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

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Sketch of the proposed General Administration Building to be erected at a c-ost of a million dollars OUR UNIVERSITY HERE are few chapters in the history of American educatiOn which are more thrilling in interest than the story of the rise of the University 01: Chicago to a position as one of the largest universities of the world. Starting from little more than a tangible idea in 1839, the University last year gave instruction to 13.359 students. Rising from nothing more than the hopes and ambitions of a little group of men in 1889. the University pos- sessed last June an endowment of $31,992,620.76e-the fourth largest among the universities of the country. In the thirtyvfour years since its founding in 1891, the University of Chicago has made for itself a position unique in the edu- cational life of America-a position equalled by few institutions, regardless of age. The administrations of three presidents divide the remarkable period of the University's growth. William Rainey Harper, the First president of the UniverSity, a man of incredible energy and organizing ability, brought the University through fourteen years of phenomenal growth and expansion. The Hem: president, Harry Pratt Judson, who directed the policies of the University EI'om 1906 to 1923, adopted a program of consolidation and the laying of Erin Financial foundations. President Ernest DeWitt Burton has combined many of the progressive ideas of President Harper with the sound financial JUdgment of President Jucison. He had been in office only a few months when '3 drew the attention of the Board of Trustees to a great new program for their consideration. His plan as laid before the trustees meant the greatest drive for Enanees ever attempted by the University: it called for the erection 01: many new buiiclings and the remodeling of many of the old ones: it required the appointment and the organization into committees and boards of hundreds 01: men and women; it demanded the wholehearted support and cooperation of EVBTY alumnus and every friend of the University. Payc Tirirty-wzc . t

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'Tis Our Dear Alma Mater

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Sketch of the proposed School of Eliucaticm Building to be erected On Kimbark Avenue between Emmons Elaine and Belheld Halls THE WORK OF THE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE Early in 1924 the Board of Trustees appointed a Committee on Develop- ment to aid the President in carrying out his expansion program. The hrst members of the Committee were Albert W. Sherer, ViceChairman. William Scott Bond, Ernest DeWitt Burton. Thoms E. Donnelley, Julius Rosenwald. Edward L. Ryerson. JL, Martin A. Ryerson, Robert L. Scott, and Harold H. Swift. Some months later the following were added to the original Com- mittee: Robert P. Lamont. Chairman, Alice Greenacre. Helen Sunny Mc- Kihhin, Walker G. McLaury, Leon Carroll Marshall, Leo W-ormser. and Herbert Zimmerman. The Committee began its study of the conditions and needs of the Uni- versity in the Spring of I924. and made a thorough survey of the pedagogical situation on the Quadrangles. The result of the survey is expressed by Presi- dent Burton. who is convinced that to enable the University of Chicago to make its contribution to the work of education and research which the univer- sities of the country must undertake. to the resources which we now possess tapproximately $54,000,000t there ought to be added within the next ten or lifteen years at least an equal amount, and no small portion of it should come within the next two or three years. The Committee decided to set $1 7,500,000 as its goal for I925. to take I care of the immediate needs of the University. Six million dollars is to be used for the endowment of instruction and research. This endowment is re- garded as the first and most important step in the entire program of develop- ment, since it means higher salaries for instructors and enables the President to reach out for great teachers to do great things. Eleven million dollars of the money raised is to be used for the construction and maintenance of a number of buildings needed by the University. Half a million dollars is to go to the department of administration. Page Th Erty-twa