A Decade of Progress---1930-1940

The College Just About Doubles in Enrollment and Equipment, and is Accredited
By All Related State, Regional, and National Standardizing Agencies
Page Three December 1939 December Issue, WAKE FOREST COLLEGE ALUMNI NEWS

At this season of the year when merchants and others are taking inventory it is well to consider progress that has been made at Wake Forest during the past ten years, 1930-40. It happens that this decade represents the administration of Dr. Thurman Kitchin who became president in 1930.

During this period the enrollment has almost doubled in size; the value of buildings and number of volumes in the library has more than doubled. The medical school has been endowed sufficiently to enable it to expand to a standard four-year senior institution.

The academic school and the schools of law and medicine have been accredited by every related state, regional, and national standardizing agency Hazing has been abolished, and student competition in inter-collegiate athletics and debating has been uniformly successful.

Something more important than any of these, however, is that intangible, immeasurable quality of morale. It is doubtful if there ever has been a period in the long history of the college when the students and professors were happier and more cooperative than they are today. With such a spirit and an improved physical plant it is no wonder that Wake forest is forging, ahead in all lines of endeavor.

Presented below are statements with respect to enrollment, buildings, library, accreditment, and student activities.

1. Enrollment. The enrollment has increased 75 percent, from 617 to 1,082 (this number includes 30, which is a normal expectation for spring registration). The freshman class this year, numbering over 300, seems to have quality as well as quantity. Registrar Grady Patterson reports that approximately one-half of the new men come from the upper one-third of their respective high school senior classes.

2. Buildings. During the past decade two buildings were lost by fire -- Wait Hall, the old administration building; and Wingate Hall, the chapel building. But four new structures have arisen to replace them, and they are all paid for, Bursar E. B. Earnshaw says, except a relatively small amount ($40,000) that is still due on the gymnasium. The other buildings that have been erected are Wait Hall new administration building; the Johnson Memorial Medical Building; and Simmons Hall, an up-to-date dormitory. Construction will begin in the spring on a $150,000 chapel and a $50,000 extension to the stadium.

3. Library. The number of volumes in the library has increased 137 per cent -- from 32,000 in 1930 to 74,000 at the present time.

4. Accreditment. Today Wake Forest, including its schools of law and medicine, is accredited by every related state, regional, and national standardizing agency. During the past decade it has been accredited by:

The Association of American Universities,

Placed on Approved List of the Council on Legal Education of the American Bar Association, and

Made a member of the Association of American Law Schools.

The medical school has all along been on the approved list of the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical Association and a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Phi Beta Kappa Chapter approved.

Recognition by such standardizing agencies is regarded as good evidence of superior equipment and instruction.

5. Student Activities. During the past decade the students of the college have carried the colors of Old Gold and Black through many athletic and forensic contests, and they hare given a uniformly good account of themselves.

The debate team last session won the South Atlantic championship and over half of the first places in contests at each of the four major Southern tournaments in which the squad competed. During the session the learn engaged in 91 intercollegiate debates and 24 speech contests.

In the athletic realm the success of the men has been no less spectacular. The Demon Deacon football team this year is the second highest ranking team in the United States, as adjudged by the total number of points scored. This year the team has played before a combined audience of more than 160,000 people.

In basketball last session the Wake Forest team, although losing in the Southern Conference tournament, was nevertheless picked by the national agency as the most formidable team in the Southern States, and was selected to represent the South in an intersectional tournament which was staged in the Palaestra in Philadelphia against the Ohio State Buck-eyes.

In baseball every year except four out of the past 15 Wake Forest has either won the State Championship or was runner-up.

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