School desks weren t the only desks emptied by the war. Businesses experienced a tremendous shortage of labor. Not only was there great demand for labor to build up the war machines, but men were leaving civilian employment for military service in huge numbers. Women were quick to seize the opportunities for employment outside the home. Never were employers more willing to engage women.
War is a leveler of prejudices.
These new employees lacked the experience and training of the men they replaced, and in response the College began teaching night courses in downtown Los Angeles with UCLA Extension to hone their business skills. Peacetime and the 1944 G.I. Bill, which offered war veterans free college education brought students to the school in record numbers. The newly appointed provost Clarence A. Dykstra brought an exciting new vision for the College. Dykstra wanted to build a leading graduate business school focused on management as a discipline, and he recruited Neil H. Jacoby as dean in 1948 to make this a reality. Jacoby s appointment came on the eve of the biggest G.I. wave of enrollment, which rocketed from 958 students in 1939, to 2,057 in 1947.