Bessie Foster, the president’s wife, at 34, in 1917.
merica entered the war in 1917. Foster served on a commission to review the American Red Cross and was sent to Europe to inspect their efforts; he also toured the U.S. to deliver 150 speeches drumming up support for the war. Reed’s endowment, largely in real estate and rent income, fell by half, and the college faced financial problems. To further aid in the war effort and to save the college financially, Foster proposed programs with strong vocational emphases. A Students Army Training Corps (S.A.T.C.; 1917-1919) was formed and training maneuvers took place on the great lawn.
Infused with the evangelic drive of the Progressive Era, Foster and his comrades then threw themselves into local civic reforms, launching an ambitious "city wide campus" of educational courses and public lectures in Portland that attracted 55,000 annual attendees by 1917.
Reed in 1917
