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n September, 1945, students, faculty, and staff
of the University of Utah celebrated along with the rest
of the world when World War II ended. During the last
year of the conflict,
enrollment at the University had dropped to a new
low of 3,418 students; but within a year of the end of
the war, the student population had doubled to 6,821.
This influx of students caused severe overcrowding at the
University, where the building program had been slowed
or suspended by the needs of national defense.
Fortunately, however, during the war Fort Douglas had
been expanded drastically, and now, with the war over,
the temporary buildings–some of which are still in
use at the turn of the new century--erected to
accommodate the soldiers could now be turned to
more peaceful purposes.
President Leroy Cowles resigned in
1946, and was replaced by A. Ray Olpin. President Olpin,
who served from 1946 to 1964,
presided over an explosive expansion of the
University, both in student population, area, and
buildings. He also began active recruitment of new
faculty, to serve the burgeoning student body. That same
year, the Naval Services building was completed, and the
Graduate School was made an integral part of the
University. From this point, changes in the campus and
the administration
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Homecoming Queen
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of the University came so hard and fast that it
must have seemed like a blur to those who remembered the
old, quiet school of the pre- war days. In 1947, the
University organized the School of Fine Arts and the
School of Nursing. The first PhD ever awarded by the
University was given to James Sugihara, in chemistry.
More and more married students meant that Stadium
Village, former barracks
located east of Rice Stadium, was opened to house
student families. The Utah Symphony moved onto campus in
1948, and began giving performances in Kingsbury Hall. At
the same time, the University's dance program gained
national recognition. As the military began to downsize,
Fort Douglas began to shrink, and the primary benefactor
was the University of Utah. Three hundred acres were
deeded to the school in 1948, more than doubling the size
of the campus. That same year, enrollment reached over
12,000,
necessitating bringing in buildings from the
Topaz Internment Camp in western Utah, and other remote
locations.
The University celebrated its
centennial in 1950. That year, the first class of the
College of Pharmacy graduated, and the College of
Business offered an MBA for the first time. The
University athletic department was busy during the 1950s
as well. In 1953, under coach Jack Curtice, the football
team
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School of Business
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defeated BYU in their first nationally televised
football game. Besides football, men could participate in
basketball, baseball, skiing, track, swimming, wrestling,
golf. The only organized team for women was a ski team,
but they could enjoy intramural archery, volleyball,
tennis, and basketball. Orson Spencer Hall, named for the
first chancellor of
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Planning the future U
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the University of Deseret, opened in 1955,
followed the next year by Ballif Hall, a men's residence.
The University entered the television age in 1957, with
the establishment of KUED, an educational TV station. The
Baby Boom generation was reaching the point where their
numbers would soon crowd
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Wallace Stegner
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the University's facilities, and President Olpin
embarked on an ambitious ten-year building program in
1957 that would change the face of the campus forever.
Within a decade, more than thirty buildings were
completed. The first of these was the new union building,
later named in honor of President Olpin.
Construction began on the Merrill Engineering building in
1958, and on Milton Bennion Hall the next year. Also in
1958, the University acquired a 35-acre plot of land near
the Veteran's Hospital and began construction of new
married student housing.
President Olpin retired from University service
in 1964, but he left a campus greatly expanded both in
size and in student population. Under his leadership, the
campus had quadrupled in size, and the number of
buildings had also increased dramatically. Student
population had gone from under 4,000 when he began his
tenure, to over 12,000 by the time he left. Little could
he realize, as he handed over the reins to new President
James C. Fletcher, that tensions were at work in the
country that would reach even to the cloistered halls of
the campus on the east bench of Salt Lake City.
Presidents of the era
A. Ray Olpin
president, 1946 - 1964
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