Lincoln Hall Project
War and the New Era
New Views on Campus
The End of ‘Joe and Jane College’
Veterans changed the character of student life after the war. In some ways veterans—who were often married with children, and older than the typical student—were more reticent and serious than the typical student and had little interest in student social life. Veterans were known to be hard-working students, but professors complained that some veterans, particularly former officers, were irreverent toward professorial authority. But Jean Howerton, then editor of the Daily Illini, said at a campus meeting in 1946 that students welcomed veterans and the new attitudes they brought to campus. They weren’t part of the traditional college crowd. “Most of us are glad the ‘rah-rah’ days are gone and ‘Joe and Jane College’ with them,” she said.
A Changed Outlook on Education
More so than other students, World War II veterans arrived on campus focused on one thing: getting the skills necessary to land a job. For the most part they knew what they wanted to do (in some cases they already had a job lined up). They had little patience for coursework that wasn’t directly applicable. Extra classroom space and instructors had to be found for subjects such as engineering, chemistry, psychology, geology, math, business, law, medicine, and journalism. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences added 142 sections of rhetoric, a required course for all students. Other fields, such as humanities, suffered. LAS waived its language requirement for students who didn’t need it in their field. G.E. Moore, associate dean in LAS, said in 1946 that many veterans wanted to get through college as quickly as possible.