University of Pittsburgh - Owl Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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THE FIRST W U. P. COMMENCEMENT-1823 HE first commencement of the Western University ot Pennsylvania was held in 1823. 'l'hree students were awarded degrees by Dr. Bruce, the Principal: and each of the graduates-Thomas Cathcart Guthrie, Samuel Fer- guson Smith, and Alexander Logan-became a preacher. W.U.P. had a faculty of five then, and it was the most natural thing in the world for students to become clerics, tor every member ot the faculty was a preacher. The University was comprised ot two departments, the Preparatory, tor the beginners, and the Col- legiate, for the more advanced. Once a student mastered the classics, he pro- gressed trom the Preparatory to the Collegiate Department where he studied composition, declamation, algebra, history, navigation, chemistry, and natural history. The committee appointed by the Board of Trustees announced that the curriculum would . . . blend the solid with the ornamental, the useful with the elevated. The progression from class to class was irregular, students advancing as quickly as their abilities permitted. The lone requirement was that each student attend the last two years ot the Collegiate Department. Today the University of Pittsburgh is truly a university, a fusion of depart- ments that gives to the community annually a thousand men and women ready to till useful places in the pattern of things. From the two departments of the original W.U.P., the University has grown to an institution consisting of seven- teen divisions. By day the University functions through the College, the Schools of Engineering and Mines, of Education, Business Administration, Medicine, Law, Pharmacy, Dentistry, and the Graduate School. For those unable to attend school by day, there is an Evening School. The inlluence of the University has been widened more than ever by means of the Extension Division and the Sum- mer Session. Iohnstown and Erie Centers are maintained. An outpost has been established in China. The faculty has grown from a group ot live divines to a body of over 900 teachers, with a student registration in the neighborhood of ll,O00. Pitt has grown more than in size alone. Pitt is a great University, not solely because it is a large one, but because it serves its community well.

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1 UNIVERSITY

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