This is the third in a three-part series about the effects of the Great Depression and World War II on SCU. Follow the tag SCU_WWII to read all three posts.
It may seem like SCU has never faced a crisis as extreme as the current Covid-19 crisis and racial justice unrest we are now facing. However, as may be in evidence from our series on SCU and WWII, our school went through even steeper challenges during the war era, both in terms of finances and morale. If one token of faith can be taken from that time period, it’s that in a united effort to contribute to a cause that’s bigger than any individual, we as a community can surmount the challenges posed by very trying times. While the WWII era left no blueprint for fighting the racial injustice we all now recognize, it is my hope that the historical information that follows can at least provide some morale and a sense of possibility about the future.
“War brought inevitable changes in academic routine. In 1942 Father Charles Walsh, who had been named president two years earlier, announced the inauguration of an accelerated program of study. It would remain in effect for the duration of the war. Created to let students complete as much of their schooling as possible before being drafted, the innovation lengthened the academic year to two semesters of sixteen weeks each and added a twelve-week summer session. Students could now finish college in three years rather than the normal four” (McKevitt 261).
Declining Enrollments
As discussed in part 2 of the SCU WWII series, declining enrollments that were caused by students being drafted to the war or enlisting themselves led to the implementation of an accelerated curriculum. It also led to a severe budget crisis for the school as SCU was tuition dependent in the 1940s just as it is now.
Father Walsh writes in the SCU Annals, “As of December, 1942, the Service Club’s revised list showed that 588 Santa Clara men were fighting for the Stars and Stripes in either Army, Navy, Air or Marine Corp. Eight gold stars were recorded for those who gave their lives in the supreme sacrifice. By the opening of the new semester in January 1943, it was found that eighty-nine students had departed from the 1942 roster of the student body, most of whom had entered some branch of the service. Ninety-two percent of the student body had enrolled in the advanced R.O.T.C. course or various enlisted reserve corps, and some 316 students in the basic R.O.T.C. course” (960).
He goes onto say, “As the 1942-1943 school year neared its termination Santa Clara had resigned herself to the necessity of giving up almost her entire student body for the greater good of the nation” (Walsh 965). Also at this time, Army convoys appeared on campus as part of the approved unit of the Army Specialized Training Program, which integrated non-civilian students into the learning opportunities at SCU and made use of the facilities left vacant by departed students. At first it seemed like this, in combination with the new Engineering Science Management War Training Program, in where non-student civilians received training on engineering topics to help the war effort, would bring welcome financial relief and breathe life into the quiet grounds. However the Army Specialized Training Program only lasted a year, and “almost without warning Santa Clara’s soldier-students were called to active duty” (McKevitt 262).
Soldier-students of Army Specialized Training Program line up for morning drill, 1943. Photo by Father Hubbard. Image courtesy of SCU Digital Collections.
Santa Clara was again faced with the issue of declining enrollments and financial crisis loomed large. The dwindling number of students was so severe, in fact, that a special election was called in October 1943 to fill the numerous vacation positions of student government (Walsh 971). When school reconvened for spring semester in January 1944, enrollment further dropped by 16 men, from 107 to 91 total students (Walsh 970).
It’s here you start to really feel for poor Father Charles J. Walsh, the SCU president who would become known as “The War President,” as I am sure the stress of dealing with these severe administrative challenges coupled with the grief of lost students and alumni weighed on him heavily. To get an idea of the losses experienced by the campus community during this time period, check out Part 3 of the SCU Annals. SCU historian Father Henry L. Walsh does an excellent job remembering and paying homage to alumni, faculty, and students deceased throughout pages 950 to 1020, and states that on September 2, 1944 “the Gold Stars on the university Service Flag now totaled forty-eight” (989). Writing in March of 1945, Walsh says, “Since the outbreak of the war in 1941, a total of 1851 Santa Clarans had answered their country’s call to arms” (1001).
While pretty dire, things in fall of 1944 could have been worse: the SCU Annals reports that “only four less than the previous year” enrolled, and goes on to say, “The aggregate total of 105 pupils was still only one-fifth of the average pre-war enrollment, their being six seniors, twelve juniors, thirteen sophomores and seventy-three freshmen” (985). The 1944-1945 SCU Course Catalog lists many more than 105, but it is probably the case that the majority of the students listed were nontraditional students and hence not counted by the same criteria as in the SCU Annals.
Values in Action
Still, in 1942 the school had faced the issue of whether or not to close during the war. The following Spring, in 1943, President Walsh brought the issue to the board of trustees and they voted to remain open. McKevitt says, “They hoped thereby to ‘maintain our reputation as a Liberal Arts College,’ to retain the lay staff ‘as far as possible, even at a sacrifice,’ and to preserve continuity in campus traditions by keeping ‘a skeleton student body’ of all four classes (261). This page in SCU history resonates particularly strong with staff members today, as SCU has stated its commitment to keeping as many staff members as possible on payroll during the Covid-19 crisis, as Father O’Brien stated in his April 28, 2020 email to SCU employees:
To guide our decision-making in these weeks, our leadership team has relied on three principles:
- protect the safety and well-being of our community;
- preserve and invest in our core academic mission of teaching, learning, and research; and
- minimize the financial impact of the shelter-in-place orders and the related economic downturn, while trying to avoid furloughs and layoffs.
There is a tradition of doing what is right for folks who rely on the employment with the school, and as a lay staff person, I take particular solace in seeing the precedent set for this over 75 years ago, and in seeing the commitment continue to the current day.
Response to Financial Crisis
President Father Walsh made some crafty and at times desperate moves to keep the school going. First of all, he “launched a hurried drive” for contributions to the Emergency Fund, aiming to collect $150,000 and ultimately collecting more than $100,000 (McKevitt 263). Loyal alumni were good for it: for example, Mr. William F. Humphrey, class of 1892, “came to the assistance of his beloved Alma Mater with a substantial donation of $23,250, promising at the same time to contribute $100 monthly for the duration of the university’s financial difficulties” (Walsh 990). This is an extreme testament to the positive associations alumni had with the school; adjusted for inflation, $23,250 of 1943 dollars would be about $350,000 today.
The school also parted with a couple properties that would be worth tens of millions nowadays: the last 23 acres of Loyola Corners up in Mountain View for $10,500, which for a time in the late 19th century/early 20th century SCU was considering moving to, and the Villa Maria winery and vineyards on Steven’s Creek up in Cupertino. Father Walsh elaborates on the vineyards: “Another item of interest to oldtimers was the sale of beloved Villa Maria on the banks of Stephens Creek [sic] to Raymond Byron, a merchant of San Jose. The property had been purchased by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in 1870, and converted into a vineyard, where some of the choicest wines in California had been produced to aid in financing the college. Because of its rustic beauty and sequestered attractiveness it had become a favorite spot for class picnics, and in the summertime served as a vacation retreat for the teaching faculties of St. Ignatius and Santa Clara Colleges. The property covered a tract, three hundred and twenty-two acres in extent, and was sold for $42,000” (1006).
Villa Maria, Cupertino: Field with Farm House. Image courtesy of SCU Digital Collections.
Villa Maria, Cupertino: Wine Barrels. Image courtesy of SCU Digital Collections.
Of course it would be a game changer to have such property assets still in the SCU portfolio, but when given the weight of ensuring the school’s survival, who can blame Father Walsh for making these decisions? Current faculty and staff have a livelihood, and we have been able to offer transformative educational experiences to generations of Broncos thanks to these land sales.
Through the generous donations from alumni, to working with the armed services to host training programs on campus, to selling off properties, Father Walsh and the board of trustees kept SCU going, and all of us attending school, working, and enjoying SCU are in the debt of those decisions being executed shrewdly.
End of the War
Christening of the Santa Clara Victory, 1945. Father Charles J. Walsh is pictured second from left. Image courtesy of SCU Digital Collections.
In early August of 1945, the US targeted Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the dropping of atomic bombs, ending the war. Walsh writes, “On August 15, 1945, ‘V.J.’ Day was filed away on the shelf of memories, and high hope was entertained for a return to the good old days at Santa Clara. Registration for the new term began on August 22 with many old faces reappearing ‘just came from the wars’, to act as a certain sort of leavening for the high school grads filling up the ranks of freshmen. In all, one hundred and sixty-nine students signed up, one hundred and twenty-eight of them being boarders. This was a seventy percent increase over the previous year. The new fall registration also marked the opening of the College of Law, which had been forced to close in May, 1943 due to a lack of students… In the undergraduate courses thirty-six veterans of the armed forces were among those registering…” and by Sept. 6, the student body numbered 189, “an increase of seventy-six percent over the one hundred and seven of the previous year” (105). The G.I. Bill and the vocational rehabilitation Act of 1943 were about to pay off big time, ushering in the highest enrollments the school had ever experienced, flooding campus with vets and often their families.
What about poor old Father Walsh, SCU’s “War President”? In October, 1945 he was replaced by Father Gianera, an SCU alumnus, and one can only hope Father Walsh got some much deserved R&R after a rough 5 years at the helm.
Header Image: War Supply Ship Mission Santa Clara. Image courtesy of Santa Clara City Library.
Works Cited
McKevitt, Gerald. The University of Santa Clara: A History, 1851-1977. Stanford, Calif: Stanford University Press, 1979.
University of Santa Clara. Catalogue for the Ninety-Fourth Year 1944-1945, University of Santa Clara, 1945, https://content.scu.edu/digital/collection/p17268coll9/id/8876/rec/1.
Walsh, Henry L. The Annals of Santa Clara : College and University, 1851-1951, https://content.scu.edu/digital/collection/p17268coll4/search.