40. Army Air Force Training Program. From March 1943 to April 1944, Susquehanna served as a military installation for the 35th Detachment of the Army Air Force. The members of this unit were young men preparing for service in World War II, taught by SU’s faculty, a handful of local teachers and Army officers in a curriculum separate from that being taken by regular SU students, most of whom were women during the late war years.

39. Middle States Accreditation, 1930–. About every 10 years, starting in 1930, the Middle States Association has evaluated Susquehanna, looking at almost every facet of its activity. Their reports often spur change, such as in the school’s business operations or its curricular emphases. Reports in 1954 and 1963 were particularly critical, leading to significant reforms at the school.

38. The Susquehanna, 1895–1959. Just as Susquehanna University was carved out of the Missionary Institute in 1895, the faculty and administration turned over the college newspaper to the students. The name was The Susquehanna. It was a monthly, journal-like publication until 1914, when it assumed the size of a newspaper and became a weekly. For unknown reasons, the name was changed to The Crusader in 1959.

37. Adam Warner. A Lutheran pastor from Northumberland, Pa., Warner was involved in many “firsts” on the campus. He was the first business manager. In 1898, he invested his own money to transform one of the college’s several double-sided cottages into the first dormitory for women and the first dining hall (Lewar’s Dining Hall); and he had the school’s first athletic field named for him. This field was located where Hassinger Hall and the James W. Garrett Sports Complex now stand.

36. Charles Degenstein. Susquehanna’s most generous and significant benefactor, Degenstein was an executive at Weis Markets and a friend of President Gustave Weber. His largest donations were given in the early 1980s and provided an endowment for the Sigmund Weis School of Business, Weis being Degenstein’s father-in-law. This important friend of the university had the campus center named in his honor.

35. George Dunkelberger, 1908. A native of Snyder County and an SU graduate in the Class of 1908, Dunkelberger was a developmental psychologist who focused on teacher education. He was the academic and student dean of the college from 1930 to 1937. Regionally, he was known as a leader of the prohibitionist movement in Pennsylvania and a local historian.

34. Alumni Gymnasium, 1935–. Plans for the gymnasium complex to replace the original Alumni Gym that had burned down in 1934 were elaborate. At the core would be a basketball court with lockers beneath; a unit attached to the south side would have a swimming pool; and a unit attached to the north side would have racquetball courts and a wrestling room. Because of the Great Depression, only the core was built.

33. Wilhelm Reuning, 1959–1989. Dean Reuning administered the academic program at the college from 1959 to 1978, the longest such tenure in the school’s history. He led the way in raising academic standards and pruning the curriculum of technical courses. After leaving the dean’s office, he joined the faculty in the history department and inaugurated SU’s program in international studies.

32. Fisher Science Hall. Named for George Fisher, the longest-serving member of SU’s faculty, this facility was opened in 1964 and renovated and expanded in the late 1980s. It houses the biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, and earth and environmental sciences departments. It was redesigned in 1989 to include laboratories dedicated to specific subspecialties in the sciences and for student and faculty collaborative work.

31. Class Hazing, 1898–1968. Initiated almost by accident in 1898, the hazing of entering students by the sophomore class punctuated student life each fall for more than half a century. Hazing took different forms. In the beginning it was quite rough and physical, featuring male members of each class in physical conflict, and always included activities designed to humiliate or embarrass first-year students. The effect of hazing was to cement individual identity to academic class. Hazing ended in the late 1960s, when freshmen simply refused to comply with its petty tyranny.

30. John App. A farmer, businessman and prominent Lutheran layman in Selinsgrove, John App provided the land upon which the Missionary Institute was founded in 1858. At the same time, his brother Leonard sold property to a local board for the Susquehanna Female College, the institute’s sister school. The Apps were a pioneer family in what became Snyder County in 1855.

29. “Thirty Gallant Men,” February, 1943. In the late winter and early spring of 1943, the United States Army and Navy called to service men whose entrance had been deferred so they could obtain a college degree. At Susquehanna, 30 male students left for the Army, picked up by bus at the main gate on a February morning. Their departure was noted with sorrow by the campus community; two of these men were subsequently killed in service to their country.

28. The Lanthorn, 1897–. The college “annual,” as it used to be called, has changed over time. Initially it contained biographical sketches of administrators, faculty and college juniors (who prepared the annual for the senior class), inside jokes, detailed activities of the academic classes and pictures of student organizations. Recently it has become a pictorial review of informal groups of students as well as a compendium picturing academic departments and individual students. Since 1897, it has had student editors.

27. Clio and Philo Literary Societies. Among the first student organizations at colleges in the United States, literary societies existed at Susquehanna since the institution was founded as the Missionary Institute in 1858. These societies had various functions: they conducted debates, sponsored plays, had libraries and eventually occupied their own club rooms. In the second decade of the 20th century, literary societies disappeared at Susquehanna, their activities assumed by separate clubs such as the Debate Society.

26. Charles Heisler, President, 1899–1901. The first president of the university selected by an outside search, Heisler also had one of the school’s briefest presidencies. In the short time he held office, Heisler led a revolution in the school’s academic structure, creating a true university with an Academy, a College of the Liberal Arts, a Seminary and departments of music and oratory.