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A SALUTARY INFLUENCE already entered the College. A report to the faculty in October 1952 indicated that the contingent of former servicemen in the student body had dropped to 7 percent. Once the task of admitting veterans had been completed, it became necessary to fashion recruiting policies and procedures appropriate for the changed conditions of higher education in the postwar world. Although this was a task which many trustees, administrators, and faculty performed together, no person was more influential in developing and then carrying out Gettysburg's plans than Charles R. Wolfe, whom President Hanson named registrar and dean of admissions in 1943, and who served in the latter capacity until his death twenty years later. Known to most people as Hips, he won the plaudits of many on and beyond the campus, including the four presidents under whom he served. For example, General Paul, who relieved him of the registrar's duties in 1957, told the trustees in December 1956 that "as I have met and talked with other college Presidents I find that Gettysburg College is considered to have one of the best admissions offices and systems." The 1949 catalogue, the first to contain a statement of the educational objectives of the College, also included an expanded section on admissions (from two to five pages), one which declared that, while Gettysburg had responded to the "needs of the larger community" by increasing its enrollment "as much as it has considered wise in order to meet the demand," it nevertheless continued to believe that "it will be of most service if it maintains its character as a small church-related school." No one at that point could be certain of what the word "small" meant. The postwar admissions criteria described in the 1949 catalogue, as well as in other places, retained much from the past and, in most instances, persisted into the 1980s. First, the College continued to insist upon what it called good character and acceptable social habits. "The basic requirement of the College for admission," Hips Wolfe told high-school counselors in 1960, "is that a student be a well-adjusted person of sound moral character." Second, the College regarded the evidence provided by a strong secondary school record as the best indicator of ability to do college work. Third, in the language of the 1984 catalogue, it considered "superior facility in the use of the English language and an understanding of fundamental mathematical processes as essential to a successful college experience."188 Fourth, it continued to give some preference to candidates who were Lutheran or members of alumni families; this was always a policy much easier to enunciate than to carry out. Finally, in June 1949 the trus- 188Catalogues through the 1963 issue listed good character as the first criterion for admission. Its successor listed evidence of high academic attainment first. 90