Student Army Training Corps standing in formation (December 1918)

This photograph shows the Student Army Training Corps (SATC) standing in formation in front of barracks at Springfield College, at the time known as the International YMCA College. The writing on the bottom of the photograph says "S.A.T.C. Dec. 1918".The SATC was formed on October 1, 1918. The barracks held the one-hundred and eight students enrolled in the program. At Springfield College, the SATC disbanded on December 21, 1918. In April 1918, the National Army Training Detachments program was established at one hundred and fifty-seven colleges, universities, and trade schools under contract with the War Department, including Springfield College. The program was designed to train draftees in a variety of trades needed for the war effort, and was jointly administered by the military and the university. The proposed Student Army Training Corps, according to Carol Gruber, would serve to develop “as a great military asset the large body of young men in the colleges and . . . [to prevent] unnecessary and wasteful depletion of the colleges through indiscriminate volunteering, by offering the student a definite and immediate military status." (Mars and Minerva 215)