Baker defended himself, saying that the perceived ill-will towards students was unintentional and a misunderstanding. Nonetheless, the student body held a strike and general walkout in 1931, prompting Baker to resign.
Baker's successor, Ralph Cooper Hutchison, was much more popular with the student body. In an effort to strengthen the college's science department, Hutchison extended and expanded the southern portion of the campus, adding the Lazear Chemistry Hall and purchasing McIlvane Hall. When World War II broke out, the campus was opened to the Army Administration School, where hundreds of soldiers received their "training in classifications." Hutchison resigned in 1945 to take the presidency of his alma mater, Lafayette College. James Herbert Case, Jr., who was president from 1946 to 1950, constructed several new dormitories to handle the influx of veterans under the G.I. Bill. In 1950, Boyd Crumrine Patterson assumed the presidency and oversaw curriculum revisions and the construction of a number …
