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

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ing, and raising children, theyr had little time to participate in student activities. Many new organizations, however, arose on campus. In 1946, a student edited literary maga- zine, the Chicago Review, was born. In 1948, a group of veterans founded WUCB in the base- ment of Burton-Judson courts. The National Stu- dent Association was organized at the University Of Chicago in 1946. In the same year the Student RBCKEFELLER CHAPEL CHOIR ymatas E; IRA . cameo smrunm cats .9 h 339 t . ,-,- - I .SUIMZF-Edgda'w Al .:T...Z.J'.. :7. Union began, and within three years, was c011- ducting the 3rd largest collegiate recreation pro- gram in the United States, including outings, folk music programs, campus dances, and running the Reynolds club. Student government assemblies, too, began after the war. In 1945, Clarence Faust, dean of the College, led the faculty in abolishing the PhB degree. This degree had been given to students who substituted two elective helds for the terminal courses in two of the three major general education sequences thumanities, social sciences, and natural sci- encesj Faust argued that it was impossible to build coherent three year sequences if the second year would be terminal for some students. By 1950. the two-year BA degree was running into trouble. Although high school graduates were supposed to take a two-year BA followed by a three-year masters degree, the average high school graduate was taking 11.6 of the 14 comps, almost three yearsh work. Other schools did not accept the BA as representing more than two years of Col- lege. Thus, students who had spent three and four years here were recognized elsewhere as having done only two years of College work. Enrollment dropped as a result. Lawrence Kimpton, who succeeded Hutchins, commented, We had a College that with all its genius was frozen into a pattern alienating it from the rest of the University and indeed from the rest of the educational world. The problem, he said, was relating the College to the total American educational process. After dealing with commu- nity and hnaneial problems, Kimpton turned to the problems of the College. Although he felt that the Hutchins BA was the fmest system of general 28

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During the war, student activities again suf- fered. Blackfriars disbanded in 1942, and did not reorganize until 1956. Cap air Gown stopped publication from 1941 to 1951. The Daily Ma- roon became a small weekly. Many fraternity chapters folded, never to return to campus. As the war neared its end, the major problem of the C01- Iege was educating returning veterans. 16-year old early entrants and 23year old war veterans would be in the same entering class. To compensate for the studentsh differing backgrounds, the place- ment test program was established. Previous train- ing no longer mattered, as all course requirements were based on the students' demonstrated abilities and deftciencies. Several course changes were made. A mathe- matics course and a course particularly devoted to considering general language problems were in- troduced. The history of western civilization was also added to the required core of courses, and it became possible to combine Humanities III with work in a foreign language. The veterans who came right after World War II felt that time had passed them by and wanted an education and de- gree as quickly as possible. Often married, work- 27

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education devised that the US had ever seen, he also found problems in continuing to award it. He had a committee under vice president Henry Filbey investigate one undergraduate curriculum. While the Filbey committee met, a student Com- mittee for the College organized ttto arouse senti- ment and present both pressure and arguments for the maintenance of a system of integrated and interdependent courses in undergraduate study. The Filbey report, which went into effect in 1954, added one year of specialization to the 14- eomp BA requirement. The BA was now to be jointly awarded by the College and the divisions, thus reducing the College's autonomy. To main- tain some of its autonomy, the College instituted the tutorihl studies and professional option pro- grams. Many protests greeted the report. Persons 011 every level and area of the University peti- tioned. presented statements, and publicized their support of a general and liberal education as the basis for a BA degree. Groups demonstrated in front of the administration building, Kimptonts