World War I Memorial

Artists: Janet Strand & Students

Commissioned by: University of North Dakota History Department

Location: University of North Dakota Chester Fritz Library

Description: In the fall of 1918 the University of North Dakota suffered the unimaginable loss of
seven members of its Student Army Training Corps. The Student Army Training Corps of UND
was the only organized military training station in the county during World War I. The
university became a military camp between July and August of 1918 by order of the Committee
on Education and Special Training of the War Department in Washington. The S.A.T.C.
consisted of two sections, the collegiate section and the vocational section. Both sections were
officially inducted into the United States Army on October I, 1918. Sadly, twenty-seven of
these young men were victims of the flu pandemic that swept through Grand Forks during that
dreadful fall and all but one of them died on the university campus.

Ninety-nine years ago the University of North Dakota promised to never forget these young men. Our University failed to keep her promise. A complete list of S.A.T.C. members who died during the 1918 flu pandemic was never made public nor enshrined, thus these young men could not be remembered.
It has been ninety-nine years since that promise was made. The purpose of the S.A.T.C. exhibit is to fulfill a promise to honor these young men, never forget their names and also serve as a memorial for those who "offered their lives on the altar of their country and died in its service and in its defense as truly and as nobly as if it were on the field of battle."