fire in 1947, but still in use), and the oval athletic field. Modern After World War II, Syracuse University transformed into a major research institution. Enrollment increased in the four years after the war due to the G.I. Bill, which paid tuition, room, board, and a small allowance for veterans returning from World War II. In 1946, the University admitted 9,464 freshmen, nearly four times greater than the previous incoming class. Branch campuses were established in Endicott, New York, and Utica, New York, which became Binghamton University and Utica University respectively. The velocity with which the University sped through its change into a major research institution was astounding. By the end of the 1950s, Syracuse ranked twelfth nationally in terms of the amount of its sponsored research, and it had over four hundred professors and graduate students engaging in that investigation. From the early 1950s through the 1960s, Syracuse University added programs and staff that continued the transformation of the school into a research university. In 1954, Arthur Phillips was recruited from MIT and started the first pathogen-free animal research laboratory. The lab focused on studying medical problems using animal models. The School of Social Work, which eventually merged into the College of Human Ecology, was founded in 1956. Syracuse's College of Engineering also founded the nation's second-oldest computer engineering and bioengineering programs. In 1962, Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. donated $15 million to begin construction of a school of communications, eventually known as the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. In 1966, Syracuse University was admitted to the Association of American Universities, an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a robust system of academic research and education. 1988 crash of Pan Am Flight 103 On December 21, 1988, 35 Syracuse University students were killed in the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The students were returning from a study-abroad program in Europe. That evening, Syracuse University went on with a basketball game just hours after the attack, for which the university was severely criticized and the university's chancellor subsequently apologized. The bombing of Flight 103 was the deadliest terrorist attack against the United States prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001. In April 1990, Syracuse University dedicated a memorial wall to the students killed on Flight 103, constructed at the entrance to the main campus in front of the Hall of Languages. Every