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The beginning of Humbert's presidency coincided with the establishment of a student military training program, the third such to be organized on the DePauw campus. United States military intervention in Korea under United Nations auspices in the summer of 1950 raised the specter of severely reduced enrollments as a result of male students being drafted into the Armed Forces. The administration, with strong faculty and student support, approached the federal government concerning the possibility of introducing some kind of military training program. In July 1951 the Defense Department responded by instituting a unit of the Air Force Reserve Officers' Training Corps at DePauw.

Under the command of Lt. Colonel Frederick A. Sanders, this unit, eventually known as the 235th Wing, enrolled nearly half of the male student body in its first years. Cadets were not only exempt from the military draft but also became eligible for commissions in the Air Force Reserve upon the completion of two years of basic and two years of advanced training, plus summer camp. The bowling alleys in the gymnasium were converted into an indoor rifle range, and once more marching men in cadet uniforms became a common campus sight. A new honorary for advanced R.O.T.C. students was formed and called the Arnold Air Society, and interested coeds organized Angel Flight as a supporting group. Though enrollment in the unit declined in later years, the program survived by adapting to changing conditions.

A major accomplishment of the Humbert administration was the organization of the School of Nursing in 1955. The university entered into an agreement with Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for a cooperative program in nursing education that included two years of pre-nursing classes at DePauw and two years of professional and clinical training at Methodist Hospital. Graduates would receive the degree of bachelor of science in nursing from DePauw University and become eligible to take the licensing examination to qualify as registered nurses. Fredericka E. Koch of Methodist Hospital became the school's first director and was succeeded in 1957 by Catherine M. Friddle. Eight young women entered the program in the fall of 1955 and five graduated four years later. By 1961 enrollments had grown into double digits.

In 1955 a faculty self-study committee funded by the Ford Foundation for the Advancement of Education issued a report containing 56 specific recommendations for improving DePauw's academic program. Strongly supporting the university's commitment to the liberal arts, the committee endorsed the general studies courses that had emerged from the Experimental Program of a few years before and urged expansion of the honors program and comprehensive examinations for all graduating seniors. The report also suggested that the student body be expanded to 2000 and eventually 2500, and that faculty teaching loads be limited to 12 hours per week with a maximum of 100 students. These ideas all helped shape the future direction of DePauw.

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The language laboratory, a gift of Anne Hogate
Hamlet in 1951, was first located in East College
and later in the Roy O. West Library.
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The committee recommended new graduation requirements, which were shortly afterwards adopted by the faculty. In all areas except physical education and foreign languages requirements were increased. Two hours of speech were added to the previously required six hours of freshman composition, with the proviso that any student could choose instead eight hours of combined oral and written work in the basic communications course offered under General Studies. In both the natural and the social sciences the minimum requirement for graduation was raised from six to nine hours. A new group requirement was added in the humanities, consisting of the former six-hour requirement in philosophy and religion plus six hours of work in art, music, or literature in either English or a foreign language. The latter six hours could also be fulfilled by the history of civilization course plus the senior colloquium in General Studies. The committee's recommendation that three hours of Bible be required of all students was not adopted.

Educational foundations contributed significantly to university programs in this period. Grants from the Danforth Foundation and the Lilly Endowment made possible a pilot study for the expansion of the honors program and curricular studies in various departments which led to the introduction of such courses as Basic Beliefs of Modern Man and History of World Civilizations. The Cold War in the 1950s also inspired the addition to the curriculum of courses in Russian and Asian history and government. In 1958 the university began offering courses in the Russian language for the first time, leading eventually to the evolution of the department of German language and literature into the German and Russian department, with majors available in both languages.

Technical advances in this period included the introduction of International Business Machines computing equipment for the use of the registrar and other administrative offices in 1956. As a student publication complained, the IBM computer was becoming the "god of registration." A gift from alumna Anne Hogate Hamlet made possible the installation of tape recorders in semi-soundproof booths for use in a language laboratory in 1957. This laboratory, located at various times in either the Roy O. West Library or East College, helped to improve oral teaching methods and revitalize the study of foreign languages at the university.

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Some senior men wore yellow corduroy trousers
with elaborate designs painted by underclassmen. 
These ATOs sport their "cords" in front of
Asbury Hall.
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