Gibson, and Leland Marsh, and Lee Cain. At meetings held in the fall of 1929 and during the winter of 1930, the Church Board of Education decided, over protests from local communities, to close L.D.S. College in Salt Lake City in June of 1930, and to allow the high school portion of the school to remain open until June of 1931. The junior colleges Ricks, Weber, Snow, Dixie, and Gila were to remain open through 1931 with fees increased to 75 a year (25 a quarter) at each institution. There would continue to be a decided effort made to move the institutions to state control. The fee increase at the junior colleges was to have fees approximate those at the University of Utah. As it appeared that Weber might soon be under state control, Aaron Tracy suggested to the College Trustees on August 15, 1929 that the college area be cleaned up by removing all board fences, all old sheds, garages, and chicken coops. Tracy also suggested painting and fixing up all college buildings and property as well as placing underground all electricity and phone lines. Following his suggestions, Tracy said, would allow a good transition from church to state control. Tracy suggested that in his discussions with Commissioner Merrill of Church Education that there seemed to be no disposition, whatsoever, to close this school at any time before it can be transferred to the State in a manner compatible with sound educational principles and policies. Merrill met with the Weber Board of Trustees on December 27, 1929 and in great detail explained the current educational situation. In part, he noted, the church appropriation for 1929 for each student at the junior colleges was 141.68 while the appropriation for students in seminaries was 14. The seminary program needed to expand and the church did not have enough money to support both programs. Merrill was not in favor of Weber and the other Utah Junior colleges being placed under the control of the University of Utah, and he also expressed a belief that the present location of Weber College was an ideal place for a college in Ogden. With the impact of the depression of 1929 and other needs for church monies, yearly appropriations to Weber declined: 1930-1931 46,175 1931-1932 41,400 1932-1933 40,500 As appropriations were lower, salaries for faculty were lowered at each church institution. During 1932-1933, the University of Utah and U.A.C. both suffered a 20 cut in their expenditures. Church President Heber J. Grant said on February 4, 1931 that unless the state legislature provides for the continuation of Weber and Snow Colleges, neither school would be continued longer than the 1931-1932 school year. Webers faculty and administration recognized the hard times which had come upon the nation by the spring of 1931 and allowed to a certain extent, produce in lieu of tuition money, including eggs, milk, potatoes, calves, and hogs. News of the produce for tuition plan was publicized widely, including in the Chicago Tribune. It was important to have students receive an education, and it was also important to have large numbers of students to justify to the state legislature the need for a junior college in Ogden. Thus, many students attended Weber by paying produce for tuition or signing a note for tuition during this era. Some were allowed to pay tuition in installments during a quarter and to attend all year if the tuition for the year were paid within the same year. With a larger student population than was paying tuition, Weber experienced more than its usual financial problems during this period of transfer to the state and financial depression in the country. With more students, more classrooms were needed, but new faculty could not be hired. Professional people in the community taught at the college on a part-time basis: Clair Anderson in music, Joseph Packer in Art, Bertha Eccles Wright in drama, and Lucy Denning in shorthand and typing. The Lions Club of Ogden at its meeting on March 22, 1932 pledged it would support a movement to have 1000 students enrolled at Weber College for the 1932-1933 school year. The movement to have more than 1000 students enrolled at Weber became a community project to underline to the legislature the need for the college in Ogden. The University of Utah had about 3000 students, B.Y.U. about 1400, and the Agricultural College about 1200, and the Ogden community felt that with an enrollment of 1000, even in hard times, the legislature could not do away with Weber College. Beginning in the Fall of 1930, bus service was provided for students from Box Elder, Morgan, and Summit Counties to boost Webers enrollments. One-half of the tuition of each student riding the bus was used to make payments on the transportation. As President Tracy urged students, faculty, and community supporters to recruit students for Weber he suggested that even though times were difficult, Weber would grow and develop, and You will live to see the time when this will be a four year institution and students will be walking down the aisles with their caps on to receive the bachelor of arts degree. In April of 1932, Weber College was notified in a telegram that it had been accredited as a junior college by the Northwest Accrediting Association under the direction of Dr. Frederick E. Bolton. Faculty members and students worked with local legislators to have a bill come out of the legislature which would be favorable to Weber Colleges survival. Early in 1931 House Bill 101 was introduced to the legislature and on March 12 passed. This bill provided for the transfer of Weber College to the State of Utah effective July 1, 1933. Governor George H. Dern signed the Junior College Bill into law on March 24, 1931. The bill provided for the transfer of Snow College to the state in 1932, and Weber College to the state in 1933. The original bill passed in 1931 had as a provision that one-half of the maintenance of the college was to come from local support (city and county support), but this provision for local support was removed by the 1933 legislature in House Bill 120. Ira Huggins, J. Francis Fowles, and George Fuller were three of Weber Countys legislators who were particularly instrumental in sponsoring the junior college bill and moving it through the legislature. One of the legislators from Weber County who would have liked to see Weber as a branch of the University of Utah was John M. Mills. Ironically, in 1947 when a new site for Weber College was chosen on south Harrison Boulevard, it was the property of John Mills which was purchased for the new campus.