The housing shortage eased with the opening of Smith Hall, the school's first women's dormitory. Women students also organized various societies, such as the Women's Student Government Association, and the college created the positions of social director in and dean of women in During this same era, social organizations replaced the severe military discipline of earlier years as more prosperous students attended the college.
So-called "Greek" fraternities began operating unofficially in , and President Broun officially recognized their existence in By , at least seven fraternities operated on campus. In some ways, such organizations were problematic. In , tension between fraternities and independent students led the latter to publish a separate student yearbook, and by API recognized fraternity hazing as a problem. Nevertheless, Lambda Chi Alpha built the first fraternity house in , and women formed the Panhellenic Council in to coordinate sorority activities.
Charles Coleman Thach Pres. The stations conducted agricultural research that it reported in published bulletins in cooperation with the state commissioner of agriculture. Cooperative extension work began in earnest in , when Luther Noble Duncan, later the director of ACES and one of the founders of the Farm Bureau, and others formed "corn clubs" for boys and "canning clubs" for girls in rural Alabama.
By , the U. The Smith-Lever Act of provided federal matching funds to support extension efforts through county-level agricultural and home demonstration agents. Such funds were vital to API, which had operated under severe financial restraints throughout its history.
Tuition was kept low to attract a higher volume of students, endowments were small and often uncollected, and the funds provided by the state were miniscule. Beginning in , President Thach had lobbied for more state support, gaining from the progressive legislature a direct appropriation as well as approval of testing fees for agricultural chemicals.
After the legislature allocated only half its appropriation, API accepted funds through the federal Smith-Hughes Act of , requiring it to prepare high school agriculture teachers. In and , Auburn students responded to World War I by enlisting in great numbers. President Thach reported in that 1, students and alumni had entered the armed forces, including almost the entire class of , who enlisted en masse.
API boasted officers, including one major general and provided training for the Army in electronics, auto mechanics, and general mechanics to men in the summer of The College of Agriculture aided the homefront by organizing 10, young people into canning and livestock clubs and assisting the various "war kitchens" established in Alabama.
Among his challenges were a failed capital campaign, a threat to move the college to Montgomery , and a dismal football program. Dowell's subsequent efforts modernized the institution, establishing by the schools of chemistry and pharmacy, home economics, and agriculture. Student leaders, however, raised alumni support for his ouster. Although the causes are obscure, they appear to have hinged on Dowell's inattention to football, his application of prohibition, and his contempt of state politics and non-academic services provided by the college.
After more than a year-long battle, he left in to serve as president of Mercer University. Knapp built the Electrical Engineering Experiment Station, established the School of Science and Literature, and added textile, aeronautical, and industrial engineering curricula. He did not, however, have the connections or experience to fight for funds in the legislature.
By the end of , API had not paid salaries for 10 months, even though professors, administrators, and staff members continued to work. In , Knapp resigned. After a brief period in which the board of trustees appointed a three-person committee to lead the institution, Luther Noble Duncan was appointed president. During his year tenure, he used his political connections to bring federal Works Progress Administration funds to erect a number of badly needed buildings, secure appropriations from the legislature, and expand enrollment.
World War II brought many changes. In , API enrolled 3, students. By , that number fell to 1,, and President Duncan responded by bringing military technical training programs to API that trained more than 39, military personnel directly 10, on the API campus. The school switched from a semester to a quarter schedule of classes in June to accelerate baccalaureate education for military-bound students. API awarded more degrees in the first decade after the war than it had in its entire history to Enrollments rose from almost 2, in to more than 8, in , straining resources.
In response, API hired new professors, increased class sizes, and even housed students in tugboat cabins purchased as war surplus. The school also tapped a prisoner of war camp in nearby Opelika to house students, who were transported by bus. Increasing enrollments led him to streamline and modernize administration and academic structure, reorganize schools and departments, establish new offices, and bring faculty into university governance.
In , for example, API created a separate Athletics Department divided into structural units, initiated the policy-making Graduate Council, published the first graduate catalog, and expanded the professorial staff and the library holdings. Under Draughon's guidance, API, and after its name change in , Auburn University, handed out more than 27, degrees, many in new master's and doctoral programs.
The Tigers had started the season ranked No. It wasn't until the season finale against Alabama that coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan raised the subject. The win in the Iron Bowl ended Auburn's season at The game also ended the tenure of Alabama coach J. Jimmy "Red" Phillips was named All-America. Eighteen players would eventually be drafted into the NFL.
The running game was led by the elusive Tommy Lorino and speedy Bobby Hoppe. Jackie Burkett, who'd play a dozen years in the NFL, anchored the line at center. During the off-season, Jordan cut returning quarterback Jimmy Cook. Nix, a high school quarterback at Carbon Hill, had been moved to halfback but Jordan asked him to switch. Nix proceeded to go in his two seasons.
Sugar Ray Robinson lost the middleweight title. The United States was concerned with the space race. The college had begun an affiliation with the Methodist Church before the war. Due to dire financial straits, the church transferred legal control of the institution to the state in , making it the first land-grant college in the South to be established separate from the state university.
It thus became the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. A land-grant college or university is an institution that has been designated by its state legislature or Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of and The original mission of these institutions, as set forth in the first Morrill Act, was to teach agriculture, military tactics, and the mechanical arts as well as classical studies so that members of the working classes could obtain a liberal, practical education.
Women were admitted in , making Auburn the oldest four-year, coeducational school in the state and the second-oldest in the Southeast. In , the name was again changed to the Alabama Polytechnic Institute.
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