LVII. The World War—Effect on Attendance
In the statement which President Alderman submitted
to the General Assembly in January, 1918, he estimated
the loss in young men in the college department at one
hundred and forty-four; in the graduate, at forty-four;
in the law, at one hundred and forty-four; in the medical,
at ten; in the engineering, at twenty-nine,—a total
of three hundred and seventy-one, or thirty-five per cent.
By January, 1918, the enrolment had shrunk from one
thousand and sixty-four students to seven hundred.
At a meeting of the Board of Visitors, held on April
5, 1918, a special committee was appointed to make all
the arrangements required for the establishment at the
University of a branch of the projected United States
Army School for truck-drivers. Professor Newcomb
was put in general charge of this task, with instructions
to provide spacious and comfortable accommodations
for six hundred privates, seven officers, and forty instructors
in field and shop. The barracks were ultimately
erected; and they were occupied continuously
from May 15 to November 15. Fifteen members of the
engineering department were picked out to be instructed
in shop-work, and twenty-five from the College at large,
in road-building. A separate school was set up for their
benefit, in which Professor Hancock superintended the
machine and shop work and Professor Hyde, the road
construction. There were forty enlisted men in the
work-shop division and forty in the machine-shop division.
Eighty were enrolled in the class of engineering
drawing; forty in the class of automobile repairs; forty
in the class of electric wiring; sixteen in that of automobile
construction; and sixty-one in that of wireless
telegraphy.
What was the history of the regular departments
during the session of 1917–18? The following table
will disclose how the attendance of first-year students,
during that session, compared with the like attendance
during the five preceding years:
|
1912–13 |
1913–14 |
1914–15 |
1915–16 |
1916–17 |
1917–18 |
| College Department |
197 |
206 |
243 |
274 |
287 |
225 |
| Graduate Department |
10 |
16 |
10 |
11 |
16 |
4 |
| Law Department |
75 |
81 |
58 |
44 |
61 |
18 |
| Medical Department |
18 |
15 |
17 |
12 |
9 |
21 |
| Engineering Department |
35 |
34 |
37 |
56 |
51 |
48 |
| Total |
324 |
344 |
357 |
385 |
418 |
313 |
It will be perceived, by an examination of the preceding
figures, that the graduate and law departments,
owing to the maturity of their students, showed, by
1917–18, a remarkable shrinkage in their attendance.
The total enrolment for the law department that session
was ninety-nine; and of this number, about twenty withdrew
before the close of the last term. A part of the
course, because of the absence of Professor Dobie in service,
was dropped. In consequence of the increased interest
in the French tongue, the classes in the School of
Romanic Languages were able to retain their numerical
strength, but those in geology fell off nearly one-third.
This school was actively employed in investigations relating
to industrial preparedness. The attendance in
the School of Biology and Agriculture began with fifty-seven
students. During the war, Professor Lewis, of
this school, was a consulting biologist of the United
States Bureau of Mines; and in cooperation with Professor
Kepner, carried on a series of experiments for the
detection of gas. The Schools of Latin and Greek suffered
little loss in students, while the Schools of English
and English Literature, not only retained their popularity,
but even added to it by lectures on war poetry, and
the other literary aspects of the conflict.
Almost the only lectures delivered by Professor Mitchell
were those which related to navigation and field
astronomy. In the School of Economics, the loss in
undergraduate courses amounted to one-fourth, and in
graduate, to one-half or even to two-thirds. The School
of Forestry sensibly increased in importance,—Professor
Jones was one of the three enlisting officers appointed
for the regiments composed of foresters and
lumbermen; and he was also in charge of all the forest
patrolmen of Virginia. There were one hundred and ten
students in the department of engineering. This represented
a shrinkage of nearly one-fifth in number. But
of all the professional departments, the medical probably
had the most serious obstructions to impede its
work, although its attendance grew rather than fell
away: (1) the cost of material for use in the laboratories
was almost prohibitive in exorbitancy; and (2)
the class of young men who had formerly served as assistants
were drawn off to the war, and no substitutes
were to be obtained. The library, for want of the necessary
funds, was constrained to shut its doors at night,
and to limit its purchases of new books; but its usefulness
was not otherwise impaired.
It was the impression of careful observers that the
general effect of the war influences had, so far, been to
deteriorate the spirit of scholarship by weakening the attention
and diminishing the assiduity of the students.
The average standing in 1917–18, however, seems to
have been at least higher than in 1916–17,—it was 85 in
1914–15; 64.1 in 1916–17; and 76.4 in 1917–18. The
average standing of the degree men was slightly more
creditable,—in 1916–17, it was 86; and in 1917–18, it
was 79.3. The shrinkage in the numerical strength of
the teaching staff was too small to afford an explanation
for this decline. In 1916–17, there were actively employed
with their classes twenty-three full professors,
four associate professors, thirteen adjunct professors,
sixteen instructors, thirteen permanent assistants, and
three student assistants,—a total corps of eighty-two.
In 1917–18, on the other hand, there were present for
duty twenty-four professors, three associate professors,
thirteen adjunct professors, twelve instructors, eleven
permanent assistants and eight student assistants,—a
total corps of sixty-nine.
