football-was-very-different-during-world-war-ii.

^[xiv] The US War department banned training members of the military from participating in intercollegiate athletics. See: “No Football at OSC this Year,” Oregon State Yank, November 1943, 3, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719t248?locale=en

^[xv] Joseph Paul Vasquez, III, “America and the Garrison Stadium: How the US Armed Forces Shaped College Football,” Armed Forces & Society, 38 no. 3 (2011), https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0095327X11426255.

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Kyle Knott

            When researching college campuses during World War Two, many historians look at the student populations or faculty. Some might even look at religious groups or specific areas of study. However, compared to the previous topics, the history of fraternities during World War Two is an understudied topic. This brings up the topic of what happened to fraternities when there were minimal civilian men on college campuses.

On October 15, 1943, the Oregon State Barometer reported that campus fraternities were pausing rush that term.[i] The year before, fraternities pledged over 300 members, to make the total number over eleven hundred within 34 fraternities.[ii] This begs the question, how did fraternities go from pledging so any members, to suspending multiple chapters on campus due to low membership? The answer would be because of the war. Barometer editor Jack Bolter wrote the article, telling the reading audience, who would most likely consist of students and faculty, that the inter fraternity council had decided to pause rush for all fraternities. The decision came after Jim Leedy, president of the inter fraternity council, led a meeting between the Inter Fraternity Council and additional members of the 13 fraternities on campus to discuss the current state of fraternities on campus. Regarding the war effort, all members concluded that they should pause rush so all aims of the men would be towards the war. The pause came for multiple reasons, such as that most fraternities had very low member numbers and could not do their full rush rituals as well as the men who would rush, would eventually be taken into selective service once they became 18 years old. The individual article about the fraternities itself is part of a larger daily newspaper called the Oregon State Barometer. The document remained in good condition, printed in black and white, and has minimal damage to the edge of the paper. Looking from the perspective of a student during the time it was released to the public, I would see that the number of men enrolled in the college was dropping dramatically as the largest active fraternity only had 13 members.

With fewer civilian male students and growing military presence on campus, the college had to adapt to the wartime demands of housing. In 1943, Oregon State College president Strand announced that the university would be transitioning Waldo Hall and Snell Hall from women’s dormitories to military use only. Because the university lost these buildings as dormitories and fraternities were losing so many members due to the draft and enlistment, the school began to lease fraternity houses and placed female students to live in them.[iii] The university allocated twelve houses to be specifically used for women.[iv] Along with Oregon State College, the University of Illinois was another university that used fraternities as makeshift housing, however, in their case, they would temporarily house soldiers while they were training.[v] In 1944, houses such as Kappa Sigma transitioned from a men’s fraternity the year prior, to an all-women’s group occupying the house.[vi] On December 10^th, the Inter Fraternity Council cancelled all formal fraternity dances as diminishing numbers did not bring in enough revenue for the events to take place.[vii] Fraternities, such as Kappa Sigma, demonstrate how the university repurposed unoccupied houses to house women. Others, including Alpha Gamma Rho, housed athletes or other men due to limited space of the university’s dormitories.[viii] Later in March 1944, the Inter Fraternity Council met together to discuss whether the organization should continue as most men at that time had been sent off to the war.[ix] (Insert Figure 1 below)

Figure 1 The Theta Chi Fraternity House at Oregon State College, used to house female students during WWII[x]

During the years of World War Two, many fraternities on campus had to suspend activities due to members being shipped off to the military and some shut down for good. In total, during the 1943-44 school year, fifteen men were living in fraternity houses. This was a drastic change from the year prior with that number being at 1,156 men.[xi] With the school being very active with training military troops, especially engineers and the development of the Army Specialized Training Program bringing in 1300 students, the dorms had become overcrowded, and the school had to look elsewhere to house its students.[xii] Along with Oregon State College, other universities’ enrollment took a massive hit. At the University of Washington, in the 1942/1943 school year, the school had a total of 6,521 stud ents [xiii] enrolled in the winter term, losing 1,341 students from the previous term.[xiv] Going into spring, at Oregon State College, the college’s enrollment dropped a staggering 23% compared to the previous year’s spring term.[xv] During the 1943/1944 school year, the number of civilian men enrolled in classes dropped as low as 258. The number of women outnumbered men by roughly 4 times with that number being 1,319.[xvi] (Insert Figure 2 Below)

Figure 2 The chart shows the number of students enrolled at Oregon State College from 1888 to 1943, demonstrating the drop in enrollment during World War 2.[xvii]

With most able-bodied men being drafted or volunteering to join the military, many universities saw a great decrease in the number of men enrolling in college. To deal with the issues of low enrollment of men, many universities had an increase in women registering for classes and began programs that brought in uniformed soldiers to take classes while preparing for war. [xviii] With the increase in students on campus, that being civilian and soldiers, the dorms on campus began to fill up. To keep up with the need of housing for students, many schools looked elsewhere for makeshift dormitories. Towards the end of the war, the number of civilian men enrolled dropped to 27% of the prewar enrollment numbers.[xix] With less civilian men enrolled in universities, the ratio of men to women enrolled in college dropped to a number that hadn’t been seen for 2 decades prior. Furthermore, the graph above shows a dramatically large increase in the ratio right after the war with the introduction of the G.I. bill. While the bill did make college free for all veterans, it also puts into perspective just how many men could have been enrolled in college during the time versus how many were.[xx] (Insert Figure 3 to right of paragraph)

Figure 3 The figure shows the Ratio of Men to Women throughout 1900 to 2000, with a decrease in the ratio during the period of World War 2 and a sharp increase right after.[xxi]

Looking at Oregon State College during World War Two, while fraternities were not able to operate, they still made a great contribution to the university. They leased their properties to the university to house female students so the college could bring in military troops to train and help the United States in the war effort. Without the use of the houses, the university would not have been able to bring in as many students or soldiers to train, lowering enrollment numbers even more than they already were.

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[i] “No Rushing for OSC Men”, Oregon State Barometer, October 15, 1943, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk05g

[ii] “Inter-Fraternity Council,” The Beaver 1943, 290, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/fx719t41x

[iii]U. G. Dubach, Biennial Report for Years 1942-1943 and 1943-1944, May 5, 1944, 5, Oregon State University Special Collections & Archives Research Center (hereafter SCARC) SCARC RG 013-SG 12 Annual & Biennial Reports Box 6 Folder 4, Department of Dormitories.

[iv] “President’s Office General Subject File, Oregon State College, Living Organizations – War-time housing, 1943-1946,” 1, Oregon State University President’s Office Records, Oregon State University, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/qn59q5195#citations

[v] Thomas Hendrickson, “World War II and University Housing,” University of Illinois Student Life and Culture Archives, December 9, 2015, https://www.library.illinois.edu/slc/2015/12/09/wwiihousing/

[vi]“Wartime Guests of Kappa Sigma,” The Beaver 1944, 244, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/zk51vh18n

[vii] “Ticket Refund for Frat Dance Set Today,” The Daily Barometer, 1, December 10, 1943, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk21v

[viii] “Wartime Guests of Alpha Gamma Rho,” The Beaver 1944, 262, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/zk51vh18n

[ix] “Inter-frat to Meet,” The Daily Barometer, March 21, 1944, 1, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk445

[x] “From the Archives: ‘Mother of Five Theta Chis’ Pays Tribute to Fraternity,” Theta Chi Fraternity, https://www.thetachi.org/from-the-archives-mother-of-five-theta-chis-pays-tribute-to-fraternity

[xi] U. G. Dubach, Biennial Report for Years 1942-1943 and 1943-1944, 2, SCARC RG 013-SG 12 Annual & Biennial Reports Box 6 Folder 4, Dean of Men.

[xii] “Army Specialized Training Program Records, 1943-1946,” Archives West ORBIS Cascade Alliance, https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark%3A80444/xv04125?utm_source=chatgpt.com

[xiv] “Scouting the Campuses,” The Daily Barometer, January 16, 1943, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj28k

[xv] “OSC Enrollment Records Drop Of 23 Percent,” Oregon State Barometer, March 24, 1943, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj62w

[xvi] “College Enrollment Hits Bottom”, Oregon State Barometer, April 18, 1944, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk470

[xvii] “Presidents Biennial Report for 1943-1944,” SCARC, Annual and Binomial Reports, Box 6 Folder 4, 1944.

[xviii] Roger L. Geiger, The American University: A History (Princeton University Press, 1990): xix.

[xix] Geiger, The American University, xx.

[xx] Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz, Ilyana Kuziemko, “The Homecoming of American Women: The Reversal of the College Gender Gap,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 20, no. 4 (Fall 2006): 139.

[xxi] Goldin et al, “The Homecoming of American Women,” 139.

During winter term 2025 Dr. Kara Ritzheimer’s History 310 (Historian’s Craft) students researched and wrote blog posts about OSU during WWII. The sources they consulted are listed at the end of each post. Students wrote on a variety of topics and we hope you appreciate their contributions as much as the staff at SCARC does!

Blog post written by Allyson English.

Like many people in the United States, sorority women around the nation were involved in contributing to the war effort to beat the Axis powers. In the case of Kappa Delta at Oregon State University, previously called Oregon State College (OSC), this sorority did their part during WWII to contribute to the war effort. One example would be a letter written to Kappa Delta from an organization supporting children impacted by the war in Europe. The letter itself is in excellent condition and contains creases where the paper has been folded to fit inside an envelope. The letter also contains pencil marks emphasizing paragraphs of Kappa Delta’s specific involvement with the organization. This letter shows Kappa Delta’s involvement towards the war effort on OSC’s campus. This blog post aims to articulate not only the efforts made by OSC’s Kappa Delta, but the organized effort among the Greek community on OSC’s campus and nationwide.

Jane Chase Rogers, the Educational Chairman for the organization Foster Parents’ Plan for War Children, Inc., wrote this letter to the Alpha Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta. This organization was founded during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 by British war journalist Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge to protect children by evacuating them to safe countries.[1] Written on September 11, 1944, Rogers wrote this letter to thank the Kappa Delta chapter of OSC for their sponsorship of two foster children named Barbara Reader and Melvyn Jones. OSC’s Kappa Delta was assigned Barbara and Melvyn in September of 1944 by the organization.[2] The money that Kappa Delta raised and donated went to the provision of Barbara and Melvyn. The means of provision would go towards clothing and other necessities the children would need that they would not be able attain themselves. The letter continues to express the continuation for the provision of the children as well as asking some of the sorority members to write letters to Barbara as she is old enough to read and was asking for letters from her foster parents because she sees other children getting letters according to Rogers.[3]

While some sororities organized their own contributions to the war effort, Panhellenic sororities and other campus organizations across OSC banded together to do their part to aid wartime contributions. In result of the ongoing war, sororities faced the direct effects. These direct effects are expressed through the Oregon State Barometer, OSC’s student newspaper. In the fall rush season of 1943, one article reported: “Panhellenic [had] just recently deferred the first fall rushing period of three weeks” due to “Oregon State’s accelerated war setup”, according to the Oregon State Barometer. [4] Within the same issue of the newspaper, the reason for the deferment of the fall rushing period is because “Panhellenic council thought it inadvisable to take women away from their summer jobs which would probably be associated with war work.”[5] In 1943, Panhellenic approached the war head on. In their response to OSC engaging in war initiatives, “Panhellenic revised many of its policies to program with national defense.”[6] To align with the nation’s efforts to support the war, sororities within Panhellenic, along with other living organizations on OSC’s campus, participated in a coat hanger drive in response to Camp Adair’s request for hangers. Camp Adair was built during 1940 through 1942 to train men for the war.[7] The coat hanger drive required the living organizations who participated “to collect a minimum of two hangers from each Oregon Stater.”[8] During World War Two, metal was reserved for the war effort, resulting in a shortage nationwide among citizens. At Camp Adair, the men stationed there only had access to cardboard hangers which couldn’t support the weight of their coats, so “wire and wooden hangers [were] specifically needed.”[9]

Panhellenic sororities, along with contributions of OSC’s Interfraternity Council (IFC), contributed to the war effort by buying war savings stamps. During World War Two, the United States Treasury Department issued war savings stamps that “allowed everyone in the country, rich or poor, young or old to save and contribute to the war effort.”[10] Sororities and fraternities at OSC pledged an amount of how many war savings stamps they purchased. In the early 1940’s, war savings defense stamps were priced ten cents, twenty-five cents, fifty cents, one dollar, and five dollars, the color of each stamp reflecting a different price.[11] Many of the sororities and the fraternities went over the initial pledge of stamps they originally made to buy. Lambda Chi Alpha took first, exceeding their original pledge of stamps by ninety-one thousand, eight hundred and fifty-one percent and taking second, Kappa Alpha Theta exceeding five thousand, nine hundred and seventy-one.[12] These percentages represent the percent of stamps exceeded by sororities and fraternities’ initial amount the pledged to buy.

On a national level, Kappa Delta supported the war effort. Every Kappa Delta member has a subscription to the Kappa Delta magazine called The Angelos. The Angelos is a quarterly magazine with the purpose of informing Kappa Delta’s about other Kappa Deltas and their respective chapters around the nation on other college campuses. In the November 1942 edition of the magazine, National Kappa Delta announced its War Service Project written by the National President Clementine Newman Militzer. Headed by Helen Bunting Brown as the War Service Chairman and Julia Fuqua Ober and the Honorary Chairman, the purpose of Kappa Delta’s War Service Project would be “devoted to the purpose of supplying recreational equipment of all types for [the] armed forces.”[13] This excerpt is an excellent condition and there is no evidence of damage whatsoever. The announcement of National Kappa Delta initiating a War Service project shows that they are acknowledging the war and requesting aid in the war effort by recruiting as many Kappa Delta chapters on college campuses as possible to provide for the armed forces of the United States. While National Kappa Delta is initiating chapters around the nation to contribute their part to Kappa Delta’s War Service Project, National Kappa Delta addresses the war through letters to individual chapters. Addressed to Kappa Delta on September 1, 1944, Militzer the National President, opened the letter by noting that the “country is nearing the close of its third year at war,” acknowledging the impact of the war on the chapter, and emphasizing that the chapter “continue for high scholarship, undertake projects of worthwhile service for [the] campus and [the] country, and to take full advantages of the opportunities offered by sorority relationships.”[14] With the persistent attitude of contribution through National Kappa Delta’s War Service Project and a letter acknowledging the impact of the war shows the nature of importance made by Kappa Delta to contribute to the war effort during World War Two.

Much like other groups around the nation, college sorority women were no exception in contributing to the war effort to defeat the Axis powers. With the perspectives of Kappa Delta at Oregon State College and on a national level with National Kappa Delta, the devoted actions are shown from both, highlighting the importance what can be done on the home front to support the war overseas. If anyone is researching this topic, I would like to highlight the difficulty on finding scholarly writings on Greek life as a whole during World War Two.

Endnotes

[1] “History,” Plan International USA, https://www.planusa.org/about-us/history/.

2 Jane Chase Rogers to Kappa Delta, September 11, 1944, Foster Parents’ Plan for War Children, Alpha Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta Personal Records at OSU.

3 Jane Chase Rogers to Kappa Delta.

4 “Panhellenic Adopts Rushing”, Oregon State Barometer, May 21, 1943, 2, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk01c.

5 “Open Rushing to Continue This Summer.” Oregon State Barometer, May 21, 1943, 1, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk01c.

6 “Panhellenic” in 1943 Beaver (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State College, 1943), 292.

7 National Park Service, Preserving the Historic Military Landscape at Camp Adair, U.S. National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preserving-the-historic-military-landscape-at-camp-adair.htm.

8 “Campus Begins Drive for Coat Hangers,” Oregon State Barometer, January 26, 1943, 3, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj33f.

9 “Campus Begins Drive for Coat Hangers”, January 26, 1943, 3.

10 Harry K. Charles, Jr, Postal and Treasury Savings Stamp Systems: The War Years (paper presented at the National Postal Museum Symposium, Washington DC, September 26, 2015), 1 https://postalmuseum.si.edu/sites/default/files/charles-blount_symposium_paper.pdf.

11 Postal and Treasury Savings Stamp Systems, September 26, 2015, 34.

12 “Savings Pledges Led by Chi Alpha,” Oregon State Barometer, January 19, 1943, 1, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj29v.

13 Clementine Newman Milizter “Announcing Kappa Delta’s War Service Project,” The Angelos of Kappa Delta, November 1942, 2.

14 Mrs. Walter E. Militzer to Kappa Delta, September 1, 1944, Kappa Delta National Council, Alpha Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta Personal Records at OSU.

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[1] “History,” Plan International USA, https://www.planusa.org/about-us/history/.

[2] Jane Chase Rogers to Kappa Delta, September 11, 1944, Foster Parents’ Plan for War Children, Alpha Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta Personal Records at OSU.

[3] Jane Chase Rogers to Kappa Delta, September 11, 1944, Foster Parents’ Plan for War Children, Alpha Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta Personal Records at OSU.

[4] “Panhellenic Adopts Rushing”, Oregon State Barometer, May 21, 1943, 2, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk01c

[5] “Open Rushing to Continue This Summer.” Oregon State Barometer, May 21, 1943, 1, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nk01c

[6] “Panhellenic” in 1943 Beaver (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State College, 1943), 292.

[7] National Park Service, Preserving the Historic Military Landscape at Camp Adair, U.S. National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/preserving-the-historic-military-landscape-at-camp-adair.htm

[8] “Campus Begins Drive for Coat Hangers,” Oregon State Barometer, January 26, 1943, 3, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj33f

[9] “Campus Begins Drive for Coat Hangers”

[10] Harry K. Charles, Jr, Postal and Treasury Savings Stamp Systems: The War Years (paper presented at the National Postal Museum Symposium, Washington DC, September 26, 2015), 1 https://postalmuseum.si.edu/sites/default/files/charles-blount_symposium_paper.pdf

[11] Postal and Treasury Savings Stamp Systems, September 26, 2015, 34.

[12] “Savings Pledges Led by Chi Alpha,” Oregon State Barometer, January 19, 1943, 1, Oregon Digital, https://oregondigital.org/concern/documents/8k71nj29v

[13] Clementine Newman Milizter “Announcing Kappa Delta’s War Service Project,” The Angelos of Kappa Delta, November 1942, 2.

[14] Mrs. Walter E. Militzer to Kappa Delta, September 1, 1944, Kappa Delta National Council, Alpha Kappa chapter of Kappa Delta Personal Records at OSU.