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• 1 2021-06-29T19:41:35+00:00 The Great Depression and Hope Students 36 How the Great Depression Impacted Hope Students plain 2021-08-02T13:38:12+00:00

  
  We originally hypothesized Hope students wouldn’t feel the weight of the Great Depression as students with enough money to attend a private college. In the beginning of our research, we had no reason to think differently. Looking at enrollment numbers, we found a small dip in enrollment, but otherwise, the Anchor didn’t mention the Stock Market Crash, sorority invitations did not reflect any cost cutting measures, the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., the campus’ primary volunteer groups, focused primarily on foreign volunteer work, and we even found an Anchor article that discussed the Sibylline sorority’s throwing of a “Depression Party” that made light of the economic situation throughout the country. It wasn’t until I took a deeper look at the Campus Gossip section and the Campus Editorials with student opinions that I found interest in the impact of the national crisis. More subtle mentions of the Depression, complaints from students in the Anchor about their lack of money, the petition for the blanket fee, the Sorosis Minutes, engagement with and interest in Roosevelt’s New Deal Programs hinted at the Depression’s impact on Hope students. 

  It is important to note that much of the social and personal accounts of how the Great Depression impacted students come from the Anchor. The Anchor provides incredible student opinions that give a window into the everyday lives of students. However, relying solely on Anchor articles to understand students’ individual experiences does not give a completely accurate representation, as only students who wrote into the Anchor or the Anchor editors had the ability to share their opinions. How students actually talked about the Depression in personal settings remains relatively unknown. Fortunately, I had access to some personal scrapbooks and sorority minutes that allowed me to get a small glimpse into unofficial opinions and impacts of the event. 

  Following the general timeline of the Great Depression and looking at how students in the Anchor spoke about the Great Depression, we can see some general trends that reflect when the worst years of the Depression occurred. First, the initial crash of the stock market sparked little conversation, at least within the Anchor. As our professor, Dr. Janes, reminded us, students might not have been impacted right away by a stock market crash, as they most likely did not participate in the stock market. They would only feel the lasting effects later as the U.S. spiraled into mass unemployment, inflation, and shortages. 

  The first indirect mention of the financial crisis in the Anchor occurred in its initial call for a blanket fee that students would pay at the beginning of the year and cover all college activities. The blanket fee dominated the editorial of the Anchor from April 16, 1930 to April 29, 1931 when the student petitioned action passed through the Board of Trustees [1]. The blanket fee also appears in the Sorosis minutes. On May 30, 1930, the minutes state that at the meeting, many of the members signed the petition for the blanket fee, showing their support [2]. This is the first time any student records mention any economic conditions. Although it is not direct, students obviously took notice of the financial conditions of the time and felt their impact in their own world at Hope College. 
  

  The first direct mention of the economic conditions throughout the country in the Anchor appeared in the January 14, 1931 issue. However, this didn’t display the impact on students at Hope. Instead, the writer documents plans for students to attend the state Y.M.C.A.'s Student Conference on Unemployment to learn more about unemployment throughout the state. The article explained that the students would visit unemployment centers and unemployment relief agencies [3]. This led us to believe that Hope students themselves did not deal with financial issues early in the Depression. They learned about the issues around the country as if they impacted others, not them. 
  

  At this point, any mention of financial conditions appeared to be indirect or made lightly. For example, the Anchor wrote on March 18, 1931 a call for class dues, basing their argument on the necessity of student loyalty to school activities and to their Alma Mater [4]. On April 22 of the same year, the Anchor wrote that they would not have the ability to continue publishing newspapers because of lack of funds without mentioning the country-wide Depression to which these issues belonged [5]. These financial needs may have stemmed from the dwindling economy but the Anchor discusses them as isolated issues at this time. 

  Hope students also spoke flippantly of the Depression, leading us to believe that students were aware of the country’s condition and may have felt its effects but spoke about overarching circumstances without a deeply personal or emotional connection. The “Campus Gossip” column mentions the unemployment crisis in a joking manner on January 28, 1931 [6]. You can view this column here.
  
  
  
  While the Anchor makes a rather indirect reference, its nod to the unemployment crisis displays the background knowledge Hope students had of the issue that would allow them to understand the joke. The Anchor also includes a description of the Sibylline Sorority’s "Depression Party" on September 30, 1931. Events within this evening included skits that made fun of specific low income positions, games, and dinner [7]. We have attached the full article here. 
  

  Again, these specific Hope students display that they understood the state of the country, but did not have a personal connection to the struggle. However, many Hope students could have had difficulty during this time, but public social events and the Anchor seemed to ignore Hope’s struggle until it completely impacted students campus wide. Financially struggling students or those who directly recognized the impact of the Great Depression may have been excluded from public display. There could have been a level of shame for those impacted more directly from the unemployment crisis as well, causing many to avoid addressing the Depression’s impact on the Hope College student body as a whole.

  We did find evidence that students did struggle at this time based on Margaret Kole’s scrapbook and recognized the financial difficulties as products of the Depression, despite the Anchor and Sibylline event only making indirect references of the crisis or making fun of the struggle others experienced. Margaret Kole’s scrapbook included letters from the Dean of Women, Winifred Durfee, and Edward Dimnent that led us to believe that the students at Hope felt even the most immediate effects of the Great Depression. Writing to Kole after her Freshman year at Hope, Durfee asks Kole who she will room with in the following year, as the woman with whom she had originally planned to live would not be living on campus in order to work. One woman who Durfee suggested as a potential roommate had worked for two years after high school prior to enrolling at Hope, making her a few years older than others in her class. She closed the letter assuring Margaret that she was “very glad that you decided to continue and I feel that you will never regret it” [8]. This hints that young people at the time may have juggled the desire to work and to attend college. 
  

  Edward Dimnent’s letter to Kole in August of 1932 reflected similar notions but more directly addressed the enrollment drop in the beginning years of the Depression. He very clearly discussed the current financial issues throughout the country and asked Kole to write to him if she considered leaving the college or “change your whole scheme of things”, even though she would be entering her senior year of college. He also asked Kole to recommend Hope to her friends who had recently graduated from high school, noting the importance of college despite financial difficulties [9].
  
  

  This report of the college’s state as well as the Depression’s impact on students. In A Century of Hope, Wichers argues that Hope did not lose many students during the Great Depression; however, based on Maria’s enrollment research, Hope lost 67 students from 1928 to 1929 dropping from 501 in 1928 to 434 in 1929. At the lowest point in this lull in enrollment in 1931, Hope had 420 students enrolled [10]. To Wichers, who presided as president at Hope during both the Great Depression and World War Two, may have felt that this was only a small dip compared to the loss of almost all men at Hope during the war; however, at the time, it is likely that even this enrollment drop during the Depression seemed massive to the college. 

  By April 20, 1932, the Anchor more seriously named and discussed the Great Depression, as it began to affect the entire student body. In the article “Depression Blues”, the Anchor quotes a letter from a man to a New York banking house. The man writing the letter explained that he could not pay the bank collateral and explained his present situation and frustration with the lack of money he had compared to all of the taxes and fees the government required him to pay. He expressed desperation in his situation [11]. This article contrasts the tone of previous articles that referenced the Depression. They quote the letter as if to appeal to the trials that other students and people in the Hope community felt during the time, rather than making light of the situation or talking about financial issues without connection to the greater problem across the country. This article has a sober, understanding tone. By quoting the letter, the Anchor writer reflects the student body’s more direct and personal understanding of his desperation.  

  We found the most direct and obvious explanation of the difficulty students felt as a result of the Great Depression in the Anchor to be “Men Wanted”. Written for the March 8, 1933 issue of the Anchor, “Men Wanted” addresses men specifically but appeals to all citizens as if a battlecry. The author explains instead of brawn, the American people needed a warlike mindset that would allow them to rally together to beat their foe: The Great Depression [12].
  

  This warlike approach to the Depression in a student newspaper demonstrates the impact the Depression had on students. No longer did students make fun of those suffering from the Depression or talk about financial struggles as a foreign trial impacting people of a different class. “Men Wanted” addresses the Great Depression as a countrywide issue that required the need of an army of “healthy, red-blooded, Christian, fair, honest men, who will fight the situation shoulder to shoulder” [13]. 

  Even popular social groups such as sororities felt the effects of the Depression. While we do not have record of all of the sororities’ detailed written minutes, the Sorosis sorority documented in their 1931 Alumni Newsletter and their 1933 meeting minutes the little struggle of their members to meet due requirements. In the 1931 Alumni Newsletter they called for members to send in their dues and explained that all “Sorosis Alumnae Association money is tied up in the People’s State Bank” [14]. In their 1933 Meeting Minutes, dues again became a problem as the sorority treasury struggled to maintain funds. In the September 29 minutes, the secretary documented the Treasurer's report of only 8 dollars in the treasury and in the October 6 minutes, only two dollars in the treasury. By November 10, the president of the sorority threatened a “No mon, no fun” rule that forced members to pay their dues or the sorority would not host any parties [15]. This reflects the financial strain felt even by those in the most popular of social groups. 

  Many individual students had different experiences while living within this national crisis. One student, Ethel Swets played organ for local churches during her time at Hope from 1930. However, because of the lack of circulating paper money and the banking crisis, the churches she played for paid her in money that resembled monopoly money, representing “I owe you’s”. She did not include in her scrapbook if the churches ever made true to their promise, but she did include one of the dollars they gave her [16].

  As the Great Depression impacted students more personally, they became more inspired to explore their ability to understand and aid the situation. One way to engage became politically. Students became very interested and invested in the politics in Washington after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in November of 1932. All debate about the new president and his policies revolved around his New Deal programs. Most discussion centered on his hands-on approach that featured intense government involvement in the country’s economic recovery. 

  However, Wicher’s notes that the New Deal Programs that students so passionately debated helped save the college and students impacted by financial difficulty. He explains that the Federal Emergency Relief Act allowed the college to employ students on multiple campus projects in return for tuition, room, and board. We can see evidence of this occurrence and help from the government in the Anchor. In the February 21, 1934 issue of the Anchor, the main headline reads, “Hope Students Receive Federal Aid”. The authors proceed to detail the number of students Hope employed thanks to the aid, the requirements for workers, and the wages for student workers [17]. On March 7, 1934, the Anchor noted that the Federal Emergency Relief plan allowed Hope to pay student workers an additional 15 dollars per month [18]. Despite the college community’s critical debate of New Deal programs, the college relied heavily on funds from those programs in order to keep students enrolled and keep the college’s doors open. 

  As the 1930’s progressed, more and more Anchor articles communicated a more positive outlook on the Depression. On February 19, 1936, the Anchor reported a large reduction in debt in their paper from $1900 to only $600 [19]. On October 27, 1936, “Statistics Reveal Profit of $102,000 For College Graduate -- 63% Per Year” from the Anchor wrote that college graduates profited much higher than those who only finished high school [20]. While Students continued to debate about New Deal Programs and struggled to make financial ends meet, we can see a slight improvement as the rhetoric of how students wrote about money had changed in some articles. Students wrote more positively about money and displayed a level of hope in their financial situation. 

  We must acknowledge that these events and campus responses to the Depression did occur linearly, but rather at times all at once. As these trends occurred, they overlapped with one another, roughly creating a timeline of the Great Depression at Hope College in the eyes of the students. While we only have pieces of students’ experiences, we can see that our hypothesis did not hold up. Hope College students were not immune to the effects of the Great Depression. They felt the impact of the financial crisis and had a range of responses throughout the decade of the 1930’s.
  
  References:
  
  [1] "Unity", Hope College Anchor, 16 April, 1930., "Blanket Fee Goes Through", Hope College Anchor, 29 April, 1931. 
  [2] Minutes, 2 May 1930, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI, 179.
  [3] "Students Confer on Unemployment, Hope College Anchor, 14 January, 1931. 
  [4] "Obligations", Hope College Anchor, 18 March, 1931. 
  [5] "The Anchor Slips", Hope College Anchor, 22 April 1931. 
  [6] "Campus Gossip", Hope College Anchor, 28 January, 1931. 
  [7] "Sibyllines and Guests Prosper on Depression", Hope College Anchor, 30 September, 1931. 
  [8]  Letter from Winifred Durfee to Margaret J. Kole in Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
  [9] Letter from Edward Dimnent to Margaret J. Kole in Memory Book, 1925-1933, Kole, Margaret J. (1909-1994). Papers, 1925-1933 (H95-1250), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
  [10] Wynand Wichers, A Century of Hope (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968), 204.
  [11] "Depression Blues", Hope College Anchor, 20 April, 1932.
  [12] "Men Wanted", Hope College Anchor, 8 March, 1933. 
  [13] "Men Wanted", Hope College Anchor, 8 March, 1933.
  [14] Alumni Newsletter, 1931, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413), Joint Archives of Holland, Hope College, Holland, MI.
  [15] Minutes, 29 September, 1933, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413)., 10 November, 1933, Sigma Sigma Sorority, Records, 1906-[ongoing] (H01-1413).
  [16] Scrapbook, 1929-1936, Swets, Ethel Leestma Papers, 1929-1936 (H18-1988), Joint Archives of Holland, Holland, MI.
  [17] "Hope Students Receive Federal Aid", Hope College Anchor, 21 February, 1934. 
  [18] "Emergency Relief Fund Distributed", Hope College Anchor, 17 March, 1934. 
  [19] “Huge Slice Made in Anchor Debt”, Hope College Anchor, 19 February, 1936. 
  [20] "Statistics Reveal Profit of $102,000 For College Graduate -- 63% Per Year", Hope College Anchor, 27 October 1936.