ACADEMICS

Faculty Losses

In addition to the departure of young men for war service, the faculty suffered losses in six departments due to death, retirements and resignations. Positions were filled in five departments, and a chair for the Botany Department was hired. The vacancies continued through 1945. A permanent chair of the Department of Government was found when the U.S. government released some of the large body of political scientists, economists and historians who had been called into service in Washington, D.C.

Russian History Course

The first courses in Russian history were listed in the Pomona College Catalog for the year 1944–45.

STUDENT LIFE

First Woman Student Body President

In 1944, Margaret "Maggie" Boothby '45 was elected Pomona's first woman student body president.

War Work

Each student had to give two to four hours a week for “war work” or campus service. Pomona students helped with the war effort in a variety of ways, including buying war bonds and stamps, donating blood, rolling bandages and knitting squares to make afghan blankets for wounded soldiers.

Republican Pomona

The straw poll on campus prior to the national election on Nov. 7 showed about 75% of Pomona students supporting Dewey over Roosevelt.

Date Bureau

Women students at Pomona joined with Scripps students to establish a Date Bureau, designed to arrange blind dates between female students and men in the military programs.

TSL Changes

The demand for raw materials for the war effort meant that student publications like the Metate and The Student Life newspaper were limited by a paper shortage. As a result, The Student Life was cut down to two two-page issues per week. The paper gradually increased in size after the war and became a weekly in 1956. In 1965, The Student Life added two pages per issue devoted to the news of Pitzer College, which were edited and financed by Pitzer students.

FINANCES

Enrollment Hits Low

By the end of the spring term, enrollment had reached a low point of 449 civilian students, the vast majority being women. That term, only 36 male freshmen had enrolled.

Scholarships for Soldiers

A total of $10,000 was reserved from the Alumni Fund for the purpose of providing scholarships after the war to Pomona students whose education was interrupted for military service.

The Pomona Plan

Building upon an informal practice in existence at Pomona since 1893, the College in 1942 established the program that would later become famous as the Pomona Plan, creating a deferred giving program that would soon become the model for programs at institutions across the country as a basis for long-range financing. The program was the brainchild of Allen Franklin Hawley '16, who joined the staff of the College in 1938 and, during his 20 years at Pomona, became a pioneer in the field of life-income gifts at non-profit institutions.

CONSORTIUM

Administrative Plan

An Oxford-style administrative plan was adopted for reorganization of the administration of support arm of The Claremont Colleges, which now included Pomona, Scripps and the newly renamed Claremont Graduate School. President Lyon became the first provost of “Claremont College,” as the support arm was now to be known.

ELSEWHERE

• German V-2 rockets on test from Peenemunde became the first manmade objects to enter space.
• Operation Overlord, known as D-Day, began with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy.
• Franklin D. Roosevelt won reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey, becoming the only president elected to a fourth term.