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

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WILLIAM Hurcnmsou EINAR JURANSON JEROME. KERWIN UNDERGRADUATE INSTRUCTION One look at the early life of William Hutchinson would have convinced even the most skeptical individual that he would never wind up as a member of the Department of History in the University. According to his own statement he became an instructor only when he couldnit get any other position. After a varied career as Marine, supercargo, and instructor, he came to the University in 1924. Since that time the popdlarity of Historian Hutchinson and his famed History 171, I72, and 173 has grown steadily. In class he is serious, and believes in letting his students know where he is going by outlining his lectures carefully as he proceeds. A steady lecturer, he develops his topics minutely, rapidly, and allows few things short of a cataclysm to interfere with his Fifty minutes per day. Hutchinson examinations provoke extensive preparation1 and excite the awe of students because of their difhculty. But all examinations are undeniably fair and conscientiously graded. Outside of class he is slightly' shy, easy to talk to7 and remarkably familiar with the peculiar personalities of all of his students. Einar Joranson, Associate Professor of History, specializes in the religious history of the Middle Ages, and lectures on the whole period before many in- terested undergraduates each quarter. His fifty minutes a day is consistently enjoyable because he so obviously enjoys it himself. With a jovial mellowness he recounts all that is fundamental, and much that is spicy about the fall of Rome, or the end of the Middle Ages. In spite of extensive outside work, his courses remain popular because as Phil Smith sagely put it, liYou enjoy the course even if you do flunk it. Jerome G. Kerwin, Associate Professor of Political Science, brings to his stu- dents all the geniality and comradeship of a Dartmouth Undergraduate and all the academic technique of a. Columbia graduate student. From behind his desk in the classroom he lectures concisely, almost drily, en the fundamentals of his subject with frequent droll allusions to the wrangling of contemporary politics. His tests are frequent and often hard. Students know his gradings to be low, but find them fair. They know uJerry as a solid friend of student activities, and best of all as a genial host in his eleventh floor apartment in the Cloisters. Members of his honors course, slightIy-awed Freshmen1 good friends from all classes lounge in his comfortable living-room, play his Gilbert and Sullivan records, consume many glasses of his good cider, and settle or discuss all the problems of politics with an interest rarely excited in any class-room. Page 25

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J. HARLAN BRETZ MERLE C. Courts; UNDERGRADUATE INSTRUCTION The University of the past was known for its lack of interest in undergraduate instruction and instructors. In contradiction to this attitude came a distinct counter-movement toward administrative recognition of excellence in under- graduate teaching which was climaxed by Vice-President Woodwardis announce- ment of Five Specific awards to outstanding individuals. To teachers Bretz, Coulter, Hutchinson, Joranson, and Kerwin went raises in salaries from a fund established for that purpose by an anonymous alumnus. J. Harlan Bretz, Professor of Geology, is probably the major explanation for the popularity of things geological among undergraduates. Geologist Bretz is the lion of his department, the terror of timid co-eds and shrinking athletes who enjoy his shocking naivete and feel the lash of his vitrolic tongue. He employs the Soeratic method of instruction, asks simple questions so cleverly that amused students can only respond with halting gulps. In his lighter moments he makes such outlandish statements as, WI'he world was created in 19142 then with a coy smile demands any proof to the contrary. J. Harlan is at his best in the field. Then, attired in Stetson hat, rough clothes, and high boots, he leads his students a wild chase over rugged Archean and Paleozoic formations. Then, the biggest bug in the geological puddle, he decries the Geography department, quotes from the Bible, smokes many pipes of Edgeworth, and sees that his class takes a dip in the cold lake early every morning. Merle C. Coultcr, Associate Professor of Botany, is known to Freshmen in the Survey course as one of the most interesting of the numerous lecturers they en- counter. A good share of the entering class recognize him as a competent Dean in the junior Colleges who counsels pre-medical students with a rare understanding of the problems they are sure to encounter. An authority on plant genetics, Professor Coulter gives twice each year his popular course in Heredity, Evolution, and Eugenics. On the lecture platform he speaks clearly and slowly, reviews his important points carefully, so that students have little difiiculty in under- standing them. Page 24

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JONES LABORATORY 01:: of Chicagak newnt building; for rejearch in Chemiizry. Page 26