100years ago inTheRecord
Wednesday, Sept. 12, 1917
“A new year opened to- day at Troy’s great engineering school, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,” The Record reports, “and the outlook, notwithstanding the great handicap created by war conditions and carried by all institutions of learning, is, President Palmer C. Ricketts says, very favorable.” As expected, the incoming freshman class and the overall student body are smaller than their 1916 counterparts, but Ricketts tells our paper that “its membership promises much better than was anticipated.” Final numbers won’t be known until later this month. “Applicants for entrance rarely all appear in the first few days of the opening term,” our reporter notes, “but the number enrolled today gives assurance or a very satisfactory class.” Many upperclassmen have volunteered for the military since the U. S. declaration of war against Germany last April, while others age 21 or over were selected in the July 20 draft lottery. Some of the draftees who weren’t part of the first two call- ups for military training are returning to school and will “go as far with it as possible, being, of course, always subject to summons to the colors.” In some cases, students “through stress of circumstances due to the war, have been obliged to give up studies for the present.” Despite initial objections from Ricketts, RPI offers military training this fall for the first time in the school’s history. “It is elective, but will be part of the regular course,” our writer remarks, “and those who do not take it will be required to take a course in physical or gymnasium training.” Captain Daniel F. Nial is the school’s first military instructor.
While Ricketts called a halt to building construction on campus for the duration of the war, “there is under way a big improvement to the approach to the institute grounds.” The Troy city engineer, an RPI alumnus, is supervising improvements to the Eighth Street roadway and the driveway onto the campus “so that vehicles may turn from Eighth street into the grounds without sinking in muck or running the risk of being tipped over.”
SOLDIERS’ WELFARE LEAGUE
Troy’s Soldiers’ Welfare League recently merged itself with the local Red Cross organization, but the league’s women’s auxiliary votes today to remain an independent organization. The auxiliary will report to the national Red Cross organization “and will care for the needs of every Troy man who goes forth from this, his home town, to service either in the army or the navy,” The Record reports. Since the organization to which it was an auxiliary no longer exists, the women’s auxiliary will now be known simply as the Troy Soldiers’ Welfare League.