Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/246

 2i 6 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO President Harper did not have to assemble a Divinity faculty. That faculty came with the Divinity School. As President of that School he added to its faculty a few men. Mr. Price, who had succeeded Dr. Harper as Professor of Hebrew in the Theological Seminary at Morgan Park, was transferred to the Semitic Depart- ment in the University, and there renewed his association with his former chief. The buildings at Morgan Park, which had been occupied by the Divinity School, now became the home of the University Academy. For this school a faculty was also assembled with the same care that was used in choosing the teaching force of the University proper. The Academy was a part of the system and the faculty had a place in the University Register among the other faculties. In arranging the work of instruction President Harper and Mr. Judson, during the four months preceding the opening of the University, organized it under twenty- three departments. This did not include the Divinity School, the University Extension Division, or the Academy. In only one of the twenty-three departments was no instruction given. Botany appeared in the Register as Department XXI, but no courses were offered in it during the first year. In all the other departments courses were given by from one to ten instructors. Thus complete was the organization from the opening day. In recommending appointments to the faculty President Harper made for himself one rule to which he scrupulously adhered. He never communicated to the Trustees the religious affiliations of the teachers he recommended. No Trustee ever asked to what denomination the nominee belonged, or whether he belonged to any. Most members of the first faculty were, indeed, devout men, but a religious census of the members of it was never taken. This attitude, illustrated in the choice of the first faculty, characterized the later history of the administration of the University as well. It was reverent, devout, Christian, but never in any way sectarian. This is the story of the gathering of the first faculty, incomplete in that so few of its members are named, but as complete as the limits of a chapter have allowed.