History of Northwestern University
Encyclopedia
The history of Northwestern University
can be traced back to a May 31, 1850 meeting of nine prominent Chicago businessmen who shared a desire to establish a university to serve the Northwest Territories
. On January 28, 1851, the Illinois General Assembly
granted a charter to the Trustees of the North Western University making it the first recognized university in Illinois. While the original founders were devout Methodists and affiliated the university with Methodist Episcopal Church
, they were committed to non-sectarian admissions.
John Evans purchased 379 acres (153.4 ha) of land along Lake Michigan in 1853 and Philo Judson began developing the plans for what would become the city of Evanston
. The first building, Old College, opened on November 5, 1855. As a private university that had to raise funds for construction, Northwestern sold $100 "perpetual scholarships" that entitled the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition. Northwestern admitted its first female students in 1869.
Northwestern first fielded an intercollegiate football team in 1882 and later became a founding member of the Big Ten Conference
. Northwestern became affiliated with professional schools of law, medicine, and dentistry throughout the Chicago area in the 1870s and 1880s. Enrollments grew through the 1890s and under Henry Wade Rogers
these new programs were integrated into a modern research university combining professional, graduate, and undergraduate programs, and emphasizing teaching along with research. The Association of American Universities
invited Northwestern to become a member in 1917. Under Walter Dill Scott
's presidency from 1920–1939, Northwestern began construction of an integrated campus in downtown Chicago designed by James Gamble Rogers
to house the professional schools, the establishment of the Kellogg School of Management
, as well as opening new buildings on the Evanston campus like Dyche Stadium and Deering Library
. A proposal to merge Northwestern with the University of Chicago
was considered in 1933 but rejected by Northwestern.
Like other American research universities, Northwestern was transformed by World War II
. Franklyn B. Snyder lead the university from 1939 to 1949 and during the war nearly 50,000 military officers and personnel were trained on the Evanston and Chicago campuses. After the war surging enrollments under the G.I. Bill drove drastic expansion of both campuses. J. Roscoe Miller
's tenure from 1949–1970 was responsible for the expansion of the Evanston campus with the construction of the Lakefill on Lake Michigan, growth of the faculty and new academic programs, as well as polarizing Vietnam-era student protests. Tensions between the Evanston community and the university were strained throughout much of the post-war era given episodes of disruptive student activism, Northwestern's exemption from property tax obligations, as well as restrictions on the sale of alcohol near campus under the original charter although the latter ban was lifted in 1972.
As government support of universities declined in the 1970s and 1980s, President Arnold R. Weber
oversaw the stabilization of university finances and revitalization of the campuses. As admissions to colleges and universities grew increasingly competitive throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Henry S. Bienen's tenure oversaw the increase in the number and quality of undergraduate applicants, continued expansion of the facilities and faculty, as well as renewed athletic competitiveness.
In 1850, Chicago
was only a 17 year-old city of 28,000 inhabitants that was increasingly becoming the center of trade for both steamships and railroads. The political and cultural environment of the mid-nineteenth century resulted in individual states granting charters to hundreds of small colleges rather than a few centralized national institutions as was typical in European countries. These colleges were highly sectarian and were motivated by the desire to both increase the quality of ministerial training as well as to discourage its young people from attending schools controlled by rival denominations. On May 31, 1850 John Evans
, Grant Goodrich, Henry W. Clark, Andrew Brown
, Orrington Lunt, Jabez Botsford, Richard Haney, Richard H. Blanchard, and Zodoc Hall met in a law office above a hardware store at 69 West Lake Street
in Chicago and resolved that "the interests of sanctified learning require the immediate establishment of a university in the Northwest under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church
." While each of the founders had diverse educational, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds, they were all devout Methodists as well as successful and established businessmen, ministers, and lawyers within Chicago. Despite their evangelism, the founders were committed to the establishment of a non-sectarian institution reflecting both the worldly educational philosophy of the Methodist movement and the political realities of the Illinois state legislature adverse to chartering church-affiliated colleges.
Goodrich was adept in drafting the charter and lobbying legislators who shared his abolitionist views and the charter was passed during the first session of the General Assembly and signed by Governor
Augustus French on January 28, 1851. Constituted as the "Trustees of the North Western University," the new institution was the first university in Illinois
and consisted of the founders as well as representatives from the neighboring Methodist conferences
. Evans and Lunt initially each donated $5,000 to endow the university which permitted them to purchase 16 lots on the northeast corner of Jackson Boulevard and LaSalle Street
for $8,000 as a potential site for the campus.
In 1853, the trustees elected Clark T. Hinman
as the first president of the university and committed to raising $200,000. Hinman insisted that a university, rather than a preparatory school, be constructed first and that it should be built outside of Chicago. Following Hinman's recommendation, Lunt began to survey for land that was both north of the city and abutting railways for a new university in the areas of Jefferson Park
and Ridgeville. A 360 acres (145.7 ha) parcel of dry, wooded bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan belonging to a Dr. John Foster (unrelated to Randolph S. Foster) was purchased by Evans for $25,000 in August 1853 as a site for the new campus. In 1855, the university charter was amended to declare that university property "shall be forever free from taxation for any kind and all purposes." The trustees aggressively used the property-tax-exempt status to purchase more of the surrounding farms and Northwestern land holdings grew as large as 680 acres (275.2 ha). In 1854, Philo Judson, Northwestern's business manager charged with surveying and plotting this real estate nicknamed the land "Evanston" in honor of founder John Evans. In 1857, the Illinois legislature changed the name of the village from Ridgeville to Evanston
and it became an incorporated city in 1863. The university undertook a major development effort to drain the swamps, clear and grade the land, and donated or sold land to permit the construction of streets, parks, schools, waterworks, and churches. Between 1860 and 1870, Evanston's population had grown from 831 to 3,062.
Hinman was also a fervent supporter of the nascent university and raised over $63,000 from the sale of the perpetual scholarships. These scholarships, purchased in four installments of $25, entitled the purchaser and his male heirs (after the university became coeducational, female heirs were also recognized) to free tuition in perpetuity and were sold until 1867. The University also sold less-expensive limited term "transferable" scholarships guaranteeing a certain number of years of free tuition. While Northwestern still recognizes the scholarship, only one family member per generation is entitled to the scholarship and it must be specifically bequeathed to a descendant. Hinman's untimely death in October 1854 resulted in the ad interim appointment of Professor Henry S. Noyes
as president until the 1856 election of Daniel Bonright, a Professor of Latin, and 1857 election of Randolph S. Foster, a Professor of Theology. Noyes would also succeed Foster, and again serve as president between 1860 and 1869.
Northwestern's first building, Old College, was designed by John M. Van Osdel
and opened for classes on November 5, 1855. Despite the vacancy in the presidency and only possessing two faculty members, mathematics Professor Henry S. Noyes
and Greek Professor William D. Godman, the first class enrolled 10 men in the College of Literature, Arts, and Sciences. Tuition for the first year was $45 annually and living expenses were $2.50 to $3 weekly. The progressive
Methodist trustees also petitioned the Legislature to amend their charter so as to prohibit the sale of liquor within 4 miles (6.4 km) of campus under pain of a $25 fine. Among other early faculty members was Professor of Latin Daniel Bonbright who would remain an active teacher for 58 years. Four students received bachelor's degrees at the first commencement in 1859.
In the antebellum period, campus literary societies
had sponsored debates on secession and slavery although the predominantly Methodist administration, faculty, and student body was staunchly abolitionist. Between 1861 and 1865, classes were curtailed by the Civil War
; between 59 and 77 students and staff fought in the Union armies, 2 fought for the Confederacy, and seven ultimately died in the war. Despite the hostilities, Northwestern offered its first masters program (philosophy) beginning in 1863.
In 1869, the trustees voted to admit women to the university "under the same terms and conditions as young men" and Evanston resident, Rebecca Hoag, became the first female student to enroll. In 1873, the Evanston College for Ladies
merged with Northwestern, increasing the enrollments of female undergraduates. Although, Sarah Rebecca Roland, class of 1874, was the first woman to graduate from Northwestern, Ada Kepley received a law degree in 1870 from the School of Law's predecessor, the Union College of Law. The university also established an alumni association in 1881.
The Evanston campus experienced dramatic growth during this era. University Hall
, designed by Gurdon P. Randall, opened in 1869 both to replace the temporary Old College and to inaugurate President Erastus O. Haven. Memorial Hall opened at the Garrett Seminary
in 1884, Dearborn Observatory
opened in 1887, and Lunt Library opened in 1894.
Despite the growth of the Evanston campus, the trustees sought to establish professional and academic schools within Chicago. In 1870, the Chicago Medical College, located in the south side of Chicago
, merged with a School of Medicine
founded in 1859. An 1873 agreement merged the Union College of Law and the Old University of Chicago
's Department of Law into a School of Law
that opened in 1876. A College of Dental and Oral Surgery established was also established in 1886, but closed in 2001. A School of Pharmacy was established in 1886, but folded in 1916. The Conservatory of Music, founded in 1891, became a permanent department in 1895. A "Settlement Association" was formed in 1892 to do social work in Chicago. By 1890, Northwestern became the first Midwestern university admitted to Phi Beta Kappa and the first Ph.D.
s were awarded (in chemistry and philosophy) in 1896.
Henry Wade Rogers
served as President between 1890 and 1900 and was an ardent supporter of student athletics. By 1900, Northwestern had the third-highest student enrollment of any university in the nation. The Class of 1902 presented a drinking fountain, but what would later become The Rock
, to the university as a senior gift. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt
visited campus.
Northwestern's seal, motto, and colors also emerged in this era. The first seal, adopted in June 1856, featured an open book radiating light circumscribed by "Northwestern University," much like the modern seal. In June 1890, the trustees adopted the Latin
motto "Quaecumque Sunt Vera" from Philippians 4:8 meaning "Whatsoever things are true." The book on the seal was also altered to include the Greek
text "ό λόγος πλήρης χάριτος καί άληθείας" (“ho logos pleres charitos kai aletheias”) from John 1:14 meaning “The Word…full of grace and truth.”
The University initially adopted black and gold as its official school colors in response to the growing popularity of intercollegiate athletics
and the need to differentiate teams, but when it was discovered that several other schools had the same colors, these colors were quickly dropped in favor of royal purple and gold in 1879. In 1892, the official color became only purple in response to prestigious Eastern universities
adopting single-color schemes as well.
, Edward Spencer '62 and other students from the Garrett Bible Institute
were credited with rescuing dozens of passengers. Following a public outcry over life-saving facilities and transportation safety, in 1871, the federal government granted the University a lifeboat and later, in 1876, constructed a life-saving station, both of which were manned and operated by students, near the Grosse Point reef and lighthouse. By the time the Coast Guard
assumed control of the station in 1916, it had remained the nation's only student-manned life-saving station; Northwestern students were credited with saving more than 400 people.
Northwestern was also home to several literary societies predating fraternal societies. The Adelphic, Hinman, and Ossoi societies published periodicals of essays, poems, and news items. These early periodicals were named The Evanstonian, The Academian, Tripod (1871–1880), and Vidette. In 1881, the Northwestern was published biweekly and ultimately evolved into the modern The Daily Northwestern
newspaper. The Northwestern University Press Company published the Northwestern out of the Gymnasium building until the Press moved off-campus in 1888. By 1900, the student newspapers were published out of the basement of Old College, before they were moved to the attic of Memorial Hall in the 1920s. After World War II, the offices of the student newspaper moved frequently until Norris Hall was completed in 1972.
in 1882. The earliest games were played on the meadow where Deering Library
now stands. In 1891, Knowlton L. Ames was appointed Northwestern's first football coach and work began constructing a stadium at the north end of campus that would be named Sheppard Field in honor of the University's business manager and lumber donor.
By 1892, football leagues began to be formed by Midwestern colleges and Northwestern. In 1895, Northwestern President Rogers joined with university presidents at the University of Chicago
, Michigan
, Wisconsin
, Minnesota
, Illinois, and Purdue
to develop regulations for intercollegiate athletics. A year later, the universities agreed to create Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, later the Western Conference, before ultimately becoming known as the Big Ten Conference
after Indiana
and Iowa
joined in 1899 and Ohio State University
joined in 1912. The University of Chicago would ultimately withdraw from the conference in 1946 and would be replaced by Michigan State University
. Northwestern won its first Big Ten football championship in 1903, although the sport was banned for two years beginning in 1905 following fan violence.
Men's basketball was introduced in 1901. Northwestern also had several athletics teams for women during this era including tennis
, field hockey
, and basketball
teams.
The university continued its expansion through the first half of the 20th century; opening several new professional schools, expanding the residential life on the Evanston campus, and establishing a campus for the professional schools in downtown Chicago. Although the University's tax-exempt status came into dispute, a 1908 Illinois Supreme Court removed the tax threat to university property. The original Patten Gymnasium was opened in 1908 to replace its dilapidated predecessor and house the burgeoning athletic programs. In 1914, the North Quads were completed as a part of a $500,000 Fraternity/Men's Dormitory plan. The buildings, designed by Palmer, Hornbostel, and Jones were planned in quadrangle
s and would house seven fraternities and four residence halls. Harris Hall opened in 1915 opposite University Hall to house the social sciences and the new department of political science. Dyche Stadium, Northwestern's fourth football stadium, was completed in 1926 and opened with a capacity of 47,000 seats. The Women's Quads were dedicated in 1926 with 2 residential halls and 14 sororities. The Western Episcopal Seminary buildings were opened in 1928 and merged with the Seabury Seminary in 1933 to form the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
.
While Lunt Hall had served as the university's primary library since 1894, by the 1920s the continued expansion of the university and its academic offerings demanded a new repository space. Charles Deering
bequested $1 million for a project of the University's choosing after his death in 1927. James Gamble Rogers
, having completed the Chicago campus, was retained again to design an expanded library. The Deering Library
opened in January 1933, featured Roger's trademark collegiate neo-Gothic style, and had space for 500,000 volumes.
The School of Commerce opened in 1908 in downtown Chicago under the leadership of economics professor Willard E. Hotchkiss. The school initially offered evening classes in accounting and business law before starting a bachelor of business administration program in 1912. The school became a founding member of the American Association of Collegiate Business Schools
in 1917 and continued to formalize its curriculum over the next decade by introducing a full-time Bachelor of Science in Commerce on the Evanston campus, launching MBA and Ph.D. degrees, and establishing the second business research center in the nation.
The College of Liberal Arts began offering evening courses for teachers in 1903 on the Evanston campus and in 1933 the popularity of the program led to the foundation of an evening undergraduate program on the Chicago campus named University College.
The Medill School of Journalism
was established in 1921 and named in honor of Chicago Tribune
owner and editor Joseph Medill
. The School of Education was founded in 1926. The Pharmacy school transferred to the University of Illinois in 1917. The Cumnock School of Oratory was renamed the School of Speech in 1921 and the theater department was merged into the same in 1926. The Northwestern University Press
was opened in 1922.
In 1920, Walter Dill Scott
was inaugurated as the first non-Methodist University president and presided over the launch of a $25.3 million fund-raising campaign. The campaign brought several major changes that significantly centralized the university under Scott's administration, including the dissolution of boards of trustees for each of the professional schools, the replacing school-based alumni groups with a general alumni association, and moving forward with plans to purchase land in the Streeterville
neighborhood of downtown Chicago to create a campus for the professional schools. By the time Franklyn Snyder replaced Scott as President in 1939, Scott's 19 years in office was more than twice as long as any previous President's tenure. A long-standing campaign to build a student activity center was reinvigorated by the announcement of his retirement and the resulting building was named in his honor. Completed in 1940, Scott Hall was designed by Rogers and featured an auditorium, offices for student and alumni organizations, conference and social rooms, and apartments for university guests.
Homecoming became a regular fall event starting in 1911. "Go, U Northwestern" was written by Theodore Van Etten, a member of the university's marching band, and premiered during the final football game of the season in 1912. The first university student council was formed in 1914 and the first Waa-Mu show opened in 1929. Kenneth Huszagh
was the first Northwestern athlete to participate in the Olympics, winning the bronze medal in the 100 meter freestyle
and a silver in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay at the 1912 Summer Olympics
. The athletic department adopted "Wildcats" as the moniker for Northwestern's athletic teams in 1924. The first
NCAA men's basketball championship
was held in Patten Gymnasium in 1939 where Oregon
defeated Ohio State
, 46–33. Northwestern
won the first NCAA Fencing team championship
in 1941.
Northwestern's professional schools had been founded or affiliated with the university at various times in its history and consequently their facilities were scattered throughout Chicago. In connection with a 1917 master plan for a central Chicago campus and President Scott's capital campaign, 8.5 acres (3.4 ha) of land were purchased at the Corner of Chicago Avenue and Lake Shore Drive
for $1.5 million in 1920. George McKinlock donated $250,000 to have the campus named in honor of his son, Alexander McKinlock Jr. who died in World War I, but his financial losses during the Great Depression
prevented him from fulfilling his pledge, so the university forgave his debt and the name defaulted to the Chicago campus instead. James Gamble Rogers
was given a commission to create a master plan for the major buildings on the new campus which he designed in a collegiate gothic style. In 1923, Mrs. Montgomery Ward
donated $8 million to the campaign to fund the construction of the Montgomery Ward Memorial Building to house the medical and dental schools and create endowments for faculty chairs, research grants, scholarships, and building maintenance. The building would become the first skyscraper housing academic facilities in the United states. In addition to the Ward Building, Rogers designed Wieboldt Hall to house facilities for the School of Commerce and Levy Mayer Hall to house the School of Law. The new campus comprising these three new buildings were dedicated during a two-day long ceremony in June 1927. The Chicago campus continued to expand with the addition of Thorn Hall in 1931 and Abbott Hall in 1939.
, presented a proposal to Northwestern's Board of Trustees and President Scott to merge the two schools into an organization named the "Universities of Chicago". Motivated by financial difficulties of the Great Depression, both presidents envisioned the efficiencies to be achieved by merging the eighth-largest university in the nation by enrollments (Northwestern's approximately 14,000 students) with the 15th (Chicago's approximately 12,000 enrollments) and creating a three-campus system with graduate work based out of the Hyde Park
campus, professional schools on Northwestern's newly-opened Chicago campus, and undergraduate professional and liberal arts education on the Evanston campus. There were significant synergies to be achieved under the proposal since Northwestern's poorly-endowed Graduate School and School of Education would be assumed by Chicago's more prestigious programs while Chicago's unremarkable schools of law, commerce, and continuing education would be merged with Northwestern's more respected programs.
The initial proposal was so secret that the investigatory committee was titled the "Special Committee on an Important Problem" but by November 1933 the proposal had become public knowledge and created a strong backlash among Northwestern students, faculty, and alumni as well as members of the Evanston community. Opponents accused the University of Chicago of attempting to appropriate Northwestern's tax-free charter to avoid $300,000 in annual taxes, while an anonymous author promised a $25 million endowment on the condition that there be only one university in the Chicago area, while still other rumors purported that the merger was a plan for the city of Chicago
to annex Evanston. However, a significant stumbling block concerned each university's respective medical schools which differed significantly in their respective approaches to teaching and research.
The concerted opposition by the medical school combined with the increasingly vocal concerns of the alumni, deans, and trustees as well as the untimely death of Melvin Taylor, who had led Northwestern's merger committee, caused both universities' boards of trustees to reject the proposal in February 1934. However, the resulting debates highlighted differences in philosophy regarding the scope and practice of undergraduate, graduate, and profession education, the relationship between teaching and research, the role of students, faculty, and alumni in determining a university's identity and mission, and a university's obligation to the city and nation. Despite the failure, both presidents supported the idea; Hutchins later lamented that the merger was "one of the lost opportunities of American education," while Scott wrote that the merger's failure was "a great regret to me."
The College of Engineering was initially founded in 1873 with a single degree program in engineering, but folded four years later due to a lack of funding. The program was re-opened in 1909 under the direction of the College of Liberal Arts and was housed in the Swift Hall of Engineering (gifted by Gustavus Swift) which also opened the same year. The program became an independent school in the mid-1920s and expanded significantly after Waler P. Murphy, a railroad entrepreneur, donated over $35 million in two separate bequests to build the Technological Institute
and endow the school. The Technology Institute was designed by Holabird and Root and featured bas-reliefs designed by Edgar Miller
"depicting man’s ongoing efforts to conquer nature" in the Lannon stone. Construction required relocating the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house and Dearborn Observatory
and demolishing Patten Gymnasium. When it was completed in 1942, it contained 350 rooms and 430000 square feet (39,948.3 m²) housing laboratories, classrooms, and offices for the four engineering departments as well as the chemistry and physics departments.
to support and assist the Allies in World War I
. The doctors were drawn from Northwestern, Rush University Medical Center
, the University of Illinois
and nurses came from Cook County
, Mercy
, Augustana, and Evanston hospitals. The unit comprised 330 officers, doctors, nurses, and enlisted men and was officially titled the U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 12 (Chicago Unit) but was commonly known as the Northwestern University Base Hospital. The unit landed at Boulogne
, France on June 11, 1917 to relieve the British Expeditionary Force's Base Hospital No. 18, making it the second U.S. hospital to reach France. Hospital No. 12 operated a 1,500 bed and is credited with treating 60,000 patients by the time it returned to the U.S. in April 1919. Two of the unit's commanding officers later became Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. 3,606 students served in World War I
and 65 died by the 1918 armistice
.
Navy ROTC
(NROTC) was established on campus at the request of President Scott
in 1926. The founding of the program coincided with the establishment of NROTC branches at Harvard, Yale
, Georgia Tech, the University of California
, and the University of Washington
. Pacifists disrupted a NROTC parade in the mid-1930s to protest the collaboration of a civilian university with the military as well as militarism
in general, foreshadowing the controversies that would erupt during the late 1960s over the military presence on-campus.
Following the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor
, Northwestern President Franklyn Bliss Snyder
telegraphed President Franklin D. Roosevelt
to volunteer the "entire resources of the University." The university admitted students who had finished three years of high school as well as instituting summer sessions to allow them to complete their degree requirements before the minimum draft age of 20. Notably, Northwestern switched its academic calendar
from a semester to a quarter system to facilitate these changes and this quarter system persisted after the war into the present day.
During the war, Northwestern trained 49,725 military personnel through eleven training programs. The existing NROTC program proved to be a boon to the university as the War Department
and Navy
used Northwestern facilities to train 36,124 sailors over the course of the war, leading Northwestern to be called the "Annapolis of the Midwest." The programs included the Navy V-7 Naval Reserve Midshipman's School
, V-5 Naval Aviation Preparatory Program, V-1 Accredited College Program, H-V(P) Medical and Dental Program, the V-12 Navy College Training Program
, and training schools for cooks, bakers, and radio operators. The scale and importance of these programs led the Navy to cordon off the Lunt Building, Swift Hall, and Shanley Pavilion as well as taking over the dormitories and fraternities on the north campus. The Technological Institute housed training programs for the Radio School and V-12 Unit. The Army also established a signal corps training school on the Evanston campus and a civil affairs training school on the Chicago campus.
The Midshipmen's Training School was the largest of these programs and was established in the newly-constructed Abbott Hall dormitory on the Chicago campus in 1940. This school graduated 25 classes of "90-day wonders" (a total of 26,750 ensigns) by the end of the war, including future President
John F. Kennedy
. Northwestern's medical and dental schools prepared 761 doctors and 478 dentists for Army and Navy service. Additionally, General Hospital No. 12 was reactivated by Drs. Michael L. Mason and J. Roscoe Miller in February 1942 and supported the North African campaign
from December 1942 to December 1943 and Italian campaign
until the September 1945. Northwestern medical personnel also supported Station Hospital No. 48 which served during the Guadalcanal Campaign
.
Despite the extensive on-campus activity, enrollments plummeted from 19,691 in 1940 to 13,470 in 1944. In 1942, Snyder ordered that students of Japanese descent be barred from enrolling to comply with his interpretation of government internment policy
, although this controversial decision was reversed after an outcry from the press and community. Over 11,000 alumni and 400 faculty and staff members fought in World War II and more than 300 died. 537 major decorations were awarded to Northwestern alumni, including two Medal of Honor
s awarded posthumously to John L. Jerstad
and Walter E. Truemper
.
s and other temporary structures were erected near Dysche Stadium, on Deering Meadow, and elsewhere on campus to house the influx of students returning to complete their educations under the G.I. Bill.
Northwestern celebrated its centennial in 1951 and was the occasion to launch an $8.25 million fund raising campaign to build Centennial Hall and Memorial Hall on the Evanston campus and an Evening Study Hall on the Chicago campus. The centennial year celebrations consisted of five formal convocations, six academic conferences, a two-day Centennial Jubilee organized by the city of Evanston, and many other events by groups of students, alumni, and learned societies.
In 1948, Melville J. Herskovits
, a student of Franz Boas
and founder of the University's anthropology department in 1928, launched the first major interdisciplinary program in African
and African American studies
, titled the Program of African Studies. In connection with this program, he aggressively expanded the existing Library of African Studies until his death in 1963. The library was named in his honor now possesses more than 285,000 volumes, 250 newspapers, and extensive collections of maps, posters, photographs, and other miscellaneous items that make this collection the largest in the world.
Between 1949 and 1974, over forty buildings were constructed or remodeled on the Evanston campus. Sargent Hall opened in 1950, Shepard Hall opened in 1952, Kresge Hall, Bobb Hall, and McCulloch Hall opened in 1955, Elder Hall was completed in 1959, Allison Hall in 1960, and Alice Millar Chapel was finished in 1964.
The first computer on campus was installed in Dearborn Observatory
in 1949 and in 1950 a dedicated Computer Center opened featuring an IBM 650
mainframe computer. A $2 million IBM 709
was installed in July 1961 in the Technological Institute
for computing satellite orbits among other problems. The Vogelback Computing Center was the first building to open on the Lakefill campus in October 1964. Starting in 1970, Northwestern's Chess program
won eight of the first ten North American Computer Chess Championship
s.
against California
because Michigan
, the Big 9 Conference
champion, was barred from going in successive years. The game was memorable on several counts. Cal had a perfect 10–0 record going into the game and had averaged 28 points per game over the course of the season while the Wildcats had a record of 8–2 for the season to finish 2nd place in the conference. Although neither team had faced each other before, Coach Pappy Waldorf
had been the Wildcats' head coach since 1935 until he left for the Golden Bears in 1946. NU's Coach Voight, only 33 years old, had played under Waldorf and had been named an All-American in 1938. In the first quarter, Frank Aschenbrenner
broke a Rose Bowl record when he ran for a 73 yards (66.8 m) touchdown
although the game remained close through the third quarter. Finally, with three minutes left to play in the fourth quarter and down by one point, Northwestern launched an 88 yards (80.5 m) drive including a Statue of Liberty play
for a 45 yards (41.1 m) touchdown run to defeat Cal 20–14.
in the country, in the post-War era the university and surrounding community remained highly conservative and resistant to changes in traditional social practices. Although as many as five black students were admitted every year, they were excluded from on-campus housing until the 1947 establishment of the euphemistically-titled "International House" opened for black women. Asbury Hall was purchased in 1949 to likewise house black men, but a group of progressive white students also moved in despite the wishes of Snyder's administration to keep the student housing segregated. Asbury would become a center for civil rights activism with its students organizing letter-writing campaigns to recruit more African American
and Jewish American students to Northwestern despite the quotas imposed on these groups by the Admissions office.
In the fall of 1956, Sherman Wu
, son of Taiwan
governor K.C. Wu, was granted a bid to pledge at the Psi Upsilon
fraternity but was dismissed after his fellow pledges threatened to quit on account of his race
. The fraternity stood by the decision to dismiss Wu stating, "Having an Oriental in the house would degrade [the fraternity] in the eyes of other fraternities and make it more difficult to get dates from the sororities." Despite coming under increasing pressure after story broke nationally, the administration asserted that it would not interfere with fraternities' selection processes. Wu received bids to pledge at two other fraternities, but it was not until the mid 1960s that racial and religious discrimination was outlawed in Greek organizations at Northwestern.
Between 1966 and 1968, Northwestern increased African American enrollments from less than 50 to 160. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
in April 1968, African American students on campus began expressing increasingly militant and separatist views demanding the administration increase recruitment activity and provide separate facilities for black students. After the university rejected their demands, on May 3, 1968 a group of 100 African American students identifying themselves as For Members Only and the Afro-American Student Union barricaded themselves the Bursar's Office and began a sit in, demanding the university implement an admissions quota, increase financial aid, construct an all-black dorm and student center, create a Black Studies curriculum, and desegregate the university's real estate holdings in Evanston. In light of controversy surrounding the student protests
at Columbia
and Berkeley that spring, negotiations between Dean of Students Roland Hinz and AASU leader James Turner led to the sit-in dispersing peacefully after 38 hours. Although the administration rejected demands for racial preferences in admissions and financial aid, it made several concessions regarding desegregation, increasing student participation in policy matters, and developing a Department of Afro-American Studies.
In March 1969, an incident involving a group of black students raiding the Triangle fraternity house and subsequent university disciplinary action against the students led to a hunger strike
by the For Members Only group to protest the allegedly unequal punishment of the black students and tacit support of racism on campus.
was met by little protest and much acclaim from both the student body and faculty. However, Northwestern students became increasingly politically active and engaged in protests and strikes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. A chapter of Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS) was founded in 1965. Demonstrations mainly stemmed from student opposition to the Vietnam War
but also included protests against the draft
, Navy ROTC, defense industry corporations, and the Nixon administration as well as supporting affirmative action
, environmentalism
, women's rights
, and other instances of New Left
social activism. Despite the size of the protests, the student body was split between professionally-oriented and traditional student body and activists. Some fraternities were known to antagonize protesters by playing patriotic music and jeering them from their houses.
In addition to anti-war demonstrations, students also protested against the university's alleged complicity in the military industrial complex with regards to corporate and military recruitment on campus, military applications of research, and financial support by corporations and the military. Companies like Dow Chemical were targeted when they came on-campus to conduct interviews because of their involvement in the manufacture or research of war material and Navy ROTC activities were also frequent target of anti-war demonstrations.
After the Kent State shootings
, the Northwestern student body and Faculty Senate voted to suspend classes starting May 6 and join a nationwide strike in protest of the Vietnam war and violence at Kent State. The student protesters demanded that campus security be disarmed, the University endowment divest itself from "war stocks", and Northwestern's NROTC program be stripped of academic credit and its facilities turned into a childcare center. Much to the consternation of Evanston residents, student protesters also erected a barricade at the major intersection of Sheridan Road
and Chicago Avenue. A May 8 rally at Dyche Stadium that attracted approximately 5,000 students and community members prompted Evanston city officials to request activation of the National Guard
, but this potential conflict was avoided after the Guard were diverted away from the stadium. The Rebecca Crown center, Vogelback computing center, and Lunt Hall (housing the NROTC program) were closed following disturbances by student protestors. On May 13, a group of at least 33 students vandalized NROTC's headquarters, but this was the only violent episode of the strike. The strike ended and campus re-opened for class on May 13, the longest span of time Northwestern has ever been closed.
Miller was promoted from President to Chancellor in March 1969 in the midst of student and faculty protests. The post remained vacant for sixteen months until Robert Strotz, a member of the Economics faculty since 1947 and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 1966, was unanimously elected by the trustees to be President in July 1970. While Strotz's appointment was opposed by the Daily Northwestern and the Associated Student Government president owing to his positions opposing the closure of campus and politicization of university classes, he was supported by the faculty.
In 1972, students voted to change the name of the athletic teams from "Wildcats" to "Purple Haze" but alumni and athletic directors opposed the change.
A plan for a residential college system was proposed in the early 1970s in response to a 1969 faculty committee report recommending the creation of smaller intellectual communities. The first five residential colleges opened in 1972: Urban Studies, Philosophy and Religion, and three multi-thematic colleges Lindgren, Shepard, Willard. The Women's residential college opened in 1976, the Communications college in 1981, International Studies in 1981, Fine and Performing Arts in 1982, Commerce and Industry in 1984, and Public Affairs in 1992.
When Arnold R. Weber
was elected president in 1985, the university not only was in the midst of a funding crisis after cuts in federal aid but was also suffering from diminished national prestige.
In 1990, the Evanston City Council attempted to impose the nation's first tax on college tuition for students studying at colleges in the city (including Northwestern University, Kendall College, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary) to cover a budget shortfall but the measure failed.
In 1976, two years after he was tenured, Professor Arthur Butz
published a Holocaust denial
treatise titled the The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
. His controversial views highlighted the difficulties of balancing academic freedom of speech and the university's obligations to support tenured faculty, with the university's public image as Butz has been the subject of departmental censure, University press releases, and student and faculty petitions demanding his resignation. Northwestern also attracted controversy in 1991 for hiring former Weather Underground and FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive
Bernardine Dohrn
as an adjunct faculty member in the Law School.
The Northwestern football team
was ranked first during the first two weeks of the season in 1962 and finished second in the Big Ten
in 1970 and 1971. Between September 15, 1979 and September 25, 1982, the Wildcats beat the previous NCAA record losing streak of 28 games by losing 34 games in a row.
David Protess launched the Medill Innocence Project in 1999 after he and students helped demonstrated the innocence of death row members.
The Rock was moved 30 feet (9 m) to the east as part of a beautification project in the plaza between Harris Hall and University Hall, but cracked after workers dug up its foundation.
In 1998, two former Northwestern basketball
players, Kenneth Dion Lee and Dewey Williams, were charged and convicted for sports bribery. The players were part of a gambling ring and received money to fix
three games against other Big 10 schools during the 1995 season. The football team
became embroiled in a different betting scandal later that year when federal prosecutors indicted four former players for perjury related to betting
on their own games. In August 2001, Rashidi Williams, a senior safety, collapsed and died during practice from an asthma attack. An autopsy revealed that he had ephedrine
, a stimulant
banned by the NCAA, in his system which prompted Northwestern to investigate the prevalence of stimulants and other banned substances across all of its athletic programs.
Henry S. Bienen, a political scientist and dean of Princeton University
's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
, was elected president of Northwestern in June 1994.
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
can be traced back to a May 31, 1850 meeting of nine prominent Chicago businessmen who shared a desire to establish a university to serve the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territory
The Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, more commonly known as the Northwest Territory, was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 13, 1787, until March 1, 1803, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Ohio...
. On January 28, 1851, the Illinois General Assembly
Illinois General Assembly
The Illinois General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois and comprises the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. Illinois has 59 legislative districts, with two...
granted a charter to the Trustees of the North Western University making it the first recognized university in Illinois. While the original founders were devout Methodists and affiliated the university with Methodist Episcopal Church
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...
, they were committed to non-sectarian admissions.
John Evans purchased 379 acres (153.4 ha) of land along Lake Michigan in 1853 and Philo Judson began developing the plans for what would become the city of Evanston
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
. The first building, Old College, opened on November 5, 1855. As a private university that had to raise funds for construction, Northwestern sold $100 "perpetual scholarships" that entitled the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition. Northwestern admitted its first female students in 1869.
Northwestern first fielded an intercollegiate football team in 1882 and later became a founding member of the Big Ten Conference
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
. Northwestern became affiliated with professional schools of law, medicine, and dentistry throughout the Chicago area in the 1870s and 1880s. Enrollments grew through the 1890s and under Henry Wade Rogers
Henry Wade Rogers
Henry Wade Rogers was a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1913 to 1926.-Biography:...
these new programs were integrated into a modern research university combining professional, graduate, and undergraduate programs, and emphasizing teaching along with research. The Association of American Universities
Association of American Universities
The Association of American Universities is an organization of leading research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education...
invited Northwestern to become a member in 1917. Under Walter Dill Scott
Walter Dill Scott
Walter Dill Scott was one of the first applied psychologists. He applied psychology to various business practices such as personnel selection and advertising.-Life:...
's presidency from 1920–1939, Northwestern began construction of an integrated campus in downtown Chicago designed by James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers was an American architect best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere....
to house the professional schools, the establishment of the Kellogg School of Management
Kellogg School of Management
The Kellogg School of Management is the business school of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, downtown Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida. Kellogg offers full-time, part-time, and executive programs, as well as partnering programs with schools in China, India, Hong Kong, Israel,...
, as well as opening new buildings on the Evanston campus like Dyche Stadium and Deering Library
Deering Library
Charles Deering Library is located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Deering Library houses the Government Publications Department and the Northwestern University Archives on the first floor, the Music Library on the second floor, and the Map Collection,...
. A proposal to merge Northwestern with the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
was considered in 1933 but rejected by Northwestern.
Like other American research universities, Northwestern was transformed by World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Franklyn B. Snyder lead the university from 1939 to 1949 and during the war nearly 50,000 military officers and personnel were trained on the Evanston and Chicago campuses. After the war surging enrollments under the G.I. Bill drove drastic expansion of both campuses. J. Roscoe Miller
J. Roscoe Miller
James Roscoe Miller was the twelfth president of Northwestern University, serving between 1949 and 1970.During his tenure, Northwestern substantially increased the size of its Evanston campus, constructing many new buildings on adjacent land reclaimed by filling in Lake Michigan...
's tenure from 1949–1970 was responsible for the expansion of the Evanston campus with the construction of the Lakefill on Lake Michigan, growth of the faculty and new academic programs, as well as polarizing Vietnam-era student protests. Tensions between the Evanston community and the university were strained throughout much of the post-war era given episodes of disruptive student activism, Northwestern's exemption from property tax obligations, as well as restrictions on the sale of alcohol near campus under the original charter although the latter ban was lifted in 1972.
As government support of universities declined in the 1970s and 1980s, President Arnold R. Weber
Arnold R. Weber
Arnold Robert Weber was the president of Northwestern University from 1985–1994. His tenure at Northwestern was remarkable for stabilizing the university's finances and enhancing the Evanston campus environment.-Biography:...
oversaw the stabilization of university finances and revitalization of the campuses. As admissions to colleges and universities grew increasingly competitive throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Henry S. Bienen's tenure oversaw the increase in the number and quality of undergraduate applicants, continued expansion of the facilities and faculty, as well as renewed athletic competitiveness.
Foundation
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
was only a 17 year-old city of 28,000 inhabitants that was increasingly becoming the center of trade for both steamships and railroads. The political and cultural environment of the mid-nineteenth century resulted in individual states granting charters to hundreds of small colleges rather than a few centralized national institutions as was typical in European countries. These colleges were highly sectarian and were motivated by the desire to both increase the quality of ministerial training as well as to discourage its young people from attending schools controlled by rival denominations. On May 31, 1850 John Evans
John Evans (governor)
John Evans was a U.S. politician, physician, railroad promoter, Governor of the Territory of Colorado, and namesake of Evanston, Illinois; Evans, Colorado; and Mount Evans, Colorado...
, Grant Goodrich, Henry W. Clark, Andrew Brown
Andrew Brown
Andrew Aaron Brown is a professional baseball relief pitcher who is currently a free agent. He has played parts of three seasons in Major League Baseball for the Cleveland Indians and Oakland Athletics....
, Orrington Lunt, Jabez Botsford, Richard Haney, Richard H. Blanchard, and Zodoc Hall met in a law office above a hardware store at 69 West Lake Street
Lake Street (Chicago)
Lake Street is an east-west arterial road in Chicago and its suburbs. Part of Lake Street is designated as U.S. Route 20. Lake Street begins in the city of Chicago and travels west and slightly north to the Chicago suburbs. It ends at the eastern terminus of the Elgin Bypass around Elgin, where...
in Chicago and resolved that "the interests of sanctified learning require the immediate establishment of a university in the Northwest under the patronage of the Methodist Episcopal Church
Methodist Episcopal Church
The Methodist Episcopal Church, sometimes referred to as the M.E. Church, was a development of the first expression of Methodism in the United States. It officially began at the Baltimore Christmas Conference in 1784, with Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke as the first bishops. Through a series of...
." While each of the founders had diverse educational, socioeconomic, and geographic backgrounds, they were all devout Methodists as well as successful and established businessmen, ministers, and lawyers within Chicago. Despite their evangelism, the founders were committed to the establishment of a non-sectarian institution reflecting both the worldly educational philosophy of the Methodist movement and the political realities of the Illinois state legislature adverse to chartering church-affiliated colleges.
Goodrich was adept in drafting the charter and lobbying legislators who shared his abolitionist views and the charter was passed during the first session of the General Assembly and signed by Governor
Governor of Illinois
The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
Augustus French on January 28, 1851. Constituted as the "Trustees of the North Western University," the new institution was the first university in Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and consisted of the founders as well as representatives from the neighboring Methodist conferences
Annual Conferences of the United Methodist Church
The following is a list of the Annual Conferences of The United Methodist Church .-Annual Conferences in the Jurisdiction Conference :...
. Evans and Lunt initially each donated $5,000 to endow the university which permitted them to purchase 16 lots on the northeast corner of Jackson Boulevard and LaSalle Street
LaSalle Street
LaSalle Street is a major north-south street in Chicago named for Sieur de La Salle, an early explorer of Illinois. The portion that runs through the Loop is considered to be Chicago's financial district...
for $8,000 as a potential site for the campus.
Clark T. Hinman
Clark Titus Hinman was the first president of Northwestern University. Hinman was born in Delaware County, New York into a Methodist family. He attended Wesleyan University, and after graduation served as an instructor at a seminary in Newbury, Vermont...
as the first president of the university and committed to raising $200,000. Hinman insisted that a university, rather than a preparatory school, be constructed first and that it should be built outside of Chicago. Following Hinman's recommendation, Lunt began to survey for land that was both north of the city and abutting railways for a new university in the areas of Jefferson Park
Jefferson Park, Chicago
Jefferson Park is one of Chicago's 77 well-defined community areas located on the city's Northwest Side. The neighborhood of Jefferson Park occupies a larger swath of territory than the community area by including within it land of adjacent community areas...
and Ridgeville. A 360 acres (145.7 ha) parcel of dry, wooded bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan belonging to a Dr. John Foster (unrelated to Randolph S. Foster) was purchased by Evans for $25,000 in August 1853 as a site for the new campus. In 1855, the university charter was amended to declare that university property "shall be forever free from taxation for any kind and all purposes." The trustees aggressively used the property-tax-exempt status to purchase more of the surrounding farms and Northwestern land holdings grew as large as 680 acres (275.2 ha). In 1854, Philo Judson, Northwestern's business manager charged with surveying and plotting this real estate nicknamed the land "Evanston" in honor of founder John Evans. In 1857, the Illinois legislature changed the name of the village from Ridgeville to Evanston
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
and it became an incorporated city in 1863. The university undertook a major development effort to drain the swamps, clear and grade the land, and donated or sold land to permit the construction of streets, parks, schools, waterworks, and churches. Between 1860 and 1870, Evanston's population had grown from 831 to 3,062.
Hinman was also a fervent supporter of the nascent university and raised over $63,000 from the sale of the perpetual scholarships. These scholarships, purchased in four installments of $25, entitled the purchaser and his male heirs (after the university became coeducational, female heirs were also recognized) to free tuition in perpetuity and were sold until 1867. The University also sold less-expensive limited term "transferable" scholarships guaranteeing a certain number of years of free tuition. While Northwestern still recognizes the scholarship, only one family member per generation is entitled to the scholarship and it must be specifically bequeathed to a descendant. Hinman's untimely death in October 1854 resulted in the ad interim appointment of Professor Henry S. Noyes
Henry S. Noyes
Henry Sanborn Noyes was a president of Northwestern University.-Biography:Noyes was born in Vermont. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1848, 9 years after Clark T. Hinman, the first president of Northwestern...
as president until the 1856 election of Daniel Bonright, a Professor of Latin, and 1857 election of Randolph S. Foster, a Professor of Theology. Noyes would also succeed Foster, and again serve as president between 1860 and 1869.
Early years (1855–1905)
John M. Van Osdel
John Mills Van Osdel was an American architect who is considered the first Chicago architect. He is considered a peer of the most prominent architects in the history of Chicago...
and opened for classes on November 5, 1855. Despite the vacancy in the presidency and only possessing two faculty members, mathematics Professor Henry S. Noyes
Henry S. Noyes
Henry Sanborn Noyes was a president of Northwestern University.-Biography:Noyes was born in Vermont. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1848, 9 years after Clark T. Hinman, the first president of Northwestern...
and Greek Professor William D. Godman, the first class enrolled 10 men in the College of Literature, Arts, and Sciences. Tuition for the first year was $45 annually and living expenses were $2.50 to $3 weekly. The progressive
Progressivism
Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...
Methodist trustees also petitioned the Legislature to amend their charter so as to prohibit the sale of liquor within 4 miles (6.4 km) of campus under pain of a $25 fine. Among other early faculty members was Professor of Latin Daniel Bonbright who would remain an active teacher for 58 years. Four students received bachelor's degrees at the first commencement in 1859.
In the antebellum period, campus literary societies
College literary societies (American)
College literary societies in American higher education were a distinctive kind of social organization, distinct from literary societies generally, and they were the precursors of college fraternities and sororities. In the period from the late eighteenth century to the Civil War, collegiate...
had sponsored debates on secession and slavery although the predominantly Methodist administration, faculty, and student body was staunchly abolitionist. Between 1861 and 1865, classes were curtailed by the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
; between 59 and 77 students and staff fought in the Union armies, 2 fought for the Confederacy, and seven ultimately died in the war. Despite the hostilities, Northwestern offered its first masters program (philosophy) beginning in 1863.
Evanston College for Ladies
The Evanston College for Ladies, in Evanston, Illinois, was a female-only Methodist-affiliated institution closely linked with Northwestern University. The college was established in 1871 as a boarding house "in a building at Chicago Avenue between Greenwood and Lake Streets, formerly occupied by...
merged with Northwestern, increasing the enrollments of female undergraduates. Although, Sarah Rebecca Roland, class of 1874, was the first woman to graduate from Northwestern, Ada Kepley received a law degree in 1870 from the School of Law's predecessor, the Union College of Law. The university also established an alumni association in 1881.
The Evanston campus experienced dramatic growth during this era. University Hall
University Hall (Northwestern University)
University Hall is the oldest original building on the Northwestern University campus. University Hall was actually the second building constructed on the Northwestern University campus. The building known as "Old College" was constructed as a temporary building in 1855, though it stood on campus...
, designed by Gurdon P. Randall, opened in 1869 both to replace the temporary Old College and to inaugurate President Erastus O. Haven. Memorial Hall opened at the Garrett Seminary
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary is a graduate school of theology of the United Methodist Church located in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1853, Garrett-Evangelical is on the campus of Northwestern University and continues many associations with the university...
in 1884, Dearborn Observatory
Dearborn Observatory
The Dearborn Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The observatory was originally constructed in 1888...
opened in 1887, and Lunt Library opened in 1894.
Despite the growth of the Evanston campus, the trustees sought to establish professional and academic schools within Chicago. In 1870, the Chicago Medical College, located in the south side of Chicago
Near South Side, Chicago
The Near South Side is a community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located just south of the downtown central business district, the Loop, which is itself a community area...
, merged with a School of Medicine
Feinberg School of Medicine
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois and situated near Lake Michigan and the Magnificent Mile, is one of Northwestern University's 11 schools and colleges...
founded in 1859. An 1873 agreement merged the Union College of Law and the Old University of Chicago
Old University of Chicago
The University of Chicago, now known as the Old University of Chicago , was a school founded by Baptists in Chicago in 1857...
's Department of Law into a School of Law
Northwestern University School of Law
The Northwestern University School of Law is a private American law school in Chicago, Illinois. The law school was founded in 1859 as the Union College of Law of the Old University of Chicago. The first law school established in Chicago, it became jointly controlled by Northwestern University in...
that opened in 1876. A College of Dental and Oral Surgery established was also established in 1886, but closed in 2001. A School of Pharmacy was established in 1886, but folded in 1916. The Conservatory of Music, founded in 1891, became a permanent department in 1895. A "Settlement Association" was formed in 1892 to do social work in Chicago. By 1890, Northwestern became the first Midwestern university admitted to Phi Beta Kappa and the first Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
s were awarded (in chemistry and philosophy) in 1896.
Henry Wade Rogers
Henry Wade Rogers
Henry Wade Rogers was a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1913 to 1926.-Biography:...
served as President between 1890 and 1900 and was an ardent supporter of student athletics. By 1900, Northwestern had the third-highest student enrollment of any university in the nation. The Class of 1902 presented a drinking fountain, but what would later become The Rock
The Rock (Northwestern University)
The Rock is a boulder on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, located in between University Hall and Harris Hall. It serves as a billboard for campus groups and events.-History:...
, to the university as a senior gift. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
visited campus.
Symbols
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
motto "Quaecumque Sunt Vera" from Philippians 4:8 meaning "Whatsoever things are true." The book on the seal was also altered to include the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
text "ό λόγος πλήρης χάριτος καί άληθείας" (“ho logos pleres charitos kai aletheias”) from John 1:14 meaning “The Word…full of grace and truth.”
The University initially adopted black and gold as its official school colors in response to the growing popularity of intercollegiate athletics
College athletics
College athletics refers primarily to sports and athletic competition organized and funded by institutions of tertiary education . In the United States, college athletics is a two-tiered system. The first tier includes the sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies...
and the need to differentiate teams, but when it was discovered that several other schools had the same colors, these colors were quickly dropped in favor of royal purple and gold in 1879. In 1892, the official color became only purple in response to prestigious Eastern universities
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The conference name is also commonly used to refer to those eight schools as a group...
adopting single-color schemes as well.
Student activities
In September 1860, a Milwaukee-bound steamship, the Lady Elgin, sank off the coast of the campus in stormy weather after colliding with a schooner. Despite being the second-deadliest accident on the Great LakesGreat Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
, Edward Spencer '62 and other students from the Garrett Bible Institute
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Garrett–Evangelical Theological Seminary is a graduate school of theology of the United Methodist Church located in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1853, Garrett-Evangelical is on the campus of Northwestern University and continues many associations with the university...
were credited with rescuing dozens of passengers. Following a public outcry over life-saving facilities and transportation safety, in 1871, the federal government granted the University a lifeboat and later, in 1876, constructed a life-saving station, both of which were manned and operated by students, near the Grosse Point reef and lighthouse. By the time the Coast Guard
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven U.S. uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission and a federal regulatory agency...
assumed control of the station in 1916, it had remained the nation's only student-manned life-saving station; Northwestern students were credited with saving more than 400 people.
The Daily Northwestern
The Daily Northwestern is a student newspaper at Northwestern University that is published on weekdays during the academic year. Established in 1881 and published in Evanston, Illinois, it is run entirely by undergraduates, many of whom are students at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.The...
newspaper. The Northwestern University Press Company published the Northwestern out of the Gymnasium building until the Press moved off-campus in 1888. By 1900, the student newspapers were published out of the basement of Old College, before they were moved to the attic of Memorial Hall in the 1920s. After World War II, the offices of the student newspaper moved frequently until Norris Hall was completed in 1972.
Athletics
A Football Association was founded at Northwestern in October 1879, and the university played its first intercollegiate football game against Lake Forest CollegeLake Forest College
Lake Forest College, founded in 1857, is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. The college has 1,500 students representing 47 states and 78 countries....
in 1882. The earliest games were played on the meadow where Deering Library
Deering Library
Charles Deering Library is located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Deering Library houses the Government Publications Department and the Northwestern University Archives on the first floor, the Music Library on the second floor, and the Map Collection,...
now stands. In 1891, Knowlton L. Ames was appointed Northwestern's first football coach and work began constructing a stadium at the north end of campus that would be named Sheppard Field in honor of the University's business manager and lumber donor.
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, Wisconsin
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
, Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, Illinois, and Purdue
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
to develop regulations for intercollegiate athletics. A year later, the universities agreed to create Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, later the Western Conference, before ultimately becoming known as the Big Ten Conference
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
after Indiana
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
and Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
joined in 1899 and Ohio State University
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State, is a public research university located in Columbus, Ohio. It was originally founded in 1870 as a land-grant university and is currently the third largest university campus in the United States...
joined in 1912. The University of Chicago would ultimately withdraw from the conference in 1946 and would be replaced by Michigan State University
Michigan State University
Michigan State University is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.MSU pioneered the studies of packaging,...
. Northwestern won its first Big Ten football championship in 1903, although the sport was banned for two years beginning in 1905 following fan violence.
Men's basketball was introduced in 1901. Northwestern also had several athletics teams for women during this era including tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
, field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, and basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
teams.
Continued expansion (1905–1939)
- Includes the administrations of Abram W. HarrisAbram W. HarrisAbram Winegardner Harris was the fourteenth president of Northwestern University, serving from 1906 to 1916. He was also the first President of the University of Maine from 1896 to 1906....
(1906–1916) and Walter Dill ScottWalter Dill ScottWalter Dill Scott was one of the first applied psychologists. He applied psychology to various business practices such as personnel selection and advertising.-Life:...
(1920–1939)
The university continued its expansion through the first half of the 20th century; opening several new professional schools, expanding the residential life on the Evanston campus, and establishing a campus for the professional schools in downtown Chicago. Although the University's tax-exempt status came into dispute, a 1908 Illinois Supreme Court removed the tax threat to university property. The original Patten Gymnasium was opened in 1908 to replace its dilapidated predecessor and house the burgeoning athletic programs. In 1914, the North Quads were completed as a part of a $500,000 Fraternity/Men's Dormitory plan. The buildings, designed by Palmer, Hornbostel, and Jones were planned in quadrangle
Quadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
s and would house seven fraternities and four residence halls. Harris Hall opened in 1915 opposite University Hall to house the social sciences and the new department of political science. Dyche Stadium, Northwestern's fourth football stadium, was completed in 1926 and opened with a capacity of 47,000 seats. The Women's Quads were dedicated in 1926 with 2 residential halls and 14 sororities. The Western Episcopal Seminary buildings were opened in 1928 and merged with the Seabury Seminary in 1933 to form the Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
Seabury-Western Theological Seminary is a seminary of The Episcopal Church, located in Evanston, Illinois. It was formed in 1933 by a merger of Western Theological Seminary of Evanston , and Seabury Divinity School of Faribault, Minnesota...
.
Charles Deering
Charles Deering was an American businessman, art collector, and philanthropist. He was an executive of the agricultural machinery company founded by his father that became International Harvester. Charles's successful stewardship of the family firm left him with the means and leisure to indulge...
bequested $1 million for a project of the University's choosing after his death in 1927. James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers was an American architect best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere....
, having completed the Chicago campus, was retained again to design an expanded library. The Deering Library
Deering Library
Charles Deering Library is located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Deering Library houses the Government Publications Department and the Northwestern University Archives on the first floor, the Music Library on the second floor, and the Map Collection,...
opened in January 1933, featured Roger's trademark collegiate neo-Gothic style, and had space for 500,000 volumes.
The School of Commerce opened in 1908 in downtown Chicago under the leadership of economics professor Willard E. Hotchkiss. The school initially offered evening classes in accounting and business law before starting a bachelor of business administration program in 1912. The school became a founding member of the American Association of Collegiate Business Schools
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business was founded in 1916 to accredit schools of business worldwide. The first accreditations took place in 1919. The stated mission is to advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation and thought leadership. It is regarded...
in 1917 and continued to formalize its curriculum over the next decade by introducing a full-time Bachelor of Science in Commerce on the Evanston campus, launching MBA and Ph.D. degrees, and establishing the second business research center in the nation.
The College of Liberal Arts began offering evening courses for teachers in 1903 on the Evanston campus and in 1933 the popularity of the program led to the foundation of an evening undergraduate program on the Chicago campus named University College.
The Medill School of Journalism
Medill School of Journalism
The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It has consistently been one of the top-ranked schools in Journalism in the United States...
was established in 1921 and named in honor of Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
owner and editor Joseph Medill
Joseph Medill
Joseph Medill was an American newspaper editor and publisher, and politician. He was co-owner and managing editor of the Chicago Tribune, and was Mayor of Chicago.-Biography:...
. The School of Education was founded in 1926. The Pharmacy school transferred to the University of Illinois in 1917. The Cumnock School of Oratory was renamed the School of Speech in 1921 and the theater department was merged into the same in 1926. The Northwestern University Press
Northwestern University Press
Northwestern University Press is the university press of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA.- History :Northwestern University Press was founded in 1893, at first specializing in legal periodicals. Today, the Press publishes scholarly books of fiction, non-fiction, and literary...
was opened in 1922.
In 1920, Walter Dill Scott
Walter Dill Scott
Walter Dill Scott was one of the first applied psychologists. He applied psychology to various business practices such as personnel selection and advertising.-Life:...
was inaugurated as the first non-Methodist University president and presided over the launch of a $25.3 million fund-raising campaign. The campaign brought several major changes that significantly centralized the university under Scott's administration, including the dissolution of boards of trustees for each of the professional schools, the replacing school-based alumni groups with a general alumni association, and moving forward with plans to purchase land in the Streeterville
Streeterville
Streeterville is a neighborhood in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, north of the Chicago River in Cook County...
neighborhood of downtown Chicago to create a campus for the professional schools. By the time Franklyn Snyder replaced Scott as President in 1939, Scott's 19 years in office was more than twice as long as any previous President's tenure. A long-standing campaign to build a student activity center was reinvigorated by the announcement of his retirement and the resulting building was named in his honor. Completed in 1940, Scott Hall was designed by Rogers and featured an auditorium, offices for student and alumni organizations, conference and social rooms, and apartments for university guests.
Homecoming became a regular fall event starting in 1911. "Go, U Northwestern" was written by Theodore Van Etten, a member of the university's marching band, and premiered during the final football game of the season in 1912. The first university student council was formed in 1914 and the first Waa-Mu show opened in 1929. Kenneth Huszagh
Kenneth Huszagh
Kenneth Arthur "Ken" Huszagh was an American freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1912 Summer Olympics....
was the first Northwestern athlete to participate in the Olympics, winning the bronze medal in the 100 meter freestyle
Swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics - Men's 100 metre freestyle
The men's 100 metre freestyle was a swimming event held as part of the swimming at the 1912 Summer Olympics programme. It was the third appearance of the event, which had not been featured at the 1900 Games...
and a silver in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay at the 1912 Summer Olympics
1912 Summer Olympics
The 1912 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the V Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Stockholm, Sweden, between 5 May and 27 July 1912. Twenty-eight nations and 2,407 competitors, including 48 women, competed in 102 events in 14 sports...
. The athletic department adopted "Wildcats" as the moniker for Northwestern's athletic teams in 1924. The first
1939 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
-External links:* on Shrp Sports * , source for much of the information on this page.-See also:* 1939 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament...
NCAA men's basketball championship
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship
The NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship is a single-elimination tournament held each spring in the United States, featuring 68 college basketball teams, to determine the national championship in the top tier of college basketball...
was held in Patten Gymnasium in 1939 where Oregon
Oregon Ducks
The Oregon Ducks refers to the sports teams of the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, Oregon. The Oregon Ducks are part of the Pacific-12 Conference in the Division 1 of the NCAA. With seventeen varsity teams, the Oregon Ducks are best known for their football team and Track and Field...
defeated Ohio State
Ohio State Buckeyes
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate sports teams and players of The Ohio State University, named after the state tree, the Buckeye. The Buckeyes participate in the NCAA's Division I in all sports and the Big Ten Conference in most sports...
, 46–33. Northwestern
Northwestern Wildcats
The Northwestern Wildcats are the athletic teams that represent Northwestern University, a founding member of the Big Ten Conference and the only private university in the conference. Northwestern has eight men's and eleven women's Division I sports teams. The mascot is Willie the Wildcat...
won the first NCAA Fencing team championship
NCAA Fencing team championship
NCAA fencing championship results, combined men and women , men's and women's .-Combined:Note: Team scoring in 1990 was based on weapon team events standings. From 1991 to 1994, point values increased due to fencers not qualifying as part of a team being able to contribute points from individual...
in 1941.
Chicago campus
Lake Shore Drive
Lake Shore Drive is a mostly freeway-standard expressway running parallel with and alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan through Chicago, Illinois, USA. Except for the portion north of Foster Avenue , Lake Shore Drive is designated as part of U.S...
for $1.5 million in 1920. George McKinlock donated $250,000 to have the campus named in honor of his son, Alexander McKinlock Jr. who died in World War I, but his financial losses during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
prevented him from fulfilling his pledge, so the university forgave his debt and the name defaulted to the Chicago campus instead. James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers
James Gamble Rogers was an American architect best known for his academic commissions at Yale University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and elsewhere....
was given a commission to create a master plan for the major buildings on the new campus which he designed in a collegiate gothic style. In 1923, Mrs. Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward is an online retailer that carries the same name as the former American department store chain, founded as the world's #1 mail order business in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward, and which went out of business in 2001...
donated $8 million to the campaign to fund the construction of the Montgomery Ward Memorial Building to house the medical and dental schools and create endowments for faculty chairs, research grants, scholarships, and building maintenance. The building would become the first skyscraper housing academic facilities in the United states. In addition to the Ward Building, Rogers designed Wieboldt Hall to house facilities for the School of Commerce and Levy Mayer Hall to house the School of Law. The new campus comprising these three new buildings were dedicated during a two-day long ceremony in June 1927. The Chicago campus continued to expand with the addition of Thorn Hall in 1931 and Abbott Hall in 1939.
University of Chicago merger proposal
In 1933, Robert Maynard Hutchins, President of the University of ChicagoUniversity of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, presented a proposal to Northwestern's Board of Trustees and President Scott to merge the two schools into an organization named the "Universities of Chicago". Motivated by financial difficulties of the Great Depression, both presidents envisioned the efficiencies to be achieved by merging the eighth-largest university in the nation by enrollments (Northwestern's approximately 14,000 students) with the 15th (Chicago's approximately 12,000 enrollments) and creating a three-campus system with graduate work based out of the Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Chicago
Hyde Park, located on the South Side of the City of Chicago, in Cook County, Illinois, United States and seven miles south of the Chicago Loop, is a Chicago neighborhood and one of 77 Chicago community areas. It is home to the University of Chicago, the Hyde Park Art Center, the Museum of Science...
campus, professional schools on Northwestern's newly-opened Chicago campus, and undergraduate professional and liberal arts education on the Evanston campus. There were significant synergies to be achieved under the proposal since Northwestern's poorly-endowed Graduate School and School of Education would be assumed by Chicago's more prestigious programs while Chicago's unremarkable schools of law, commerce, and continuing education would be merged with Northwestern's more respected programs.
The initial proposal was so secret that the investigatory committee was titled the "Special Committee on an Important Problem" but by November 1933 the proposal had become public knowledge and created a strong backlash among Northwestern students, faculty, and alumni as well as members of the Evanston community. Opponents accused the University of Chicago of attempting to appropriate Northwestern's tax-free charter to avoid $300,000 in annual taxes, while an anonymous author promised a $25 million endowment on the condition that there be only one university in the Chicago area, while still other rumors purported that the merger was a plan for the city of Chicago
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms...
to annex Evanston. However, a significant stumbling block concerned each university's respective medical schools which differed significantly in their respective approaches to teaching and research.
The concerted opposition by the medical school combined with the increasingly vocal concerns of the alumni, deans, and trustees as well as the untimely death of Melvin Taylor, who had led Northwestern's merger committee, caused both universities' boards of trustees to reject the proposal in February 1934. However, the resulting debates highlighted differences in philosophy regarding the scope and practice of undergraduate, graduate, and profession education, the relationship between teaching and research, the role of students, faculty, and alumni in determining a university's identity and mission, and a university's obligation to the city and nation. Despite the failure, both presidents supported the idea; Hutchins later lamented that the merger was "one of the lost opportunities of American education," while Scott wrote that the merger's failure was "a great regret to me."
Technological Institute
Technological Institute
The Technological Institute, more commonly known as "Tech", is a landmark building at Northwestern University built from 1940 to 1942.It is the main building for students and faculty in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. The school of engineering itself was called...
and endow the school. The Technology Institute was designed by Holabird and Root and featured bas-reliefs designed by Edgar Miller
Edgar Miller
Edgar E. "Rip" Miller was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. Miller played college football as a tackle at the University of Notre Dame from 1922 to 1924. He was a member of the "Seven Mules" line that blocked for the famous "Four Horsemen" backfield on...
"depicting man’s ongoing efforts to conquer nature" in the Lannon stone. Construction required relocating the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house and Dearborn Observatory
Dearborn Observatory
The Dearborn Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The observatory was originally constructed in 1888...
and demolishing Patten Gymnasium. When it was completed in 1942, it contained 350 rooms and 430000 square feet (39,948.3 m²) housing laboratories, classrooms, and offices for the four engineering departments as well as the chemistry and physics departments.
Antecedents
In October 1916, Dr. Frederick A. Besley, a surgeon at the School of Medicine, began organizing a field hospitalField hospital
A field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...
to support and assist the Allies in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The doctors were drawn from Northwestern, Rush University Medical Center
Rush University Medical Center
Rush University Medical Center is a 676-bed academic medical center that includes hospital facilities for adults and children. It also includes the Johnston R. Bowman Health Center...
, the University of Illinois
University of Illinois College of Medicine
The University of Illinois College of Medicine offers a four-year program leading to the MD degree at four different sites in Illinois: Chicago, Peoria, Rockford, and Urbana–Champaign....
and nurses came from Cook County
John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County
The John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County, formerly Cook County Hospital is a public urban teaching hospital in Chicago that provides primary, specialty and tertiary healthcare services to the five million residents of Cook County, Illinois. The hospital has a staff of 300 attending...
, Mercy
Mercy Hospital and Medical Center
Mercy Hospital and Medical Center is a Catholic teaching hospital in Chicago. Established in 1852, The hospital was the first chartered hospital in Chicago. In 1859, Mercy Hospital became the first Catholic hospital to affiliate with a medical school — Lind Medical School — and the...
, Augustana, and Evanston hospitals. The unit comprised 330 officers, doctors, nurses, and enlisted men and was officially titled the U.S. Army Base Hospital No. 12 (Chicago Unit) but was commonly known as the Northwestern University Base Hospital. The unit landed at Boulogne
Boulogne-sur-Mer
-Road:* Metropolitan bus services are operated by the TCRB* Coach services to Calais and Dunkerque* A16 motorway-Rail:* The main railway station is Gare de Boulogne-Ville and located in the south of the city....
, France on June 11, 1917 to relieve the British Expeditionary Force's Base Hospital No. 18, making it the second U.S. hospital to reach France. Hospital No. 12 operated a 1,500 bed and is credited with treating 60,000 patients by the time it returned to the U.S. in April 1919. Two of the unit's commanding officers later became Surgeon General of the U.S. Army. 3,606 students served in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and 65 died by the 1918 armistice
Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...
.
Navy ROTC
Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps
The Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps program is a college-based, commissioned officer training program of the United States Navy and the United States Marine Corps.-Origins:...
(NROTC) was established on campus at the request of President Scott
Walter Dill Scott
Walter Dill Scott was one of the first applied psychologists. He applied psychology to various business practices such as personnel selection and advertising.-Life:...
in 1926. The founding of the program coincided with the establishment of NROTC branches at Harvard, Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
, Georgia Tech, the University of California
University of California
The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
, and the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
. Pacifists disrupted a NROTC parade in the mid-1930s to protest the collaboration of a civilian university with the military as well as militarism
Militarism
Militarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
in general, foreshadowing the controversies that would erupt during the late 1960s over the military presence on-campus.
World War II
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
, Northwestern President Franklyn Bliss Snyder
Franklyn Bliss Snyder
Franklyn Bliss Snyder was the 18th President of Northwestern University and an American scholar of Scottish literature. Snyder was the son of a Congregational minister, Peter Miles Snyder, from Connecticut and grew up in Rockford, Illinois. He received his undergraduate degree from Beloit...
telegraphed President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
to volunteer the "entire resources of the University." The university admitted students who had finished three years of high school as well as instituting summer sessions to allow them to complete their degree requirements before the minimum draft age of 20. Notably, Northwestern switched its academic calendar
Academic term
An academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called terms...
from a semester to a quarter system to facilitate these changes and this quarter system persisted after the war into the present day.
During the war, Northwestern trained 49,725 military personnel through eleven training programs. The existing NROTC program proved to be a boon to the university as the War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
and Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
used Northwestern facilities to train 36,124 sailors over the course of the war, leading Northwestern to be called the "Annapolis of the Midwest." The programs included the Navy V-7 Naval Reserve Midshipman's School
U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen's School
The United States Navy Reserve Midshipmen's School, known as the Navy College Training Program, V-7, was announced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 26, 1940, to recruit 36,000 naval reserve officers to command the vasty expanding fleet in preparation for the war effort...
, V-5 Naval Aviation Preparatory Program, V-1 Accredited College Program, H-V(P) Medical and Dental Program, the V-12 Navy College Training Program
V-12 Navy College Training Program
The V-12 Navy College Training Program was designed to supplement the force of commissioned officers in the United States Navy during World War II...
, and training schools for cooks, bakers, and radio operators. The scale and importance of these programs led the Navy to cordon off the Lunt Building, Swift Hall, and Shanley Pavilion as well as taking over the dormitories and fraternities on the north campus. The Technological Institute housed training programs for the Radio School and V-12 Unit. The Army also established a signal corps training school on the Evanston campus and a civil affairs training school on the Chicago campus.
The Midshipmen's Training School was the largest of these programs and was established in the newly-constructed Abbott Hall dormitory on the Chicago campus in 1940. This school graduated 25 classes of "90-day wonders" (a total of 26,750 ensigns) by the end of the war, including future President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
. Northwestern's medical and dental schools prepared 761 doctors and 478 dentists for Army and Navy service. Additionally, General Hospital No. 12 was reactivated by Drs. Michael L. Mason and J. Roscoe Miller in February 1942 and supported the North African campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
from December 1942 to December 1943 and Italian campaign
Italian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the...
until the September 1945. Northwestern medical personnel also supported Station Hospital No. 48 which served during the Guadalcanal Campaign
Guadalcanal campaign
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by Allied forces, was a military campaign fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II...
.
Despite the extensive on-campus activity, enrollments plummeted from 19,691 in 1940 to 13,470 in 1944. In 1942, Snyder ordered that students of Japanese descent be barred from enrolling to comply with his interpretation of government internment policy
Japanese American internment
Japanese-American internment was the relocation and internment by the United States government in 1942 of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States to camps called "War Relocation Camps," in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on...
, although this controversial decision was reversed after an outcry from the press and community. Over 11,000 alumni and 400 faculty and staff members fought in World War II and more than 300 died. 537 major decorations were awarded to Northwestern alumni, including two Medal of Honor
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
s awarded posthumously to John L. Jerstad
John L. Jerstad
John Louis "Jack" Jerstad was a United States Army Air Forces officer who was posthumously awarded the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor...
and Walter E. Truemper
Walter E. Truemper
Walter Edward Truemper was a United States Army Air Forces officer in World War II and a recipient of the U.S. military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor...
.
Post-war expansion
As with other post-war American universities, Northwestern underwent a tremendous expansion to accommodate surging student enrollments. Over 28,000 applications were requested for the 1946 freshman class and by 1949, more than 9,000 students were enrolled on the Evanston campus alone. As early as January 1945, Northwestern had proposed between $17–28 million worth of new buildings in anticipation of post-war enrollments. Dozens of Quonset hutQuonset hut
A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semicircular cross section. The design was based on the Nissen hut developed by the British during World War I...
s and other temporary structures were erected near Dysche Stadium, on Deering Meadow, and elsewhere on campus to house the influx of students returning to complete their educations under the G.I. Bill.
Post-war transition (1949–1970)
- Includes the administration of J. Roscoe MillerJ. Roscoe MillerJames Roscoe Miller was the twelfth president of Northwestern University, serving between 1949 and 1970.During his tenure, Northwestern substantially increased the size of its Evanston campus, constructing many new buildings on adjacent land reclaimed by filling in Lake Michigan...
(1949–1970)
Northwestern celebrated its centennial in 1951 and was the occasion to launch an $8.25 million fund raising campaign to build Centennial Hall and Memorial Hall on the Evanston campus and an Evening Study Hall on the Chicago campus. The centennial year celebrations consisted of five formal convocations, six academic conferences, a two-day Centennial Jubilee organized by the city of Evanston, and many other events by groups of students, alumni, and learned societies.
In 1948, Melville J. Herskovits
Melville J. Herskovits
Melville Jean Herskovits was an American anthropologist who firmly established African and African American studies in American academia. The son of Jewish immigrants, he obtained a Bachelor of Philosophy at the University of Chicago in 1923 and obtained his Master's and Ph.D...
, a student of Franz Boas
Franz Boas
Franz Boas was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology" and "the Father of Modern Anthropology." Like many such pioneers, he trained in other disciplines; he received his doctorate in physics, and did...
and founder of the University's anthropology department in 1928, launched the first major interdisciplinary program in African
African studies
African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and societies of Africa .The field includes the study of:Culture of Africa, History of Africa , Anthropology of Africa , Politics of Africa, Economy of Africa African studies is the study of Africa, especially the cultures and...
and African American studies
African American studies
African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. It is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to the study of the history, culture, and politics of African Americans...
, titled the Program of African Studies. In connection with this program, he aggressively expanded the existing Library of African Studies until his death in 1963. The library was named in his honor now possesses more than 285,000 volumes, 250 newspapers, and extensive collections of maps, posters, photographs, and other miscellaneous items that make this collection the largest in the world.
Between 1949 and 1974, over forty buildings were constructed or remodeled on the Evanston campus. Sargent Hall opened in 1950, Shepard Hall opened in 1952, Kresge Hall, Bobb Hall, and McCulloch Hall opened in 1955, Elder Hall was completed in 1959, Allison Hall in 1960, and Alice Millar Chapel was finished in 1964.
The first computer on campus was installed in Dearborn Observatory
Dearborn Observatory
The Dearborn Observatory is an astronomical observatory located on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The observatory was originally constructed in 1888...
in 1949 and in 1950 a dedicated Computer Center opened featuring an IBM 650
IBM 650
The IBM 650 was one of IBM’s early computers, and the world’s first mass-produced computer. It was announced in 1953, and over 2000 systems were produced between the first shipment in 1954 and its final manufacture in 1962...
mainframe computer. A $2 million IBM 709
IBM 709
The IBM 709 was an early computer system introduced by IBM in August, 1958. It was an improved version of the IBM 704 and the second member of the IBM 700/7000 series of scientific computers....
was installed in July 1961 in the Technological Institute
Technological Institute
The Technological Institute, more commonly known as "Tech", is a landmark building at Northwestern University built from 1940 to 1942.It is the main building for students and faculty in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science. The school of engineering itself was called...
for computing satellite orbits among other problems. The Vogelback Computing Center was the first building to open on the Lakefill campus in October 1964. Starting in 1970, Northwestern's Chess program
Chess (Northwestern University)
Chess was a pioneering chess program from the 1970s, authored by Larry Atkin and David Slate at Northwestern University. Chess ran on Control Data Corporation's line of supercomputers. It dominated the first computer chess tournaments, such as the World Computer Chess Championship and ACM's North...
won eight of the first ten North American Computer Chess Championship
North American Computer Chess Championship
The North American Computer Chess Championship was a computer chess championship held from 1970 to 1994. It was organised by the Association for Computing Machinery and by Dr. Monty Newborn, Professor of Computer Science at McGill University. It was one of the first computer chess tournaments. The...
s.
Lakefill campus
- 1957 - The Rock first painted by Daily Northwestern staffers.
- 1958 - The forerunner of Northwestern's TriQuarterly literary journal is started by English professor Edward Hungerford.
- 1961 - Searle Student Health Center opens.
- 1966 - Northwestern University Medical Center organized from seven hospitals affiliated with the University.
- 1969 - Graduate School of Management formed and undergraduate School of Business discontinued. Associated Student Government formed out of the Student Senate.
Big Ten athletics
Northwestern received a bid to play in the 1949 Rose Bowl1949 Rose Bowl
The 1949 Rose Bowl was a college football bowl game. It was the 35th Rose Bowl Game, and the third since the Big Nine Conference and Pacific Coast Conference agreed to an exclusive agreement to match their conference champions. The Northwestern Wildcats defeated the California Golden Bears 20-14...
against California
California Golden Bears football
The California Golden Bears football team is the college football team of the University of California. The team plays its home games at California Memorial Stadium, however the team played at San Francisco's AT&T Park in 2011 while Memorial Stadium was being renovated, the team will return to...
because Michigan
Michigan Wolverines football
The Michigan Wolverines football program represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins and the highest winning percentage in college football history...
, the Big 9 Conference
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
champion, was barred from going in successive years. The game was memorable on several counts. Cal had a perfect 10–0 record going into the game and had averaged 28 points per game over the course of the season while the Wildcats had a record of 8–2 for the season to finish 2nd place in the conference. Although neither team had faced each other before, Coach Pappy Waldorf
Pappy Waldorf
Lynn Osbert "Pappy" Waldorf was an American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, , Kansas State University , Northwestern University , and the University of California, Berkeley ,...
had been the Wildcats' head coach since 1935 until he left for the Golden Bears in 1946. NU's Coach Voight, only 33 years old, had played under Waldorf and had been named an All-American in 1938. In the first quarter, Frank Aschenbrenner
Frank Aschenbrenner
-Career:Aschenbrenner played with the Chicago Hornets of the All-American Football Conference in 1949. He had previously been drafted in the sixth round of the 1947 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers....
broke a Rose Bowl record when he ran for a 73 yards (66.8 m) touchdown
Touchdown
A touchdown is a means of scoring in American and Canadian football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone.-Description:...
although the game remained close through the third quarter. Finally, with three minutes left to play in the fourth quarter and down by one point, Northwestern launched an 88 yards (80.5 m) drive including a Statue of Liberty play
Statue of Liberty play
The Statue of Liberty is a trick play in American football, occasionally seen in high school football, college football and the NFL.-Execution of the play:...
for a 45 yards (41.1 m) touchdown run to defeat Cal 20–14.
Racial integration
While Evanston and Chicago did not have the most oppressive Jim Crow lawsJim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
in the country, in the post-War era the university and surrounding community remained highly conservative and resistant to changes in traditional social practices. Although as many as five black students were admitted every year, they were excluded from on-campus housing until the 1947 establishment of the euphemistically-titled "International House" opened for black women. Asbury Hall was purchased in 1949 to likewise house black men, but a group of progressive white students also moved in despite the wishes of Snyder's administration to keep the student housing segregated. Asbury would become a center for civil rights activism with its students organizing letter-writing campaigns to recruit more African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
and Jewish American students to Northwestern despite the quotas imposed on these groups by the Admissions office.
In the fall of 1956, Sherman Wu
Sherman Wu
Sherman Hsiu-huang Wu was a Chinese American social activist and a former professor, whose experiences at Northwestern University brought the issue of discrimination against Asian Americans to the fore. The general condemnation of the prejudice exhibited against him presaged later actions in the...
, son of Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
governor K.C. Wu, was granted a bid to pledge at the Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon
Psi Upsilon is the fifth oldest college fraternity in the United States, founded at Union College in 1833. It has chapters at colleges and universities throughout North America. For most of its history, Psi Upsilon, like most social fraternities, limited its membership to men only...
fraternity but was dismissed after his fellow pledges threatened to quit on account of his race
Han Chinese
Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...
. The fraternity stood by the decision to dismiss Wu stating, "Having an Oriental in the house would degrade [the fraternity] in the eyes of other fraternities and make it more difficult to get dates from the sororities." Despite coming under increasing pressure after story broke nationally, the administration asserted that it would not interfere with fraternities' selection processes. Wu received bids to pledge at two other fraternities, but it was not until the mid 1960s that racial and religious discrimination was outlawed in Greek organizations at Northwestern.
Between 1966 and 1968, Northwestern increased African American enrollments from less than 50 to 160. After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination
Martin Luther King, Jr., a prominent American leader of the African-American civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39...
in April 1968, African American students on campus began expressing increasingly militant and separatist views demanding the administration increase recruitment activity and provide separate facilities for black students. After the university rejected their demands, on May 3, 1968 a group of 100 African American students identifying themselves as For Members Only and the Afro-American Student Union barricaded themselves the Bursar's Office and began a sit in, demanding the university implement an admissions quota, increase financial aid, construct an all-black dorm and student center, create a Black Studies curriculum, and desegregate the university's real estate holdings in Evanston. In light of controversy surrounding the student protests
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
at Columbia
Columbia University protests of 1968
The Columbia University protests of 1968 were among the many student demonstrations that occurred around the world in that year. The Columbia protests erupted over the spring of that year after students discovered links between the university and the institutional apparatus supporting the United...
and Berkeley that spring, negotiations between Dean of Students Roland Hinz and AASU leader James Turner led to the sit-in dispersing peacefully after 38 hours. Although the administration rejected demands for racial preferences in admissions and financial aid, it made several concessions regarding desegregation, increasing student participation in policy matters, and developing a Department of Afro-American Studies.
In March 1969, an incident involving a group of black students raiding the Triangle fraternity house and subsequent university disciplinary action against the students led to a hunger strike
Hunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
by the For Members Only group to protest the allegedly unequal punishment of the black students and tacit support of racism on campus.
Anti-war demonstrations
Northwestern remained a staunchly conservative institution throughout its history and into the 1950s and 1960s; the University of Chicago often referred to its uptown rival as "Country Club U". A 1952 visit by Senator Joseph McCarthyJoseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
was met by little protest and much acclaim from both the student body and faculty. However, Northwestern students became increasingly politically active and engaged in protests and strikes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. A chapter of Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
(SDS) was founded in 1965. Demonstrations mainly stemmed from student opposition to the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
but also included protests against the draft
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, Navy ROTC, defense industry corporations, and the Nixon administration as well as supporting affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
, environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
, women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
, and other instances of New Left
New Left
The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...
social activism. Despite the size of the protests, the student body was split between professionally-oriented and traditional student body and activists. Some fraternities were known to antagonize protesters by playing patriotic music and jeering them from their houses.
In addition to anti-war demonstrations, students also protested against the university's alleged complicity in the military industrial complex with regards to corporate and military recruitment on campus, military applications of research, and financial support by corporations and the military. Companies like Dow Chemical were targeted when they came on-campus to conduct interviews because of their involvement in the manufacture or research of war material and Navy ROTC activities were also frequent target of anti-war demonstrations.
After the Kent State shootings
Kent State shootings
The Kent State shootings—also known as the May 4 massacre or the Kent State massacre—occurred at Kent State University in the city of Kent, Ohio, and involved the shooting of unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard on Monday, May 4, 1970...
, the Northwestern student body and Faculty Senate voted to suspend classes starting May 6 and join a nationwide strike in protest of the Vietnam war and violence at Kent State. The student protesters demanded that campus security be disarmed, the University endowment divest itself from "war stocks", and Northwestern's NROTC program be stripped of academic credit and its facilities turned into a childcare center. Much to the consternation of Evanston residents, student protesters also erected a barricade at the major intersection of Sheridan Road
Sheridan Road
Sheridan Road is a major north-south thoroughfare that leads from Diversey Parkway in Chicago, Illinois, north to the Illinois-Wisconsin border and beyond to Racine. Throughout most of its run, it is the easternmost north-south through street, closest to Lake Michigan...
and Chicago Avenue. A May 8 rally at Dyche Stadium that attracted approximately 5,000 students and community members prompted Evanston city officials to request activation of the National Guard
Illinois Army National Guard
The Illinois Army National Guard is a component of the United States Army and the United States National Guard. Nationwide, the Army National Guard comprises approximately one half of the US Army's available combat forces and approximately one third of its support organization...
, but this potential conflict was avoided after the Guard were diverted away from the stadium. The Rebecca Crown center, Vogelback computing center, and Lunt Hall (housing the NROTC program) were closed following disturbances by student protestors. On May 13, a group of at least 33 students vandalized NROTC's headquarters, but this was the only violent episode of the strike. The strike ended and campus re-opened for class on May 13, the longest span of time Northwestern has ever been closed.
Retooling era (1970–1994)
- Includes the administrations of Robert H. StrotzRobert H. StrotzRobert Henry Strotz was an American economist and thirteenth President of Northwestern University.Strotz was born in Aurora, Illinois and attended Duke University for three years before graduating from the University of Chicago. He was drafted into the Army and served in the European theater...
(1970–1984) and Arnold R. WeberArnold R. WeberArnold Robert Weber was the president of Northwestern University from 1985–1994. His tenure at Northwestern was remarkable for stabilizing the university's finances and enhancing the Evanston campus environment.-Biography:...
(1984–1994)
Miller was promoted from President to Chancellor in March 1969 in the midst of student and faculty protests. The post remained vacant for sixteen months until Robert Strotz, a member of the Economics faculty since 1947 and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences since 1966, was unanimously elected by the trustees to be President in July 1970. While Strotz's appointment was opposed by the Daily Northwestern and the Associated Student Government president owing to his positions opposing the closure of campus and politicization of university classes, he was supported by the faculty.
In 1972, students voted to change the name of the athletic teams from "Wildcats" to "Purple Haze" but alumni and athletic directors opposed the change.
A plan for a residential college system was proposed in the early 1970s in response to a 1969 faculty committee report recommending the creation of smaller intellectual communities. The first five residential colleges opened in 1972: Urban Studies, Philosophy and Religion, and three multi-thematic colleges Lindgren, Shepard, Willard. The Women's residential college opened in 1976, the Communications college in 1981, International Studies in 1981, Fine and Performing Arts in 1982, Commerce and Industry in 1984, and Public Affairs in 1992.
When Arnold R. Weber
Arnold R. Weber
Arnold Robert Weber was the president of Northwestern University from 1985–1994. His tenure at Northwestern was remarkable for stabilizing the university's finances and enhancing the Evanston campus environment.-Biography:...
was elected president in 1985, the university not only was in the midst of a funding crisis after cuts in federal aid but was also suffering from diminished national prestige.
In 1990, the Evanston City Council attempted to impose the nation's first tax on college tuition for students studying at colleges in the city (including Northwestern University, Kendall College, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Seabury-Western Theological Seminary) to cover a budget shortfall but the measure failed.
In 1976, two years after he was tenured, Professor Arthur Butz
Arthur Butz
Arthur R. Butz is a Holocaust denier and associate professor of electrical engineering at Northwestern University. He achieved tenure in 1974 and currently teaches classes in control system theory and digital signal processing.-Education:...
published a Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
treatise titled the The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
The Hoax of the Twentieth Century
The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry is a book by electrical engineering professor Arthur Butz. First published in 1976 by Historical Review Press, it denied that Nazi Germany tried to exterminate the Jews during the Holocaust, and was...
. His controversial views highlighted the difficulties of balancing academic freedom of speech and the university's obligations to support tenured faculty, with the university's public image as Butz has been the subject of departmental censure, University press releases, and student and faculty petitions demanding his resignation. Northwestern also attracted controversy in 1991 for hiring former Weather Underground and FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitive
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, 1970s
The FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives during the 1970s is a list, maintained for a third decade, of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation.-FBI headlines in the 1970s:...
Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Rae Dohrn is a former leader of the American anti-Vietnam War radical organization, Weather Underground. She is an Associate Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law and the immediate past Director of Northwestern's Children and Family Justice Center...
as an adjunct faculty member in the Law School.
The Northwestern football team
Northwestern Wildcats football
The Northwestern Wildcats football team, representing Northwestern University, is a NCAA Division I team and member of the Big Ten Conference, with evidence of organization in 1876...
was ranked first during the first two weeks of the season in 1962 and finished second in the Big Ten
Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference is the United States' oldest Division I college athletic conference. Its twelve member institutions are located primarily in the Midwestern United States, stretching from Nebraska in the west to Pennsylvania in the east...
in 1970 and 1971. Between September 15, 1979 and September 25, 1982, the Wildcats beat the previous NCAA record losing streak of 28 games by losing 34 games in a row.
- 1970 - University Library and Engelhart Hall built.
- 1971 - University's affirmative action program established.
- 1972 - Norris University Center, Francis Searle Building, Foster-Walker Complex completed. Wesley Memorial Hospital and Passavant Hospital merge to form Northwestern Memorial Hospital. First five residential colleges established.
- 1974 - Blomquist Recreation Center built. Football stadium gets artificial turf.
- 1975 - Pick-Staiger Concert Hall completed. First Dance MarathonDance marathonA dance marathon is an event in which people stay on their feet for a given length of time. It started as a popular fad in the 1920s and 1930s, when organized dance endurance contests attracted people to compete to achieve fame or win monetary prizes...
. - 1979 - Women's Basketball team wins its first Big Ten title.
- 1980 - Mary and Leigh Block Gallery opens. Women's Basketball team wins their second Big Ten title.
- 1987 - Jennifer D. Averill named the nation's outstanding hockey player. Northwestern University/Evanston Research Park begins operation. Henry Crown Sports Pavilion and Dellora A. and Lester J. Norris Aquatics Center open.
- 1990 - The Family Institute at Northwestern University signed an independent affiliation agreement. Sorority and fraternity run moved from new student week to the Winter quarter.
- 1991 - Wrestler Mike Funk becomes Northwestern's first 4-time All-American.
- 1992 - Charles Deering McCormick donates $10 million to establish endowed professorships that recognize outstanding teachers.
- 1993 - NUNetNunetnunet is a global provider of mobile and IPTV video management technologies for broadcasters, media brands and Mobile Network Operators. The Mobile TV CMS product provides broadcasters with the ability to aggregate, encode, optimise and schedule live, looped and VOD channels for broadcast to mobile...
computer network installed.
Modern era (1994–present)
- Includes the administrations of Henry S. Bienen (1994–2009) and Morton O. Schapiro (2009– )
David Protess launched the Medill Innocence Project in 1999 after he and students helped demonstrated the innocence of death row members.
The Rock was moved 30 feet (9 m) to the east as part of a beautification project in the plaza between Harris Hall and University Hall, but cracked after workers dug up its foundation.
In 1998, two former Northwestern basketball
Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball
The Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team representing Northwestern University in the Big Ten Conference. Men's basketball was first introduced at Northwestern in 1901...
players, Kenneth Dion Lee and Dewey Williams, were charged and convicted for sports bribery. The players were part of a gambling ring and received money to fix
Point shaving
In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to prevent a team from covering a published point spread. Unlike other forms of match fixing, sports betting invariably motivates point shaving. A point shaving scheme generally involves a sports gambler and one...
three games against other Big 10 schools during the 1995 season. The football team
Northwestern Wildcats football
The Northwestern Wildcats football team, representing Northwestern University, is a NCAA Division I team and member of the Big Ten Conference, with evidence of organization in 1876...
became embroiled in a different betting scandal later that year when federal prosecutors indicted four former players for perjury related to betting
Sports betting
Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome.-United States of America:Aside from simple wagers such as betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will win its division or buying a football "square" for the Super Bowl, sports betting is...
on their own games. In August 2001, Rashidi Williams, a senior safety, collapsed and died during practice from an asthma attack. An autopsy revealed that he had ephedrine
Ephedrine
Ephedrine is a sympathomimetic amine commonly used as a stimulant, appetite suppressant, concentration aid, decongestant, and to treat hypotension associated with anaesthesia....
, a stimulant
Stimulant
Stimulants are psychoactive drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both. Examples of these kinds of effects may include enhanced alertness, wakefulness, and locomotion, among others...
banned by the NCAA, in his system which prompted Northwestern to investigate the prevalence of stimulants and other banned substances across all of its athletic programs.
Henry S. Bienen, a political scientist and dean of Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school has granted undergraduate A.B. degrees since 1930 and graduate degrees since 1948...
, was elected president of Northwestern in June 1994.
- 1995 - Henry BienenHenry BienenHenry Samuel Bienen is an American academic administrator and former president of Northwestern University. He was elected president on June 13, 1994 and took office on January 1, 1995. He announced his retirement effective August 31, 2009...
becomes University President. Northwestern ranks third in the nation in football, wins Big Ten, and loses to the University of Southern California in Rose Bowl. - 1996 - Princess Diana visits Northwestern.
- 1997 - Football stadium restored to natural grass surface.
- 1998 - Professor John PopleJohn PopleSir John Anthony Pople, KBE, FRS, was a Nobel-Prize winning theoretical chemist. Born in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, England, he attended Bristol Grammar School. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1943. He received his B. A. in 1946. Between 1945 and 1947 he worked at the Bristol...
is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. - 2000 - May 31, Northwestern commemorates the founder's first meeting by dedicating a historical marker at the corner of Clark and Lake streets in Chicago's loop.
- 2002 - Northwestern moved its Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program to The Family Institute at Northwestern University.
- 2004 - Oct. 2nd, Northwestern's football team defeats Ohio State 33-27 at home for the first time since 1958. The overtime win snapped Ohio State's dominance of 24 straight victories in the series (a streak which dated back to 1971).
External links
- About Northwestern - History
- Northwestern University Archives - History
- Northwestern Historical Timeline
- Encyclopedia of Chicago