UConn had officially been a university for only two months when World War II broke out in Europe. Four years later, with the US now joining the Allied effort on two fronts, the newly designated university received its first-ever visit from an occupant of the White House, in the formidable person of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Roosevelt, a tireless advocate of progressive causes, was visiting the Connecticut Women’s Land Army (CWLA), which trained young women in agricultural work and placed them on farms badly in need of labor, with so many men in uniform overseas. After addressing a student assembly on the importance of young people’s contributions to the war effort, Roosevelt toured the poultry houses, dairy barns, and residences used by CWLA members. “They actually work with a very fine herd of cows, each girl having charge, at different periods, of four cows all by herself,” Roosevelt wrote in her diary. “All of the girls told me they would feel quite capable of holding a job on the farm and that they were enjoying the course.” Roosevelt added that she hoped the CWLA program would help dispel sexist attitudes about the kinds of work women could excel at. It would be 71 years before UConn received another visit from a First Lady, when Hillary Clinton spoke to a packed Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in April 2014.