Washington and Jefferson College

through a period of growth where the college constructed the Old Gym, Hays Hall, Thompson Memorial Library, and Thistle Physics Building, as well as purchasing the land known as the "old fair ground," now used for Cameron Stadium. Towards the end of his term, Moffat personally paid for the 1912 renovations of McMillan Hall. In 1914, Frederick W. Hinitt was elected president. His tenure was dominated by the United States' entry into World War I, with an enrollment drop of 50%.
William E. Slemmons, a college trustee and adjunct professor, succeeded Hinitt and served as interim president from May 1918 to June 1919. After the war ended in 1919, Samuel Charles Black took over and helped to stabilize the enrollment. While on a honeymoon tour of national parks, Black became ill and died. His successor, Simon Strousse Baker, was well liked by the college's trustees and by "many a townsman", but the student body felt that Baker was "autocratic" and held an "unfriendly attitude toward the student body as individuals." …