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1940

1940 became a record enrollment year as 652 students arrived on campus for the fall semester. When Congress instated the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history many men enlisted before being drafted so that they could choose their military branch. Many students choose the navy (the air force was not yet a separate military branch).

Dozens of students also enlisted under Col. T. L. Gilbert's command in Lubbock's Army Airfield after Gilbert came to campus to attract volunteers.

Don H. Morris, head of the speech department, took office as president.

1941

The Optimist reported student response to Pearl Harbor as follows:

When the first news bulletin was flashed, Sunday, (sic) Boys' dorm was electrified. From the western, third-floor hall (sic) boys marched raggedly but spiritedly downstairs to the tune of, "You're in the Army Now." Scantily-clad figures dashed up and down the corridors, yelling, "Meet you in Tokyo."

Reaction to hostilities in Girls' dorm was almost the reverse of that in Boys'. Every radio clicked on with the first report and remained on as coeds listened in stunned silence until late at night. Several girls with sweethearts or brothers in or near the fighting broke down.

1943

During the war years, when so many faculty, staff, students and alumni were away fighting, the absence of males around campus was more than noticeable. By the fall of 1943 the female-to-male ration was about 3-to-1.

1944

ACC sold bonds and stamps as part of the war effort, which President Morris recorded in a July statement for a brotherhood publication. From 1943-44 faculty members invested 11-12 percent of their total salaries in war bonds.

Approximately 800 students were in the Service, twelve of whom had died in the line of duty and others were missing. Morris wrote that, "Our nation is engaged in a gigantic effort to subdue lawless men and nation on the earth. All should cooperate wholeheartedly and fully in this great task."

1945

The Cadettes, a women's social club, made a service flag on which they affixed blue stars to represent each student and ex-student involved in military service during the war. When a person died while in service his/her blue star was replaced with a gold one. By the end of the war there were 1,088 stars, forty of which were gold.

Germany surrendered in World War II; this meant that a vast group of students could register for college work under the G.I. Bill.

Groundbreaking was made for a science building -- the first permanent structure on the campus since the 1929 building projects.

1946

As the war ended, the gender ratio situation reversed itself. In the fall of 1946 more than half of the students were veterans, and the swelling enrollment sent the administration scampering to find adequate housing. Barracks from nearby Camp Barkeley, deactivated by the U.S. Army in the spring of 1946, were moved to the Hill to house students and provide additional classroom and office space. Students were packed three and four in dorm rooms, and faculty members who livde near campus and had extra space in their homes found that they could make as much from renting out rooms as they could from their teaching salaries. Barracks from Camp Barkeley were moved to the campus, where they became a fixture for 33 years.

1948

There was a dramatic incline in the years immediately following the war. 1,689 students enrolled this year.