A new era had begun for South Dakota State College on January 1, 1941.  Lyman Edson Jackson took over the leadership of the college at a salary of $6,000.  What started out as an administration of curriculum building and reorganization, turned out to be one of setbacks.  Decreased enrollment, the use of college buildings as barracks, and rationing were just some of the problems the college saw.  The hardest work of his term, however, was in preparing the college for the return of the veterans and the many students who had left to aid the war effort, and especially with the administering of the G. I. Bill.

December 7, 1941, marked the beginning of the United States' involvement in the war, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan in a surprise attack.

Students gathered in the gymnasium, now the Intramural Building, to listen as President Roosevelt addressed the nation on the radio announcing that the U.S. declared war on Japan.  1,500 students and faculty were present to hear this announcement.

By December 9, 1941, the U.S. had also declared war on Germany and Italy.  Soon after, eligible men were required to register for the draft. 182 men signed at South Dakota State College.

The College soon began to feel the effects of the war.  Enrollment dropped significantly.
 

• 1940-41:    
  1,501 students enrolled
• Men:          1,060
• Women:        441

• 1944-45:    
  395 students enrolled
• Women outnumbered the men 2 to 1

Adjustments in college programs were necessary to accommodate the war.  Experiments were made on the academic calendar.  Shorter vacations were eliminated to permit students to get out early enough in the Spring to take essential jobs.

In order to lessen time lost between class, a 100-minute class period was instituted.  However, students complained that professors bluffed and stalled in order to fill out the whole 100 minutes.

In the fall of 1943, a six week term was put into effect in order to accommodate draft boards and release students for farm labor.  However, the 12 week term was restored in early 1944.

During the war years, much of the college program was designed to help win victory.  The 1939-40 catalog listed military training programs available to students.

Some of these programs were:

• National Defense
• Aerial Photography Reading
• Weapons
• Combat Training
• Defense against Chemical Warfare

Even college alumni got on the band-wagon to promote the war effort.  The Alumnus, a publication of the Alumni Association, promoted buying war bonds and stamps and war and education at South Dakota State College.
 
 
 
 
 

The Cooperative Extension Service did more service work than education work during the war years.  It assisted with family gardens, Victory Gardens, food preservation and storage.  County Agents aided South Dakota farmers by showing them better ways of farming.  By 1944, more than half of all South Dakota farmers discarded at least one of their farming practices and substituted a better way of doing the job.

Although handicapped by the large proportion of their membership going into military service, County Agents also helped farmers obtain harvest help and organized people in phases of the war effort such as scrap metal drives and bond sales.  Agents further assisted in the distribution of imported agricultural labor, including war prisoners and U.S. servicemen on leave.

During World War II, the Agricultural Experiment Station tested different methods of preserving fruits and vegetables.  Due to the short supply of sugar nationally, substitutes were evaluated as sweeteners.

The Experiment Station also helped ease other hardships brought on by the war.  Shortages of steel and other materials made it hard to get new farm machinery.  So projectes were undertaken to devise homemade or converted machinery to aid farmers in their efforts to expand food production.

The School of Agriculture, an agricultural high school at South Dakota State College, was also affected by the war.  Letters were sent to students informing them about the schedule of instruction during wartime.  The school gave students an opportunity to finish high school in half the time, 18 weeks instead of 9 months.
 
 
 
 

"Keep 'em rolling" might well have been the slogan of those girls who contributed to the war effort by rolling bandages for the Red Cross.  They gathered each week in the women' lounge.  Approximately 150 South Dakota State College women were enlisted in a Red Cross Unit.

With the advent of the war, students spent much of their free time with their radio dials tuned to the latest news.

In 1942, President Jackson announced the college was to close for a work vacation.  State College students were going to work for Uncle Sam.  A large crew of boys were sent to Pierre where they worked on an airport construction project.  Many students donned overalls and did their duty on farms.

The college was closed from October 13-26, causing the cancellation of Hobo Day.

College is not all study and classes.

In fact, a very important part of school at State was social gatherings.  Regardless of the war, and perhaps because of it, State College filled its social calendar full of dances and fun fests.

Dances were characterized by a lack of civilian men, so drastic steps were resorted to in order to maintain the semblance of peacetime social life.  The "Puff-Pant Ball" was a girls-date-girls affairs at which any kind of costume was "the thing," the only regulation being that one girl in the couple be dressed as a man.

On December 3, 1942, Armed Forces personnel began arriving on campus with the introduction of the Army Administration School.  This was the first program established on the South Dakota State College campus and it trained clerks for General Army Administration duty in the Air Corps.

The ROTC was another program that was added between 1942 and 1944.  It was part of a newly initiated program since the declaration of war.  The advanced military group spent 15 hours each week in military preparation.
 
 
 

Right along with the war caused man shortage came the war caused changes in athletics at State.

With football completely eliminated from the athletic program in the fall of 1943, loyal fans of the Yellow and Blue had little chance to cart out the old cowbells to the football field.

However, the Army Special Training Program men of Company A and B came to the rescue on Hobo Day 1944, when they played a spectacular game ending with a tied score of 13-13.  2,500 spectators weathered the Hobo Day rains to see this event.

Army Personnel dominated the South Dakota State College campus.  A great deal of emphasis was placed on close order drill and orderly movements from class to class.  Retreat parades were a weekly event and several were in honor of dignataries who visited campus.

While the war was a long way from being over in June 1944, signs of peace were beginning to appear on campus.  Crucial battles of the war still raged on the world fronts, but the first servicemen began to trickle back to the South Dakota State College campus.  By 1946, the trickle became a torrent.  Trailer houses appeared adjacent to the campus and other surplus buildings were secured for housing, classrooms and storage.

After the war ended, State College was again experiencing change.  But his time the change was better than the changes that occurred in 1941, for the boys were coming back.