The Brooks Years and World War One

The Brooks Years and World War One. On October 21, 1912, the University [of Oklahoma] inaugurated its third president in a solemn ceremony in front of the new administration building. Stratton Brooks had made it a condition of his taking the job that the authorities abandon their long history of political interference with the university. For the first decade of his administration, state leaders kept the bargain. , The School of Medicine suffered a humiliating setback weeks after Brooks' arrival. The national Council on Medical Education demoted the university's program from an “A” rating to a rating of “B,” and for the rest of this period the school, under Dean LeRoy Long, battled to regain the higher ranking. With help from the governor and legislature, the School of Medicine gained a campus in Oklahoma City and erected University Hospital, which opened in November 1919. In March 1920 the Council restored the school's “A” rating. , Three other programs experienced especially dramatic growth during these years, eventually becoming separate colleges within the university. In 1913 the study of journalism broke away from the English Department and became its own school, which prospered for the next forty years under the direction of its pioneering leader, H.H. Herbert. In 1920 the School of Education was strengthened and made an independent entity. In 1923 the School of Public and Private Business – under its feisty, energetic and effective leader, Arthur Adams – expanded sufficiently to be separated from the School of Arts and Sciences. , This decade saw the arrival of such influential members of the faculty as Oscar Jacobson (art), Edgar Meacham and Nathan Court (mathematics), Patricio Gimeno (Spanish), Gayfree Ellison (biology), Victor Monnet (geology), Edward Everett Date (history) and Walter Campbell (English), among many others. On September 18, 1916, the first issue of the student newspaper, the Oklahoma Daily, made its appearance. , American entry into World War One in April 1917 greatly disrupted normal student life. Before the war was over, more than 1000 students and and alumni and around 40 members of the faculty had served in the military. Tragically 21 students and 3 faculty members died in the war – some in combat, other in the horrific flu pandemic. Many others served the war effort in various ways. Meanwhile, the campus was practically transformed into a military base, with compulsory daily drills, marches, guard duty, mess halls and barracks. For the duration of the war, very little of the normal educational work of the university could be maintained. , The university experienced a minor building boom after the war. In addition to the new hospital in Oklahoma City, the school received appropriation for buildings to house an auditorium (eventually named Holmberg Hall), the Geology Department (eventually Carpenter Hall), and a new library (Jacobson Hall). These additions made ten permanent buildings on the Norman campus. , At the end of its third decade, the University was enrolling around 3600 regular students and employing nearly 225 faculty members on its two campuses. The library boasted approximately 35,000 volumes. The institution was poised for the period of growth and prosperity that lay ahead.