The 1944 GI Bill at NC State:

 Back to School

More than 5,000 graduates of NC State served in World War II, around half of them as officers. Veterans who interrupted their studies to enlist could not wait to return to school after being discharged. Others reconsidered their options when they realized that the GI Bill put the possibility of a college or advanced degree within reach.

It was not surprising that more than 300 veterans enrolled at NC State in fall 1945. As the State College News noted, "Quite a few of these veterans have been here before and they have returned to complete their requirements for graduation." Campus administrators projected that another 500 would register for the winter term. Instead, the line for registration in January 1946 included nearly twice as many as expected. This trend was repeated over the next several terms.

Like most other colleges, NC State was unprepared for the dramatic increase in enrollment. The 1945 North Carolina General Assembly had not allocated funds toward building new campus facilities. At the same time, faculty and administrators believed that NC State's land-grant mission made it imperative to provide an education for as many citizens of the state as possible. To accommodate the surge in demand for classroom space and housing, college officials improvised creative short-term solutions. In addition, they rallied alumni and state legislators to their side in a campaign to expand the capacity of the school on a more permanent basis.

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Credit: Agromeck, 1947.

Assistant Professor Daniel Grosch teaches a genetics lab to a group of students including three veterans, [left to right] Charles "Chuck" Evans Gardner, Guy Jones, and Brantley Deloatche, 1947.

The presidents of Harvard and the University of Chicago feared that admitting large numbers of veterans would lower academic standards. At schools across the nation, ex-GIs proved the skeptics wrong, earning top grades and dominating honor rolls. They approached their studies with a strong sense of purpose gained from war experiences and family responsibilities.NC State recognized their military service by granting them 18 hours of course credit and excusing them from ROTC training, a requirement that otherwise applied to all male students until 1965.

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Credit: Photo by Roger Meekins for NC State.

"Pop" Taylor, veterans' advocate.

The Veterans Association formally elected two faculty advisors, Professor of Economics T. W. Wood and former extension specialist Herman Ward Taylor (who is pictured here with Alpha Zeta student Walter Stinson in 1953). "Doc" Wood provided academic counseling and helped veterans and their spouses secure housing and part-time jobs. "Pop" Taylor served as director of the Alumni Association and transformed it into an influential advocacy group for the college.

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Credit: Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries.

The students' supply store, ca. 1950.

The "90-per-monthers" raising families on the GI Bill were cost-conscious and dubbed the students' supply store "The Mop-up" in reference to its elevated prices.

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Credit: Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries.

A student in the bookstacks, ca. 1950.

The library provided an essential study space away from crowded and noisy residential quarters. Demand for study space was so great that students complained they could not find seats in the library at night. When this photograph was taken, the library was located in what is now Brooks Hall. While it was stately, the "facility had been long ranked among the worst in the entire country for a college as large as State," according to campus historian Alice E. Reagan. The college responded to these needs by building a new library in 1953–the East Wing of today's D. H. Hill Library.

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Credit: Compiled from the State College Record, 1939-1960.

Before World War II, the student body at NC State numbered around 2,500. By fall 1947, it had more than doubled to 5,328 students and included no fewer than 4,030 veterans. According to the October 4, 1946, Technician, veterans made up "about 90 percent" of the student body. A more accurate estimate may have been 76 percent, a figure still higher than the national average of 50 percent. The majority of the former GIs wanted to obtain practical, career-centered degrees, and NC State offered strong programs in agriculture, the sciences, engineering, textiles, and teacher education. The nationwide bump in enrollment came to be known as "the GI Bulge."

 

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Credit: State College News, 1950.

In 1950 a bumper crop of students (1,222, to be exact) graduated from NC State. Commencement exercises were held in the recently completed Reynolds Coliseum.

 

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Credit: Special Collections Research Center, NCSU Libraries.

Commencement, 1951.

"In our sophomore Forestry class, out of about 52 students, only two or three were not veterans. This ratio was probably [similar] throughout the entire student body."

– Donald E. Moreland, Class of 1949.

 

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