In the next couple years journalists would continue to condemn the institution, with the Boston Globe insisting the school be abolished, and the Springfield Republican stating the college would serve better as a trade school; other cries from the Governor's office suggested that the college be turned over to Amherst College as an agricultural department. The farming community hadn't embraced the college as a whole, the institution faced still-mounting debt and many at Beacon Hill had begun to declare the college a failure; Clark resigned on May 1, 1879, weary of "time serving politicians and unprincipled newspapers seeking only to float on the tide of public opinion." In order to survive, the college would need to undergo a period of reorganization, something which had never been done up to that time in its nearly 20-year existence. At a meeting of the trustees later in May 1879, the situation was seen as particularly grave and it was decided that it wouldn't be likely nor beneficial to call in an outsider, thus Charles L. Flint was unanimously elected to serve as the president of the college. Reluctantly, Flint accepted and would hold the title without pay, as well as his other secretarial duties until his resignation on March 24 of the following year. In the Twenty-Seventh Annual Report of the college, Professor of Agriculture and later President of the college William Penn Brooks describes Flint's extensive relationship with the college, in what was otherwise known as "the most stormy year of its existence":  "As secretary of the Board of Agriculture, trustee and president of the Agricultural College, and author of various standard works on agricultural topics, the name of Charles Louis Flint will long be remembered and revered...When, in 1879, William S. Clark resigned the presidency of the college, Mr. Flint reluctantly consented to assume its responsibilities, and for a year, during perhaps the most stormy period of its existence, guided it in safety through the troubled waters. He believed in the college most thoroughly, and emphasized his convictions by both precept and example, sending to it his two sons for education. Through all the vicissitudes of its earlier years he was its firm friend, and to him it is deeply indebted for advice and services. He gave it his best efforts, and he gave them cheerfully. A lecturer at the college, without compensation, he presented the individual members of its first classes with copies of each of his works on "Milch Cows" and "Forage Plants ;" a president, without pay, he gave his services without a murmur, asking for no reward save that arising from the consciousness of having performed his duty; and in almost the last years of his life he gave a substantial token of his interest, subscribing a thousand dollars to the permanent library fund of the college."