Archives West Finding Aid

With the end of World War II, the college entered a period of phenomenal growth. The next decade became a particularly demanding and convulsive period for the institution. Four presidents served between 1945 and 1954, as the college experienced dramatic growing pains. Enrollment soared as service¬men returned to college under the G.I. Bill, during the remainder of the 1940s. This placed an additional demand on administrators to secure appropriations for buildings and faculty.

Furthermore, the college began to outgrow the confines of its name, as it gradually started on the road to becoming a full-fledged university. Undoubtedly, President Peterson realized the unavoidable expansion which would occur, as he sought to expand the curriculum during the war years. His efforts, however, met stiff opposition from some members of the Board of Trustees, which influenced his decision to resign in 1944.

In an effort to curtail Peterson's curricular expansion outside the confines of agriculture, the Board of Trustees selected Harris as his successor. Harris had been the director of the College's Agricultural Experiment Station from 1916 to 1921, before leaving that position to become president of Brigham Young University in Provo.

Change was inevitable, however, and confining the curriculum to only agricultural education became impossible. Harris had, in fact, been largely responsible for the expanse of programs at BYU and he, more than anyone before him, had been responsible for establishing BYU as a permanent Utah educational facility. Like Peterson before him, Harris was a native of Utah. Born in Benjamin in 1884, Harris spent most of his youth in Mexico, but ¬returned to Utah to complete his undergraduate degree at BYU. After receiving his Ph. D. from Cornell in 1911, Harris became a professor of agronomy at the Utah Agricultural College. He served in that capacity until his appointment as Director of the Experiment Station.

Harris was also the first to fully envision the possibilities of exporting the expertise of the college, internationally. His contacts with the United States Office of Foreign Agriculture initiated the institution's involvement with international programs. As early as 1940, while still president of BYU, Harris selected two USAC faculty members, agronomist Donald W. Pittman, and irrigation engineer Luther M. Winsor, to conduct scientific research in the country of Iran.

After becoming president in 1946, the college increased its foreign involvement. Almost immediately after becoming President, Harris took leave to tour Greece and Syria, and later, under United States President Harry S. Truman's Point IV Program, began a tour of Middle-Eastern countries. These extra-¬presidential activities enabled Harris to form a strong relationship with the federal bureaucracy and several foreign countries, particularly Iran, a relationship which persisted at the institution through the 1970s.

In late 1949 President Harry S. Truman selected Harris as his choice to become Technical Advisor to the Ambassador on Point IV activities in Iran. In 1950, Harris resigned the presidency of USAC to accept the appointment. Harris stayed active in foreign affairs, where he acted as a " good will" ambassador for USAC. Many international students received training at USAC as a result of his efforts.