To provide individualized help for students, enrollment was capped at 80—a figure raised to 100 in 1929.

 

Activities and organizations were in keeping with the liberal arts character of the school.  A literary society was organized almost immediately, and chapters of the Beta Sigma Omicron and Sigma Iota Chi social sororities came in 1909 and 1910.  Newspapers began to report concerts, recitals, and dramatic performances on campus.  Crescent College had a Little Theater Guild, a Dramatics Club, a 12-piece orchestra, a glee club, and a drum corp.

 

R. R. Thompson, who became president in 1910, began a newspaper campaign defending the school against charges of being only a finishing school for wealthy society girls.  He pointed out that Crescent was the only college in Arkansas with neither state nor church support but that it had 100% Y.W.C.A. membership.  He noted that academic standards were such that Crescent graduates were immediately admitted to the junior year in most colleges.  He also noted that while Crescent had “long ago abolished silly boarding school rules and adopted student government,” Crescent students “don’t get ugly habits such as cigarette smoking, flapping, etc.”

 

In September 1924, Crescent College announced that its corporation was dissolved and its charter surrendered.  It reopened in September 1929, continuing under much the same format.  It closed again in 1934.