On January 31, 1919, the first veteran entered UT as part of the Smith-Sears Act establishing the Federal Board for Vocational Education and Rehabilitation, with which UT had executed a contract. This was a federal program to retrain World War I veterans whose war-acquired disabilities prevented them from returning to their previous occupations. The board appointed alumnus James P. Hess to coordinate the UT program. Hess was succeeded by B. J. McSpadden in 1928. (The program was later assumed by the Veterans Administration.)
Thirteen types of noncollegiate courses were incorporated into curricula to serve the needs of the veterans. Special courses in engineering and agriculture, as well as math and English classes, were provided. The students of the Vocational Department could also take regular courses, and they participated in campus organizations and activities. The program moved into Carrick Hall’s first and second floors after the Agricultural Extension moved to the new Agricultural Building (now Morgan Hall). Eventually, with the moves of the museum and laboratory of the Department of Geology and Mineralogy to Science Hall, the Vocational Department shared the building only with the College of Law.
The program built poultry houses near Morgan Hall with lumber from the razed Jefferson Hall. In 1923 the Vocational Department students introduced horseshoe pitching to the campus on the mud-cinder road behind Carrick and Barbara Blount (now Estabrook Road). The Vocational Department closed on April 1, 1925, with the departure of the last 80 disabled veterans. At the department’s height (spring 1923) there were 450 enrollees and 50 faculty.