UNMC History 101 — World War II and the College of Medicine

During World War II, the College of Medicine had to cope with the demands of a wartime medical curriculum.

One way it did so was to compress the four-year curriculum into three. There also were shortages of funds and equipment and war-time students were sometimes less qualified than their predecessors.

Pictured are members of the accelerated College of Medicine graduating class of 1943. Students in black uniforms are in the Navy. The lighter shade uniforms were worn by students in the Army.

“The functioning of the medical college changed rather abruptly with the outbreak of the war,” said Dr. J. Perry Tollman, a faculty member during the war who later became dean. “A number of faculty members joined the armed services, reducing the coverage of the wards, and all of us felt the pressure of having to do more work.”

Faculty vacations were eliminated and they worked year-round. Most students were in the military and the college had to work around weekend drill schedules.

Students in the Army had to regularly report to military representatives who were assigned to the campus.

“Those who were in the Navy program were not in uniform and had no drill,” Dr. Tollman said. “This led to a considerable amount of needling between the services.”