Student Army Training Corps papers

As described in the University’s 1918-1919 Report of the President, the Student Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.) was a War Department effort that went into effect in the fall of 1918, after the United States’ entry into World War I. The War Department worked with a number of colleges and universities, including the University of Rochester, to establish S.A.T.C. units on their campuses. Men eligible for the draft who were already enrolled or about to start college could volunteer for service and receive their training through the S.A.T.C. Some could advance from these units into Officer Training Camps. The S.A.T.C. curriculum was developed by the War Department’s Committee on Education and Special Training. It included a course entitled “Issues of the War,” which focused on causes of the conflict, and subjects relevant to duties in “the infantry, field or heavy artillery, air service, ordnance or quartermaster corps, engineer corps, signal corps, chemical warfare service, motor transport and truck service.” While Army officers taught students military subjects, the University of Rochester faculty instructed them in academic subjects, and new instructors were hired to teach military law and accounting. The University’s unit consisted of 249 Army volunteers, four students in the Naval Reserve, 22 men who were under the age of eighteen but preparing to join the Corps, and 34 University students who took S.A.T.C. courses but were not eligible for service. Soldiers were housed in Kendrick Hall, which also served as the unit’s mess hall, and in a temporary barracks built on the Prince Street campus. The unit was dissolved by the end of 1918, following the armistice on 11 November 1918 (pages 7-10 of the Report).