Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/169

THE EDUCATIONAL PLAN 141 write in full. And he wrote most fully on the two features of his plan now to be considered. These were the Academic Year and the Classification of Courses. He wrote as follows: The work of the University has been arranged to continue throughout the year. It is divided into four quarters of twelve weeks each, with a recess of one week after each quarter. Each quarter is further divided into two terms of six weeks each. While instruction will thus be offered during forty-eight weeks of the year, a professor or teacher will be expected to lecture only thirty- six weeks. He may take as his vacation any one of the four quarters, according as it may be arranged, or he may take two vacations of six weeks each at different periods of the year. All vacations, whether extra or regular, shall be adjusted to the demands of the situation, in order that there may always be on hand a working force. The student may take as his vacation any one of the four quarters, or, if he desire, two terms of six weeks each in different parts of the year. There seems to be no good reason why, during a large portion of the year, the Uni- versity buildings should be empty and the advantages which it offers denied to many who desire them. The small number of hours required of professors [eight to ten hours a week] makes it possible for investigation to be carried on all the time, and in the climate of Chicago there is no season which, upon the whole, is more suitable for work than the summer. This plan of a continuous session secures certain advantages which are denied in institutions open only three-fourths of the year. It will permit the admission of students to the University at several times during the course of the year, rather than at one time only, the arrangement of courses having already been made with this object in view. It will enable students who have lost time because of illness to make up the lost work without further injury to their health or detriment to the subject studied. It will make it possible for the summer months to be employed in study by those who are physically able to carry on intellectual work throughout the year, and who may thus take the full college course in three years. It will permit students to be absent from the University during those portions of the year in which they can to best advantage occupy themselves in procuring means with which to continue the course. It will make it possible for the University to use, besides its own corps of teachers, the best men of other institutions both in this country and in Europe. It will permit greater freedom on the part of both students and instructors in the matter of vacations. It will provide an opportunity for professors in smaller institutions, teachers in academies and high schools, ministers and others, who, under the existing system, cannot attend a college or university, to avail themselves of the opportunity of university residence. The only possible danger to be feared is that young men and women not physically able to pursue continuous work will be tempted beyond their