Although post-high school non-credit courses had been offered in Hilo as early as 1945, under the University of Hawai'i (at Mānoa)'s Adult Education Services, the university was established as Hilo Center at Lyman Hall of the Hilo Boys School. After an attempt to close the school in 1951 by Governor Oren E. Long, Big Island residents, local legislators, and the UH Alumni Association led efforts to save its only college to then establish the University of Hawai'i Hilo Branch as an two-year campus of the University.[7]