The 1950s may be famous for poodle skirts and greasers, but a look into the University during post-World War II America shows similarities to a school that has grown significantly over the years.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the all-male University — then Rutgers College — saw an influx of students with the passing of the G.I. Bill in 1946 after World War II, which allowed veteran soldiers to attend college for free.
Professor Hans Fisher, who first came to the University in 1946 and then stayed as a nutrition professor, said before he arrived, the University combined had 500 to 700 students. After the bill, his incoming class alone had 1,110 students.
“The University was totally unprepared for this onslaught when I came,” he said.
This may be familiar to the many students living in hotels off-campus today because of a housing shortage.
The cafeteria, originally in Winants Hall on the Old Queen’s campus, had to be relocated to the College Avenue Gym, Fisher said.
Jim Van Vliet, Engineering School Class of 1953, said many first-year students lived in old army barracks off-campus called the Raritan Arsenal, for there were not enough residence halls.
Another alternative was living in one of the 21 fraternity houses, he said.
“At that time it was an important component of campus life,” said Van Vliet, a member of Theta Kappa Epsilon. “There were limited dormitories on campus.”
University Archivist Thomas Frusciano said the University constructed the River Dorms on the College Avenue campus in the 1950s. The University’s library also moved from its small location, where the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum is now, to the larger Alexander Library on the College Avenue campus.
Harold Kaplan, Rutgers College Class of 1957, said when he entered school, it was after the rush of veterans. His class had about 600 first-year students.
The smallness of the school is something he admired.
“You got to know the professors a little bit better because it was on such a smaller scale. Everything was smaller and therefore a little more unique,” Kaplan said.
He said the school was so small there was only one security officer.
“We were good kids,” Kaplan said.
The campus was not controversial and it was very quiet, Fisher said. This was mostly a result of the large role greek life played.
“Many students felt that it was very prestigious to be in a fraternity or sorority, and that was completely different from earlier times,” he said.
The veterans who came to the University right after the passage of the G.I. Bill did not care about greek life, Fisher said.
“When the veterans weren’t coming anymore, fraternities resumed,” Fisher said.
Frusciano said social life was mainly formalized in sophomore hops or military balls. The campus, like the decade, was very conservative.
Three professors — Sir Moses Finley, Abraham Glasser and Simon Heimlich — were dismissed for allegedly being Communist sympathizers during the Red Scare of the McCarthy Era, he said.
Fisher said he remembers the faculty members being singled out.
“They were being accused of giving a different slant to teaching students,” he said.
But people on campus did not fear Communists, Fisher said.
“In all honesty, I don’t think the undergraduates were even as nearly politically aware as they are today,” Van Vliet said. “I think we were kind of oblivious.”
There were few, if any, protests on campus, he said.
“[The World War II veterans] were determined to pursue the American dream,” Van Vliet said. “They weren’t about to be spending time protesting.”
Frusciano said the war had given the University a mix of men from high school and older veterans, many of whom were married, had children and lived in trailers in University Heights, now known as Busch campus.
“They were a different type of student, a student that had experienced war,” he said.
The 1950s also saw the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953.
As the draft was still in effect for those not enrolled at school full-time, the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps service in the army or air force was required for first-year students and sophomores, Van Vliet said. After that, it was optional.
University students had other requirements that were removed over time.
The students were required to have Saturday classes, Fisher said.
“And there was no way to get out of it,” he said.
First-year students were also required to wear skullcaps called “dinkys,” Frusciano said.
But the changes did not stop there.
The 1950s, under former University President Lewis Webster Jones, saw the conversion of Rutgers College from a small liberal arts college to a major state school, Frusciano said. The Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees was established in 1956, tying the school with the governor.
“It really solidified our relationship with the state of New Jersey,” he said.
But some of the aspects the University is famous for today were not there in the 1950s.
The University’s current reputation as one of the most diverse institutions also evolved through time, as most of the students in the ’50s were white male.
There were few black students, and his class had only one or two Asians, Van Vliet said. The largest, identifiable ethnic minority at the University at the time were Jewish students.
The New Jersey College of Women — renamed Douglass College in 1955 — remained exclusively for women until the University became co-ed in the 1970s, Frusciano said.
But one of the most important changes the University saw was a new and improved mascot: the Scarlet Knight.
The students voted in 1955 to change the mascot, Frusciano said. They felt the mascot at the time, the Chanticleer fighting rooster, was a source of ridicule.
Van Vliet said he cannot believe how the University has grown.
“We were the little, pseudo-Ivy league college in the 1950s,” Van Vliet said. “And now, like it or not, we are a major state University. Things have changed.”
Post-war decade planted seeds for campus growth
Published: Thursday, November 12, 2009
Updated: Thursday, November 12, 2009
 "Photo: Courtesy of Rutgers Special collections and university archives")
Courtesy of Rutgers Special collections and university archives
Students at the all-male University in the 1950s take an exam. During this decade, the University saw a rise in enrollment from an influx of World War II veterans returning to school.
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