Surviving the Depression and Becoming Fifty Years Old

Surviving the Depression and Becoming Fifty Years Old. Perhaps the best indication of the hardship suffered by the University [of Oklahoma] during the decade of the Great Depression is this: the Norman campus's income in the 1932-1933 academic year was $1.58 million; ten years later, during the 1940-1941 school year, the income had dropped to $1.55 million. The dire financial situation made itself felt in various ways. The Geological Survey shut down temporarily, summer school students suddenly had to pay tuition, and fees for nonresident students were raised; the Extension Division abandoned several traditional functions; salaries remained largely stagnant during the whole period and the morale of faculty and staff was inevitably affected. , Yet there were also bright spots despite the hard times. The School of Medicine's income rose during the decade from $582,000 to $708,000. The library, benefitting from he special devotion of President Bizzell, increased the number of its volumes from 138,000 in 1931 to more than 226,000 ten years later. Student enrollment also continued its steady growth; by the end of the 1940-1941 academic year, it had increased to more than 8500 (with another 2300 attending summer school). With the help of federal WPA funds, the clock tower atop the Memorial Union was added in 1936. Federal funds also aided in the construction of a business building (Adams Hall) and one for biology (Richards Hall). A year later, the University of Oklahoma Foundation began its important work of receiving and administering gifts. In 1940, the university acquired the Max Westheimer airfield as a gift from Walter Neustadt. , Among new faculty members coming to the university in this period were Rupel Jones and Robert Whitehand (drama), Glen W. Couch (botany), Helen Gregory (physical education), Joseph Taylor (art), Spencer Norton and Mildred Andrews (music), Teague Self (zoology), Oliver Benson and Joseph Pray (political science), Maurice Merrill (law), Harold Bone (engineering) and Foster Harris (English). Two other newcomers were Savoie Lottinville, who came in 1932 to assist at the University of Oklahoma Press, and a young professor named George Lynn Cross, who arrived on campus in September 1934 to teach botany. , At the end of the summer of 1941, President Bizzell handed over his duties to Joseph Brandt, former director of the University Press and a graduate of the university. Brandt came with bold and controversial plans for reforming, modernizing and democratizing the university. Undeterred by the dislocations and difficulties that arose with the advent of World War Two, he did much to prepare the institution for its second half century. , At the university's fiftieth year, there were 540 members of the faculty – 349 in Norman and 191 in Oklahoma City. They were divided among ten independent colleges and schools that made up the University of Oklahoma. Over the first half century of its existence, the university had granted more than 23,400 degrees. It had enriched the lives of thousands of students and many of its graduates had gone on to assume important and useful positions throughout the state and the nation. The stage had been admirably set for even more remarkable growth, distinction and achievement in the decades ahead.