Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/158

CHAPTER V THE EDUCATIONAL PLAN In telling the story of the founding of Johns Hopkins University, ex-President Oilman makes the following interesting statement: Not only did we have no model to be followed; we did not even draw up a scheme or program for the government of ourselves, our associates, and successors. For a long time our proceedings were "tentative," and this term was used so often that it became a by-word for merriment. 1 Very different from this was the course pursued in the founding of the University of Chicago. It would have been impossible for President Harper to begin such a work without a well-matured scheme. The University was organized in accordance with a fully elaborated educational plan. But it also had its tentative side. President Harper began his quarterly statement at the third Convocation, in June, 1893, with the following significant utter- ance: The first year's work of the University is finished. The foundations have, at least in part, been laid. The essential elements in the policy of the Uni- versity, as announced by the trustees before its organization, have been tested and, seemingly, have stood the test. Whether these foundations shall prove to have been firmly built; whether the general policy, confessedly radical, shall continue to shape the growth of the institution, can be better answered ten or twenty years hence. It is sufficient at this time to say that a work has been begun which, so far as man can tell, will develop along lines essentially different from those followed by other institutions of this country and of foreign countries. If this should not be so, our work from the beginning may well be regarded as, in a large measure, superfluous. Until the founding of Johns Hopkins University, there was but one type of college in America. No institution doing real university work existed. With the establishment of the University of Chicago another type, it is believed, has been introduced, differing essentially from the college of historic character, and, just as essentially, from the type of the Johns Hopkins. That a century or more should have passed with no effort other than to duplicate efforts already made, is difficult to understand. The field for experiment in educa- tional work is as vast as any that may present itself in other departments of 1 The Launching of a University, p. 49. 130