Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/461

SOME IMPORTANT EVENTS 407 began to develop. It was the University's first and only civil war during the first quarter-century. The new policy was attacked as the first step in a movement to bring coeducation in the Uni- versity to an end. It was assailed with a multitude of arguments. The conflict occasioned a division in the faculty. At one stage of it the Congregation disapproved the action of the Junior College faculty in accepting the new measure. That faculty promptly reaffirmed its action. Fifty-eight instructors sent a protesting memorial to the Board of Trustees. President Harper in submitting this memorial said that it represented about one-fifth of the total number of instructors. When this memorial was submitted the Trustees invited Dr. Judson, then Head Dean, to meet with them and make explanations in the matter of the ten objections to the proposed policy made in the memorial, which he did to their apparent satisfaction. This conflict raged for nine months. It was carried outside the University. Printed forms of protest were pre- pared and circulated. Many letters, some of them bitter, protest- ing against the policy were received by the presidents of the Board and of the University. The Trustees reconsidered their action adopting the policy, and gave full opportunity for this war of words, or, perhaps it should be said, this interchange of views, to proceed. It was not until October 22, 1902, after considering and discussing the question for months that they took final action, as follows: The action of the Junior College faculty recommending that, in the devel- opment of the Junior College instruction provision be made as far as possible for separate sections for men and women, having been presented to this Board by the President of the University, with the indorsement of the University Senate, and the various protests and objections on the part of the friends of the University interested in the subject to the recommendation, together with a memorial of protest from members of the faculty, having been duly read and considered: It is resolved that the recommendation of the Junior College faculty and Senate of the University, reported to the Board by the President of the University, be approved and adopted as the action of this Board, and the President of the University is requested to formulate a plan for its practical administration and present the same to the Board for its approval. Fifteen of the Trustees were recorded as favoring the action and four as opposing it, a division which probably fairly reflected the