Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/225

 STUDENTS AND FACULTY 195 They were not sought. They came of their own motion. Had they not been discouraged or absolutely shut out by the severe examination tests the attendance of the first year would have been doubled. The gathering of the first faculty is another story. The mem- bers of the teaching staff had to be looked for, and, by patient inquiry, found. The personality of each one had to be considered and his record carefully studied. The estimate in which he was held by those who knew him and his record, and whose opinion and recommendation were of value, must be learned. Negotiations must be had with each one separately and such inducements offered as would secure him. These inducements were not necessarily the salaries that could be offered. The correspondence shows con- clusively that they were rather, in the great majority of instances, the larger opportunities offered at Chicago, opportunities for advancement, for research, for developing great departments of knowledge, for enlarged usefulness. It is, of course, true that there were many teachers or would-be teachers who were very anxious to be on the staff of instruction of the new University. They did not have to be sought. They brought themselves to the attention of the officials. In this one respect the gathering of the professors resembles the assembling of the students. Candidates offered themselves in large numbers. They began, indeed, to do this at about the same time prospective students began to report, two years before the University was to open. As early as October, 1890, six months before the University had a president, the Sec- retary began to receive applications for positions on the faculty. As in the case of the students, the number of these applications for professorships increased from month to month. They were all sent to Dr. Harper at New Haven. In February, 1891, Dr. Harper accepted the presidency, and applications for positions began to be addressed to him. He was still in the service of Yale University. All his leisure he was devoting to working out his educational plan for the new University, writing, with great care, the official bulletins embody- ing the details of the plan, and getting them through the press. He was overwhelmed with work. While thus engaged, in February