Page:A History of the University of Chicago by Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed.djvu/462

 408 A HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO division among the University instructors. The President was authorized to prepare a statement on the whole question for pub- lication. This he did, discussing the matter at length, showing what the proposition did not involve and what it did involve, and considering it historically, administratively, architecturally , socially, and pedagogically, and in its relation to the charter of the Uni- versity. The new policy was put into operation in the spring of 1903. The vast building plans at first associated with it were found not to be in any way essential to it. Ellis Hall, already built, was given to Junior College men and Lexington Hall was built at small cost for women. It was soon found that the separation of the sexes was confined for the most part to first-year students. One of the objects aimed at, the relief of the congestion in Cobb Hall, was at once realized. Otherwise the life of the University went on just as before. The women of the University enjoyed not less, but having a building of their own, more advantages than before. The war suddenly ceased. One was tempted to ask, What was it all about? At the end of 1904 the Dean of the Junior Colleges reported to the President as follows: So far it may be said: (a) that it has quickly become a recognized insti- tution and causes neither comment nor discussion; (b) it meets most of the objections against throwing suddenly into constant association large numbers of young men and young women just leaving home and entering on a new experience; (c) it seems to meet the approval of the instructors to whom separated sections have been assigned; (d) it does not seem to have affected unfavorably the general social life of the institution; (e) it cannot be said to have shown any marked influence one way or the other upon the scholarship of the first-year Juniors. At the end of 1905 the Dean said in his report on this subject: The experience of another year has served only to emphasize the points which were tentatively suggested in the last report. On the whole it may fairly be said that the plan has accomplished what it was hoped might be brought about, and this without any of the serious consequences which in certain quar- ters were apprehended. With this the subject disappeared from the official reports. The application of the policy did not create a ripple on the surface of University life, and whether this so-called segregation was an important event must be left to the decision of the reader.