University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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1920-1938 Lulus Della Coffman 1928-1941 Guy Slanlon Lord 1941-1945 Walter C. Coffey 1945- I a met Lewis Morrill AFFER MEDICAL REFORM: A FASTER TEMPO FOR TIIE CAMPUS At a time when private “medical schools in the state were producing an alarming number of quacks, the University School of Medicine was Ixginning to act like an adult. In 1X92 the school curriculum span was lengthened to eight months and was extended to include 10 lectures in embryology and 32 in pathology. Two years later, the Regents, inspired by a more than customary vision, made-medicine a four-year course. Within a decade of Northrop’$ resignation, the University Medical school had absorbed all the private schools around the state. No one wanted Cyrus Northrop to resign the presidency, except, perhaps, Cyrus Northrop. He was well loved and honored. Still, his second letter of resignation was accepted in 1909. His successor was George Edgar Vincent. With Vincent's arrival the curtain fell on Northrop’s re- laxed, genial scene. Vincent was a reformer and a businessman, and he Stepped up the tempo of campus life. Though he was unjustly considered by some to be “aristocratic and arrogant, he succeeded in gaining the confidence of both the student body and the faculty. As one-professor said, he was a professor's ideal of a president.’' Vincent’s own ideal of what a University president should be. called for “. . . a man who is radical in ideals but strong and conservative in action, a man who knows that the world has changed and changed rapidly in the past few years and who is capable of leading the new order. His aim was to build a faculty capable of original research and of producing “high-minded citizens. “The University campus, lie said, “must be as wide as the boundaries of the Commonwealth. VINCENT: NOT SO GENTLE REFORM The 47-year-old Vincent immediately set out to make some necessary changes. The Law school had previously been a sanctuary for football players and “intellectual misfits. Vincent strengthened the teaching staff and curriculum and made it into a bona fide place of education. Next he looked over the situation in the Medical school, and saw that it was greatly in need of qualified, full-time teachers. I Ic promptly asked for the resignations of the entire staff. This was by no means a mass suicide, it was merely a complete reorganization, for most of the original start were reappointed. This time, however, teachers were hired on the strength of lour basic principles: character, “teaching ability, “prestige . . . indicated in pari by contributions to science, and “past service to the college.’’ Vincent also revamped the Graduate school (under the dcanship of Guy Stanton Ford) the Arts college and the College of Education. In less than a decade he hail turned the University upside down and then set it on its feet again. Presidents Fuiwcll, Ford anil Coffman at IJ nary dedication, 1924 P«3c 22

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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

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BURTON: TRYING ADMINISTRATION In 1916 Vincent got tired of reform, and headed hack cast to direct the Rockefeller foundation. His successor was Marion Burton. Burtons administration was a trying one. If he had remained at Smith college, where he had been president, he would have saved himself a lot of headaches. World War I was changing the face of the campus. Students and faculty alike were leaving the campus for military duty. The Medical school lost 57 professors. Burton took five pages of his first presidential report to explain why so many of the faculty had disappeared. The general atmosphere on campus was one of apathy. Nobody showed any apathy, however, when it came to investigations of loyalty among faculty members. Those in the German department came in for special scrutiny, but the biggest row came over Professor William Schaper, head of the political science department. Schaper was a pacifist by nature who had chosen to ignore the war effort. But he showed some fighting spirit when called before the investigation board. The interview went badly. The board would not confront him with specific charges and consequently Schaper refused to answer any questions. The meeting broke up in a Hurry of tempers and Schaper was fired. The incident developed into a scandal that was to troublesome minds at the University for 20 years. In 1937 the case was hashed over and Schaper was reinstated as professor emeritus and offered $5,000 for his lost years. Fred B. Snyder, the only Regent left from the original board cast the lone dissenting vote. Two years after the end of the war Burton, sick and exhausted, resigned the presidency. Lotus I). Coffman took over. Coffman’s 18-year administration was marked by some great advances in tbe educational field, a tremendous rise in enrollment and a drop in revenue. Child welfare nursery school, 1920s i Construction of Northrop Memorial luditorium, 1927-1928 COFFMAN: BUGLES AND PLACARDS The drop in revenue stemmed from the depression and from a budget-slashing program of the state legislature. Students went up in arms over one of the more drastic-proposed budget cuts, and held a great demonstration. Four thousand students, equipped with bugles, drums and placards, rallied at the north end of Folwell hall. The legislators decided to increase the budget. During the twenties a minor and certainly quiet revolution was taking place on campus. There was aroused interest in student achievement. Dean John Black Johnston of the Arts college wished to discover what made students Hunk out of school. This was by no means an academic-question. for students were flunking out of school in droves. Sixty per cent of the total University enrollment were freshmen. Johnston devised standards and tests and at last came up with the recommendation that a special college be added to the University to take care of the bottom 25 per cent. Out of this plan grew our present day General College. The smoldering problem of academic freedom — freedom of qualified experts to teach what they please—blew up suddenly over the question of evolution. A large outside group, led by the Rev. William B. Riley, screamed it was immoral to teach evolution to college youths and that there was no place for monkeys in human history. An anti-evolution bill was introduced in the legislature, but President Coffman demanded that the University be allowed to control its own destinies. The bill was killed in the senate, 55 to 7. Pag 23