Throughout the early 20th century, the university attempted to balance its identity as both a pragmatic, frontier establishment and an academic, intellectual institution. Around this time, NU founded several noteworthy campus organizations, including a football team, a debate team, and its first fraternities and sororities. In 1913, a fierce debate ensued over whether to keep the university in downtown Lincoln or to move it out of town. The issue was not resolved until a statewide referendum decided the school would remain at its current location. After purchasing property in the downtown area, the school funded several new buildings, both on the new property and its farming campus in east Lincoln. The school would not experience another expansion of this magnitude until the late 1940s, when the sudden arrival of thousands of soldiers seeking education after returning from World War II forced the school to seek further expansion.