The Student Army Training Corps (SATC) at New York University was part of a nationwide program initiated by the Committee on Education and Special Training of the War Department during World War I. Begun in the spring of 1918 as the National Army Training Detachments, it was demobilized the following December after the Armistice.

In April 1918 the National Army Training Detachments program was established at 157 colleges, universities, and trade schools under contract with the War Department. The program was designed to train draftees in a variety of trades needed for the war effort, and was jointly administered by the military and the schools. The proposed Student Army Training Corps, according to one historian, would serve to develop "as a great military asset the large body of young men in the colleges and ... [to prevent] unnecessary and wasteful depletion of the colleges through indiscriminate volunteering, by offering the student a definite and immediate military status." (Gruber, Mars and Minerva, p. 215)

Even before the training detachments got underway, the Army realized it lacked the required officers. At the same time, colleges were concerned about the depletion of students by the war and the attendant financial loss, which was only partially redressed by the vocational program. NYU in particular had been financially dependent to a large degree on tuition, much of which was lost by student enlistment.

At NYU Captain (later Major) William S. Maulsby was the military program commander, and Charles Snow, dean of the College of Engineering, was the civilian director of the National Army Training Detachment. Fifteen committees, made up of faculty and staff of the University, were appointed to administer specific areas. The school agreed to provide the soldiers with instruction, food, and quarters. The government, in turn, agreed to reimburse the University a fixed amount per soldier.

The first group of soldiers arrived on April 11 and, together with later inductees, received instruction geared toward becoming auto mechanics, blacksmiths, carpenters, chauffeurs, concrete workers, electricians, machinists, and radio operators. During a two-month period, the men received training in their trades, military instruction and, beginning in July, a course on "War Issues."

At the beginning of the fall semester, 524 institutions enrolled about 140,000 men into SATC units. At that time, the National Army Training Detachments were absorbed into SATC as Section B vocationals. In all, between April 11 and demobilization on December 19, 1918, 1,613 men took part in this section at NYU.

NYU agreed to accept 2,000 men. The NYU SATC unit eventually enrolled 1,564 student-soldiers in two divisions: 1,288 at University Heights and 276 at University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College. Marshall S. Brown, dean of Faculties, was appointed chairman of the SATC Committee and Archibald L. Bouton, dean of the College of Arts and Pure Science, became head of Section A (academics), while Dean Snow continued as head of Section B (vocationals), and Captain Maulsby remained as military commander.

Unlike the "Fighting Mechanics" of the Training Detachments, the collegiate or Section A SATC students were required to fulfill the requirements for college admission and to be accepted as matriculated students by the schools they attended. Inducted as privates in the regular army and subject to military discipline, the student-soldiers lived in barracks, ate at mess and were accorded a monthly allowance of $30 in addition to having their tuition paid. They were to receive a total of 42 hours of "essential" and "allied" subjects while also performing military drill for 11 hours per week. Essential courses included "military law and practice," "hygiene and sanitation," "surveying and map making," "modern ordinance," and the "war issues" course. At the end of their studies (between one and three terms, depending on age), the students were assigned to officer or non-commissioned officer training programs, a depot brigade, or permitted further study in engineering, medicine, or law.

The Armistice interrupted the work of the SATC shortly after it began. After some debate over whether or not it should be continued, the SATC was demobilized on December 19, 1918. Within six months, the work of demobilization and fulfilling contracts between the government and the schools was completed.