Conclusion

VPI student near present-day Pearson Hall, practicing “going over the top,” a term commonly used to describe soldiers leaving their trenches to attack enemy trench lines, c. 1918. (Image: Scrapbook of Robert Moore Ms. 1922-051, Virginia Tech Special Collections)

The First World War was a turning point in the history of Virginia Polytechnic Institute. During the war the Federal government assumed primary responsibility for training of military officers through the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps and, the short-lived, Students’ Army Training Corps. VPI became a training ground for soldiers and well over 2,000 students and alumni served in the military during the war – the first mass mobilization of students and alumni in the institution’s history.

The war also provided people of color and women opportunities they were previously denied. The dreams of progress, however, were often limited and short-lived, particularly for African-Americans who fought for democracy in France but were denied it at home. While a small number of women were admitted to VPI after 1921, it would take decades for larger numbers of women to be admitted and the first black student would not be admitted to VPI until 1953.

In the immediate post-war years VPI’s student population exploded and, under the leadership of President Julian Burruss, VPI moved to become a more standard university. Curriculum was expanded and reformed to align with new technologies and to address the needs of post-war society. With student population growth and the assumption of the responsibility for training military officers assumed by the Federal government, the four-year requirement for students to be members of the Corps of Cadets was reduced to only the first two-years.