Page 702

A SALUTARY INFLUENCE Woman's League Annual Convention From the 1932 Spectrum. difficult years league income averaged $4,000, half of what it had been during most of the 1920s. Nevertheless, in spite of the poor times, by the fall of 1935 the Y.M.C.A. endowment fund had reached $20,290. A fourth period in the life of the Woman's League began in 1935, when the College, facing serious deficits, decided to close the academy and turn Stevens and Huber Halls into dormitories for women students. President Hanson appealed to the league for a silver anniversary gift to the College of $10,000 to finance the conversion. The fall league convention agreed to make it. For the first time in its history, the activity of the Woman's League was being extended significantly beyond the nurture of one campus organization. In addition to supporting the S.C.A., which succeeded the Y.M.C.A. in the fall of 1935, league members now embarked upon a campaign which they called their Gifts for Girls or Gifts for Girlhood. Eventually the women decided to go the second mile with this project. By the time they made their last payment in 1939, they had given the College more than $20,600 for the women's division. As early as 1936 the league began contributing to the newly formed College choir (by providing funds for purchasing its first robes) and in the following year urged the formation of a music department. 70