John Barlow, after a short stint as an Assistant Biologist at the Agricultural Experiment Station in 1897, returned to Kingston to stay in 1902 when he accepted the positions of Professor of Zoology and Head of the Department of Zoology at the then Rhode Island State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. He remained as Head of the Zoology Department for over thirty-five years, finally surrendering that position in deference to his increased college-wide administrative responsibilities. As Barlow's tenure lengthened, his responsibilities increased. In 1930, he was named Vice-President and Dean of Men. In 1931, he added the title of Dean of the School of Science and Business to his portfolio. Durning this period, he also found time to serve two terms as Acting President from April, 1930 through March, 1931 and again from March, 1940 through October 1941. Barlow officially retired on his seventieth birthday, November 28, 1942, completing over forty years' service to the institution. He died in November of 1944.
Dr. Harold Browning matched Barlow in longevity and in the variety of administrative positions he held. Browning, a 1914 graduate of Rhode Island State College, returned to his alma mater in 1920 and remained until his retirement forty-two years later. Like Barlow, Browning was recruited as a professor and department chairman, in the Botany Department. Also like Barlow, he gradually accumlulated a number of other administrative positions durning his forty year tenure. While Barlow served as Acting President in 1930-1931 and 1940-1941, he named Browning Acting Dean of the School of Science and Business and Acting Dean of Men. Browning also accepted the title of Director of Graduate Studies in 1931, a position he held until 1945. When Barlow retired in 1942, Browning relinquished the Botany Department chairmanship to assume Barlow's positions of Vice-President, Dean of Men, and Dean of the newly created School of Science. He surrendered the position of Dean of Men in 1947 when John Quinn was hired to fill that position on a full-time basis. He remained Dean of the School of Science which later became the College of Arts and Sciences in 1947, until 1960 when he was replaced by Roman Zorn.
Open for research
Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Records of the Office of the Vice President Barlow/Browning Papers, RG 3.1, University of Rhode Island.
The records described herein represent a small fragment of the records created by the Office of Vice President of Rhode Island State College from 1940 to 1947. Many of the records that remained were removed from a basement staorage area of the Administration Building and transferred to the University Archives in the summer of 1985. They were in no particular order when received by the Archives.
Because John Barlow and Harold Browning each held a number of other administrative positions simultaneously with the Office of Vice-President, the records contained in this group are not always clear as to office of origin. Nor is it always clear in which capacity Barlow and Browning were acting when they authored a particular document. In many instances, the stationery on which the document is typed carries the letterhead of one administrative office while the title of another office is appended to the signature. In addition, in many cases, Barloiw and Browning took action in more than one capacity simultaneously. Consequently, while the bulk of the records reflect the activities of the Office of the Vice-President, materials from the offices of Dean of Men and Dean of the School of Science and Business are also represented in this record group.
The years 1940 through 1947 were crucial to the development of what is now the University of Rhode Island. The decade began witht he firing of Raymond G. Bressler, the very popular president of Rhode Island State College, after a protracted and very public dispute with the newly installed Board of Trustees. Shortly after the decade ended, the institution achieved University status. In between, it experienced the inauguration of a new president, a world war which reduced its pre-war enrollment by seventy-five percent, and an enormous upsurge in applications immediately after the war. The Office of the Vice-President was intimately involved in the attempt to cope with all of these crises.
In November, 1941 Dr. Carl R. Wolldward assumed the presidency. A month later, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States was plunged into a World War. Even the bucolic campus on Kingston Hill could not escape the effects of the war. The college radically altered its program to meet the changing circumstances of the war years. An accelerated year round program was instituted so that students could complete degree requirements in less than three years rather than the usual four. The Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) came to the campus in 1943, training over 600 men for specialized work in the military service. The Army Specialized Training Program Records (Record Group 118) located in the University Archives, contain records relating to this program.
Despite these responses, college enrollment dropped precipitously from a pre-war high of about 1200 in 1940 to less than 400 in 1944. Faculty were also lost in large numbers to the military and qualitfied replacements were difficult to obtain. The college survived the war-caused problems of low-enrollment and faculty shortages only to be inundated by a flood of returning veterans, ballooning enrollment to a 1940s high of over 3000 in 1946. With the aid of a special appropriation made available by the General Assembly, the College was able to obtain war surplus buildings, including Quonset huts, to serve as dormitories, dining halls, and classrooms. A "Quonset Village" appeared on the campus in early 1946 to house returning veterans and their families.
Tantalizing glimpses of all these crises and the college's response to them are available from the materials in this record group. Because of the large gaps in the collection and the myriad responsibilities held by Barlow and Browning, howeverm the records of the Office of the Vice-President is far from complete for this period. Any researcher consulting these materials should also consult Records of the President's Office: Carl R. Woodward, 1941-1958 (Record Group 1) in the University of Rhode Island Archives. The Woodward records offer a more comprehensive and detailed account of the years in question.
After sorting, the records in this group were divided into two series, Subject Files and Correspondence.
The records were tranferred to the University Archives in 1985. They were previously housed in the basement of the Administration Building.
The Subject Files consists of the general administrative records of the Office of the Vice-President and contains correspondence, telegrams, memoranda, reports, administrative letters, and various other files maintained as part of the office operation. The records relate to such concerns as air raid wardens, the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP), a cut system for classes, the Scholarship/Scholastic Standing Committee, and the then newly instituted Teacher Training Program.
Among the more interesting subjects is the Army Specialized Training Program which offered training for specialized service in the military to nearly 800 inductees in 1943 and 1944. Other war related materials of interest can be found in folders labeled "Air Raid Warden" and "Dim-outs on Campus". Also of interest are the folders labeled "Dances". The material contained in the latter folders demonstrates clearly the close interest the administration showed in the social, as well as academic, life of its students. The Administration, including the President's Office assumed its role of in loco parentis very seriously. Finally, the Scholarship/Scholastic Standing Committee folders containing academic warning letters, demonstrate the difficulty students encountered in concentrating on their studies with a world war raging beyond the peaceful confines of Kingston.
These files are arranged alphabetically by subject and chronologically by date within folders.
Series II, Correspondence, consists of correspondence between Vice-Presidents Barlow and Browning and other administrators and faculty at Rhode Island State College. Items of interest in this series include correspondence with the Director of Admissions James Eastwood, Controller Stanley Gairloch, and President Carl Woodward. The correspondence with Gairloch in particular reveals the financial restraints under which the college operated during the war yeras and the strain placed on financial resources by the massive influx of students in the immediate post-war years. The Eastwood correspondence gives some indication of the difficulties the college encountered in recruiting a sufficient number of students to remain open during the war years and in coping with the flood of applicants immediately after the war. Woodward's correspondence reveals the manner in which policy decisions were made by the Administration. The technique of decision by committee appears to have been very popular with Woodward. The bulk of the correspondence is with faculty members of concerns such mundane matters as class schedules, student grades, and some leaves of absence made necessary by the war. The series is arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and chronologically by date within folders.