Despite these innovations, Williams ran into conflict with the managing State Board of Education. The Board saw the College as being elitist and extravagant, despite Williams' eloquent defense of higher education for the masses. Indeed, some farmers began protesting against the College's curriculum with some even calling for the College's abolition. They saw the Agricultural College's strong scientific curriculum as educating boys away from the farm. So after just two years and under great public pressure, Williams resigned in 1859. The Board then reduced the curriculum to a two-year, vocation-oriented farming program, a move that resulted almost overnight in a drastic reduction in enrollment. The school was soon in dire financial straits and threatened with dissolution.