Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/287

 THE FIRST YEAR 249 Street and University Avenue, divided into store rooms below and apartments for flat-dwellers above, had been rented for them, and into these narrow quarters the biological departments and Physics, Chemistry, and Geology were crowded, and here they tried to do their work through the whole of the first year. As one of the professors said at the laying of the cornerstones of the four biological laboratories: "Our earlier days in the University were spent in the garrets and kitchens of a tenement house." But some- how the departments were housed, and the great enterprise was got under way. The Faculty Room in the south end of the first floor of Cobb Hall was also the President's office. Here the various faculties, the Council, and the Senate held their meetings. Of these there were fifty-three during the first year, which was a short one, having no Summer Quarter. Writing of this first year and of the meetings in this first Faculty Room, Professor F. W. Shepardson says: It is easy to imagine the many ideas and theories in the minds of members of the faculty. They were gathered from all parts of the country. [Some also came from foreign lands.] They represented many notions of college education. Their minds were active with ideas of what they hoped to accom- plish in the new institution. Without a centralizing power such a condition of things might have resulted in much friction and internal disorder, but the University had this centralizing force in the person of William Rainey Harper. .... His qualities of leadership were notable. He was a born commander. He had a tireless energy, which never flagged. He led always, never asking anyone to do a work which he was not willing to share. He had a method of approach to an individual which called forth the highest qualities within him. .... At the east end of the room the President had a large roll-top desk of natural-colored oak, and against this stretching away toward the west was a long oak table, which filled the center of the room. Around this the faculty meetings were held for a number of years It was in this Faculty Room, in conferences of various kinds, that the spirit of the University of Chicago was created under the matchless leadership of President Harper. From this room many a man went forth keyed up to a high pitch and filled with enthu- siastic determination to prove his ability to the leader who expected so much from him. As faculty meetings broke up the enthusiasm of the instructors was often notable. It was because of this inspiring leadership and because of the personal relationship which was established between each member of the Faculty and its official head,