Campus on the March

This 1942 propaganda short, produced by the Office of War Information, highlights the mobilization of American colleges during WWII. Filmed in black-and-white, the twenty-minute reel surveys war-related activities at institutions like the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Harvard, Dartmouth, and the University of California. It showcases ROTC units drilling in crisp uniforms, engineering students designing war machines, and co-eds training as nurses or assembling radios—many men juggling military service with studies. Narration touts the numbers: thousands of campuses shifting from liberal arts to war prep, with shots of labs, classrooms, and auxiliary formations like the Civil Air Patrol. The film emphasizes academia’s pivot to defense—aircraft mechanics at Caltech, agriculture boosting food output at Texas A&M—reflecting a nation redirecting its youth to the war effort. A brisk, patriotic call to action, it captures higher education’s wartime transformation with earnest zeal.