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A GREATER GETTYSBURG doubled, an increase repeated between the latter year and 1923. Another challenge came from those responsible for developing nationally accepted standards by which to measure the quality of higher educational institutions. Most of them insisted that, unless preparatory departments were separate and distinct from the colleges which owned them, instruction in the latter was in constant danger of falling below an acceptable level. For example, the committee on college resources and standards, already referred to, concluded in 1918 that one of the requirements of a successful college of arts and sciences which had an academy or preparatory department was an organization of the latter which was "distinct in students, faculty, and discipline."173 These developments in American education were soon felt on the Gettysburg campus. Enrollment in the preparatory department, which had averaged eighty-three during the five years before the fall of 1904, dropped to sixty-three during the next five years. As early as June 1906 Huber explained to the trustees what was happening. Fewer town students were enrolling in prep because the Gettysburg High School was now offering "a full preparatory course for college."174 In his report to the board a year later, President Hefelbower was more sweeping in attributing the decrease in enrollment to "the general development of high schools that is taking place almost everywhere." Nothing which the College did in an attempt to reverse this situation had any appreciable effect for more than a decade. Although the course of study was increased to four years in 1910 (qualified students could complete it in less time), enrollment reached eighty only once until after World War I. The annual average for the years 1904-1918 was sixty-five. Adams county continued to contribute about forty percent of the student body, which after 1905 was almost entirely male. The number of females in prep dropped from twenty in the fall of 1904 to four a year later. Once it became possible for young women to complete their college-preparatory work at the Gettysburg High School, almost all of those planning to attend the College took advantage of the opportunity. From 1905 to 1918 the average enrollment of women in prep was between five and six. The trustees remained firmly committed to continuing the preparatory department, if for no other reason simply because each fall it still yielded a good number of male freshmen who otherwise might attend some other college. As early as June 1906 they authorized a second prep dormitory as soon as funds became available. Seven years later, the trustees committed themselves to raising money for ^Resources and Standards (1918), pp. 18, 57. 174In 1906 this was less than a four-year course. 53