Located in the community of Hyde Park on Chicago’s South Side, just 15 minutes from the city center, the University of Chicago is uniquely positioned to contribute to, and draw from, the strength and diversity of this world-class metropolis. We have also made an indelible mark on the world at large.
CHANGING THE WORLD
Our faculty and students are pioneers, discoverers, teachers, scholars, and change agents. We ask tough questions, engage the world around us, and pursue knowledge with rigor because we believe in the transformative power of ideas.
SHAPING MINDS
Our undergraduate program is known for its emphasis on critical thinking and broad interdisciplinary exposure to the full range of intellectual discovery. Our College classrooms have a reputation for being hotbeds of exhilarating discourse. Discussions that start in the classroom often move to the dormitory hall, to the lunch table, and into the community. A Chicago education is a life-changing experience.
CREATING NEW DISCIPLINES
As the nation’s celebrated teacher of teachers, we place particular emphasis at the graduate level on the training of students for careers in academia and research. Committed to scholarship of the highest order, our faculty has made major contributions to existing bodies of knowledge and to the creation of new fields of study. Chicago scholars seek to break down artificial disciplinary barriers and frequently explore research and coursework outside their selected fields. We have long thrived in an atmosphere of free and open inquiry, which has led to classic studies of literary criticism and urban sociology, the development of ecology, and the study of religions as an academic field.
LEADING IN LAW AND ECONOMICS
Our legal scholars have pioneered the analysis of legal issues from an economic point of view; and more than any other university in the world, ours has made its mark in the reshaping of modern economics.
LEADING IN THE SCIENCES
It was at Chicago that REM sleep was discovered and carbon 14 dating was developed. Our scientists laid the mathematical foundations of genetic evolution; executed the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction; conceived the study of black holes; and performed the nation’s first living-donor liver transplant. Researchers here have also expanded our understanding of dinosaur evolution; reconstructed the evolution of the early universe in astonishing detail; proved that chromosomal defects can lead to cancer; and pioneered scientific archaeology of the ancient Near East.
WINNING AWARDS AND ACCOLADES
Eighty-two recipients of the Nobel Prize have been students, researchers, or faculty here. Since 1979, 13 of Chicago’s faculty have been honored with the prize—four in physics, eight in economics, and one in literature. Our creative writers and scholars have recently won the Pulitzer prize, the National Medal of Science, the Grammy award, and the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, among other major awards. Even undergraduates have the opportunity to study with a Nobel laureate here.
CHANGING THE FACE OF EDUCATION
Our impact on American higher education is legendary. It was here that the four-quarter system was developed and adult extension courses in the liberal arts were first conceived. We forever changed business education with the first executive MBA program, in 1943. Our coherent program of general education for undergraduates has been copied all over the nation, and college curricula throughout the country reflect our conception of the liberal arts undergraduate education.
CROSSING BOUNDARIES
At Chicago, campus and community are interconnected in partnerships that serve both to support the community and train future policymakers, social workers, artists, and social and political leaders. The University of Chicago Charter School, run by the Center for Urban School Improvement, serves Chicago public school students with four campuses for students in pre-kindergarten through high school. The Mandel Legal Aid Clinic teaches Law School students advocacy skills, professional ethics, and the effect of legal institutions on the poor, while assisting indigent clients. While the University of Chicago contributes specifically to the metropolis, the city in turn serves as a living laboratory for addressing social issues on a national and global scale
History
In the Beginning, An Idea
“If the first faculty had met in a tent, this still would have been a great university,” said President Robert Maynard Hutchins, the University’s fifth president, in his 1929 inaugural address.
The first faculty assembled on Opening Day, 1892, were indeed an impressive bunch: lured from colleges all over the country, they had been drawn to Chicago by the idea of a community of great scholars. As Charles O. Whitman, who left Clark University to head the biology department at the new institution, enthusiastically put it, “The time has now come when we must recognize and live up to the necessity for greater organic unity among kindred sciences.”
‘BRAN SPLINTER NEW’
William Rainey Harper, the University’s first president, envisioned a university that was “‘bran splinter new,’ yet as solid as the ancient hills”—a modern research university, combining an English-style undergraduate college and a German-style graduate research institute. The University of Chicago fulfilled Harper’s dream, quickly becoming a national leader in higher education and research: an institution of scholars unafraid to cross boundaries, share ideas, and ask difficult questions.
Winter on the main quadrangle, circa 1911. Hull Gate is in the foreground.
A SOLID INVESTMENT
Founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, the University’s land was donated by Marshall Field, owner of the legendary Chicago department store that bore his name. Rockefeller described the donation as “the best investment I ever made.”
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Harper, a young Biblical scholar from Yale, incorporated into Chicago’s early charter a commitment to gender equality in both undergraduate and graduate education and, remarkably, considering the initial intention to found a Baptist institution, to an atmosphere of nonsectarianism. This commitment to an accepting environment and equal opportunity distinguished the university in its early years and holds firm today.
A LEADER IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Chicago’s leadership was noted by Frederick Rudolph, professor of history at Williams College, who wrote in his 1962 study, The American College and University: A History, “No episode was more important in shaping the outlook and expectations of American higher education during those years than the founding of the University of Chicago, one of those events in American history that brought into focus the spirit of an age.”
EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS
One of Harper’s curricular innovations was to run classes year-round, allowing students to graduate at whatever time of year they completed their studies. Appropriately enough, the first class was held on a Saturday at 8:30 a.m. Just as appropriately, Harper and the other faculty members had pulled a feverish all-nighter beforehand, unpacking and arranging desks, chairs, and tables in the newly constructed Cobb Hall.
TRADITION AND INNOVATION
The first buildings copied the English Gothic style of architecture, complete with towers, spires, cloisters, and gargoyles. By 1910, the University had adopted more traditions, including a coat of arms that bore a phoenix emerging from the flames and a Latin motto, Crescat Scientia, Vita Excolatur (“Let knowledge grow from more to more; and so be human life enriched.”).
CHANGING THE FACE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
During Robert Hutchins’ tenure as president, from 1929 to 1951, he established many of the undergraduate curricular innovations that the University is known for today. These included a curriculum dedicated specifically to interdisciplinary education, comprehensive examinations instead of course grades, courses focused on the study of original documents and classic works, and an emphasis on discussion, rather than lectures. While the Core curriculum has changed substantially since Hutchins’ time, original texts and small discussion sections remain a hallmark of a Chicago education.
A 1930 Chicago Tribune editorial. By the end of the decade, Chicago had abolished its varsity football program.
FIRSTS IN ATHLETICS
In addition, Hutchins is famously remembered for another bold decision. With its emphasis on academics and research, it’s easy to forget that the University was a founding member of the Big Ten Conference. The University’s first athletic director, Amos Alonzo Stagg, was also the first tenured coach in the nation, holding the position of Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Physical Culture and Athletics. And in 1935, senior Jay Berwanger was awarded the first Heisman Trophy (which is proudly displayed today in the Ratner Athletic Center on campus). Just four years later, however, Hutchins abolished the football team, citing the need for Chicago to focus on academics rather than athletics. Varsity football was not reinstated until 1969.
EVOLUTION AND GROWTH
In the early 1950s, Hyde Park, once a solidly middle-class neighborhood, began to decline. In response, the University became a major sponsor of an urban renewal effort for Hyde Park, which profoundly affected both the neighborhood’s architecture and street plan. As just one example, in 1952, 55th Street had 22 taverns; today, the street features extra-wide lanes for automobile traffic, the twin towers of University Park Condominiums (I. M. Pei, 1961) and one bar, the Woodlawn Tap.
A 1969 edition of The University of Chicago Maroon after students occupied the Administration Building to protest a faculty appointment decision.
THE MODERN ERA
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the University began to add modern buildings to the formerly all-Gothic campus. These included the Laird Bell Law Quadrangle (Eero Saarinen, 1959) and the School of Social Service Administration (Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1965). In 1963, the University acquired the Robie House, built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1909. By 1970, the Regenstein Library—at seven stories, and almost a block square, the largest building on campus by far—occupied the site of Old Stagg Field.
The University experienced its share of student unrest during the 1960s, beginning in 1962, when students occupied President George Beadle’s office in a protest over the University’s off-campus rental policies. In 1969, more than 400 students, angry about the dismissal of a popular professor, occupied the Administration Building for two weeks
In 1978, Hanna Gray, Professor of History, was appointed President of the University, becoming the first woman to serve as president of a major research university. During Gray’s tenure, both undergraduate and graduate enrollment increased, and a new science quadrangle was completed.
CHICAGO’S SECOND CENTURY
In the 1990s, controversy returned to campus—but this time, the point of contention was the undergraduate curriculum. After a long discussion process that received national attention, the new curriculum was announced in 1998. While continuing the dedication to interdisciplinary general education, the new curriculum included a new emphasis on foreign language acquisition and expanded international and cross-cultural study opportunities.
The Ellen and Melvin Gordon Center for Integrative Science, which opened in 2006.
UNITING THE SCIENCES
Today, under the leadership of Robert J. Zimmer, the University’s 13th president, Chicago continues to evolve. Gothic architecture has made room for modern gems like the Charles M. Harper Center, home to the Graduate School of Business, and the future Reva and David Logan Center for Creative and Performing Arts, scheduled for completion in 2011. And the 400,000-square-foot Gordon Center for Integrative Science, which opened in 2006, can house 800 scientists, researchers, and students.
NATIONAL LABORATORIES
But amid this physical change, Chicago’s interdisciplinary approach to world-changing research and an insatiable commitment to inquiry continue, demonstrated in its partnerships with the Argonne and Fermi national laboratories, its world-class Medical Center, its tradition of accomplishment in economic research, its dedication to social services and community growth, and the many accomplishments of its faculty, researchers, and students.
CONTINUING THE TRADITION
Harper articulated his hope and vision for the University of Chicago at the very first faculty meeting in 1892, saying: “The question before us is how to become one in spirit, not necessarily in opinion.”
The University’s commitment to answering that question—and many others—continues to guide it today.
As President Zimmer said in his address at Chicago’s 487th convocation, “If we take ourselves back to the University in its early years, we would find many major differences from what we observe today…And yet, many of us connected to this university feel that we might just as easily have been there—that going back to the University in its early days, or in fact at any time since its inception, we would know unmistakably that we were at the University of Chicago.
“Why is this? The University of Chicago, from its very inception, has been driven by a singular focus on inquiry…with a firm belief in the value of open, rigorous, and intense inquiry and a common understanding that this must be the defining feature of this university. Everything about the University of Chicago that we recognize as distinctive flows from this commitment.
Academics
Our academic programs are of the highest caliber because we believe in the transformative power of ideas.
Some of the most influential academic movements are taking place at the University of Chicago. We are pioneers in economics, sociology, literary criticism, and legal education, and we are the home to the country’s largest university press.
CRITICAL THINKING AT OUR CORE
We value an interdisciplinary undergraduate education with an emphasis on critical thinking and discussion of original texts. Undergraduate students in the College have the opportunity to learn in small classes and major in one of our 49 areas of study.
MAKING INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS
We bring together notable scholars and academics from broad disciplines to foster an awareness of the permanent questions at the origin of learned inquiry. With more than 70 interdisciplinary workshops, we provide a forum for graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars throughout the world to present scholarly work in progress.
EXCHANGING IDEAS WORLDWIDE
We appreciate the exchange of ideas, cultural understanding, and breadth of knowledge that result from international study. With 7 international centers and the Center in Paris, our faculty and students engage in intellectual discovery all over the world. Each year, the College awards more than 100 summer international travel grants to support undergraduate students in intensive language study and research abroad. Additionally, the Chicago Booth School of Business Executive MBA Program has a campus in cities on three continents, while the Law School has a broad commitment to the study and practice of International Law
Research
THE POWER OF IDEAS
At the University of Chicago, we take seriously our part in the enormous task of generating new knowledge for the benefit of present and future generations. Our agenda-setting faculty crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries to transform the way we understand business, economics, history, law, literature, religion, physics, chemistry, and biology and medicine, among other fields. In this spirit of discovery, we train future generations of scholars, scientists, educators, and world leaders.
TRANSFORMATIVE TECHNOLOGY
As technology pioneers, we are fully engaged in the process of preparing our most beneficial, most practical, and innovative scientific discoveries for the marketplace. As we create new ideas for the marketplace, we also generate revenues for research and education.
NATIONAL LABORATORIES
The University of Chicago manages, supports, and engages with two major federal research centers where cutting-edge science is always underway: Argonne National Laboratory and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. Together these great laboratories attract $900 million annually in federal research funding and employ 5,000 Illinois residents. Argonne and Fermi are leaders in ensuring U.S. competitiveness in the global economy, and providing unmatched science talent and capacity for our region and its people and economy. The research that takes place in them, often in collaboration with Illinois universities, contributes to our nation’s environmental, energy, and national security.
Athletics
At the University of Chicago, the philosophy of the intercollegiate athletic program directly supports the College’s commitment to excellence. Intercollegiate athletics are considered a component of a liberal education, complementary to its central academic mission. A diverse, challenging athletic program supplements the rigorous academic curriculum. The lessons learned through athletic endeavors represent an invaluable part of the nonacademic aspects of a balanced education.
The primary focus of the intercollegiate athletic program is the student athlete. The goal is a positive educational experience. Participation in the intercollegiate athletic program should enhance an individual’s personal, educational, and social development. Achieving this goal is based on a commitment to excellence. The Department maintains an environment that supports the student athletes’ commitment to achieving their full potential. The arena in which this occurs is the competitive environment. The preparation for, and participation in, intercollegiate athletic competition creates a focal point for learning and provides valuable feedback on the progress of development.
In keeping with its long-standing traditions and policies, the University of Chicago, in admissions, employment, and access to programs, considers students on the basis of individual merit and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, or other factors prohibited by law.
Implications
The athletic program is an extracurricular activity that reflects the quality of the academic environment within which it exists. As a founding member of the University Athletic Association, Chicago shares the belief that academic excellence and athletic excellence are not mutually exclusive. The talented student is encouraged to achieve competitive success as well as academic distinction.
The University of Chicago, through its membership in the UAA, demonstrates a clear and firm commitment to the integration of athletics into the fabric of higher education. Participants receive the same treatment as other students in admissions, advising, course, selection, grading, living accommodations, and financial aid. Student-athletes are just that— students first and athletes second.Teaching and leadership are basic goals of the Department. Athletic teams should have the benefit of qualified coaching— capable individuals chosen for professional competence and commitment to the well-being of the student.
Aquatics
Designed by famed architect Cesar Pelli, the Gerald Ratner Athletics Center opened to the University of Chicago community in the fall of 2003.
Located at the southwest corner of Ellis Avenue and 56th Street, the air-conditioned, 150,000 square-foot facility features the 50-meter x 25-yard Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool; the Bernard DelGiordno fitness center with cardiovascular exercise equipment, selectorized weightlifting machines, and free weights; a multipurpose dance studio; an auxiliary gymnasium; classroom and meeting room space; permanent and day lockers and locker rooms; the University of Chicago Athletics Hall of Fame; and the athletic department offices.
The Ratner Center also serves as the home of the University of Chicago basketball, volleyball, and wrestling teams. The 1,658-seat competition gymnasium has played host to the 2004 and 2007 University Athletic Association Wrestling Championships and the 2006 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Wrestling Championship, while the Myers-McLoraine Swimming Pool was the site of the 2005 University Athletic Association Swimming and Diving Championship.
In its first year of operation, the $51 million facility received awards from the American Council of Engineering Company, the American Institute of Steel Construction, and the Consulting Engineers Council of Illinois for its excellence in engineering and design.
Among the notable features of the two-story facility is a roof is suspended by cables attached to five masts that peak 100 feet from the ground.
Recreational memberships are available for purchase for University and hospital faculty, staff, alumni, and retirees as well as their spouses and children. Registered University students may acquire memberships at no charge.
The Ratner Athletics Center is named in honor of Gerald Ratner (A.B.’35, J.D.’37), who was an outfielder for Chicago during its days as a member of the Big Ten Conference.
BERNARD J. DELGIORNO FITNESS CENTER
The Bernard J. DelGiorno Fitness Center within the Ratner Athletics Center occupies
two levels of the facility plus the rotunda area.
Open and full of light, the fitness center includes two selectorized weight circuits, free weights, rowing ergometers, elliptical trainers, recumbent and upright bicycles, step mills, and treadmills – many with cardio theatre options.
Additional fitness center opportunities are available at Henry Crown Field House, which include cardio, resistance, and weight training equipment.
The Ratner Center houses a competition gym and auxiliary gym, both of which are available to recreational users.
The Competition Gym features a practice and game site for varsity basketball, volleyball, and wrestling which converts to two recreational courts.
The Auxiliary Gym includes a multipurpose court that allows for indoor soccer, as well as basketball, volleyball, and badminton.
MYERS-MCLORAINE POOL
The most prominent feature of the Ratner Center is the Myers-McLoraine swimming pool.
The 50-meter by 25-yard pool includes up to 20 lanes in the 25-yard dimension and nine lanes in the 50-meter dimenson, and contains a moveable bulkhead which allows for simultaneous activities.
In addition, two one-meter diving boards are available. The pool depth ranges from four feet in the shallow section to 13.5 feet in the diving well.