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History 1908-1965 Part 6
The curriculum closely followed the Civil Engineering curriculums in mainland Land Grant College. Probably as a heritage of its development, a little more than the normal work in electrical and mechanical engineering was required. It was not always safe to judge the courses by the descriptions in the catalogue, as one instructor discovered. In a rash moment he agreed to take over Dean Keller's class in Contracts and Specifications one semester in the Dean's absence. When he got around to studying Keller's course notes he realized that, as the Dean had taught the course, it was more than a textbook course in the economics of cost estimates and the fundamentals of laws governing engineering contracts. Keller, who had a law degree in addition to his engineering degrees, also included a wealth of information on Hawaiian land laws, Hawaiian laws of water rights, statute law, and the case histories of local court decisions of engineering interest. In deep humility the instructor confessed to the Department Chairman (Carl B. Andrews) that he could not teach the course as Keller taught it. "Nobody else can, either" was the only sympathy he got from Andrews. It turned out to be one of the numerous occasions when the instructor learned more from the course than any of his students.
Before World War II, no girl student stuck with the engineering curriculum long enough to obtain junior status. Had any female met the entrance requirements for admission to the informal fellowship of the upper division engineering students, who owned the Engineering Quadrangle, a most embarrassing situation would have been created. When Keller designed the four new buildings of the Engineering Quadrangle he designed them for maximum space utilization and economy, with no corridors, no closets, and no plumbing. The only toilet south of Campus Road was partially concealed from public view in the storeroom of the engineering materials laboratory. To meet the standard academic provisions for four sexes (faculty men, faculty women, student men, student women) would have required a special legislative appropriation. It was not until 1939, when the Home Economics Building (Miller Hall) was built, adjacent to the engineers' domain, that the situation was alleviated.
The bombs that fell on Pearl Harbor disrupted the University of Hawai`i. For nearly two months it ceased to function as a teaching institution. When it opened again Keller was Acting President, in addition to his other duties. Half the student body and a large share of the faculty had been drained off by the war effort. In 1942, however, fourteen degrees in Civil Engineering were awarded. Two years earlier, foresighted Keller had initiated a program of evening classes in Naval Architecture, taught by Pearl Harbor naval architects, to senior engineering students and recent graduates.** The design section of Pearl Harbor Navy Yard eagerly absorbed the graduates of the program, but the engineering department rapidly declined until there were only two engineers on the University faculty and only one degree in engineering was awarded in 1946.