[13] The college took up residence in a building known as Bladen's Folly (the current McDowell Hall), which was originally built to be the Maryland governor's mansion but was not completed.

But despite St. John's successfully pioneering the entire NROTC movement, student interest waned, and the voluntary ROTC disappeared in 1926 with Garey's departure.

[18] The Board of Visitors and Governors, faced with dire financial straits caused by the Great Depression, invited educational innovators Stringfellow Barr and Scott Buchanan to make a completely fresh start.

"[19] In 1938, Walter Lippman wrote a column praising liberal arts education as a bulwark against fascism and said, "In the future, men will point to St. John's College and say that there was the seed-bed of the American renaissance.

In late 1946, Forrestal withdrew the plan to take over St. John's in the face of public opposition and the disapproval of the House Naval Affairs Committee.

St John's had been founded as an all-white institution and continued as such in the early years of the New Program, with Barr actively discouraging black students from applying.

Some students objected because they had not been involved in—nor even aware of—the decision before it was announced to the media, and some believed that the college could not remain a serious institution if it admitted women.

Martin Dyer reported that women who were admitted quickly proved they were the academic and intellectual equals of their male counterparts.

As enrollment grew during the 1950s, and facing the coming larger baby-boom generation, thoughts turned again towards opening another campus—but this time in addition to, not instead of, the one in Annapolis.

Serious talk of expansion began in 1959 when the father of a student from Monterey, California, suggested to President Weigle that he establish a new campus there.

A group from the Monterey Peninsula told Weigle that they were interested, though funding was a problem, and suitable land was a big question.

A committee of four faculty members (Robert Bart, Barbara Leonard, Douglas Allanbrook, and William Darkey) later visited the four sites in contention and, after much deliberation, recommended Santa Fe.

The four-year program of study, nearly all mandatory, requires that students read and discuss the works of many of Western civilization's most prominent contributors to philosophy, theology, mathematics, science, music, poetry, and literature.

Science laboratory and mathematics courses use manuals prepared by faculty members that combine source materials with workbook exercises.

[29] The Graduate Institute in Liberal Education was established at St. John's College in 1967 as a summer program on the Santa Fe campus.

The size and scope of the Institute have expanded so that currently, both the Annapolis and Santa Fe campuses offer year-round graduate-level study based on the principles of St. John's undergraduate program.

Students in the Liberal Arts program explore the persisting questions of human existence by studying classic works of the Western tradition.

This program is organized into five semester-long thematic segments: Philosophy and Theology, Politics and Society, Literature, Mathematics and Natural Science, and History.

A common curriculum provides the basis for a shared intellectual community; discussion with fellow students and faculty is the mode of learning inside and outside the classroom.

Each semester, students attend a seminar, a tutorial, and a preceptorial, all carried out as small-group discussions under the guidance of St. John's faculty members.

The EC program, therefore, provides a full set of readings in the philosophical, religious, and literary traditions of the three cultures listed above.

Thus, students learn Chinese culture by reading not only Confucius, Laozi and Zhuangzi, but also Mencius, Xun Zi, Han Feizi, and Mozi, as well as historical narratives by Sima Qian and the Zuo Zhuan, the later movement of Neo-Confucianism and Zhu Xi, narrative works such as Journey to the West or the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the great Chinese poets, Li Bai, Wang Wei and Du Fu.

This list represents only one-third of the required corpus, which also covers the major teachings and branches of Hinduism and the development of Theravada, Mahayana and Zen Buddhism, as well as such literary masterpieces as the Mahabharata, Shakuntala, The Tale of Genji, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, and others.

Its proximity to the United States Naval Academy (across King George Street) has inspired many comparisons to Athens and Sparta.

The two schools carry on a spirited rivalry seen in their annual croquet match on the front lawn of St. John's, which has been called by GQ "the purest intercollegiate athletic event in America."

[35] Its Great Hall has seen many college events, from balls feting Generals Lafayette and Washington to the unique St. John's institutions called waltz parties.