ROTC and the Korean War

With the Korean War looming on the horizon, UNL student life was beginning to change.  According to the History of the Military Department, Both the US government and the UNL ROTC program was putting pressure onto students to enlist in either the military or the on campus ROTC program.  Both parties were using the slogan "enlist before you're drafted" in order to convince the students to enlist.  As a result, 1500 students eligible for draft were now in a state of confusion, chaos, and worry as the war broke out. 

At the end of World War II there was a severe drop in ROTC cadets, from over 1000 young men in 1942 to only 388 by the end of 1943.  But at the start of the Korean War, campus once again was filled with cadets, totaling at 1046 on the UNL campus.  This soon proved to be a problem however.  Cadets were completing their training, but the war was coming to an end, and the need for officers from the ROTC program was dramatically declining.  Enrollment rates fell 50%. In addition, the current cadets ready to be commissioned were being denied.  New officers were no longer in high demand.  This meant that many cadets on campus were not given their commission, forcing them out of the military and into a civilian life they did not sign up for. 

Expansion

Due to the increasing number of students, partly because of the GI bill, the need for expansion was becoming more prevalent.  To help alleviate the congestion and allow room for 670 more male students, a new dormitory underwent construction in 1954.  Completed in August, it offered housing and dining facilities to nearly 700 more students on campus. 

More Room for classes and general educational purposes was also becoming necessary as student population grew (8,000 full time students and another 12,000 using UNL's educational facilities).  The new Nebraska Center for Continuing Education would be able to provide just the space that UNL needed.

Finished in 1960, the building added conference rooms, an auditorium for 700 students and several other smaller auditoriums.  Additional lecture halls, offices, a cafeteria, and even hotel style rooms were brought to campus.  The new center assisted both undergrads and graduate students in many majors including agriculture, engineering, architecture, arts and sciences, teacher education, law, business administration, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, and health sciences.  The building also offered a TV studio and control panel for the university television station, KHON-TV.