History of The University of Redlands - Redlands During and After The Great War Years

Redlands During and After The Great War Years

With the change in administration from Field to Duke, the dream of building a large university faded to a determined focus on building and retaining a strong liberal arts college. However, for the first several years operating deficits continued to average $17,617 annually. The Southern California Baptist community called a mass-meeting in Los Angeles, endorsed the school as "the Baptist College of the Southwest," and initiated a campaign to raise $50,000 to clear outstanding debt. The following spring the Northern Baptist Education Board, after meeting with the Trustees, reversed their decision of two years earlier and also endorsed the school, promising to help raise an endowment.

After the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, the national Baptist campaign for UR's endowment was called off. The trustees and faculty had decided that no beginning classes in German would be offered, and required a pledge of loyalty to the United States from graduating seniors before degrees were conferred. Continued fundraising for UR depended mainly on the local efforts of George Cortner, UR's business manager, while President Duke adjusted the college to a war-time economy. The university recruited 131 men to qualify the campus for the Students’ Army Training Corps program, whose tuition expenses were to be paid by the federal government in exchange for military training. However, due to the armistice, the Corps was ordered demobilized before the end of its first term, though the new recruits made 1918-19 a banner year for Redlands athletics.

Tensions between faculty and students continued. Determining in May 1918 that "the existence of fraternities and sororities in this democratic institution is not for the best interests of the University of Redlands" the faculty invited the students’ "cooperation with the object of their ultimate elimination." The students requested, deftly, that the faculty provide substitutes for their organizations before they gave them up. Hazing and other rowdiness were becoming issues, however, so the trustees and faculty ultimately decided in 1923 that residential fraternity houses would not be allowed. Criticism of the faculty in the student newspaper that year brought a faculty motion that any article concerning the administration must be submitted to the president's approval before publication.

By 1925, Redlands employed 25, and student enrollment had increased to 465. Finances had improved to the extent that, with significant volunteer help, UR was able to erect 12 new buildings by the end of the decade. New dormitories, classrooms, a library, memorial chapel and gymnasium were built. A school of education was added. The developing alumni base also started to support the university. The first alumni gift to the school, in planning since 1916, was the Greek theater completed in 1927. By 1928, the University's endowment was $2,592,000, the fourth largest in the state and among the top ten percent of American universities.