University of Chicago - Cap and Gown Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Mr. Starr leaves the University for goodg and his classes will become part of the under- graduate tradition. The vivacious head of the German department, Mr. Cutting: I came here to the Faculty in '92, when the smash, bang and roar of the World,s Fair bothered us in the classrooms. . . The first library was a sprawl, a splatter of books. I remember when I asked President Harper for books, he gave me a key and told me to take a jimmy also, down to a room on 55th and to take the books out of the boxes they were in. So I brought the books into that room next the German office and started graduate work, and our department had one of the first seminary libraries in the University. . . Yes, the insanity of not studying German in this country during the war! If I personally were fighting with a man would it not be ridiculous to ask a friend to put out my eyes because I could not bear the sight of the enemy? England and France saw the folly of such a thing, and studied German the harder.. . Three kinds of students: the happy-go-lucky - frequently but not necessarily gifted - sometimes an earthquake rouses himg the grub or grind-listens to lectures and takes notes-has information ideal, the true student, who realizes that education means io have one's self in hand, the ability to focus on the problems of immediate interest and importance and to get those problems done. Such students unfortunately are in a minority, but the professors should let them alone, and observe that a student is taught only as he teaches himself. HlVlr. Herrick, how do writing and teaching harmonize? The two are independent. They assist each other in some ways - reviewing for example is related to teaching, - and the teaching of technique is not antagonistic - but creative writing is interfered with. I write my novels away from Chicago, in York Village, Maine, and am in residence here for only one quarter or two at a timef' What is your opinion of the literary ability of the undergraduate? Always for thirty years there has been an intelligent, interested, and sometimes talented group in English 5 and 6. The groups vary according to maturity and gift, but I find teaching here delightfulg the students are on the whole friendly and interesting - the reaction of youth is always interestingf, What do you consider the function of the University?', Well, that is a rather large question. However, the University is not a place for immature studentsg it should be used not for vocational training, or to be enjoyed merely, but as a laboratory for scholarship and special investigation. Fraternities and activities are childish, they should be eliminated. The University is a great gift to the community, and it should stand for intellectual hard workf, Professor Stieglitz, Chairman of the Department of Chemistry and Director of Laboratories in the University, is known for his research along fundamental lines of chemistry, and as a teacher. I-Iis research has been chiefly in organic chemistry but to it he has brought broad knowledge of other branches of the subject. Lately he has become deeply interested in the improvements of drugs. I-le has met with wide recognition, receiving honorary degrees, being a member of honorary scientific Page Tcvcxzty-fm?

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Ghz jtacultp HEN a Chinese who had studied here went back to be married, cc his bride insisted on an American wedding. The courtyard was filled with chairs a la American church, and the bride came up the aisle and was given away by her father. But the Wedding March! was one of the two American marches the groom remembered-'Marching Thru Georgia'g and the other march he knew was played after the pair left the altar - 'Yankee Doodle., H 'Tm very fond of trout fishing in the Rockies. I do not care whether I catch any fish or not! But one sees the beauties of life: Howers, and mosses, and lichens, and treesg and the ducks go quacking down the streamg and once I saw a minkf' Yes, the first University color was old goldg but everyone called it 'yellow,' so it was changed. 'Maroon' was chosen because the Word had such a pretty soundg and. the committee went to l7ield's to see what the color was like. Imagine their surprise when five or six shades were found! Finally the most attractive was voted the Maroonf, These are excerpts from a chat with Mr. Judson. Miss Reynolds, Vassar '80, was offered the first fellowship in the new University of Chicago, and she has gone through all the grades in the Faculty from Fellow to full Professor. She was among the pioneer women who roomed in the Beatrice, then in Snell, with meals in the basement of the Divinity Halls, and who finally in despair boarded themselves in Snell. Later she was appointed Head of Foster, and her genuine- ness, sympathetic understanding of girls, quick sense of humor, and love for beauty, have combined to make the life in Foster unique in the annals of women's halls. One of Miss Reynolds' great interests is house furnishings, and the beauty of Ida Noyes owes much to her taste. To her also the University Settlement owes much. She was chairman of the committee who established it, and her stories of Settlement exper- iences have become a part of University tradition. She can always make early days live again by her gift of story telling. Although she is just one person leaving the University, it will seem as if a host had left. Freddy Starr, as he is affectionately called, meets us with pungent reminiscences. I-le recalls that he was given his position in the University eighteen months before it openedg that he was in the next room when President Harper gave final consent to come here, and was the first man to talk to him afterward: that he taught in Cobb when the carpenters were still in the builclingg that he walked on the plank walk to Cottage Grove Avenue, through the fields which were a wonderful display of wild onion in bloom- really lovelygn and that he took the cable line downtown. Soon, alas, Mr. Starr's official connection with the University will be a reminiscence too. The people outside think of me as forever either going away from or coming back to the University, although I have been only once to the Philippines, twice to Africa, ten times to Japan, thirty times to Mexico, and of course often to Europe. But in June Page Twmzty-farzr

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associations, and holding various advisory positions. As a teacher Dr. Stieglitz's lectures - 4 are lucid and logical, and he is equally successful with elementary and with advanced students. His scientific interests have passed on to his childreng both son and daughter are physicians of great promise, and both are married to physicians. Dr. Stieglitz is an ardent golfer and photographer. With all of these interests - scientific, adminis- trative, both local and national, teaching and writing, sport and art-one might imagine that he would have no time for personal contact with studentsg but he is never too busy to consider care- fully and sympathetically each student's problems, and his helpful interest in his students, affairs won him the title by which he is known - the students' friend. Mr. Gale, the big, kind dean, thinks that a man is not a good specialist if he does not know something outside his own lineg he can not meet people if he is not rounded. One ought to know something of the modern languages, the social sciences, biology, and the physical sciences Physics and Chemistry. Un medieval times, knowledge of Greek and Latin literature was the mark of educationg later, philosophy was the mark, but this is the age of science, and no matter what one does, he ought to know something about science.j Mr. Gale thinks the University should primarily be for graduate research, but he does not believe in the elimination of the undergraduates. He thinks only the intellectual incapables should go - say, those who get below C their first year. And he thinks also that the poor teachers should be taken out: HA professor should be either a crackerjack research man or an excellent teacher. H The undergraduate of today? Much the same as in my time. My favorite rec- reation? Golf. What should I rather have than anything else? Plenty of money for the Ogden School of Graduate Research. And for further information about me, fwith a twinklel 'see my good friend, Mr. Linn., H Miss Talbot, our little Dean of Women, says that all through childhood, girlhood, and young womanhood her training has been fitting her for some educational position. Wheir she began preparing for college, she had to be tutored privately, as no public school in Boston taught girls Greek or advanced Latin, and these advanced studies brought estrangement from girlhood friends - she was dropped socially. However, Miss Talbot graduated from Boston Universityg traveled someg on returning home reestablished her old acquaintanceships through a Literary Clubg became a trustee of her own University, helped found the association now known as the American Association of University Vlfomeng was very busy as its Secretary for thirteen years and then its President, taught at Wellesley Collegeg and upon being asked to help organize the University of Chicago, came west in September, l892, to work with Mrs. Palmer, bearing in her pocket a bit of Plymouth Rock which a friend had given her as a friendly talisman. Miss Dudley, director of women's Physical Culture, who can joke and scold and philosophize with equal effectiveness, talks here on a subject that is very near to her - Recreation: Page 7-ZL'f'7lfj 51..1'