Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/531

THE DEVELOPING UNIVERSITY 465 a considerable portion of our fundamental college courses and have attempted to bring them to a more nearly uniform standard of requirement. In this con- nection it may be added that since 1912 we have rendered our specific entrance requirements much more flexible, so far as concerns the subject-matter demanded, and as a consequence of this, have left the high schools which prepare students for us a much freer hand in meeting the peculiar needs which arise in the several communities which they serve. We no longer, however, receive any students with conditions (fifteen units must be presented), and as indicated above, we seek to bring here only those whose natural capacities and training render it probable that they can profit by residence with us. The more this statement is considered, the more important it will be seen to be, and the more clearly will it appear that in these closing years of its first quarter-century the University was not only working on, but actually solving, an educational problem of far- reaching significance. To reduce by three or more years the time usually required for going through the primary and secondary school and college would be rendering the world a service of the highest value. The spirit of service of the developing University was frequently illustrated in its surrender of its President and some of its leading professors for important missions in the interest of the com- munity and of humanity at large. In 1908 Professors Burton and Chamberlin spent many months in pursuing investigations into edu- cational, social, and religious conditions in the Far East, investiga- tions which carried them through India, Japan, and China. On their return Mr. Burton prepared a full report of the conditions found to exist. Although this investigation was made in the name of the University it was actually a part of Mr. Rockefeller's far- reaching plans of beneficence. The University co-operated also in the next step in these plans. In 1914, President Judson was given leave of absence for seven months, and went to China as chairman of the China Medical Commission of the Rockefeller Foundation. The Commission was sent to study the needs of medical education and hospitals in China, with a view to possible work in that direction by the Foundation. The report of the Commission was published in book form and the Foundation began, without delay, to carry out its recommendations in improving medical and hospital conditions in China.