Plays were a highlight every year, as the Junior and Senior classes performed such selections as "Blarney Street," above, in 1934. The Board was frustrated and confused by their inability to forge a new denominational link. They had no way of realizing why that door had been closed. With limited resources available, they took a hard look at institutional efficiency. When they discovered a deficit of $3,689.11 in the 1928-29 school year, they demanded that "rigid economy be practiced in all departments in the expenditure of money during the coming year." They described the deficit as "deplorable" and demanded that it "not happen again. We must budget according to our income." They urged all departments, especially athletics, to "cut to the absolute necessi ties.'" Shortly after the Board took this strong budgetary stand, the prosperity of the 1920s was shattered. The stock market crash of 1929 precipitated a world-wide economic crisis. By mid-November approximately thirty billion dollars in market value in American stocks had been obliterated. 5 In January 1930, as the impact of the Depression made itself felt at every level of American society, six members of the Cedarville Board of Trustees met in the Exchange Bank building for "an informal conference." Concerned about the financial pressures on the college, they urged President McChesney to advertise the college in certain key church magazines of the United Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church North, the Presbyterian Church South, and any others he felt might be worthwhile. They were determined to seek students and support for their institution aggressively, even as the Depression deepened. 6 The severe national economic crisis coupled with the bitter disappointment of being rejected by the Presbyterian Church in the U.s.A. made a marked impression on McChesney. At the mid-year meeting of the Board of Trustees in 1930, he listed as his first recommendation to the Board that they "consider fully, frankly and freely at this meeting the disposal that we shall make of Cedarville College." He proposed four options: close permanently, merge with another Christian institution, become a junior college, or "resolve to maintain a four-year liberal arts college; strive to raise, $750,000 over a period of four years ending with the 40th anniversary of the college."7 McChesney told the Board they should reorganize their administrative level in such a way that "efficient workers can be put in the field to cultivate and secure contributors of both small and large sums for the raising of the $750,000." Of the four alternatives he offered, McChesney made it clear that he preferred to maintain the college as a four-year institution and raise the $750,000. Following discussion, he made the motion to do so himself! McChesney hoped that at least $250,000 of the $750,000 would be used to construct both a girls' dormitory, and a chapel with administrative offices connected to it. 8 But the real drama of this February 7 mid– year meeting of the trustees had nothing to do Chapter IX/71