Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/184

 156 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO The Summer Quarter was the particularly novel element in the four-quarter plan. Professor Tufts says: Perhaps the most important of the innovations was that of the summer session. It was with considerable difficulty that instructors in the University were induced to remain and teach when the work for the Summer Quarter was organized; but the number and quality of the students who attend have made members of the Faculty feel that this quarter is as important in its immediate work as any other, while the fact that it is through the Summer Quarter that many graduate students make their first acquaintance with the University, and the further fact that so great a number of institutions are represented in the constituency of the Summer Quarter, have made the outside influence of this quarter far greater than the mere numbers in attendance would indicate. Professor Stieglitz says: The organization of the Summer Quarter as a regular quarter of University work is one of the most unqualified successes of the University. It has con- tributed greatly to the strength of the University by bringing great numbers of graduate students of ability to its doors, and, vice versa, it has been a source of greatest good to thousands, who have carried new inspiration and ideals away with them. Making the Summer Quarter a regular quarter of instruc- tion, of the same character as the three other quarters, distinguishes our summer work from that of all other schools, by making it possible to have a large proportion of the strongest members of the faculty in residence in the summer. As a result, many of our best doctors of philosophy have come to the University in the first instance on account of the advanced work and research courses offered in our Summer Quarters. It goes without saying that the four-quarter system including the Summer Quarter as a regular quarter of University work was permanently built into the life of the institution during the first quarter-century. President Harper's plan was made, not for a college, but for a university. The emphasis was to be placed on graduate work. Professors were to be encouraged in pursuing original investigation. Students in advanced courses were to be disciplined and encouraged in research work. It was hoped that the University would be use- ful in extending the boundaries of knowledge. On this part of the plan a professor writes: The emphasis upon research had already been embodied in the develop- ment of Johns Hopkins University and to a slight degree at Harvard and Columbia. But nowhere in this part of the country were research interests