U.S. involvement in the War posed a direct challenge to the University. The attack on Pearl Harbor inspired young men across the country to join one of the services. The bottom fell out of U.Va. applicant base and many students chose to postpone their studies in order to serve in the War. The administration did what it could to forestall losing its students to the War (though it never went so far as to allow women or blacks admission previously denied them). However, ultimately the War taxed the University to the breaking point. The year old N.R.O.T.C program and new programs also of a military nature allowed the University to remain open and remain a domain for white men. Yet there was a price paid by the old guard of the University; the traditions held so dear meant little to the new military students and many traditions went into a forced hibernation. The War years themselves can be divided into two stages; the early years were marked by adjustments of the regular students and the later years dominated by non-traditional Virginia students.
At the outset of the War the University community backed the War effort out of patriotism and the desire to defend freedom and democracy--the noblest part of their Jeffersonian tradition--and it nearly lead to the destruction of the school. Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor University professors undertook a series of state-wide lectures and discussions on "democracy and its obligations". Universities generally viewed their duty at this early stage in the War as being protectors of democratic ideals. Such an agenda easily could be linked to the memory of Thomas Jefferson. President Newcomb's Christmas message to the alumni in December of 1940 reflects this link:
In a world at war, with so much of Europe controlled by totalitarian ideology, your University stands steeped in the traditions of its Founder, firm in the faith in human freedom and the American way of life.
On Jefferson Day in April 1941, Newcomb's message to the students belied the stress the War was putting on the University. The efforts to contribute to the War and maintain the U.Va. of the pre-War days were sapping the foundation of the institution--the student body; many potential students joined the services while others were lured into newly created high paying industry jobs. Newcomb pleaded,
The president was attempting to link University business as usual with Jefferson, Democracy, and the nation's current situation in an effort to thwart the exodus of students into the services.
In the first years of war were marked by traditional Virginia students adapting to wartime demands. A number of students volunteered for one of the service while others were drafted. Many of those who remained became involved in the "Dawn Patrol," a non-commissioned group of students who purchased their own uniforms and wooden guns and marched in the mornings. It was organized in the spring of 1942 by student marine reservists to prepare students for military duty and life; seventy-five student participated in its first term. The University gave physical education credit to participants. But the N.R.O.T.C. program was the most popular with Virginia students. In September of 1940 450 students were enrolled. This grew to 670 in the spring of 1942 to 1033 the next fall and then tapered off to 679 and 626 for the next two falls respectively. By the 1943-44 session well over half of the students are pictured in Corks and Curls not in the traditional coat and tie, but instead in uniform.
This wartime activity affected students lives more profoundly than simply consuming time in new ways. Perhaps the most lasting change of the War was the increased seriousness with which students went about their lives. While the Great Depression challenged the carefree student lifestyle of the twenties, the Second World War put an end to it--and it was more than a cosmetic change from coats and ties to uniforms. The academic calendar was accelerated allowing students to complete their degree work quickly. New students could begin their studies during an expanded summer session. Still, the students remembered a romanticized days gone by and stressed connections to this past.
This has been a year of war. The University has changed in many ways: we have air raid squads on the Lawn, and many of our finest students are gone to fight for our country. The integral part of the University, however, hasn't changed - can never change - it is always embodied in the spirit of Jefferson, of Honor, Democracy and Liberty.
A year later the same sentiment appears again in the opening pages of a Corks and Curls dedicated to,
Though the wartime student was devoted to the War, he still longed for a Virginia he seemed to be losing. The 1942-43 session was especially confusing for such a student,
University life was tightening up; the response of traditional Virginia men was reluctant acceptance of the new situation. No longer, for example, could students afford, or want, not to study or even purchase their books until the last weeks of class. The University searched for an acceptable role in wartime America; N.R.O.T.C. alone could not carrying the school through the War. The University, by it largely restricted admission to the demographic group most prominent in fighting the Second World War, white men of college age, found its student base severely undermined. The maintenance of this most hallowed tradition of homogeneity required compromising some of the more trivial traditions like Easter's week dances, bourbon, academic laziness, and the Virginia Gentlemen. While other schools were forced to close operations in the War and some survived by allowing African Americans and women to enroll, U.Va., again, found its savior in the Navy--which the BOV had doubted was compatibility with the University only a few years before the War. The N.R.O.T.C.'s presence and importance created a tension among the students between service and tradition, but it was another type of naval student that keep Virginia open and caused the greatest strain to the institution's self-image.
The classic Virginia student, even those involved in N.R.O.T.C., was gradually displaced by military students involved in the Navy V-12 program. Men involved in this program had signed up for naval service only to find the Navy was not ready for them. As a result, programs like the V-12 were established across the country to provide training and house these men until their service was required. V-12ers were assigned to the school at which they received this training. Consequently, V-12ers at Virginia generally came from outside the traditional pre-University scene of prep schools and had little investment in University traditions. Consequentially, the Honor system, the focal point of the Virginia Gentlemen mystic, nearly collapsed. Even the athletic program, which had previous to the War prided itself on not being "professional" and hence being somewhat mediocre, found unprecedented success with V-12 athletes. Corks and Curls, the yearbook published by the fraternities and once representing the paradigm of a romanticized idyllic University life, was not even published in 1945--one year after declaring the 1943-44 session the University's "first real year of war" and noting that V-12ers were the most abundant students on Grounds.
The Honor system ultimately remained intact throughout the War largely because Captain Edgar Williams, commander of the Navy at the University, wanted it to. Indeed it was broadened, becoming the sanctioning body for naval student violations of rules limiting movement off Grounds without William's permission. But controversy erupted in the fall of 1943 on the issue of "false muster", or calling "here" for an absent recruit at role call. Such a practice was common in the Navy; whether it was lying and hence punishable by Honor sanctions became the topic of heated debate. Many Navy students, not particularly interested in the Honor system anyway, wanted to use the issue as a means to remove themselves from the system altogether. The issue did not find clear resolution until the summer of 1944 when an election resulted in the majority support of a honor system including both civilian and military students--although the exact vote remained secret and scant evidence suggests possible tampering to preserve the most sacred of Virginia traditions.
Military demands kept V-12 students from enjoying social lives as colorful as previous Virginia students. The Army pre-meteorological training detachment publication "Weather or Not", which displaced the Jefferson Society's "The Virginia Spectator" as the voice of student social opinion from June 1943 to August 1944, continually voiced students frustration over social outlets largely limited to dances at Madison Hall and the occasional tea party. The R.O.T.C. units did not have formals of their own until after the War. To boost the morale of the military trainees the University War Hostess Organization (UWHO) was founded in spring 1943 by Mrs. A.E. Walker, University Center Hostess, and Dean Ivey Lewis, to "provide entertainment for the 800 servicemen (V-12ers)" at U.Va. The UWHO recruited young women from local churches and other groups who agreed to serve five hours minimum per month at weekly Saturday night dances at Madison Hall and "at other times when called upon". This new face of gender interaction now common on Grounds befuddled traditional students. For example, a sketch introducing the "Activities" section of the 1944 Corks and Curls pictures a Navy V-12ers escorting a young women while a coat and tie clad gentlemen observes covetously with only "Tim Murphy" (referred to as the "professor of bumology" by students and a fixture on "the corner"--a shopping district--until his death in 1944) as a companion. Such a rift represents the division between students in the latter half of the Second World War.