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

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His plan was stalemated in debate and it was not agreed that the College would be at, as well as in, the University until Max Mason took over the Presidency. Burton, however, had a greater in- tereSt in undergraduate education than Judson. Ernest Hatch Wilkins, whom he appointed dean of the College, showed great concern for the stu- dent body, introducing, among other reforms, the first Orientation week for entering undergraduate students. Also under Wilkins, UC's first survey course, which was to become the basis of the undergrad- uate curriculum, was introduced. tlThe Nature of the World and of Man was a two quarter course featuring lectures by leading University scientists. Moved by its success, several departments began investigating such courses for themselves. The credit system, under which students graduated after completing a certain number of class hours, also came under examination. In 1928, a committee of 9, chaired by Boucher, was appointed by President Max Mason to study reorganization of the undergraduate curriculum. The committees report required two comprehen- sive examinations for a bachelorls degree, one in a major held and one in a minor field. Graduation from the junior college would be based on the completion of Eve comprehensive examinations: English, a foreign language, natural science and mathematics, social science, and an elective Held. The day before the faculty was to discuss the re- port, hoWever, Mason resigned. Three years later, under Chancellor Hutchins, a l'New Plan. somewhat similar to the Boucher committee's, was adopted for the College. The plan applied Hutchins, theory of a universal scheme of education: llEducation implies teach; ing. Teaching implies knowledge. Knowledge is truth. Truth is everywhere the same. Hence ed- ucation should everywhere he the same. Graduation from the junior college was to be based on the completion of seven comprehensive examinations: English composition, biology, phys- ical sciences, humanities, social sciences, and two elective sequences. Mathematics and a foreign lan4 guage were also required, but they were sub- mitted by most students as having been completed in high school. Instruction in mathematics was not even oHered in the College; students could 25 fulflll the requirement only through the home study division. The New Plan was proceeded by an adminis- trative reform in which the College was given control over only the first two years of under graduate education and would award the AA de- gree. The graduate schools were organized into four divisions: biological sciences, physical sci- ences, humanities, and social sciences. A college faculty, largely autonomous from the divisions, was created. A staff came into existence for each College course and planned it. Syllabi were in- troduced to encourage independent study. Class attendance was made voluntary. The substitution of uniform comprehensive ex- aminations for grading by individual teachers was a major feature of the new plan. Students could proceed at their own rate, taking an examination whenever they felt ready for it. Although there was an English composition placement test for stu- dents under the New Plan, few succeeded in plac- ing out. All other courses were compulsory for everyone. In the Erst three years of the program, 34 students completed their work in less than the usual time, but 108 took longer than two years.

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of prime importance, and so graduate students taught undergraduate courses, and the annual turnover was high. Department heads complained about heavy teaching loads. In the College of the 19203, said Aaron Brum- baugh who became dean of the College under Robert Maynard Hutchins, the many departmen- tal courses offered in the hrst two years were taken in many combinations and produced no common foundation of basic general education. Generally students didnht discuss intellectual matters be- cause they didntt have anything in common to talk about; . . . Class attendance was required and grade points were reduced for unexcused absences. Unexcused absence from chapel automatically resulted in the reduction of academic credit. One student was de- 24 nied graduation priveleges because, out of fear, he refused to dive into the swimming pool, a physical education requirement. It was suggested that the College be dropped altogether. Chauncy S. Boucher, dean of the Col- lege in the late 1920?. explained why the College continued: it provided the departments with an opportunity to select promising research students; it brought in revenue which helped pay for re- search and graduate instruction; and it attracted contributions from its alumni, who were wealthier than graduate school alumni. Ernest DeWitt Burton, Judsonts 1923 successor, wanted to put the College on the South Side of the Midway with its own faculty, budget, dean, buildings, and equipment, and begin with early entrants from their junior year of high school.

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In 1933, jurdisdiction over the last two years of the University high school was transferred to the College faculty; however the new Eour-year united was not called The College until 1987. Under the New Plan, student activities suffered a great decline. Faced with the two year College, the many campus fraternities could offer only one year of membership before the student would en- ter the graduate divisions, as the University-high entrants were too young to join. The fraternities, which had to adjust to survive, did neither. Ac- tivities also suffered because of the depression. Fraternities found the student without any money, and activities, without any time, because he was working his way through school. Hutchinsl attitude was not one of great sympa- thy. He felt that a great deal of time spent on acrivities showed that the student was substituting activities for the more intellectual pastimes the College offered him. Hutchins sought a course of study consisting of the greatest books of the West em world, and the arts of reading, thinking, and speaking, together with mathematics, the best ex- emplar of human reason Such a curriculum would heduce the elements of our common human nature, he said. He felt that his course of study 26 could help prepare the young for intelligent ac- tion. . . . They will have learned what has been done in the past and what the greatest men have tought. They will have learned to think them- selves. If we wish to lay a basis for advanced study, that basis is provided. In addition, the College could serve as a terminus for those students who would end their formal education in it. In 1936, working under the principal that the end of general education can be achieved best by helping students to master the leading ideas and signihcant facts in the principal fields of knowl- edge, with a view to the develoPment of intelli- gent action, a College curriculum review com- mittee recommended further changes in the un- dergraduate program. In the 1936 four-year Cola lege, hEteen comprehensives were required for graduation, representing three years each of hue manitis, social science, and reading, writing, and criticism; three years selected from two years of biological science and two years of physical sci- ence; one year of philosophy; and two years of electives. In addition, students were to present evidence of work equivalent to two years of high school study of foreign language and mathematics. Then came Worid War II and a great decline in enrollment. The paucity of students gave many divisional faculty members an opportunity to tum to the development of undergraduate education. Thus, in 1942, the College changed again. The two and four year programs were combined, and the Hutchins BA was awarded upon the com- pletion of the general education requirement. fit . RFEalq'R't 410er 1 I INPV n01 l'l't..: tulll'b unnum- nu