In 1918, almost everyone seemed to be pleased with the upgrade in the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists’ rating to the “B” class. On February 28, 1918, I. H. Evans, then vice president of the General Conference, a man who had been one of the most conservative in approving CME’s expansion wrote to Dr. Percy T. Magan, dean of the School of Medine: “I do hope to see the school within two years classified as “A.” I believe we can make it if we are to operate a full-fledged school in class “A” just as readily and just as successfully as in class “B,” but I am very thankful that we have been lifted from class “C.”
However, the two years that Dr. Evans mentioned and everyone expected was not meant to be, and for a variety of reasons. World War I still raged. The relationship of medical schools to the United States military became more complex.
By July 1918, a crisis developed which again threatened the very survival of CME. The United States military began drafting schools of medicine faculty in key positions, resulting in the disorganization of their teaching staffs across the United States. Dr. Magan consulted with Colonel Horace D. Arnold, Surgeon General of the War Department, and learned that every physician would have to join the Medical Reserve Corps or the Volunteer Service Corps of the Army.
By enlisting in the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps, CME’s student physicians could continue their studies. They didn’t even know they were in the Army. Their noncombatant status had been assured. However, in the fall of 1918, the Government changed the original plan and notified all the deans of the nation’s medical schools that their students must join the Students’ Army Training Corps (SATC), and that they would be considered enlisted soldiers in the Army. Any school wanting to form a unit must apply to the Government and must have at least 100 men of college grade.
Wells A. Ruble, MD, former president of CME and now again the medical secretary of the General Conference, interviewed military officials in Washington, DC, on behalf of CME. His investigation revealed that the War Department favored limiting recognition to schools which had a unit of the Students’ Army Training Corps. Furthermore, Colonel Arnold’s office had told him that, because CME did not have a sufficient number of students, it would probably receive no further consideration. Dr. Ruble even learned that there likely would be only one surviving school of medicine in California, and that the University of California had already received that recognition.
This development could close CME. In crisis, the CME Board convened on September 20, 1918, and voted unanimously to apply for a unit of the Students’ Army Training Corps. To achieve the numbers required, they would create affiliations with the University of Redlands and Occidental
College in Los Angeles. Because regulations also covered premedical students, they would start a premedical department for up to 25 students from Pacific Union College, in Angwin, California, so that they could join Loma Linda’s proposed SATC.
It seemed to all the church leaders on the West Coast that to implement this plan would be the only way to save the medical school and to prevent disrupting the studies of their medical and premedical students. The presidents of Walla Walla College, in Walla Walla, Washington, and Union College, in Lincoln, Nebraska, monitored developments with increasing interest.
The subject of combatancy vs. noncombatancy further compounded the problem. To discuss the crisis, Dr. Ruble called together a special meeting of church leaders in Washington, DC, on Sabbath afternoon, September 14. He then reported to Dr. Magan that the possibility of students at Seventh-day Adventists colleges losing their noncombatancy status had resulted in grave concern.
Dr. Ruble and his colleagues at CME believed that medical service in the Army Reserve equaled noncombatancy. Assurances from Government officials in California supported their position. Whether CME could meet Government requirements to form an SATC unit in order to avoid closing the School of Medicine became Drs. Magan and Evans’ most vital question. They moved quickly to determine whether the University of Redlands and Occidental College would join their cause.
They also sought advice and support from Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford University and regional director of the SATC program. Dr. Wilbur immediately wired Washington DC and recommended acceptance of the proposed Loma Linda unit. While administrators of CME, Walla Walla College, Pacific Union College, and Union College waited for a reply to Dr. Wilbur’s letter, the Educational Department of the General Conference sent a telegram and long letter expressing strong disapproval of the plan. “Committee has not authorized any of these steps and fear you are compromising the denomination.”
To be continued…