President's Address to the Board: "A 40% Reduction in the Student Population"

President's Address to the Board: "A 40% Reduction in the Student Population"

Trinity College and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918

The Board of Trustees meetings make no explicit references to the pandemic. Indeed, they address far more the state of military preparedness on campus and the general absence of the student body as a result of World War I. President Luther’s report at the April 25, 1918 meeting noted that “we opened the year with 167 names on our student roll, this figure showing a reduction of about 40% from normal…. Probably there are not more than 125 men in College and others will go.” Thus, it is in the context of a comparatively small number of students on campus that the pandemic would arise and bring death to the Trinity community.

Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby; Trinity College Board of Trustees

Trinity College Digital Repository

Watkinson Library and Trinity College Archives, Trinity College (Hartford, CT)

April 25, 1918

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College Records

Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut