A Centennial View of
the Student Experience at the
University of Chicago
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"The University of Chicago: The New Program," chart, ca. 1958. The Kimpton administration's undergraduate program retained an emphasis on general education for the first two years and added a year apiece for specialized study and electives. Although those with high school diplomas were preferred, qualified high school students were still eligible for admission to the College. |
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Study and conversation, Pierce Hall, undated. The construction of 7ew residence halls such as Pierce Hall was part of the University's effort to restore the vitality of the College. Photograph by Albert C. Flores. |
The Higher Learning
Graduate
and Professional Schools
The first work of the University,
President Harper believed, was graduate work. Exactly what that work
entailed fueled the debate over the requirements of the master's and
doctorate degrees. Harper favored an AM that was preparatory to a PhD,
while others supported a less specialized and independent master's degree.
The faculty Senate decided to permit both a terminal and preparatory
AM, but it stressed that "the degree of the Doctor of Philosophy is
given, not on the basis of the completion of a certain amount of time
spent upon a specified program, but as the recognition and the mark
of high attainments and ability in the candidate's chosen province .
. ."
In the beginning, the student's "chosen province" was either in the Graduate Schools of Arts and Literature or in the Ogden Graduate School of Science. Students were apparently attracted by the graduate program, for 218 graduate students enrolled in the first year, almost triple that number three years later, and 1,120 by the end of Harper's presidency.
The earliest professional program was in divinity. The Baptist Union Theological Seminary, founded in 1865, was moved to Hyde Park in 1892 to become the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. Liberal in outlook and modern in its use of research methodologies, the Divinity School welcomed ministerial students as well as scholars pursuing investigations in a growing array of religious fields.