Materials related to the students who were employed as a "normal" in a control group against individuals who were "less than normal," or having some sort of medical deficiency or problem. The studies took place at the National Institute of Health.

Ferne Baldwin's daughter, Lois Good (MC Class of 1972) was a participant in the Normal Volunteers Program of the National Institute of Health.  

 

How students were recruited on campus remains a mystery.

 

Lois Good remembered that Brethren Volunteer Service recruited on campus and that this NIH program might have been offered through BVS.

 

Betty Butterbaugh, Manchester College's Assistant to the Director in Career Services, checked the department's reports. She found annual reports dating back to 1976 and in that year the National Institute of Health recruited on campus, but there was no record of why they wre recruiting.

 

Lois said that students did not get college credit for volunteering, but this was something a student could do during a summer  (a “job where they could get a little pay as well as room and board)...or following graduation. 

 

Ferne offered that students were confined for 6-8 weeks and were used as a “normal” control group against individuals who were “less than normal” physically, having some sort of medical deficiency or a problem. Once in the program they could not leave and were confined for the course of the study.

 

Lois participated following graduation from MC for January, February and March.  She was on a sodium-potassium study and after selecting food from a menu, had to eat the same thing for 40 days.  Her diet was so measured that she had to lick her plate following the meal in order to receive all the nutrients/chemicals in the portion.