ve unit were organized immediately, and the students were
encouraged to attend the summer camps at Plattsburg and Fort Sheridan.

It took over a year and the stimulus of the actual entry of the United
States into the war to bring to practical completion the plan of the
Regents for voluntary training, with a course in military science
instituted under officers designated by the War Department. Co-operation
on the part of the Government, too, came slowly. There was great
difficulty in harmonizing the University system with the government plan
for college military training which was embodied in General Orders 49,
establishing a Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Many meetings took
place between officers detailed by the War Department and a committee,
composed of the heads of various universities, of which President
Hutchins was a member, before a modification of the government program
was eventually secured. This made the prescribed course more elastic,
and put military drill wholly or in part in summer camps. Inasmuch as
the students under this plan could not be appointed reserve officers
without examinations, it was not strictly the R.O.T.C. as originally
contemplated by the Government, but it was a practical solution. As a
matter of fact most of these difficulties of organization vanished when
the United States entered the war, on April 6, 1917, in the general
enthusiasm and eagerness to serve. The great practical question became a
matter of the detail of a competent army officer to the University.

Meanwhile the students lost no time; little companies could be seen
drilling everywhere on the streets. Three hundred students stayed over
the spring vacation and drilled for four hours every afternoon. By May
315 men had been recommended for training camps, and 500 had left the
University to enlist. The Regents also authorized the circulation of the
43,000 alumni and former students for the University Intelligence
Bureau, and 25,000 replies, giving the qualifications of each individual
for various forms of war service, were received. The Engineering College
announced seven preliminary courses in military science, while the
Medical School, with almost the whole Faculty enlisted, foreseeing the
need of surgeons turned its whole force to training the upper classmen,
and the Law School so arranged its programme that twelve hours a week
were given over to drill. The upper class medical, engineering, and
dental students were also