Washington University in St. Louis

for the first time.
Compton returned to Washington University in 1946 as the ninth chancellor after 22 years at the University of Chicago. He reestablished the Washington University football team and emphasized a "strictly amateur" athletic policy with no athletic scholarships. Under Compton, the university saw enrollment growth, which was driven by World War II veterans using the G.I. Bill, which covered college costs for military personnel. Enrollment increased by 39 percent in spring 1946 to 9,159 students. By fall 1947, enrollment had reached 13,204 students.
Before the board fully responded, the initiative for desegregation was taken up by individual deans and departments. In June 1947, the medical school sought retroactive approval for admitting an African American student to a postgraduate course in ophthalmology, which the board granted. That same year, President Harry S. Truman's Commission on Higher Education recommended repealing segregation laws in higher education. Although the first African American …