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Page 13 text:
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Or; the twenty-tbird of October, .1937, there died a wizeued little old man who, duringvtbe latter half of bi: iifetime, founded a nniversity and witnessed its rise from a figment of tine imagination to a leading educational institu- tion, now universally Jmown as: Elbe Huiuereity nf whiragn FOUND'ED BY jOHN D. ROCKEFELLER From its very beginning it was an institution with' revolutionary ideas. The storyr of its. meteoric rise in a brief fortyefour years is one of intense interest and it is our desire to trace the factors which have made possible its unprecedented advance in the history of education. Ideas and Ideals It was only a little over one hundred years ago that a, few early pioneers settled at the mouth of the Chicago river bringing their schools along in their cumbersome prairie schooners. It was but eighteen years after the' incorporation of the City that their need for education was reflected in Senator Stephen A. Douglas' gift of ten acres of land 101: a universality. It was in 1857 that the hold University of Chicago was founded as a result of this gift. Bad debts, two great fires, an inadequate endow- ment. anti wsogreei. ents an 0111: its triends shortly ended the career of the comatose institution. In 1886 the morta gage on its buildings was foreclosed. thus ending one chapter of educational history in Chicago. however, brains and wealth still abounded. for the Baptist Union Theological Seminary'had the friendship and active support of John D. Rockefeller. Rockefeller realized the need for higher education in the United States, and had, in- the back of his mind, unformulated ideas for a new university located probably in the Midr West. It needed only the concrete plans of some recog nized educator to crystallize them. Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed, acquaintance of Rockefeller, friend of William Rainey Harper, Secretary of the Board of the Baptist Seminary, and exponent of higher education in Chicago. went into immediate action upon the closing of the oIdTl University. For over thirty months he carried on core ' respondence with Rockefeller regarding a new university. The result: Dr. Harper, who had demonstrated his gifts 1'11 administration and teaching at the Seminary as Professsor of Hebrew and was at this time a professor at Yale, sat down to breakfast one Sunday morning, while lecturing at Vassar, and faced a gentleman who happened along for a friendly chat. The men discussed educational plans at great length, and John D. Rockefeller left with a. firm conviction that Chicago should soon have a university, carrying out new ideas and based on new principles. He was encouraged to such an extent that he immediately arranged a conference with Dr. Goodspeed iNov. 188821. Dr. Goodspeed left at once for New York to present -concrete plans for a school. This was exactly what Rockefeller wanted, and after six months deliberation and study of the plans, the latter wrote to Dr. Gates of the American Baptist Education Society. This society had been carrying on an independent survey as to the wisdom of establishing a new institution in Chicago. Their report, plus the Goodspeed plan was enough to induce Rockefelv let to present the proposition that he would contribute $600,000 contingent upon the raising of another $400,000 within one year. This contingency was more than met tMay 18891May 189m. but not without much work and disappointment. The Board of Trustees was soon 3113' pointed, holding its fn-st meeting on July 9. 1890. with the official stationery bearing the title, The New University of Chicago. When the previous institution obligingly changed its name to include the word Old, the new corporation became The University of Chicago as known today. At the second board meeting, September 18, 1890, Dr. Harper was unanimously elected president. William Rainey Harper was of Scotch'Irish stock. At the age of ten he entered Muskingum College. graduating ' Bad finances. taxes. Ere. and Failure: the old Univerdty. Six
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I Social lifeba football outing or Tallyho ride. at fourteen with the honor of the Hebrew Oration. When seventeen, after cierking in his fathers store, he entered Yale as a graduate student in Philology. It took but a short time for this youthful prodigy to establish his reputation as an educator. At the age of twentyvthree he was a full professor in the Theological Seminary at Morgan Park. When but thirty he left for Yale to remain there Until he received the otter of the pres- idency of the New University of Chicago in 1890. But Dr. Harper was considered by his eastern friends too great a man to be lost, and great pressure was applied to keep him at Yale. The Easterners firmly believed, and endeav' ored to convince Harper, that his future and his work as a Biblical specialist would be wasted if he accepted the presidency of a new college with no standing. With this advice, Dr. Harper hesitated to plunge into this venture. Nevertheless. he recognized the possibility of working out his own educational theories. He didn't, however, want to experiment on too small a scale, and let it be known that he considered the endowment inadequate. Rockefeller, in turn. indicated his intention of adding to .the University funds from time to time if necessary. At this point, Dr. Gates, who had an acute faculty for sensing the possibilities of educational expansion in Chil cago, presented Rockefeller with a new, enlarged plan for the University. The only drawback was that it would require an additional million dollars to launch it; how' ever, Mr. Rockefeller believed so strongly in Harperls ability that he readily agreed to the plan. On February 16, 1891. Harper, then thirtyefour. accepted the presidency and Rockefeller gave him his first full million. He could hardly have realized that in the end their undertaking would cost him and his interests better than seventyleight million dollars. The Bells Ring On a pleasant morning, October 1, 1892, the bells in Cobb Hall rang for the First time. The one hundred and twenty professors and five hundred and forty students took their places and proceeded to the work of the morn- ing classes. There was no fanfare or other indication that the procedure was new. It was not until noon, when a general assembiv met in the Chapel, then a room in Cobb Hall, that any hint was given that the new Universitv of Chicago was now oilicially open and operating. The simple, unpretentious beginning was planned by Drs. Harper and Judson in accordance with the expressed desire of Mr. Rockefeller that it should be so. Mr. Rockefeller did not attend and it was many years. before he-set' foot upon the campus of the institution he'had made possible. The Universityr at this tithe was truly in an embryonic condition. Many of the buildings were unfinished. Scaffolding still stood in Cobb Hall. For a time laboratory work had to be done in the garrets and kitchens of a tenement house. But the educational policies were by no means in that state; they were dehnitely the synthesis of Dr. Harper's ideas. The University was to be coeducational with the undergradutes divided into the Junior and Senior Colleges, similar to the College and Divisions of today, and the year was divided into quarters of three months each. Since the work was organized on the usual nine month basis, vacations could be taken at any quarter of the year, for Dr. Harper saw no reason why the buildings shouid stand empty all summer, and by this arrangement the best men from other institutions could be brought to the campus for one quarter of the year. Students were admitted to the University only after passing examinaticms; the annual graduation was augmented by exercises at the end of each quarter, for Dr. Harperis plan permitted a student to get his degree in less than the usual four years. The idea underlying the original curriculum of two courses of eight or ten hours class work per week was to put the weight of concentration on the important studies. The first system was soon replaced by the more familiar sys tem of three courses ithree unitsL each taking four or hve hours of class work per week. The plan inaugurated by Harper was followed closely by Judson. Burton, and Mason. For simplicity of administration the University was divided into Four general divisions: the University proper, the University Extension. the University Publication Work, and the University Aihliations. Under the Uni' versity proper came the Academies, Colleges, and Schools. The divisions of Liberal Art. Sciences, Literature.' and Practical Arts constituted the College, while the,5chools consisted of Law. Medicine, Divinity. Graduate. Egineerr ing, Pedagogy, Fine Artshand Music. The University Extension undertook .to give evening courses up town and correspondence courses for out of town students; these courses were. in turn, to be supplemented by the Library Extension, which sent books to students at 2. Seven
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