Lincoln Hall Project
Surviving the Crash
Falling Enrollment
The Great Depression put college out of reach for many students. Tuition at the University of Illinois was cheap—as low as $35 per semester in the early 1930s (around $540 in today’s dollars)—but including room and board and other living expenses, a student might have paid up to $1,000 per year to attend, which was a tall order in tight times when workers might only earn $20 a week. After enrollment reached an all-time high in 1930, it crashed by more than 25 percent to 10,675 in 1934. By 1937, however, economic recovery was underway and enrollment reached a new high.
The Philosophical Debate on Housing
The first women’s dormitory at the University of Illinois opened in 1919, but male students had no such option. During the Great Depression most male students either lived in fraternity houses or rented a private room. The questionable condition of some quarters prompted calls for a male residence hall, but they were resisted by fraternities and rooming houses, with some critics accusing the University of socialism and paternalism. One day, however, dozens of students narrowly escaped a fire that erupted in a private rooming house. That incident changed the tone of the debate, and by 1939 the University approved the first men’s dormitory.