Carnegie Mellon University - Thistle Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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‘ Foundry Class Auto-Mechanics Class twenty-four

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Although the school was defined as a secondary technical school, the curriculum was not strictly technical, especially after 1912 when the Carnegie Technical Schools were incorporated into a four year, degree-granting institution and redefined as Carnegie Institute of Technology. Clifford B. Connely, then head of the school of Applied Industries, wrote that the goal of the administration was “to evolve a system of education in accordance with the Carnegie Idea which would make its appeal at once to the workers in industry, the employer of labor, the sociologist, and the educator.” Carnegie had originally envisioned and defined a technical school, but recognized the need for change for he believed that “no school can be a creation but an evolution.” He therefore approved of both the incorporation and the emphasis which began to be placed upon the development of the student in areas apart from the technical. Recognizing the need for this development, Carnegie told the students in 1910 that it was important for them to be self-maintaining and to “possess those qualities of independence, aggressiveness, and content that mark a true man.” His originally defined purpose and goal of service to the community could be fulfilled only by men who were highly skilled in their individual areas, confident in their skills and their goals, and oriented toward working within a group and a community for the benefit of all. Arthur A. Hamerschlag, the first director president. chosen by Carnegie himself, possessed these qualities as well as a compelling urge to improve and enlarge everything for which he felt himself responsible. Like Carnegie, he saw vocational-technical education as necessary, especially in the Pittsburgh area which had no similar institution within a radius of three hundred miles. According to Tech historian A. W. Tarbcll, Hamerschlag was professionally absorbed in developing the physical plant and the ties with the community which would facilitate the technical education and future employment of his students. From the outset, technical education was stressed as being of major importance, but courses in the liberal arts were also a part of the curriculum. Before 1919, each of the four schools maintained a separate faculty in the areas of English, mathematics, history, economics, psychology, and modern languages. In that year, these previously uncoordinated faculties were joined together into the Division of General Studies whose courses were designed to focus attention on clear thinking in academic pursuits, on strengthening of the imagination, and on an understanding of one’s environment and one’s responsibilities as a citizen. Hamerschlag developed and defined the institution externally as far as he could and then, in 1922, resigned t h c presidency which was passed to Thomas S. Baker. The school had surpassed Hamerschlag's original definition and needed the directorship of a man such as Baker. His belief that a large school was not necessarily a great one started a campaign of evolution and consolidation. The school had made much progress in external development but there was need for organization and evolution on the internal side. Favoring liberalization rather than strict specialization, Baker sought to enhance the academic side of Tech education and raise standards in this area so as to create a university whose central core concentrated on technical education but which gave students a more broadly based background than that provided by the technological school. Baker consolidated the College of Engineering and the College of Science, thus coordinating standards and offering a uniform freshman course. Important emphasis was also placed on the development of research which he felt was necessary to the development of effective engineering, and upon the formation of closer tics with the community through this research, business transactions, and the drama productions which began to be opened to the public. Evening classes, which still dealt primarily with technical education, and the more than five thousand students enrolled in these classes by 1930 gave impetus to the economy of Pittsburgh and strengthened ties between Tech and the industry of the city. At the same time, concentration on pure research made Tech internationally known, while stimulating both graduate study and an appreciation of high scholarship. twenty-six