Campus Transformation: Carnegie Tech Becomes Army Training School

In 1943, Carnegie Mellon University (then the Carnegie Institute of Technology) transformed its grounds into a training school for the U. S. Army as America ramped up its engagement in World War II.

Robert E. Doherty, president of Carnegie Tech from 1936 to 1950, demonstrated an early awareness of and commitment to the institution’s role in aiding the war effort. During a faculty meeting in December 1941, Doherty presented a plan asking for authorization to institute changes in the educational programming of the university to align with the government’s national war effort and the Army’s need for more engineers. Not long after, the U.S. Office of Education requested Carnegie Tech to submit plans for increasing the output of students in engineering, mathematics and management.

In December 1942, a War Department directive announced the formation of the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP). Between 900 and 1,000 Army students arrived on campus by June 1943. According to a brief published in the Nov. 17, 1943, edition of The New York Times, each trainee was required to complete 59 hours of supervised activity a week, including:

• 24 hours in classrooms or laboratories
• 24 hours of studying each week
• 5 hours of military training
• 6 hours of physical instruction