A university is nothing without its students, and the young men and women of the 1940s were adamant about their points of view, whether they agreed or clashed with the faculty and administration. Although isolationists at first, many stepped up when the United States called for war contributions. In the postwar years, a new campus culture was created.

Isolation and Contribution

Chancellor Boucher advised neutrality, and the majority of students followed him, to begin with. Although there was much talk of the events in Europe, student life as a whole did not change, and enrollment remained steady. After the horror of World War I, few students were eager for more bloodshed. In 1941, when a group of faculty called for action in Europe, students insisted that they were “old men gambling with young mens’ lives.”

Once the United States joined in the fight against the Axis powers in 1941, (after December 7^th, for that matter,) enrollment for the university sank, despite Boucher’s urgings to “carry on” as normal. Many young men, especially freshmen, enlisted or were drafted. Upperclassmen were advised to hurry and graduate. ROTC held ever-increasing importance, and at times trumped other university concerns. The U.S. military established a quarter system for classes in order to speed up graduation rate, and also urged Boucher to allow new courses that were war-specific, such as defense engineering. The University became a site of the Army Specialized Training program, and had cadets housed in Love Library. Students collected materials such as rubber and tin for the war effort. World War II took much of the attention of the university through the Duration.

Pranks and Riots

After the war, there was a huge influx of students on the G.I. Bill. Many of these students were older, some supporting wives and children, with military experience, who were well past the legal drinking age. Drinking on campus increased dramatically, as did pranks of all kinds, from panty raids to bonfires. UNL’s cramped city campus was not built for the enlarged student population, and as a consequence there was not nearly enough space for all the students to park their cars. This contention led up to a full-fledged riot in 1948, which tarnished the university’s reputation in the community because of police car vandalism and the rebellious nature of the college students. Although the applauded war efforts of a few years earlier helped, many in the community viewed the postwar students with disdain, which the students responded to by acting out even more.

Students demanded more practical education in the postwar years of the university. Instead of a curriculum focused on the "classics" of latin, history, english, etc, students requested to be taught practical knowledge with applications in the real world. The war had somewhat sobered the youth, and the univeristy took  turn towards intensified research and practical education as the student population demanded it.