Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/415

 SOME IMPORTANT DEPARTMENTS 361 its most active friends among the leaders of the Seminary, but the President had been one of its professors, and Dr. Northrup and Dr. Hulbert were among his closest friends and advisers. Presi- dent Harper now resumed his old relation to the Old Testament work as Head of the Department of Semitics, which, by the terms of the union, was now a University department. The quarters assigned to the Divinity School were on the fourth floor of Cobb Hall. This brought the school into close touch with the rest of the University. The enrolment of students the first year, 1892-93, was two hundred and five, or more than one-fourth of the total enrolment in the University. The School during the whole period covered by this history was not only greatly strengthened in its work by its connection with the University, but it was much more intimately related to the life of the institution than is the case with some theological schools situated at universities. In the earlier years Divinity and graduate men belonged to the athletic teams, and Divinity students furnished captains for the football teams for three years. One of the advantages to the School of the connection with the University was the immediate strengthening of the faculty. The number of professors, including those in Semitics, Biblical and Patristic Greek, and Comparative Religion, whose work was mainly with theological students, was more than doubled. The number of courses open to students was multiplied many times over, as they were at liberty to do one-third of their work in other depart- ments of the University. During the Quinquennial Celebration in 1896 the Haskell Oriental Museum, thereafter the home of the Divinity School pending the erection of a Divinity Hall, was dedicated. In connection with the exercises the Divinity students gave an ancient synagogue service, chanting the Hebrew psalms and responses in the presence of a distinguished assembly of oriental scholars. A college degree had not been required by the old Seminary, but the Divinity School followed the growing strictness of the Graduate Schools in requiring a college degree equivalent to or equalized with that of the University. Nevertheless the