Macalester’s first brush with war came in 1917, when the United States officially entered World War I. US entrance into the war inflamed controversy on campus when eighty-seven students distributed a letter to local news groups and Minnesota lawmakers in February 1917, before the US declared war, advocating for American neutrality and arguing that entrance into the war “would only result in a prolongation of the conflict and an extension of its horrors into America.”¹

Despite the initial resistance of students to getting involved in war, wartime inevitably changed Macalester’s functions and the tone of its education. By April 24, less than a month after the US entered the war, the Mac Weekly reported that twenty-nine students had already enlisted or intended to enlist. The administration also took steps to show support for American involvement in the war, and in 1918, the college became a “government sponsored Students Army Training Corps site.”² A Macalester College Bulletin from 1918 made it clear that it wasn’t simply the United States that was at war, it was Macalester itself fighting the battle:

“Macalester College has declared war with the Central Powers of Europe. There is probably no college in the United States that can boast so large a percentage of her male population at the fighting front as Macalester. Every branch of service has a Mac representative and almost every training camp in the United States has a quota from the college.” ³

After the war ended, college administrators voiced their support for the League of Nations. Although the League was ultimately unsuccessful, Macalester would continue to develop an institutional identity that incorporated internationalism.