York City. James Maurer was reelected as president that year, and three individuals were hired as new faculty: Roy Reuther in extension studies; Lawrence Rogin in journalism and as editor of the Brookwood Review; and Ethel Lurie as librarian and tutor. Enrollment dropped sharply in the school's last two years. Just 20 students enrolled for the 1935-1936 term, including two refugees from Nazi Germany. Despite the lower enrollment, the school added two new faculty, Dr. Lazare Teper and John Martindale. It also hired special instructors to teach a wide variety of courses. These included Luigi Antonini, Osmond Fraenkel, Jack Lever, and Frank Palmer. Enrollment did not improve the following year. Brookwood enrolled just 19 students in the 1936-1937 term, which ended prematurely in March 1937. In the later 1930s, Joel I. Seidman became director of Brookwood Labor College. On November 21, 1937, the Brookwood Labor College board of directors voted to suspend classes and close the college. Brookwood's directors and historians have offered various reasons for the college's demise. The board blamed the Great Depression (which led to significant reductions in union membership and thus union dues) and the diversion of money to union organizing campaigns rather than worker education. The board also blamed the rift in the AFL, which led to the establishment of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in 1935. Neither trade federation wanted to appear to be patronizing Brookwood, the board claimed, and thus few trade unions sent their members there. The board also blamed the rapid rise in the number of "little Brookwoods"—the education and theater programs of the Works Progress Administration (a federal agency which in part employed authors, musicians, and actors), unions (especially the CIO), and traditional colleges and universities. Historians offer a wide range of reasons for Brookwood's demise as well. Many cite Brookwood's financial problems, with some specifically linking them to the Great Depression while others link them to withdrawal of support by the AFL. Some attribute it to both. The internal political tensions within Brookwood are also cited as a primary cause. Charles F. Howlett, author of a history of Brookwood, concludes that it was competition between the AFL and CIO that undermined the college. Historian Eric Leif Davin provides a more detailed version of this argument. He concludes that Brookwood continued to support the CPLA, while other unions (notably those in the more militant CIO) supported the Democratic Party