With the outbreak of World War II, Macalester’s campus was thrust into an era of rapid change. When the United States officially joined the war effort after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the atmosphere on campus was markedly different. The college catalog for the 1942-43 school year featured a new section entitled “Macalester College in War Time,” and laid out the ways that the school planned to help the war effort. Echoing the college’s approach to World War I, the catalog outright declared that “[t]he dominant purpose of Macalester College during the war which the United Nations are waging against Germany, Italy, and Japan is to cooperate to the utmost with every program that may be suggested by the Government or otherwise devised to help win the war.”¹ The catalog also outlined several curriculum changes that were made to support the war effort, including the institution of a physical education requirement for all students and special classes approved by the US Navy.² The United States was at war, and Macalester wanted to be in lockstep with the government whenever possible.