thus enabling each house to admit a larger number. Lack of an adequate freshman dining hall delayed putting the recommendations into effect until 1937 when the Student Union Building was opened.
The outbreak of World War II impinged rather little on the usual student interests and activities though the undergraduates were alert to the rush of events. Many were somewhat prone to be skeptical over reports they read, fearing they would become victims of propaganda as they felt the World War I generation had been. By the fall of 1940 Colgate had established a Civilian Pilot Training program under contract with the Civil Aeronautics Authority. The unit had a flying field on Route 20 between Madison and Bouckville, three planes and three instructors, and members of the Physics and Geology Departments taught the ground school courses. Initially 30 students enrolled and up to June, 1942, 159 had completed the program, most of whom made war careers of flying.
The news of Pearl Harbor came shortly before a Christmas Vesper Service at which the Rev. William F. Davison, ’23, preached on “Home for Christmas” to a shocked congregation far removed from the happy spirit associated with the season. As they left the Chapel in the soft white snow-the first of the season-they faced the future with uncertainty. Students were counseled to remain in college to complete as much of their education as possible before going into service. Colgate, like most colleges, adopted an accelerated academic program early in January, 1942, which provided for a three-term year and enabled the Class of 1943 to graduate six months ahead of schedule. Learning and teaching took on a new seriousness. Hamilton’s first blackout, the initial visit of the Red Cross bloodmobile, the collection of scrap metal, new wartime courses such as Map Reading, Democracies and Dictatorships, and Military German, and the presentation of a service flag by the Class of 1932, all served to remind students and faculty that the nation and its colleges were at war, Colgate among them.
The preceding two decades had seen great expansion of the athletic program. Golf was introduced in 1923, though for some years before students had, played on the old course, bounded roughly by the quarry, cemetery and President’s House, which had been constructed in 1917 on the initiative of some faculty and townspeople. A new course, incorporating and expanding the old one and named Seven Oaks for the village in Kent, England, near which the Colgate family
