Education: Overseas Campus

Most of the world’s undergraduates last week were still on vacation. But on one of the world’s largest campuses, some 3,000 were taking final exams. From Bremen, in cool north Germany, to Asmara, high on an African plateau, American servicemen and a handful of civilian employees trooped to their classrooms, sweated over questions that ranged from literature to logistics. These students were members of the University of Maryland’s College of Special and Continuation Studies.

The U. of M. started its extension courses for the armed forces five years ago, when some of its professors were invited to the Pentagon to lecture on public speaking and history. Soon they were holding classes in science and the humanities at other military posts in the Washington area. But there was one big hurdle: too often students were ordered overseas in the middle of a term.

In Germany, in England, at air bases in North Africa, G.I.s who were homesick for college campuses, frustrated students from the U. of M.’s extension courses in Washington, pilots who were feeling the squeeze of new educational requirements for commissions—all clamored for further schooling. In October 1949, planning on a maximum of 500 students, the Army shipped a supply of books and U. of M. professors to six centers in Germany. On registration day, they were swamped with 1,800 applicants.

Gradually, supply caught up with demand. Today the college, with headquarters in Heidelberg, has more than 100 instructors, who travel as far afield as Eritrea, teaching a five-term schedule. (The Army and Air Force pay three-quarters of military students’ fees, provide classrooms, handle registration and collect fees.)

Average age of the G.I. students hovers close to 28. A young (23) staff sergeant may find himself sitting next to a 48-year-old major. “Lots of us have the creaks in our bones,” remarked a paunchy captain last week, “but we’re trying to keep them out of our minds.”