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History edit

Main article: History of the University of Chicago

Founding edit

Following the financial collapse and closing of the Old University of Chicago, some members of the Baptist Church began to make efforts to found another university in Chicago. One such Baptist, Dr. Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed, wrote letters to philanthropist fellow Baptist John D. Rockefeller asking for his support.

1920s-1950s edit

In 1921, the University's fifth president, Robert Maynard Hutchins, took office; the University underwent many changes during his 30-year tenure. Hutchins eliminated varsity football from the University in an attempt to deemphasize athletics over academics,[1] instituted the undergraduate college's liberal-arts curriculum known as the Common Core,[citation needed] and organized the University's graduate work into its current four divisons.[1] In 1933, Hutchins proposed an unsuccessful plan to merge the University of Chicago and Northwestern University into a single university.[2] During his term, the University of Chicago Hospitals (now called the University of Chicago Medical Center) finished construction and enrolled its first medical students,[3] and the Committee On Social Thought was created.

Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the Rockefeller Foundation helped the school to survive through the Great Depression.[1] During World War II, the University made important contributions to the Manhattan project.[4] The University was the site of the first isolation of plutonium and of the creation of the first artificial, self-sustained nuclear reaction by Enrico Fermi in 1942.[4][5]

In the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In response, the university became a major sponsor of a controversial urban renewal project for Hyde Park, which profoundly affected both the neighborhood's architecture and street plan. For details of this urban renewal effort, see Hyde Park.[6]

1960s-1980s edit

The University experienced its share of student unrest during the 1960s, beginning in 1962, when students occupied President George Beadle's office in a protest over the University's off-campus rental policies. In 1969, more than 400 students, angry about the dismissal of a popular professor, Marlene Dixon, occupied the Administration Building for two weeks. After the sit-in ended, when Dixon turned down a one-year reappointment, 42 students were expelled and 81 were suspended,[7] the most severe response to student occupations of any American university during the student movement.[8]

In 1978, Hanna Holborn Gray, then the provost of Yale University, became President of the University of Chicago, the first woman ever to serve as the president of a major research university.[citation needed]

1990-present edit

In 1999, then-President Hugo Sonnenschein announced plans to relax the university's famed core curriculum, reducing the number of required courses from 21 to 15. When The New York Times, The Economist, and other major news outlets picked up this story, the university became the focal point of a national debate on education. The changes were ultimately implemented, but the controversy led to President Sonnenschein's resignation in 2000.[citation needed]

In 2006, the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute became the center of controversy when U.S. federal courts ruled to seize and auction its valuable collection of ancient Persian artifacts, the proceeds of which would go to compensate the victims of a 1997 bombing in Jerusalem that the United States believes was funded by Iran. The ruling threatens the university's invaluable collection of ancient clay tablets held by the Oriental Institute since the 1930s but officially owned by Iran.

In the past decade, the University has begun planning multi-millionare-dollar expansion projects. In 2008, the University of Chicago announced plans to establish the Milton Friedman Institute. The institute will cost around $200 million and occupy the buildings of the Chicago Theological Seminary. Some faculty members and students have signed petition against these plans.[9] During the same year, investor David G. Booth donated $300 million to the university's Graduate School of Business, which is the largest gift in the university's history and the largest gift ever to any business school.[10] In 2009, planning or construction on several new buildings, half of which cost $100 million or more, was underway.[11]

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c http://president.uchicago.edu/history/hutchins.shtml
  2. ^ "The deal that almost was: 'The Universities of Chicago'". Northwestern University. Retrieved 2006-06-09.
  3. ^ http://www.uchospitals.edu/about/history.html
  4. ^ a b http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155
  5. ^ "The First Reactor". 1982. Retrieved July 15, 2009. On December 2, 1942, in a racquets court underneath the West Stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team of scientists led by Enrico Fermi created man's first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help); line feed character in |quote= at position 69 (help)
  6. ^ Boyer, John W. "The Kind of University That We Desire to Become", Annual Report to the Faculty of the College (October 28, 2008). Excerpt available online at: http://www.uchicago.edu/pdfs/boyer_report.pdf
  7. ^ The University of Chicago - Alumni Weekend
  8. ^ Boris, Eileen. "Voices of Women Historians: The Personal, the Political, the Professional". Retrieved 2008-06-11.
  9. ^ "Milton Friedman Petition".
  10. ^ "Booth Donates $300 Million to Chicago Business School". Bloomberg. 7 November 2008. Retrieved 10 November 2008.
  11. ^ http://magazine.uchicago.edu/0906/features/make_no_little_quads.shtml

References edit

  • Goodspeed, Thomas Wakefield (1916). A History of the University of Chicago. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
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