A new species is right! There is a lot here in this old 1910 book to explain the place. And to give credence to the fact that so much that’s different about UChicago started at its founding. It’s definitely worth a read, especially as the author likens the ideas coming out of the head of William Rainy Harper to bombs placed under the ivy-covered walls of higher ed at the time, expressly for the purpose of breaking down the barriers between the life of the university and the life outside. Food for thought as we watch UChicago go Test Optional in order to achieve the same basic objective.
One mere tidbit concerns the thinking behind and reason for the quarter system. Harper instituted this both to accommodate “irregular” students who could leave and return as they saw fit - many did so only during the summer quarters and many of these were a higher caliber than the students in residence throughout the year - but also to address the rather “leisurely” pace of learning that prevailed at so many other top institutions at the time. The quarters (12 weeks long in those days) encouraged both instructors (“procrastination and dilatoriness are the common vices of the scholastic temperament”) and students (described by the author as preferring and being used to a “leisurely” style) to get with the program and put forth a more focused and concentrated effort. I can only imagine that this tremendous respect for student’s time (as so many of them had other things going on like full time work throughout the year), coupled with the deliberate emphasis on academic research and graduate study, made UChicago quite popular from Day 1. Indeed, in those early years it was the forerunner among all top universities for doctorates granted (ahead of #2 Columbia and #3 Harvard).
Another tidbit is that the university from the beginning supported the free expression of all its members, no matter how radical or otherwise (in those days, apparently it was the theological seminary raising eyebrows LOL). What’s great about reading this book is that it was written in 1910 when the university was a mere 18 years old. Srong evidence that “freedom of expression” wasn’t just a marketing gimmick thought up by the current set of trustees to placate or impress some influential donors, as some more cynical cc posters (past and present) have posited.
@marlowe1 will enjoy learning that at the time the book was written, the state of Texas was sending 150 to UChicago. The author explains: "Every year the Texas students charter a special train for the University of Chicago. I should explain for the benefit of Eastern readers that this is the same geographically as if 150 Italian students came every year to Oxford. That would be alluded to by London leader-writers as ‘an epoch-making movement in education.’ "