University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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VISION: PATIENT BUT PERSISTENT In the latter days of Pol we IPs administration the Regents carried on a painstaking investigation of the faculty to evaluate their fitness as teachers. The result: Six out of 20 on the stall were asked to hand in their resignations. Folwell filled the newly-vacated positions hy importing graduates of Harvard, Yale and Princeton and promising them salaries of SI.5(H) a year. Three years later, 1883, Folwell presented his own resignation to General Henry Sibley, chairman of the Board of Regents. But he remained president until July, 1884. when Cyrus Northrop succeeded him. Folwell, however, did not leave the University. He spent many more years on campus — probably happier ones — first as a professor of political science and later as librarian. As the years went by and the University grew, his figure-loomed large as the man who, in the nineteenth century, was able to see the twentieth. As James Gray, professor of English, has (minted out, In all his administration Folwell did not offer a plan, a policy, a theory that was not in sympathy with present day ideas of education. But his vision was sometimes one of his greatest sources of irritation and frustration. He was forever appearing before the Regents with new plans and new ideas, all designed to develop his genuine university. And the Regents were forever looking upon him and his ideas with a good deal of suspicion. For they were immersed in jxrtty details and issues of the day. Through it all Folwell remained extraordinarily patient but no less persistent. It was as if he was perfectly certain his ideas eventually would win out, although perhaps not in his lifetime. I le lived to be %, having spent his later years writing his monumental history of Minnesota. In this way he was able to remain on campus and see some of his long-protested programs put into practice and prove workable. Old Main, limit I85( , destroyed by fire in I'M! NORTHROP: “PR EX Y”TO IIIS STUDENTS Cyrus Northrop':, first glimpse of the University campus prompted him to label it a dun and dreary place, but he soon came to regard students at the University as members of his own family. Students called him Proxy. Perhaps his chief goal as president was to prove to the world that, contrary to the storm of accusations, the University was not godless. This he did merely by his presence. Northrop had such a saintly air that no one could conceive of his heading a godless institution. I’ntee hull and the Institute of Child Welfare, completed by 1890 Page 20 1

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FOLWELL: NEW NOTE IN EDUCATION Perhaps rib University educator has had a more advanced outlook on the role of that institution than did William Watts Folwell, its first president. He had a well-defined plan of action, which, had it been put into more complete operation, would have placed the University far ahead of its time. Unfortunately, Folwell’s theories often met with strong opposition from Iwth the Regents and faculty. The Fol well plan (he called it the “Minnesota Plan”) may be divided into three steps. His first proposal was to let the primary (preparatory) department die a natural death. This was speedily accomplished. He proposed secondly that the curriculum of the collegiate department be greatly enlarged and that most of the freshmen and sophomore courses be thrown back to the old preparatory department. Thus began the idea that eventually led to our present system of junior and senior colleges. The third step on Fol well’s agenda was, bluntly, to get rid of inferior students, in order to use our resources for the proper University work. This “proper University work” included, in part, the establishment of professional schools, which he considered to be one of the University's biggest jobs. e . ■ ... V. .. . A....-A-- —- — T' 1 .-V A- University charter, 1X51 “MINNESOTA FLAN : LOVED BY FOL WELL ALONE The first open attack on Folwell and his ideas came in 1872 when the Board of Regents invited all members of the faculty to submit in writing their objections to the Minnesota Plan. All but one complied. The objecting professors charged that Folwell had weakened the University, that it no longer taught in accord with the American system of education and that it was a mistake to follow an unsettled and experimental policy.” Folwell fought back. He pointed out that America had no system of education and that it was the University's duty to help create one. He said the old colleges did not meet the needs of youth who were preparing to be engineers, merchants, architects, navigators, journalists . . . He added that each year hundreds of young men went into voluntary exile ... to foreign lands in search of that culture not to be had on this side of the Atlantic. Folwell hall, home of various arts college departments, 1907 Page 19

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BOOM TIME: MINNESOTA GROWS UP In ilie calm, unharried atmosphere of North rop’s administration, much was done to strengthen and consolidate the University. Expansion began in earnest. The Regents and the new president were willing to work together — something that hadn’t happened in a long time. The result, in part, was a rise in school enrollment from MO to 6,000, and a construction program which transformed a small cluster of four or five buildings into a campus of 40. One of Northrop's most stalwart partners during those years of development was Maria Sanford, professor of rhetoric and elocution. Some of her contemporaries considered her more preacher than professor, for she spoke from the pulpit whenever she could get the opportunity, and when she had no pulpit, she would pretend she did. During her 29-year stay at the University she averaged at least one lecture per day, aside from her regular teaching lectures. In 1909 she became the first woman in history to deliver a commencement address at a large university. Maria Sanford I8( 9-1884 William Walls Fol well 1884-1911 Cyrus Northrop 1911-1917 George lid gar Vincent 1917-1)20 Marion l.cRoy Hutton PROBLEMS: AGRICULTURE AM) ENGINEERING Cyrus Northrop and William Watts Folwell, 1921 Northrop had a big problem centering around the Agriculture school. From its beginning in hS67, matters had not gone well for this school. Minnesota farmers could see no reason to send their children to a place of higher learning in order to learn farming. In the first year only one student registered at the farm school. In the second year registration dropped by one. Then it was pro|xiscd that the farm school lx- separated from the main campus, and that William M. Liggett be the first dean of the new school. Liggett was a strong, decisive leader, and under his tutelage the School of Agriculture began to grow. By 1910 it had an enrollment of 1,500. T he School of Engineering also was having its troubles about this time. In 1892 William Kirchner arrived from the East to begin a class in industrial designing. Then he switched to teaching a class on painting, hardly a legitimate engineering course. The class was hurriedly discontinued when it was discovered that coeds were registering for it. The idea of girls in the School of Engineering was incompatible with turn-of-the-ccniury morals. Page 21