University of Illinois - Illio Yearbook (Urbana Champaign, IL)

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An 1874 photograph shows the Elephant and the Dnl Hall. Fences were needed to keep stray cattle off the campus. EXERCISES Commencement Week, lLUM0» IhIWSTHUI. UlllVU hx I Im QiS industrial $niver$ity, 4 UNIVERSITY CHAPEL. 7 Tuesday Evening, March Uth, 1873, 12

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Gregory Comes to a Poorly-endowed, One-building College Not only did Gregory have to carefully budget the institution's funds, but also had to answer, appease, and silence virulent attackers. Jonathan Periam, who was head farmer at the University, well represents the arguments against Gregory in The Classics and Agriculture of his book THE GROUNDSWELL. He states that while it was not expected that Industrial Colleges could immediately accomplish the end sought, it was certainly not foreseen that they would adopt the curriculum of the average literary college. Periam felt that they adopted this cur- riculum with simply enough varnish of ag- riculture and mechanics to enable them to annex the endowment of the nation and of the States where situated. The key words that Periam uses, of course, are the end sought. In Periam 's, and in his followers' opinion, the end sought was an in- stitution stressing low utilitarianism. With this in mind, it is understandable for Periam to charge these universities like 1. 1. XL, which gave high utilitarian instruction, with a gross per- version of the endowment granted by Congress for a very different purpose. One of the trustees, M. L. Dunlap, who was reputable in state agricultural circles, sought to implement his idea that practical men should staff a university with modest admission re- quirements and have a curriculum much like a trade school's. His university would turn out good farmers and mechanics. These men were reacting against the sterility and the irrelevance of existing colleges in their stress on the classics and on religious purpose. This reaction was nation-wide. Although Charles W. Eliot, president of Har- vard from 1869 to 1909, is generally called the architect of the modern university, Regent Greg- ory was at least a member of the architectural firm. Eliot, serving as president for forty years, saw many more of his plans reach fruition than did Gregory during his thirteen year tenure. In some respects Gregory's initial task was more difficult than Eliot's. Eliot was able to begin his work of transformation with a well-established, well-endowed institution that needed only reno- vation. On the other hand, Gregory's work began with a poorly-endowed, one-building institution. That the University was richly endowed by the Morrill Act's terms is false. The act stated that thirty thousand acres of land at $1.25 per acre would be donated to each state and terri- tory for each Congressman. For Illinois that amounted to 180,000 acres. The land, however, was located in Nebraska and Minnesota and was difficult to sell. Further complicating sound fiscal management was the default of some of the bonds which Champaign County had promised in order to attract the University. The Drill Hall Machine Shop was completed in 1872.

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Gregory Introduces Student Government, Elective System The legacy of Gregory at Illinois reaches into all aspects of University life, but especially at the level of student rights. Gregory advocated measures such as the elective system and student government. He brought forward these innova- tions when most of the colleges in the nation closely followed the English model of education in severely regulating the life of the student. This regulation extended beyond the classroom and was needed, thought its proponents, to insure proper moral instruction. The curriculum was rigid. Typically, the student marched lockstep through four years of prescribed work. Gregory sought to change the system, while still working within it, to give students training which would be valuable in their later years. Gregory effected these changes while strug- gling with financial and administrative problems and while he was constantly under attack by those feeling that a university should stress low rather than high utilitarianism. These innovations were not successful. The elective system broke down soon after its intro- duction. This collapse was partly due to criticism charging that by offering electives college offi- cials were attempting to lure students away from agriculture. The main reason, however, was that the students were not mature enough intellec- tually to decide what they should profitably pur- sue. The intellectual immaturity of these early students is shown by the fact that one third of the enrollment in 1871 was committed to the sub-collegiate preparatory courses. Even when these students had progressed enough to take the regular university courses, they were not quali- fied to choose the ones they should take. Afte r its fourth year of existence, the elective system was replaced by a less flexible one. The students could now only choose which of the thirteen se- quences they wanted to follow. In 1870 Regent Gregory offered the men in the dormitories their own government. He made this offer since by then more than half of the students were living in private housing. Parties emerged and campus politics were lively. Gregory's plan was only partially successful. The elections on campus turned into brawls, and the students soon lost their respect for student government. When the new University Hall was finished, there were large rooms on the top floor for stu- dent activity. Regent Gregory was responsible for them. These facilities brought the literary so- cieties, which students formed five days after the University's opening, to full activity. Though Gregory's plan for student govern- ment was only partly successful and his elective system was a dismal failure, his work in these two areas was ahead of its time. Under different conditions these plans blossomed and became fundamental to American colleges. Opened in 1873, the Art Gallery displayed plaster rep- licas of famous works. Regent Gregory purchased them while he was in Europe. Since much of the statuary was broken in transit, young Lorado Taft repaired them.