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

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4 A-,W I 5 ll . 1 1 I l Ii . Sums Utlnibersitp Zlheals By Thomas Wakeheld Goodspeed HEN in September, l890, Dr. William R. Harper was elected presi- -dent of the new University of Chicago, the first task that confronted him was the making of the educational plan on which it should be organized and conducted. He said to Mr. Tufts, now a vice-presi- dent of the University, lf the proposal were simply to go to Chicago and organize another University just like others which are already in existence, l would not think of it for a moment. It is the opportunity to do something new and different which appeals to me. The ideal that inspired and con- trolled him was service. Not that this was new, for it is the ideal of all institutions of learning. What was new in it was this, that it contemplated a larger and Wider service to the community. Hitherto American Universities had concentrated and confined their work within their own precincts. The new institution was to give the students within its walls larger and better oppor- tunities, and to extend these opportunities in every way possible to the com- munity at large. The basic principle was to be a double service-to the student in residence first, but also to the public, to mankind. With this ideal for the student in mind, the four quarter system was insti- tuted, keeping the institution open the year round and making the summer quarter, not an unrelated extra term, but a regular part of the educational Work, of the same length an-d the same value as any other quarter. The four quarter system.was a radical departure from tradition. It made possible for many stu- dents to finish their college course in three instead of four years. It gave them the liberty of taking any one of the four quarters for their vacation. It opened the advantages of the University to great numbers of teachers and others, who welcomed the summer-quarter as a gift from heaven and have thronged the University in the summer in increasing thousands. It has been an incalculable boon to pastors of churches, college professors, an-d high school teachers, as well as to the regular student body. It was this ideal of wide service that made the Extension Work a Uni- versity Division. ln it was recognized a duty to that larger number who cannot come to the University even in the summer, but who are eager to learn. Let the University, then, go to them. It has gone to them in lecture courses, in very widely extended correspondence lessons, and also, in University College which gives instruction of University grade to some thousands of eager stu- dents every year in every afternoon and evening class in the business center of the city. 1 It was the sarne idea that made the Press also a regular Division of the University with its printing, bookstore, and publication department of con- tinually widening influence. Page Sixfccn

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HERE is a great -deal of discussion these days as to what is the real objective of education. For working purposes, may we not say that the object of education is to enable the individual to adjust himself to his World and the world to himself? To make these adjustments one needs to know something of oneself, to know something of one's world, and to have an appreciation of the relative value of things in the world, getting the best of it and giving oneis best to it. This means learning how to Work,- how to play, and how to live with other people. This knowledge and these skills are not acquired in succession, one finished and then another begun, but in large part parallel to one another. ln general, we learn to play before we learn how to work, and we practice getting on with people before we begin to practice our profession. , ' So it comes about that while acquisition of knowledge is a sort of all the stages of education and the development of appreciation is a life long process, social relations fill a larger part in ,college than in the graduate and professional schools, an-d the learning how to work, how- to practice our special art of busi- ness, has the larger place in the graduate and professional schools. If this is clear, then, the college and the higher divisions of the University ought to have mutual respect, and practice mutual co-operation. The devel- opment of broad intelligence, of love for the finer things of life, of the social consciousness andthe social conscience, the acquisition of the ability to think clearly, and of good will, an-d the development of personality-these important things belong to the College. And in the degree in which they are well achieved will the student be well equipped to get the most out of the later years of his University career, or to live, if indeed college days end his Uni- versity career. Therefore, in full view of the fact that College days are not the whole of life, but that well lived they lead us to better things, l commend to our undergraduates the opportunities and the joys of their College life, its generous friendships, its noble rivalries, its matching power with power, its helps to self discovery, and its constant tests and revelations of personal efficiency. May l here repeat the closing sentence of my greeting to new students at the opening of the year: lf you will do your part, the University will do its utmost to help you to get the best things out of life, to stand for the best things in life, to find your place, and do your work. ERNEST DeWlTT BURTON. Page Fifteen

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The graduate departments were organized with a well defined purpose. They were not only to provide instruction in advance studies, but each of them was to be a center of research. The present boundaries of knowledge are limited and these departments are ceaselessly seeking to pass those limits and to give to mankind the inestimable treasures that lie beyond. From the begin- ning there have been high ideals of what a University professor should be. He must indeed be a teacher, but he must also be a scholar, in love with learning and with a passion for research. I-le must be an investigator who will, indeed. give his results to his students in the class room, but will also give them to the world in print. And our professors have not only done distinguished service in original investigations and in publication, but they have inspired with the same passion for research and for giving their results to the World, many students who have rivalled their instructors in this service to mankin-d. The idealson which the University was founded have continued to dom- inate it. Patient experiments conducted through a series of years in the elementary and high schools have demonstrated that two or more years can be saved in preparing for college. It was the conviction of President Judson, under Whom these experiments began to be worked out, that the sixteen years traditionally required for elementary, secondary and college work could, not only without detriment, but with profit to the student, be cut down to twelve or at the most thirteen years, thus adding three or four years to his pro-duc- tive life. Students and Faculty! They ought to be a family of scholars bound together in a unique solidarity. President Burton has taken a most significant step toward bringing the undergraduates and the faculty into closer and more sympathetic relations. The number of college deans has been multiplied and will be still further increased so that every student may have a faculty friend and advisor whom he knows and to whom he can go for guidance and assist- ance at any time. The deans are men and women of character, sympathy, intelligence, and understanding, whose controlling desire is to know and help the student. The Undergraduate Council and the Honor Commission are a part of this unifying policy. Perhaps the most recent illustration of it is the invitation of the dean of the Colleges to the stu-dents to suggest methods of University improvement. These suggestions have been submitted to student- faculty committees for consideration and report. Thus, while the body-the physical equipment of the University-grows, its inner life also develops. All material resources, endowments, buildings, libraries, equipment of every sort, exist only for the intellectual, social, moral and spiritual life of the institution. That will continue to develop and be fruitful only through the high ideals, fidelity, and zeal of teachers and stu- dents alike. Page Seventeen