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

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1955ethe Administration fondly points outi was the year of stabilization. The University faced three major problems which were a legacy of the Hutchins administration, and overcame them: Q falling enrollment- - W . . changes in the College Curriculum, only a year before, met with so much opposition, were established: rou- tinized. Enrollment rose for the hrst time since the post-war veterans: inHux. 2t un-balanced budget - tt. . . through able administration, the University is operating in the black for the hrst peacetime year since 1938? St neighborhood eieteric'grationen . . . lobbying before President Eisenhower, and the Chicago City Council, Kimpton won approval of $6,000,000 for the S.E.C.C.,S Projecteto raise, rebuild a vast sec- tion of Hyde Park, Kenwoodh. The University was, indeed, back on its finan- cial feet. But it was in no position to move for- ward. Other institutions were expanding their Chancellor Kimpton reporting to the Faculty Senate. horizons and venturing into new greatness, but money --much of it---was required were the Uni- versity of Chicago to maintain pace and not live on its past history and reputation: in fact Of not in namd a second rate University. It was decided to campaign for 332,779,000 wthe largest sum ever attempted by a University, a sum, to be raised in three years, almost equal to the total Rockefeller gifts over a period of 20 years. 1956 became the year of the big gamblee the year of decision. The University gambled and won. It was a capital funds drive, and the response was more than generous. By March over half the three- year quota was met, and more than that amount was raised for purposes outside the campaign. There was even talk around campus that in three years the campaign could underwrite the costs of the University of Chicago for a generation, if not the rest of the century. .7776 Year of Deczkzbn

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T106 Neighborhood T511665 014 d New Look Prime priority of the University? needs was a rebuilt neighborhood. A rose cannot bloom in an onion patch, and a great University cannot prosper in a slum, which is what parts of Hyde Park were becoming. The hrst project was urban renewal. The University has allotted $4,200,000 for neighborhood planning. Three years of plan- ning, and public co-operation were required 10 get the forty-seven blighted acres in Hyde Park ready for slum clearance. Obsolcscent commer- cial structures and buildings unlit for decent habi- tation will be replaced. Included in tentative plans are suggestions for single-family homes, two- story row-houses, four-story maisonette apart- ments, twelve-story elevator apartments, and a shopping center. Provision is made for a major imth-south thoroughfare, closing certain straws, offstrcct parking, and park and recreation areas. Regtoration of these forty-scwn acres to resi- dential and commercial value will mean much to the University: it will provide opportuntics for housing, and shopping facilities; and it will serve as an example of what can bf: done. Additional touches were added. On March 12, Chancellor Kimpton and Mayor Richard J. Daley announCCd that title to UN: Midway was given to thc Univcrsity and streets transversing it were to be closed. For the first time in its history, the Chicago campus would he one con- tiguous unit Plans for the area--n0t yet fully approvedh WOUld make the University of Chi- cago one of the nationjs most beautiful urban campuses. Mcltzer and Levy looking over a tenement area in the neighborhood. I