Matriculations

The Student Body
Another concern for the University was the background and geographical origins of the students. Al the beginning, well over half of the students were from greater Chicago and Illinois. Harper was pleased that students from the region were anxious to attend the University, but he also hoped to attract students from around the country and abroad. A diversity of backgrounds, Harper believed, would not only enhance the character of the student body but also confirm the University's status as a distinguished national institution.

In this effort the University could claim early and continuing success. From the time of the University's opening, the Registrar annually reported the enrollment of students from Japan, China, the Philippines, Korea, India, South Africa, and Burma, as well as Canada, the nations of Western Europe, and dozens of other countries. The University's open admission policy also served as a continuing attraction to American minorities, particularly Jewish and African-American students who found their path blocked by policies or quotas at many other institutions.

Resolutely co-educational the beginning, the University nonetheless experimented with classroom segregation of men and women in the Junior College in 1902. Based on the assumption that younger men and women students would perform better in isolation from each other, this scheme collapsed within a few years. Both before and after the segregation episode, women were granted admission to degree programs on an equal basis with men, although they sometimes encountered the more subtle and less institutional forms of prejudice found in the larger society.