The New International Encyclopædia/Chicago University

CHICAGO UNIVERSITY (officially styled The University of Chicago). A leading American university, situated in Chicago, Ill. The university was established at the instance of prominent Baptists throughout the country, and through gifts made chiefly by Mr. John D. Rockefeller, to replace the former University of Chicago, a Baptist institution opened in 1857, but which had been obliged, through lack of funds, to close its doors in 1880. In recognition of the funds given by Baptists to start the new university, it was provided in the charter that while no religious tests should ever be exacted from the university professors or students, yet at all times two-thirds of the trustees, and also the president of the university, should be members of regular Baptist churches.

As provided in its plan of organization, the university includes five divisions: First, schools, colleges, and academies; second, the university affiliations; third, university extension; fourth, the university libraries, laboratories, and museums; fifth, the university press. The first division includes the graduate schools, of which the divinity school, the graduate school of arts and literature, and the Ogden graduate school of science and the law school have already been organized, while schools of medicine, technology, fine arts, and music are yet to be established. Of the schools established, the Ogden School of Science was founded under the will of William B. Ogden, his executors allotting to Chicago 70 per cent. of the moneys he devised to charities. The divinity school was established under an agreement of the university made in 1891 with the Baptist Theological Union of Chicago, by which its seminary became the divinity school of the university. The colleges of the university are either integral parts of it or are affiliated. The former include the colleges of art, literature, science, commerce, and administration, and the university (teachers') college. The academies of the university are either an organic part of it, as in the case of the University Academy at Morgan Park, or are affiliated with it. The purpose of the university affiliations is to raise the standard of primary, secondary, and collegiate training, and to secure the maximum of economy in the interaction of the different factors of education. To accomplish this, the university maintains an intimate relationship with certain preparatory schools and colleges. In general this affiliation gives the university a varying amount of control over the educational activity of the college or school, and the university on its part grants official recognition, by means of degrees or certificates, to all work done under this indirect form of supervision. In 1902 the affiliated colleges were: Des Moines College, Iowa; Kalamazoo College, Michigan; John B. Stetson University, Florida; Butler College, Indiana; and the Rush Medical College, Chicago. At the same time the affiliated academies included: Morgan Park Academy (the University Academy), at Morgan Park, Ill.; Frances Shimer Academy, Mount Carroll, Ill.: Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Ill.; South Side Academy, Chicago; Harvard School, Chicago; Kenwood Institute, Chicago; Wayland Academy, Beaver Dam. Wis.; Rugby School, Kenilworth, Ill.; Chicago Manual Training School; Culver Military Academy, Culver, Ind.; Elgin Academy, Elgin, Ill.; Dearborn Seminary, Chicago; and the University School for Girls, Chicago. In the department of university extension the attempt is made to bring the university to those who cannot come to it. Lecture and study courses are given outside of Chicago, and work done in them is recognized and credited by the university. More important are the correspondence courses, which are definitely arranged in majors and minors, according to the regular university schedule, and on which credits are allowed toward the university degrees. The university libraries number at present about 304,000 volumes. The main collection, purchased in Berlin, contains 175,000 volumes. Other collections include: The Theological Seminary Library, 40,000 volumes; library of the former University of Chicago, 10,000; Edward Olsen Library, 5000; departmental libraries, 74,000. The laboratories and museums include: The Kent Chemical Laboratory, Ryerson Physical Laboratory, the Yerkes Astronomical Observatory, the Walker Museum, Haskel Oriental Museum (including biblical, comparative religion, Syrian, and Egyptian collections), and the Hull biological laboratories (including the zoölogical, physiological, anatomical, and botanical laboratories). The university press publishes both separate books and pamphlets and departmental journals. The departmental journals are as follows: The Journal of Political Economy; the American Journal of Sociology; American Journal of Semitic Language and Literature; Biblical World; The Astrophysical Journal; Journal of Geology; School Review; Botanical Gazette; American Journal of Theology; The Elementary Teacher and Course of Study; The Manual Training Magazine; and The University Record. Under the head of separate publications, the university press issues many important pamphlets and books, usually written by professors or post-graduate students in the course of specialized university work.

The arrangement of courses at the University of Chicago is unique among American universities. The academic year consists of four terms; and these four terms, equally divided, complete the calendar as well as the scholastic year. Instruction is arranged with a single term of twelve weeks as the unit, instead of taking for the unit the scholastic year. Students are permitted to drop or take up university work at the beginning of any term, and a degree is given whenever the requisite amount of courses, computed by units, has been completed. The courses are arranged by majors and minors, according to the group system, and the student is required to take courses in definite groups. This system has the advantage of eradicating such artificial barriers to obtaining an education as are likely to follow from continuous courses of nine months each and from arbitrarily required studies. The degrees conferred by the university are: A.B., Ph.B., B.S., A. M., Ph.M., M.S., Ph.D., Th.B., B.D., D.D., LL.D. These degrees are given upon completion of work in the senior colleges of the university. Chicago, however, has also junior colleges, and graduation from these entitle the students to the degree or title of Associate in the arts, philosophy, or science. The work of the junior colleges is roughly equivalent to the work ordinarily done in the best American colleges in the freshman and sophomore years. A degree is given on the completion of this work, mainly to give recognition to such students as are for any reason unable to complete the course.

The University of Chicago has grown with extraordinary rapidity since it was first opened to studenls in 1892. This growth has been made possible by many large gifts. Of the benefactors of the college should be especially mentioned: Mr. John D. Rockefeller, whose gifts have amounted to over $9,000,000; Mr. Marshall Field, who gave the original site for the university; Mr. S. A. Kent, Mr. Silas B. Cobb, Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, Mr. Charles T. Yerkes, Miss Helen Culver, and Mrs. Anne Hitchcock. The present buildings of the university, which have been erected almost entirely from private donations, include Cobb Lecture Hall, Kent Chemical Laboratory, Walker Museum, Ryerson Physical Laboratory, Haskell Oriental Museum, a group of graduate and divinity dormitories, Snell Hall, Beecher, Kelly, and Nancy Foster halls for women, gymnasiums, four biological laboratories (comprising the Charles J. Hull group, 1896-97; Yerkes Observatory, Geneva, 1897; and Green Hall, for women, 1898). Provision also has been made for the erection of some ten further buildings in the near future. As shown by the president's report, the general assets of the university on June 30, 1902, amounted to $15,064,000, of which $8,600,000 represented investments, and the remainder buildings, grounds, and equipments. The current expenditures for the year previous had amounted to $1,048,737, and for the following year they were estimated at $1,063,000. Gifts to meet the excess of current liabilities over fixed income have been made since the foundation of the university, mainly by Mr. John D. Rockefeller. In the autumn quarter of 1901 the total number of students entered was 2646, not deducting repetitions; while deducting repetitions the number was 2431. These students were distributed as follows: Divinity school, 192; graduate school, 435; the colleges, 1641; medical school, 271; school of education, 107. In 1892 the attendance at the university was 594, thus showing nearly a fivefold increase within ten years.

The president of the university, holding office since its foundation in 1891, is William Rainey Harper, Ph.D., D.D., LL.D., formerly professor of Semitic and biblical literature in Yale University. The administrative and scholastic methods of the university have been largely molded by Dr. Harper, and a large measure of the university's immediate success is ascribed to his influence.