Chapter 37: In Pursuit of Excellence

"There are moments when a sober and frank evaluation is the only thing to undertake," de Kiewiet told (1950) an audience of selected U. of R. graduates. "We received such an evaluation recently from the Middle States Association. Except for the one or two areas where they got a little too much inside guidance, their report was an extremely intelligent and revealing account of both strength and weakness." 1

Speaking thus, the President had in mind a survey of the University, in all its diversity and amplitude, carried out by a team of educational specialists from other institutions. The group functioned under the auspices of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and of five specialized agencies of education; for the information of the appraisers, thirteen detailed booklets on the various branches of the Rochester complex were prepared by administrative officers, and that voluminous data was supplemented and reinforced by on-the-spot investigations by members of the evaluation team extending from the sixth into the ninth of December, 1959. Chairman of the group, comprising thirty-three men and women, was President John C. Warner of the Carnegie Institute of Technology. His colleagues focused their attention on two principal areas of examination and assessment; instruction and research, with sub-committees assigned to the College of Arts and Science, each of the professional schools, and "supporting services."

Their report, dated April 23, 1960, if somewhat superficial, was quite comprehensive and reasonably detached. Since the document was the product of representatives of universally respected educational bodies, it has singular usefulness for the historian and will frequently be referred to on the pages that follow. Inasmuch as the Rochester authorities had set excellence in every respect as the University goal, the visitation leaders let it be known that the evaluations were based on that exalted standard. 2

As an overall estimate, the investigators found the University in a "healthy state.. .In the academic areas in which it has chosen to concentrate, it enjoys an enviable reputation throughout the country." And again, "Rochester has succeeded in making itself one of the nation's important universities; it has already won eminence in some areas; and its future is very promising." Although the evaluators questioned whether the several components of the University supported each other to maximum advantage, they warmly applauded "a deliberate commitment to excellence...a teaching staff of generally fine equality...and admirable plant [obnoxious term]; and a disinclination to expand the instruction and research program at the cost of quality."

So far as the historic arts college was concerned, it seemed "to occupy effectively its strategic role as the sustaining root of the university...the center from which the rest radiates." The teaching staff appeared to be ''one of high quality, on the whole, and of healthy variety. The visitors are impressed with the quality, variety, and amount of research activity they found, with the provision made for scholarly work...and with the reasonable system of leaves for research and professional development."

Many aspects of the University's stance toward the College of Arts and Science were pronounced praiseworthy, notably the central position accorded the basic disciplines, the high level of performance expected, "and the equal emphasis placed upon instruction and scholarship in faculty recruitment and recognition." While unhesitatingly directing attention to some deficiencies, some blemishes, the visiting experts would not change the structure of the College nor "its direction of growth in any significant way;" in fact, they expressed envy over the position the institution had attained and its prospects for the future. 3

Concerning the administrative side of the University, the investigators registered relatively few criticisms. They felt, however, that the president's cabinet needed to develop into a more effective instrument of coordination and cooperation between the several branches of the University, and that the professoriate should be more deeply involved in planning and policymaking. Specifically, if somewhat broadly, it was hinted that a unifying mechanism--a kind of academic senate--should be instituted as a common forum for the faculties of the various divisions of the University.

It was also recommended that communication between administrators and undergraduates be improved, since the latter felt that important decisions were made without giving consideration to student opinion and that reasons for major administrative actions were not always adequately explained. So far as the management of University finances was concerned, the evaluators urged revision (or sharper definition) in the functions of the comptroller and the business manager and in accounting procedures; it was felt, too, that a full time internal auditor and a classroom scheduling officer should be added to the administrative apparatus. 4

Actually, moves had already been made to tone up the president's cabinet, meetings being held more frequently, often biweekly. Differences of opinion repeatedly cropped up between the President and the college deans, Noyes in particular constantly pressing for strengthening the research elements in the faculty as opposed to costly curricular innovations, and he was annoyed by the way in which the preparation of the annual budget was handled. It was Noyes' conviction, vigorously expressed, that he as the dean of the College of Arts and Science should be allowed much wider latitude in decision making than prevailed. In 1957, Deans Habein and Wantman resigned, as Hoffmeister had done the preceding year. In 1957 also, as right-hand man to Noyes, McCrea Hazlett, it has been noted, was chosen dean of students from a large field of candidates; and in 1958 he succeeded Noyes in the deanship. 5

de Kiewiet worked hand in glove with presidents of other leading New York State private universities on questions relating to state-financed institutions of higher learning. Together, they probably were of decisive significance in blocking the establishment of a competitive engineering school in Long Island, and they took a determined stand against a scheme to create a huge centralized state university, arguing that it was as unsound financially as educationally. In a "Declaration of Educational Principles and Recommendations " presented to the State Board of Regents, the university executives advocated that the state government underwrite strong existing universities instead of founding new ones. On another occasion, de Kiewiet, always the champion of exciting innovation, recommended that New York State should be divided into five or six educational regions, each centered upon a post-baccalaureate institution of excellence and embracing secondary schools, colleges, graduate and professional schools; the Rochester area, of course, would form one of the proposed divisions. Alternatively, as de Kiewiet saw the educational urgencies, the supreme need was not state-financed universities, but "the upgrading of the academic performance of our [public] schools..." These proposals fell on deaf ears; and a state committee on higher education reported (1960) favorably on a plan for three authentic state universities, one of them in the western section of New York, preferably incorporated with existing institutions.

The Rochester Chamber of Commerce, scenting a valuable economic asset for the city in a vast state university ("a second Berkeley!"), named a committee to move "with all possible speed" to obtain it; "U. of R. Considered for State University," proclaimed a banner newspaper headline. The thought was that the University might be the nucleus of the tax-supported institution and would then resemble Cornell, part privately, part publicly financed. Whatever his inner conviction may have been, de Kiewiet professed "an open mind and a completely friendly disposition" toward the Chamber of Commerce initiative, and the University corporation gave the proposition thorough consideration.

On the merit side of the column it was argued that as a state university, government funds, state and perhaps federal, too, would be supplied in huge volume, the faculties and the post-baccalaureate student population would expand, possibly law and architectural schools would be established, and, in general, the influence and national prestige of the University would be heightened. But grave disadvantages likewise presented themselves; endowment funds and administrative and managerial policies, for example would be subjected to supervision by state authorities. Control over standards of student admissions would be diminished if not entirely taken away, and the University might be exposed to undesirable political pressure. Bigness, moreover, would rob the institution of advantages implicit in comparatively small size. It was supposed, too, that some faculty members and more graduates would frown upon a merger. For a decade, a Rochester press editorial imagined, growing pains of a joint private-state institution would cause a decline in the distinction of the U. of R., a decrease in eminence.

Balancing the pros and cons, the trustees voted that the better way toward the goal of excellence, the better way to contribute to the advancement of learning would be to perpetuate the historic private character of the University. Nevertheless, the corporation pledged full cooperation if a separate state university should be located in the Rochester area. All the talk about the future structure of the University may have inspired discussion in the trustee body on changing the name--perhaps to George Eastman University--but the overwhelming consensus was against alteration. In reality, the educational policymakers in Albany seem never to have seriously considered Rochester as the site of a state university; in any event, the ultimate decision joined the new institution to the University of Buffalo. When Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller brought forward (1961) a highly controversial scheme for tuition aid to New York students attending private colleges and universities, both secular and church-connected, de Kiewiet strongly endorsed the plan. 6

In the meantime, state and Monroe County public bodies had definitely decided to establish a two-year community college in metropolitan Rochester. When that idea was initially broached, the trustee executive committee canvassed the situation, and the points were made that a community college would introduce an element of competition for students and for financial support from Rochester sources, and would raise problems of transfer of students to the University. Nevertheless, the committee (and the president's, cabinet) adopted a cooperative stance on the project, and when the Rochester Institute of Technology offered to operate the community college, that gambit was given "thoughtful consideration." In the end, the public policymakers decided upon a wholly separate Monroe Community College, which rapidly developed into, a flourishing institution. 7

II

Without let or halt, de Kiewiet fortified his reputation as a compelling spokesman in the interest of American higher education in general and of his own institution in particular. As he read the signs of the times, American colleges must shoulder "a dual mandate:" education of the brightest young minds, yes, but also training of "rank and file" students who would contribute initiative, daring, and support to first-raters. The guiding principle, he reasoned, should be to achieve the finest qualitative education for the greatest number of young people. For him higher learning was "a great solvent which smoothes out incompatible social differences and a principal architect of national coherence."

While praising industrial and financial firms for their enlarging support of colleges and universities, he appealed to them to stretch themselves farther; unless truly colossal sums were quickly furnished tomorrow would be too late to prevent political and economic disaster, de Kiewiet declared. A crying need, he insisted, was larger resources to raise faculty salaries, since the dollar value of compensation had fallen far below the 1939 level; in effect, teachers were subsidizing the institutions to which they were attached, he commented. These observations, tendered originally to the Rochester trustees, were reproduced in an article that was circulated in thousands of reprints and elicited hearty acclaim from university executives all across America. 8

Addressing the New York State School Boards Association, the President vigorously advocated a search for "new principles that can be used to guide education in the space age, in the age of world revolution, in an age when only highly educated populations can carry their burdens." "The greatest cause of student mortality on the university level is the lack of a sense of intellectual confidence," he was convinced. "Many freshmen have not reached a plateau of knowledge and experience which fits them for the greater challenge of university work."

Calling attention to the distinction between the complex university and "the simple and single college," he contended that educational "initiative has passed to the institutions in which undergraduate instruction, professional training and advanced research are all important components. Their interdependence and balance produce the successful university. The good universities...are in the vanguard of creative change in education."

More than that, "the growing concern of faculties with graduate ''teaching and research is an essential advance in university development. It is indeed the most important mark of the shift of initiative into the university, away from secondary and arts college education. But," he went on, "it is also a disturbing flight from the undergraduate. If this flight continues we may acquire a national pattern of a handful of institutions protesting their concern with the quality education of the few."

In a memorable utterance, de Kiewiet eloquently declared, "The measure, of a university's success can never be expressed in terms of a concrete product, or through a statistical tabulation. Precise evaluation of the outcome of effort and expenditure is deceptive or impossible...The only valid tests of success are to be found in such words as reputation, prestige, and scholarly atmosphere...These qualities are the real objectives of the University."

On October 13, 1960, shortly before he resigned as President, de Kiewiet spoke to a company of U. of R. graduates on the condition of the institution and the academic priorities that the times demanded. "Ten years ago," he remarked, "we were on the point of being swept permanently aside by the superior momentum of other institutions." Happily, that dire calamity had been averted, but much awaited the doing to attain the University goal, which he defined as "a national institution, visible from any distance as one of the academic peaks of the nation... That we are more visible and salient today than ten years ago is true...That we are a national academic peak is not yet true"--a judgment open to some dissent.

Blending an estimate of the past with the prospects for the future, the President said, "The greatest miscalculation in the life of the University was the belief that there could be a real university with only a small liberal arts college, no matter how much it emphasized quality"--again an interpretation that invites disagreement. "It is the principal task of this academic generation [meaning what?] to correct the disproportion and imbalance which resulted from this belief. [As the record plainly attests, by 1960 impressive progress had been achieved in rectifying the 'imbalance.'] In positive terms the principal task...is to carry to completion the development of the River Campus colleges. "

While acknowledging the great value of undergraduate education, de Kiewiet prophesied that "we shall not prosper if we do not recognize how much the center of gravity in university education is shifting towards higher levels in professional and scientific training..." He hoped that the University would "formulate a truly aggressive plan to become an academic power in the area of world affairs," and he recurred to a favorite theme. "A university that is not actively and usefully working on the problems of Red China, the educational systems of the new Africa, the world population explosion...[and] the modernization of two billion people is not working on the frontiers of knowledge."

Turning then to the area of science and medicine, the President pleaded for a "determined effort...an aggressive plan for the further development of biological science." If that were done, the University could "proceed to build up that supporting mechanism and helpful atmosphere and spirit of interdependence that I know to be the key to making this University one of the brilliant centers of science and medicine in the country."

It was regrettable, the President remarked, that University plans for the future lacked intellectual boldness, and he took upon himself a share of the blame for that egregious shortcoming. "There is not a first rate, pioneering major element of intellectual inventiveness in our planning," he insisted. 9

III

The sweep of the Middle States Association appraisal extended to the board of trustees. Evaluators learned that at corporation meetings the president customarily presented a statement on the current condition of the University, financial officers delivered reports, and an administrator gave an accounting on his area of special responsibility. They learned, too, that in a trustee body of twenty-eight one vacancy existed, and that attendance at meetings stood high; of an average age of around sixty, four trustees were younger than fifty, and four were seventy or more; the average length of service was nearly eleven years. de Kiewiet divided his "bosses" into two classes;" one set wished to maintain the status quo,' while the other was eager , to keep the' institution moving forward. As one result of the Middle States Association report, visiting committees of trustees were set up, for each branch of the University complex. 10

Trustees normally retired at the age of seventy and were presented with tokens of appreciation and esteem in the form of color print of the Eastman Quadrangle and a plate engraved with their name and length of service; in some cases the switch from "active" to "honorary" status meant even greater attention to University affairs. Between 1954 and 1962 many new faces appeared on the Board, as for instance, by virtue of alumni election, Jacob R. Cominsky, 1920, Willard M. Allen, Medical School, 1932, Mitchell W. Miller, Eastman School, 1932, Samuel S. Stratton, 1937, Richard B. Secrest, 1943, and Joseph E. Morrissey, 1932.

Four men of distinction from the, class of 1919 were elected to membership by the Board: Kenneth B. Keating, United States Senator, James E. McGhee, Kodak executive, Elmer B. Milliman, banker--all three residents of Rochester--and Leo D. Welch, Standard Oil of New Jersey executive. Other alumni brought on to the Board were George G. Smith, 1911, Buffalo attorney, John W. Remington, 1917, Rochester lawyer and banker (who had previously served as an alumni-elected trustee), and Donald A. Gaudion,1936, Rochester industrialist and community leader. Also enlisted from the Rochester business community were William S. Vaughn and Edward Peck Curtis (descendant of an original trustee) of the Eastman Kodak Company, and William W. McQuilkin, president of Bausch and Lomb. In 1961 no fewer than seven men entered the Board, among them Arthur Kantrowicz, physicist and businessman, Edward A. Weeks, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, and J. Douglas Brown, economist and dean of the faculty at Princeton University, who brought special educational insights into corporation deliberations and assessments of academic policies. Joseph C. Wilson, 1931, who as chairman of the executive committee had been groomed for larger responsibilities, succeeded Raymond N. Ball, 1914, in 1959 in the exacting role of Board chairman. 11

In terms of vocation, seventeen of the twenty-eight trustees actively serving during 1961-1962 were associated with industrial or commercial concerns and two others--a lawyer and a scientist--had intimate business connections. Three board members were university officers, two were housewives, one United States Senator, one a Congressman, one an editor, and one a professional musician. All but seven of the trustees at the time resided in metropolitan Rochester ("practically the complete representation of the community's industrial hierarchy," someone remarked), and sixteen of the twenty-eight had earned degrees at the U. of R. Church affiliation of trustees, which had appreciable importance in the nineteenth century, had lost all meaning in the twentieth, yet it may be mentioned that the three major faiths of the United States were represented on the Board, Protestantism predominating.

Now and then in intervals between regular meetings, President de Kiewiet despatched newsletters to the trustees to keep them abreast of developments. He also called their attention to an interesting, thoughtful, and provocative Memo to a College Trustee, largely written by Beardsley Ruml, a business and educational spokesman of New York City. Critical of the traditional role of trustees in university management, the document summoned them to greater involvement, even to the extent of assuming control over the design and administration of the curriculum. For de Kiewiet the initial reaction to that idea was that it would be "an intolerable and dangerous invasion" of faculty prerogatives; later his indignation cooled, though, in fact, nothing was done to implement the Ruml proposal concerning courses of study. 12

Already the President had handed the executive committee a fresh and elaborate agenda of progress for the University, as is related farther along, and the committee had approved revisions in the trustee by-laws. As the sequel to the latter action, the term of alumni-elected trustees was extended from three years to six, the scope of the executive committee was somewhat clarified, and the accountability of all administrative officers to the president was more explicitly spelled out. 13

IV

"The University is to be congratulated upon the excellent state of its finances," reads the Middle States Association evaluation, "and upon the large contribution made by endowment income to its operations. One is impressed by the businesslike way in which the University's financial affairs have been handled, and indeed the casual observer might be inclined to think that the philosophy of business rather than education had predominated in the University's evolution...It may be that the officers and trustees... are somewhat too conservative in the management of financial affairs." 14

Neither the reaction of the University officers to these comments nor the degree of knowledge of the visiting evaluators about the Greater University Program then in course are disclosed in the records. Perhaps they had learned that in the recent past the University had borrowed at low rates from the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency to finance dormitory construction and from Rochester banks for residential and administration buildings. Perhaps they knew that the Ford Foundation had given (1955) $1.1 million as endowment to raise faculty compensation--part of it as a "bonus " because of what the University had already achieved in this direction--and had also given nearly a quarter of a million for Strong Hospital. Besides, Mrs. Ernest H. Woodward, of LeRoy, New York, had donated a million dollars to maintain the Hartwell Clinic and for related purposes. The U.S. Steel Corporation had given a large lump sum and the Carnegie Corporation had made important gifts for non-western civilization and Canadian studies projects.

The Middle States team may also have discovered that Rochester and national business firms, together with U. of R. graduates and parents of undergraduates, in annual giving had placed substantial sums at the disposal of the University. In what seems to have been a pioneer, formula of ongoing support, the Eastman Kodak Company paid $600 a year into the University treasury for each "full year of academic work completed by the employee" at the U. of R., if the graduate "joined Kodak within five years following graduation and [is] presently completing five years of company employment." The Senior classes of 1956 and 1958 earmarked their departure gifts for the Rhees Library. From the estates of Buffalonians Bertha H. Buswell,and her brother, Ralph Hochstetter, more than $12 million, first and last, flowed into the endowment resources of the Medical Center; other important legacies were bequeathed by Carrie Rice Rubenstein ( over half a million for endowment of nursing education and scholarship s) whose family were former Brockport, New York, residents and Ida Lynch whose will bequeathed over $400,000 in memory of Harrison C. Durand, 1882. 15

At the same time, the expanding student population on the River Campus and higher tuition charges helped to keep budgets in balance, as did rising income generated by endowments and ever larger appropriations by government agencies, foundations, and industries for research and training. de Kiewiet remarked upon the kind of satisfaction described by Charles Dickens in David Copperfield: "Annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditures, nineteen, nineteen six, result happiness; annual income, twenty pounds; annual expenditures, twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Yet the administration and the corporation kept peering ahead, spurred on by the quest for excellence, spurred on by the certainty that the demand for higher education would intensify with the exploding American youth population. Before the trustee executive committee, de Kiewiet laid (1958) a set of "projections"--an increase in faculty, betterment in faculty salaries (hopefully to be doubled by 1970), more classroom and office space on the River Campus, more undergraduate living quarters, an infirmary, a graduate residential structure, and at the Medical Center additional operating rooms, an ambulatory patient facility, an improved cafeteria, and an up-to-date animal house--all of which required a large volume of new money. 16

Presently de Kiewiet transmitted to the corporation an immense blueprint of advance for the years immediately ahead, called "The Future of the University." In summary form, the President contemplated no fewer than twenty capital construction projects, seven at the River Campus, eleven at the Medical Center, and two at the Eastman School; accompanying that agenda was a listing of "significant plans, needs, or recommendations for special studies" (thirty-eight items in all) for the University as a whole and its several component parts.

Months of diligent examination and evaluation of the breath-taking document by the trustees matched step-by-step planning by the administrative staff. Clear-cut development policies, eventually styled the Greater University Program, were formulated and on May 4, 1959, sanctioned by the Board. To carry out the plans, to assume top responsibility for annual giving and special fund solicitations, a University Development Council--later known as the Greater University Council--was set up under the leadership of untiring Trustee Brugler and composed of other trustees, graduates, and friends of the University. This star-studded team would work closely with the Office (or Division) of University Relations established in February, 1958. In point of fact, far the larger burden of conducting the Greater University Program devolved upon this office, directed by its talented leader, Donald E. Smith, who in time was named Vice-President for University Relations; in time, too, fund-raising operations were consolidated (1962) in the Office of University Development under Smith's administration.

Effective public relations (a coat of many colors) had high priority, and in 1960 Don W. Lyon, formerly custodian of radio and television activities, was appointed director of public: relations. Between 1958 and 1962 over 700 publications of one kind and another were turned out, connections with media of communications in the Rochester area and with influential national newspapers and magazines were strengthened, and films such as "The Challenge of Excellence" and "The University and the Community" were produced.

Among other tasks, the Office of University Relations built up and maintained records on prospective givers and actual donors, mailed literature to over 6,000 individuals, and acknowledged gifts as they came in. Necessarily, the staff, professional and clerical, underwent considerable expansion, yet expenditures for University Relations amounted to less than one percent of the operating costs of the University. 17

By 1965 it was hoped to raise $49.9 million, with specific targets set for each year of the effort. Of that sum, $28.7 million was earmarked for capital construction, to be obtained partly from government grants and loans and from a projected community hospital campaign in Rochester. The balance--$21.2 million--either in the shape of endowment or of the capitalized value of assured annual pledges of about $950 thousand, or a combination of the two, would be applied to operating expenses. 18

While some payments on the 1953 campaign pledges were still being met, the wheels were set in motion to achieve the vastly larger financial objective. From the Office of University Relations issued pamphlets describing the several divisions of the University, an attractive brochure, "The Privilege of Shaping Tomorrow," designed to encourage gifts and bequests, a supplementary "Life Income Opportunities and the University of Rochester," showing the tax advantages of gifts, and kindred publications. Stressing "a deferred gifts" plan, this literature was distributed to attorneys, trustees, and chairmen of each class of graduates of twenty-five or more years standing. Bequests of $3.8 million came in between 1958 and 1962.

Graduate giving was strengthened, a Parents Fund came (1960) into being, and philanthropic foundations and business corporations were the objects of a "deliberate program of contact, cultivation, and solicitation" carried out by individual trustees or teams of faculty and University Relations office personnel.

By early autumn of 1960 the program had covered a fifth of the journey to the objective. Trustee Hoyt pledged (1959) funds for a lecture demonstration hall, and the Hopeman family of Rochester agreed to finance a new engineering building in large part. The Wilsons--Joseph R., 1903, and Joseph C., 1931--gave (1961) one million toward the Greater University goal, stipulating that the money should be spent forthwith primarily for faculty salaries, new professorships, not for "bricks and mortar." Making this generous gift, the Wilsons implemented their conviction, reminiscent of the reasoning of George Eastman, that a community "is shaped by the quality of its educational institutions more than by any other single factor." 19

Under the annual giving plan, funds from industrial and commercial sources passed the million dollar mark in 1961-1962, and that year contributions from graduates (exclusive of the Medical School) more than doubled the amount of four years earlier. Progress of the Greater University Program from its inception through 1961-1962 is shown in the following figures, rounded into thousands of dollars:

Grants, gifts, and loans from government agencies and various associations such as the Heart Fund swelled the totals, so that in June of 1962 the treasurer was able to report receipts valued at just under $26 million and by February, 1965, the Greater University Program had surpassed the declared target by the equivalent of half a million dollars. 20

Repeated references have been made to the rapidly rising support for sponsored research, which in 1958-1959 equalled about a quarter of all University expenditures, or more than the entire budget fifteen years earlier. Three years later the total exceeded $10 million, divided among River Campus departments, the Medical School, and the Atomic Research Project, a threefold increase in dollar terms during the decade.

Contract funds (about 300 of them in 1960-1961) supported salaries of prime investigators, summer compensation notably, and of research associates and graduate assistants, and paid for supplies and highly specialized research equipment including a polarizing microscope, a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer, and the big cyclotron. Federal government funds were also furnished for the construction of certain physical facilities, such as extensions to Bausch and Lomb and Gavett Halls and the Center for Brain Research workshop. So far as the University treasury was concerned, sponsored research tended to be a deficit operation, for it spent large amounts, especially in salaries and indirect expenses (central administration costs, group benefits, maintenance and use of buildings, and University-owned equipment), in carrying on sponsored projects. Coming principally from the National Institutes of Health, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the National Science Foundation, research grants were largely made to scientific disciplines, which intensified the imbalance with other areas of knowledge. Spoken of as "soft money," these subsidies represented a peculiar hazard in that they might suddenly cease, obligating the University to finance research workers and their work. On this point and others allied to it, the evaluators of the Middle States Association put forward several suggestions, inspired by experience at other institutions.

Owing to the greatly increased volume and complexity of sponsored research, the administrative structure had to be enlarged. An Office of Research Administration was headed by LaRoy B. Thompson with Richard J. Susat, 1951, and then David A. McBride as first lieutenants; when in 1959 Thompson assumed the larger responsibility of University treasurer, McBride was promoted to the research directorship. To handle the administrative detail at the operating level, business managers were attached to departments heavily engaged in sponsored research. After moving from pillar to post, the headquarters of the Research Administration were in 1958 located in the new Administration Building.

McBride formulated the duties and responsibilities of his office as, first of all, to "help the individual research to prepare [a plan of study] by seeing that the budgetary requirements are fulfilled and the proposal is in proper format." Next, "to attempt to determine...the effect of specific research programs on the over-all University growth and development;" then "to locate and develop sources of funds for support of research" and "when a grant or contract is awarded we attempt to insure that the terms are satisfactory to the University. "

Weighing the impact of sponsored research upon general academic life, McBride stressed the stimulus it imparted to scientific investigations. Projects were accepted, he pointed out, only in areas of direct interest to faculty members and which promised to yield suitable training, for graduate students and material for doctoral dissertations--thereby strengthening the whole corpus of U. of R. education and heightening the national reputation of the University. Whether or not sponsored research in science was beneficial to the humanities and the social studies was open to debate, McBride held.

Emphasis in the administration of research gradually and subtly turned from financial grants to long range educational planning in context with the total educational program at the University; accordingly, jurisdiction over the Office of Research Administration was transferred (1961) from the treasurer to the provost. 21

V

At an extremely rapid tempo, the growth of the post-baccalaureate community transformed the historic undergraduate image of the University. "Graduate education on a high level is vital," de Kiewiet kept reminding the corporation, "if we are to meet the needs of our expanding colleges and universities for faculty members and society as a whole for highly educated personnel." By 1961-1962 just under 1,200 full time graduate students were enrolled, or almost double the number of ten years before, and better than two out of three were at work on the River Campus.

New momentum, an unprecedented élan, had been imparted to graduate studies in 1952 when Deans Noyes and Beck took over the principal administrative responsibilities. Not only did the deans insist that they be consulted before appointments were made in the higher academic echelons, but, in collaboration with the Committee on Graduate Studies, debate on the standards and content of graduate training was lively and endemic. Authority to offer work leading to the Ph.D. was extended to radiation biology, chemical engineering, English, and comparative literature; and a new degree, the doctorate in musical arts, was introduced. 22

To decentralize responsibility for the maintenance of high standards and to promote postbaccalaureate studies generally, three divisional committees were set up (1953) in physical sciences, biological and related sciences, and the arts, humanities, and social studies. Each committee had to approve the program for each Ph.D. aspirant under its jurisdiction, might sanction a substitute foreign language for the prescribed French and German, and had to approve doctoral candidates who had completed their studies before their names were submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies for decision. Along with responsibility for recommending candidates for advanced degrees to the board of trustees for final action, this committee approved courses eligible for graduate credit and determined overall graduate school policy.

In the meantime, two types of programs for the master's degree had been adopted (1954). Under "Plan A," candidates were required to write a thesis based upon independent and intensive investigation and using some original materials; under "Plan B" a thesis was waived, but a rigorous general examination on courses studied was prescribed. Each department of learning was permitted to decide which of the two plans should be followed, or to enroll some students in one plan and others in the second.

Administration of graduate studies underwent drastic restructuring in 1957, with the emphasis on further decentralization. The title of Graduate School, in vogue for fifteen years, was dropped; authority in planning and policymaking for the Ph.D. degree was vested in a University-wide University Council on Graduate Studies, composed of deans and representatives of departments offering work for the Ph.D. and headed by a chairman, who was soon called the dean. After serving in an acting capacity for a year, Shirley S.D. Spragg was formally named as dean in 1958. He was to be consulted on appointments of unlimited tenure in departments offering the Ph.D., and he or his deputy would preside at final oral examinations for the degree.

Upon the Council rested responsibility for maintaining uniform and high standards for the Ph.D., for deciding whether a given academic department was qualified to accept candidates, and for recommending doctoral candidates to the president for final approval by the board of trustees. An instrument of the Council, a small "steering" committee, exercised advisory, semi-executive powers.

Other post-baccalaureate studies were placed under the administration of the component branches of the University. In each, an associate dean (or officer with an equivalent title) administered programs for the master's degree and also for the research doctorates in musical arts and in education, and presided over a committee on graduate studies. 23

The University Council approved work for the Ph.D. in Sociology, then withdrew the right, but later restored (I962) it in Anthropology, and a similar evolution took place in Astronomy and Physics. Economics (1957), Philosophy (1959), Electrical, Mechanical Engineering (1961), Linguistics (1962), and Brain Research were quickly approved as the Ph.D. granting departments, making as of 1961-1962 fifteen in all at the River Campus, seventeen if astronomy and optics are reckoned separately, four more at the Eastman School, and another eight at the Medical Center, for a grand total of twenty-nine. At that point, all the departments eligible to accept doctoral candidates also offered work for a master's distinction, as did fine arts, foreign languages, political science, business administration, education, and general studies (University School).

The Council voted (1961) that work for the Ph.D. must be completed within seven years, save in the case of holders of the master's degree at the point of entrance, for whom the time limit was set at six years. Plans to reduce the time actually consumed in earning a doctorate invariably ran into sand. It was also decided (1959) that facility in only one foreign language, instead of the traditional two (unless a given department ruled that two were necessary for its candidates), would be required and that this requirement, administered by the relevant language department, must be satisfied before a candidate presented himself for the Ph.D. qualifying examination. In the light of experience, a handbook on "Preparation of Theses" underwent (1958) revision. 24

Scholarly aid and fellowships increased, notably by reason of sponsored research and the National Education Defense Act (which, beginning in 1960, granted recipients a stipend of $2,200 a year for three years, together with allowances for dependents, and paid the University $2,500 annually for each fellow), and also fellowships awarded by the Regents of the State of New York and the National Science Foundation. Following the brutal Soviet repression of the 1956 rebellion in Hungary, arrangements were made to give tuition, board, and lodging to one or possibly two Hungarian refugees. An interesting analysis disclosed that in 1961-1962 eighty-seven percent of full time graduate students received financial support in one form or another--assistantships, fellowships, or tuition scholarships.

In 1955, a Graduate Student Council was recognized as official spokesman of candidates for the masters or the doctorate. The following year social meetings of graduate students were started, with speakers from outside. Various committees as well as the Graduate Council pleaded for graduate residential quarters for both single and married students and supplied with recreational facilities which would make the center a focus for the lives of the learners beyond classroom and laboratory. ''Much can be gained in an academic setting," President de Kiewiet reasoned, "if students from different disciplines have an opportunity in a pleasant setting to meet and, intellectually speaking, rub, elbows with their fellows." By 1962, of about 1,200 full time graduate students roughly half were married; counting wives and children the graduate population approximated 2,100. 25

Likewise, the Middle Atlantic Association visitors urgently recommended the provision of living facilities for graduate students. On the whole, this team found graduate work superior in character and in some areas, even very distinguished, but it deplored the imbalance that prevailed between the sciences and the arts and urged prompt measures to rectify the disparity. The administrative scheme for the Ph.D. was applauded, though the restricted jurisdiction of the University Council in other post-baccalaureate studies was accounted a serious weakness; a proposal by the Council to extend its authority was, however, defeated (1960) in the faculties of the several component branches. Very large increases were recommended in the University budget for grants-in-aid and for research generally; and a warning was recorded (not at all novel) against excessive reliance upon outside sources of research support, especially the federal government, as a potential menace to freedom of inquiry. 26

Not unexpectedly, the number of Ph.D. winners varied from year to year, standing at forty-eight in 1955-1956 and at seventy in 1961-1962, with a high point of 74 in 1957-1958; for the years 1955 to 1962, the total reached 449. From 1925, when the first earned doctorate was awarded, down to 1962, Rochester conferred 1,108 research doctorates. Chemistry paced the field, with music not far behind, and was followed by physics, physiology, psychology, and biochemistry in that order; except for music...only history among the arts had a substantial group of entries, yet at that only about a tenth as many as chemistry.

It was prescribed in the administrative plan adopted in 1957 that the organization of graduate studies should be scrupulously examined after not longer than five years, with a view to possible alterations in structure and procedure. Somewhat delayed, a thoroughgoing review was completed in 1965. The investigating committee concluded that the system was functioning very well and advocated only minor changes, some of them essentially semantic. 27

VI

Before the reunion of the two colleges had been fully absorbed, before the kinks entailed had been wholly ironed out, plans were devised to set up three autonomous professional schools--engineering, education, and business administration--the first and last of them carved out of the College of Arts and Science. This restructuring in 1958 represented in a real sense the most significant development in the University complex since the opening of the Medical Center more than three decades before. Years of study preceded the decision to establish the new units. As the deliberations unfolded, the idea of creating a school of professional studies, embracing education and business administration and possibly engineering, optics, and nursing education as well, came under full-bodied scrutiny; instead, however, the more appealing solution of three separate units was adopted. By this reformation, to state the solid reasoning succinctly, academic performance and technical training with direct bearing on the welfare of the Rochester community would be improved, each of the three units, big enough to stand alone, would be in a better position to attract growth capital, the prestige of separate schools would be helpful in recruiting faculty and students, and the College of Arts and Science would be freed to concentrate on fundamental academic disciplines. 28

Chastened, it may be, by the uproar in the faculty caused by the detachment of the department of education from the Arts College in 1956 without due consultation with the professoriate, President de Kiewiet in planning the professional schools solicited and obtained the counsel of his colleagues each step of the way. In the summer of 1957 an ad hoc faculty committee on River Campus educational organization recommended that it would be wise to detach the teaching of engineering and business administration from the College; this innovation, however, would not radically affect underclassmen, who would spend their first two years in the College, and if they chose might then apply for admission to one of the professional schools. The Arts faculty, whose thinking on the urgency of strengthening instruction in engineering was subtly quickened by the unloosing of the first Soviet Sputnik, assented almost unanimously to the revision, and endorsement by the corporation came along promptly. The title of "college," implying a wider variety of academic offerings, was applied to the new engineering and education units, but, on the ground that its work would be more narrowly professional, business administration was initially designated a school (altered to "college" in 1961). Each of the three units had its own chief administrator, dean or director, and of course its own staff. 29

Two agencies were created to deal with problems relevant to the River Campus institutions as a whole. First, a committee of administrators to handle general administrative issues, and, second, a River Campus Council in which eleven representatives of the faculties of the College of Arts and Science, the University School, and the three new professional schools met with administrators to consider academic questions. So that this body would not trench upon the traditional prerogatives and responsibilities of the separate faculties, the Council was explicitly defined as a strictly deliberative instrument, clothed with advisory powers only. Convening four times a year, the Council discussed such matters as faculty tenure, cheating by students, the implications of a four-course schedule and of a trimester calendar, the bookstore, a university press and chapel, and an institute of advanced study. Since it lacked authority to make decisions, the Council suffered from ineffectiveness, and in 1962 a successful movement was initiated to have it replaced by a more potent University-wide senate. 30

To lead the College of Engineering, John W. Graham, Jr., an experienced and vigorous administrator, was selected. The undergraduate engineering curriculum placed emphasis in depth on theory and fundamental scientific concepts. At the outset virtually everything required for advanced graduate training was lacking, but in short order laboratory equipment was brought up to date, the small library expanded, the staff enlarged, and by 1961-1962 work for the master's and the Ph.D. was available in each branch of engineering. A growing number of undergraduates elected a five-year course, obtaining degrees both in engineering and in liberal arts; and under a distinctive work-study plan, students spent the equivalent of an academic year and a summer as engineers-in-training in industrial plants, earning while they learned. 31

Taking into account the infancy of the College of Engineering (as of its sister colleges), the Middle Atlantic Association team applauded plans for promoting basic investigation and post-baccalaureate work, but pointed out the need for bigger and better teaching facilities. In the judgment of the evaluators, the undergraduate curriculum was too heavily weighted in the engineering sciences and too lean on the technical phases of the profession; they were impressed by the unusually high percentage of holders of the baccalaureate who proceeded to more mature studies. Appreciative, satisfied students were a capital advertisement for the college. Accordingly, the name of the college was amended (1963) to the College of Engineering and Applied Science. 32

The Middle States Association team had questioned the wisdom of having the Institute of Optics as separate element in the University complex and suggested that it be consolidated with the College of Engineering--an option that was adopted, becoming operative in September, 1961.

The student body of 1961-1962, including underclassmen who had indicated an intention to apply to the College of Engineering, totalled nearly 300, and a goal of 500 had been set for 1965. A booklet, written in a chatty, bang-bang style, was compiled to acquaint secondary school youths with the opportunities that education as an engineer afforded; to mark the birth of the college, the excellent student publication, The Rochester Indicator, came out (1958) in a new dress, larger and better than ever. Optics counted in, the college faculty of 1961-1962 contained thirty-three full time and two part time men.

Dean of the new College of Education from its founding in 1958 until he resigned ten years later was an enterprising decision-maker, William A. Fullagar, specialist on the educational problems of West Africa and co-editor of Readings for Educational Psychology (1956), who had come to the U. of R. in 1956 as director of the division of education. The college was responsible for training public school teachers and administrators and for the academic education of nurses; transferred from the University School. Additionally, the college afforded opportunities for practicing teachers to attain greater professional competence, and the faculty cooperated with public school systems in the Rochester area as advisors and conductors of research projects. Conferences, seminars, and workshops at Woodward House (explained below) featured the efforts of the college to upgrade the effectiveness of public school learning. To the same end, a fly sheet of four pages, Thought and Action in Education (TAE), was published nine or ten times a year for the benefit of "friends and colleagues in the school systems of the Genesee Valley region." It first appeared in March, 1958, under the imprimatur of the division of education and was continued by the college, more than 8, 000 copies of each issue being circulated; in 1968 the name was changed to Today and Tomorrow in Education. Through this medium, teachers were kept informed on professional gatherings and other events of interest, on books of importance in instruction, and on miscellaneous oddments under the rubrics of "Gleanings," "Chatter," or "Looking Around." 33

For the purposes of the college, a small highly selective library was maintained. Complaints of congestion persisted until 1961, when the College of Education was installed in Taylor Hall, vacated by the University School. In collaboration with Cornell, Syracuse, and Buffalo Universities, Rochester shared in an exciting scheme, financed by the Ford Foundation, to better the quality of public schooling by recruiting superior youths for the teaching profession and educating potential school administrators. The National Science Foundation appropriated funds to acquaint teachers more fully, especially in the Summer Session, with chemistry and physics, mathematics and geology. 34

According to the estimate of the Middle States Association team, the young college had an undergraduate curriculum that was at once realistic and academically superior, but it lacked individuality, a sense of mission and distinctiveness. Moreover, it needed facilities and faculty personnel to achieve excellence in post-baccalaureate instruction and in creative investigation. To these comments Fullagar replied that the shortcomings at Rochester paralleled those at similar institutions elsewhere, and that definition of long-term objectives was in the making, advanced graduate education included.

Actually, the college had been authorized (1959) to give work for the doctorate in education (Ed.D.), and the bestowal of that degree in 1963 upon Donald R. Cruickshank represented a milestone in the evolution of the college. By then the full time faculty had risen to twenty-three (it reached thirty-seven in 1968) and four other teachers were shared with the College of Arts and Science. 35

At the outset, the School (College in 1961) of Business Administration had offices in the Men's Dining Center, remaining until more spacious quarters were provided in Dewey Hall. It was administered, first as director, later as dean, by John M. Brophy, who had come to the University in 1957 as chairman of the department of business administration, and was noted as a specialist on management and development of human resources. The new unit took over instruction in business subjects formerly under the auspices of the College of Arts and Science aid of the University School. To meet the rising demand and to provide graduate training, the full time staff was enlarged to fourteen by 1961-1962, and its members taught classes in the evening as part of their normal assignment. Research-oriented, the professoriate welcomed (1961) the introduction of a master's degree in business administration, which that year attracted eighty- three candidates, six of them full time; the broad trend was in the direction of a predominantly post-baccalaureate student body. Hand in hand with the growth of the regular faculty, the employment of part-time teachers, recruited principally from the Rochester business community, dwindled. On the model of earlier experiments, the college sponsored clinics, institutes, and the like for junior managers in city firms.

Two defects in Business Administration, pointed out by the Middle States visitation team, were soon rectified: the director was elevated to a deanship, and the high proportion of part-time instructors in evening classes was whittled down. Except in industrial management, the team pronounced the curriculum sound, though it was persuaded that Business Administration was not attracting the ablest students and proposed a recruitment campaign to correct that situation; attention was called (and that was quite unnecessary) to the acute shortage of space that existed. Whatever its deficiencies by standards of excellence, the college had attained sufficient stature by 1964 to be formally accredited by the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business. 36

Meanwhile, concurrently with the establishment of new professional components, the University School had been reorganized and the scope of its operations somewhat narrowed. As part of the general restructuring of collegiate education on the River Campus, in 1958 an Evening Session was created involving six academic units: to wit, the College of Arts and Science, the three new professional schools, the department of nursing at the Medical Center, and the University School, whose officers administered the Evening Session. Courses were intended primarily for part-time learners, attending classes in the late afternoon, evenings, or Saturdays. As in the past, students not seeking a degree registered in the University School. Aspirants to a bachelor's degree enrolled in the University School for the equivalent of the first two years of undergraduate instruction; after that, two options were open, either to continue in the University School until completing requirements for a bachelor's honor in general studies (work could also be done in this school for a master's degree in industrial statistics or applied mathematics), or to transfer to the appropriate professional school for upper-class studies leading to a bachelor's degree in education, engineering, or business administration. It was also possible to undertake studies through the Evening Session to earn a master's degree in any of the River Campus units, the College of Arts and Science included.

In the judgment of the Middle Atlantic Association investigators, the quality of the work in the Evening Session was substantially the same as in the day session, but they deplored the easy admissions policy of the University School and proposed that its role and procedures should be clarified and more sharply defined. With the blessing of the trustees, a senate was formed (1959), composed of administrators and teachers at the University School, whose functions corresponded closely to those of a college faculty. It is interesting to know that for the year 1960-1961 over 1,800 students, nearly half of all those enrolled in the Evening Session, had their tuition charges paid in whole or part by the companies which employed them. 37

As was the case with the Evening Session, the officers of the University School also administered the River Campus Summer Session; their headquarters were eventually placed in the new Administration Building. At the end of the 1950's, summer study was made available in three parts, the regular session of six weeks, preceded and followed by sessions of three weeks each. To the summer offerings were added professional workshops, for example in school administration, and specialized institutes," National Science Foundation institutes were conducted (1959) in general science and in mathematics, primarily for schoolteachers. An interesting and not uninstructive experiment of 1958 brought to the Summer Session about fifty able, carefully selected high school Juniors, who were treated as collegians in courses presumably of college quality. Not a single one of them failed! That summer some sixty-five teachers, almost all recruited from the Rochester faculties, gave instruction to 647 non-degree holders and to 595 post-baccalaureate students; three years later the registration of about 1,680 broke all records, the majority being graduate students. 38

VII

More than once, President de Kiewiet reminded the trustees that "the problem of academic space is a troublesome one, and, like the poor, is with- us always." Building to relieve the situation, rendered acute by swift growth of the student population and expansion of research activity, soon reached such dimensions that a trustee of a witty turn of mind feared the Rochester public might complain that the University was afflicted with an "edifice" complex.

A bothersome perplexity faced University policymakers over the route to be traversed by a new highway called, the Outer Loop. (The possibility that the railway to the south of the River Campus might be converted into a motor speedway was an additional cause of concern.) As originally plotted by state authorities, the Outer Loop would cut across the so-called South Campus and impair, if not destroy, the usefulness of that tract for University requirements. Steps were initiated to have the route relocated, or, failing in that, to secure compensatory land, either a parcel on West Henrietta Road (subsequently used for the Monroe Community College) or the northern strip of Genesee Valley Park. In point of fact, negotiations between University officers and public officials resulted in a decision to run the Outer Loop along the southern rim of the Barge Canal, leaving the South Campus virtually intact.

Other possibilities for acquiring needed land included the River Boulevard itself and a municipally-owned tract of filled-in ground lying between Mt. Hope Cemetery and the River Boulevard--which in 1966 was actually transferred to the University. The desirability of using for academic structures land occupied by Fauver Stadium and the adjoining playing fields--or the campus area occupied by fraternity houses--was debated, but the disadvantages outweighed the merits. Building on the right bank of the Genesee River was ruled out as too costly to construct and maintain. In 1959, the University bought just under sixteen acres butting on the South Campus, so that the total holding there amounted to about eighty-five acres or nearly as much as the entire River Campus. 39

The possibility of getting land along Mt. Hope Avenue, a mile and a half from the River Campus, won trustee approval. A large house and grounds at the southeast corner of that avenue and Linden Street was bought (1960), and conversations were resumed with the Barry family concerning the acquisition of nearby properties. In the end, the Barry family generously donated (1963) two mansions and about eight acres, including landscaped gardens and an arboretum of unusual horticultural significance, which the University pledged to keep up. The larger residence, designed by the architect Gervase Wheeler, was a Rochester landmark, an exceptionally fine specimen of the modified Italian villa style, built of rose brick and trimmed with limestone. Erected about 1855 for Patrick Barry, a pioneer Genesee country nurseryman, the house had for years been a mecca for art and architectural historians; long the home of Mrs. Harriet Liesching, Barry's daughter, it was sometimes spoken of as the Liesching House. It had been vacant for a dozen years, and the University on taking over the property agreed to restore the house as nearly as possible to its original condition; that done, the residence became the home of the University provost. A picturesque crenellated structure next door, designed by the romantic landscape architect, Alexander Jackson Davis, which had been the original office of the Ellwanger and Barry firm, appropriately became the University architect's office and headquarters for the office of the University plant. 40

For accounting, purchasing, and River Campus maintenance offices a red brick, two-story Supplies and Accounts Building was erected (1956) near Elmwood Avenue and adjoining the Medical Center. It may be interpolated here that an award party for non-teaching personnel with ten or more years employment at the University had grown into an annual affair; at the end of twenty-five years on the payroll workers were rewarded with gold watches. Under the name of What's News in the University (1955) or Your News, and after 1961, University Record, a paper was published to keep employees posted on what was happening in the several branches of the University.

For the first time in its history the University in 1958 built a separate building for the administration, after the possibility of a wing for administrative offices on the east side of Rhees Library had been reexamined and turned down. Several locations were considered, ore at the corner of the River Boulevard and Library Road being finally chosen. Built in the shape of a T, the Administration Building duplicated the standard River Campus style; of two stories and a basement, it was designed so that an addition could be made economically, and that was soon (1961) necessary in order to meet the space requirements of the central administration, registrar, bursar, University School officialdom, and the several segments of the University Relations complex; an air conditioning facility followed along shortly. 41

In the spring of 1956 ground was broken for a new men's dormitory of three stories to the north of Lovejoy. L-shaped, it had room for 150 occupants and at its opening in September, 1957, it was assigned the name of Martin F. Tiernan, 1906, University trustee and generous benefactor. A second and similar residential hall north of Hoeing, housing 174, was dedicated in June of 1960 in memory of Donald W. Gilbert, 1921, long-time professor of economics and University executive," Gilbert Hall, like Tiernan, was reserved for greenlings. Post-baccalaureate and selected undergraduates lived in the residence halls as advisers and counselors; commuting students affiliated with a residence hall--where they might stay overnight for a nominal fee--and participated in the social affairs of the unit.

All told, River Campus dormitories could then accommodate about 880 men, with an additional 130 upperclassmen lodged in eight fraternity houses. Sometimes two men were assigned into a dormitory room intended for one; as an answer to overcrowding, undergraduates raised the question of relaxation in the standing rule against off-campus living. In harsh language a Campus-Times editor denounced the "dogmatic" administrative policy requiring residence on the campus as "inconsiderate and unfair;" next year, however, permission was given a few upperclassmen to take rooms in the city. When more women were in attendance than could be accommodated in the Women's Residence Center, several were quartered in Helen Wood Hall, which they seem to have liked, save for the long walk on bleak winter days. 42

To take care of the constantly growing undergraduate body, the corporation requested and secured (1960) a low interest loan of $3 million from the Federal Housing and Home Finance Agency to construct two high rise residential structures and a low building as a community dining center. Additional funds for the project were borrowed from Rochester banks at low interest rates, and all to be amortized through operation of the complex.

It was first thought of placing the new dormitories north of the Alumni Gymnasium and tennis courts along the River Boulevard, but the objection was raised that nine-story edifices there would dominate the academic scene, so an alternate plot at the extreme northeastern section of the campus, slightly back from the Genesee River, was chosen, which necessitated the relocation of certain playing fields. The two dormitories, with facilities for a maximum of 248 students each, were named (1966) Anderson Tower, in honor of the first president of the University, and Wilder Tower (on the east),to commemorate the dedicated labors of John N. Wilder, chief of the University founding-fathers; the name of William N. Sage, a key personality in the first four decades of the University's life, was affixed to the dining center, and the group as a whole was designated the Founders Court.

Residence in the Towers, which were opened in 1962, was restricted to Seniors and some Juniors, and was on a coeducational basis, a rather novel concept in the eastern part of the United States. Some floors were assigned to men, others to women, and plans were kept flexible so as to meet shifting enrollments of the two sexes. In support of the coeducational feature, the point was made that the experiment would afford socially valuable training in maturity and responsibility and would constitute worthwhile preparation for adult life.

If the exterior of the rectangular Towers was austere brick with limestone trim, and, except for extensive use of glass, rather unimpressive, the interior was delightful; high-speed elevators were installed, and glass doors opened into corridors lined with marble walls. A typical floor contained an apartment-type suite for six students at each corner and four double rooms with shared bathroom facilities in the center space. Each suite had a living room, and a corridor leading from it opened the way to four single and one double bedroom, with pleasant study areas and closets. On each floor there was a kitchenette equipped with: a freezer-refrigerator, a stove, and garbage disposal. 43

For the advancement of knowledge in particle physics, a low brick structure was erected (1958) due south of Taylor Hall, and for physics and astronomy, optics, and mathematics a five-story wing was attached (1962) to Bausch and Lamb Memorial Laboratory. Both Gavett and Harkness Halls had (1960, 1962) third floors and mezzanine levels installed, the Harkness expansion being principally for use as classrooms and faculty studies.

On, May 14, 1962, the cornerstone was set for a huge four-story building for electrical and mechanical engineering, to the west of Gavett Hall; into the cornerstone were placed objects symbolical of the current state of the engineering art, descriptive materials about the University, and newspapers of the day--yes, and a shiny new penny for good luck. Conforming to River Campus design, the building was for the most part financed by the Hopeman family, general contractors for many River Campus projects, and was named the Hopeman Engineering Building.

Thanks largely to the generosity of Trustee Hoyt, a combination lecture and demonstration hall seating 350 was placed (1962) between Bausch and Lomb and Dewey Halls. Called Elizabeth Hoyt Hall in memory of the donor's mother, it was two stories high off a small plaza near Eastman Quadrangle with three levels on the south end; glass entryways set in a glass wall helped to make Hoyt, in the judgment of many, the most attractive building on the River Campus. When it was revealed that a building for the Brain Research Center would be placed (1963) north of Morey Hall, the Arts faculty objected unanimously and with vehemence that enlargement of their principal classroom facility would be blocked, and interested students took up the hue and cry. However, assurances that only a temporary structure was contemplated appeased the protestants. 44

Governmental agencies paid (1961) for the lowering of the smokestack on the University power plant, which stood in the flight path to and from the Rochester airport, and for installation of safety lighting atop Rhees Library tower. Space rights accorded to the Federal Aviation Agency prohibited construction on the River Campus that might possibly be an obstacle to planes.

It was reported early in 1962 that arrangements had matured for a federal government loan to construct a graduate living center. Since the city zoning board disapproved the proposed site, an alternate area west of University Park was decided upon; two multistory towers, unprepossessing in external appearance (someone tagged them "the Monitor" and "the Merrimac"), and a row of low maisonettes would contain about 180 apartments; they were occupied in 1965. 45

According to the Middle States Association team the personnel of the Rhees Library and the Library itself merited hearty praise. In its opinion, book resources were well rounded and of high quality for under graduate teaching, strong in science and Anglo-American literatures for research, but large scale purchasing was essential in periodical holdings, foreign materials notably, and in collections for Ph.D. work in recently approved departments. The investigators cast a fishy eye at the custom of having several substantial departmental libraries, and, for the general health of the University, it was proposed that the director of the libraries have more intimate association with decision-making bodies. To the Hopeman Chime in the Library Tower two bells--an F sharp and a high G--cast in the Netherlands were added (1956), bringing the cluster to nineteen and materially expanding the range of music that could be played. New lighting fixtures were placed (1956) on the upper foyer and a microtext room was fitted up (1958) on the north side of the basement; here were presently assembled complete files on film of the London Times, the New York Times, reproductions of learned journals, and manuscript materials for researchers. Less happily, to check persistent loss of books, a turnstile was set up, restricting entrance to the stacks to those with proper credentials.

Against the time when a Fine Arts Center would be provided, a subject that engaged the attention of the trustees, an art gallery with an excellent working collection of books was blocked out in the Rhees basement. Also in the basement, the University bookstore, which had offshoots at the Music and Medical Centers, carried on its functions in a badly cramped environment, as the team from the Middle States Association noted. It recommended that store profits might well be applied to erecting a simple bookstore, and that improvement in inventory procedures and managerial policies was desirable.

To the specialized holdings of the Library were added a collection of poetry, manuscripts, and the like of Adelaide Crapsey, a Rochester poet of note (1961), the Maurepas Papers, an assemblage of French documents relating to Quebec and Louisiana (1962), a gift of over 600 titles on Leonardo da Vinci from Dr. Anthony J. Guzzetta, 1915, and a huge stock (1956) of business papers from the Pfaudler Company of Rochester; it was gratifying, too, to have the University selected (1956) as a depository for the publications of the Atomic Energy Commission. By the spring of 1962, the University boasted about 700,000 volumes, of which approximately 500,000 were on the Rhees shelves, and almost 5, 000 periodicals were being received regularly. It was calculated that holdings had doubled every fourteen years since 1913," in 1966 the million mark was passed and the library staff had grown to 185, 135 of them full time workers. Responding to undergraduate petitions, the Library was kept open (1959) until midnight, and students in unexpected proportions made use of this opportunity. 46

Of lesser moment were the installation (1955) of a postal station in Todd Union, the laying of a new maple wood floor (1961) at the Palestra, the presentation (1960) of two stone benches by the Men's Class of 1955 to grace the walk leading to the Women's Residence Hall, and the planting (1962) of seedling oak near this hall; the acorn came from the historic Shakespeare Oak on the former Prince Street Campus. New buildings curtailed parking areas, but administrators rejoiced that there was space on the River Campus, to accommodate 1,250 cars--it would not always be thus.

Under the will of Mrs. Ernest Woodward, the University came (1956) into possession of a handsome estate in LeRoy, New York. Set in an admirably landscaped acreage was a splendid stone mansion with extensive living, dining, and sleeping rooms and a spacious library. Called Woodward House, it was assigned to the Division (later the College) of Education as a center for conferences and workshops. Distance from Rochester made full use impractical, and when costs of upkeep turned out to be heavier than anticipated, the University disposed (1960) of the property in accordance with the wishes of the donor. 47

If the pleadings of the professors of fine arts for the construction of buildings "architecturally outstanding" had been given short shrift, they had at least the satisfaction of seeing a professional architect brought on to the swelling University staff to assist in long-range planning. Roger O. Austin, who had designed Hoyt Hall and several River Campus additions and renovations, was appointed (1961) to the post. When the curtain fell on the interregnum that followed the withdrawal of President de Kiewiet, no fewer than nine construction or major renovation projects were just completed or moving in that direction: at the River Campus, the Hoyt, Hopeman, and Brain Center buildings, a large addition to Bausch and Lomb, a third level on Harkness, and the Towers residential complex; at or near the Medical Center, a large rehabilitation and diagnostic facility for the evaluation and care of the chronically ill and an extension on the Miner Library, and nearby, the planned graduate living center. 48

VIII

Outside of corporation circles, it was not generally known that grave disagreements of an undisclosed character had arisen between the chief executive and some of the trustees. Additionally, de Kiewiet felt that the demands upon his leadership had grown increasingly burdensome--a load, in a word, too heavy to bear. "In a university," he was heard to say, "blame for anything rattles around for a while but usually thumps down on the head of the president." He alluded to himself as "bowed down by details of business and public relations...We must struggle with day-to-day short term problems, and have little time for thought...In fact the effort to think and speak creatively on the nature and goals of education in this revolutionary age is even frowned upon as a neglect of 'administration'." 49

As early as March, 1960, he indicated that he had lost interest in the conduct of the University and desired to focus his energies on the development of higher education in the emerging nations of Africa, which he regarded as the key to the future of the "Dark Continent." Trustee friends persuaded him to postpone a decision on resignation, and promised to lighten the executive load. Hence the office of provost on a full, time basis was revived (1960), Howard R. Anderson installed in it and trustee leaders discussed with him and the President ways of dividing up the functions and responsibilities that devolved upon the chief executive. officer. For urgent personal reasons and to enable him to undertake a trip to Africa , de Kiewiet requested and was granted a leave of absence for the second half of 1960, Anderson acting as president while he was away. 50

The death of his daughter, Christine, in December, 1960, following an agonizing illness, may well have strengthened the resolution of de Kiewiet to relinquish the presidential chair. Be that as it may, trustee leaders searched for an alternative to resignation, but the unheralded decision of Anderson in June of 1961 to leave the University to take a position with a publishing house precipitated action on the presidency.

On August 9, 1961, the executive committee ratified an understanding that Chairman Wilson and the President had hammered out; thereby de Kiewiet stepped down as president, becoming president emeritus, but he would serve as an elder statesman in the capacity of trustee, and would do what he cold to enhance the standing of the University on the national and international scene and would aid in developing its intellectual and material resources. In line with precedents established when Presidents Anderson and Rhees retired, the corporation made a financial arrangement with de Kiewiet, which, as Wilson put it to the press, would provide "such resources as [he] may need in order to make [his] proposed-contribution to education." "City Loses Dr. de Kiewiet to a Wider World, one newspaper remarked.

Dean Hazlett was named provost with top executive responsibilities and preparations were made to choose a new president. Spokesman for the Alumni Federation, the board of governors praised de Kiewiet for "farsighted, imaginative, and resourceful leadership to new pinnacles of achievement." Only men on the inside really knew what a demanding position the Rochester presidency was, requiring the utmost intellectual and physical exertion; perhaps the Valentine formula of ten-years-and-out was wise and prudent. At the end of a decade of gathering University strength, de Kiewiet had his reward in seeing many of his initiatives, many of his visions translated into realities.

Surveying the high ports of the decade, Chairman Wilson cited the integration of the two historic colleges, the founding of three professional schools, the forward thrust in post-baccalaureate work, new curricular offerings on non-western civilization and Canada, recruitment of distinguished faculty personnel, growth in student population, in sponsored research, in financial resources, and better feeling between the University and its graduates and the Rochester community.

All across America a growing chorus of skeptical voices expressed pessimism concerning the survival of private universities in competition with publicly financed institutions. Yet the U. of R. as of 1961 testified to the durability of the independent university, provided the leadership was courageous, imaginative, resourceful, and was backed constructively by the varied constituent elements of the institution and by the community in which it was located. de Kiewiet withdrew from a university that could approach the future with confidence. 51

In November of 1961 the de Kiewiets moved to a farmstead in Maryland across the Potomac River from Mount Vernon--close to Washington and the "primary sources of educational power." A matter of days before the family left Rochester, de Kiewiet routed a young burglar from the presidential residence; and, barefooted, gave chase without, however, recovering cash that had been stolen; luckily, the thief overlooked choice African carvings, which (along with productive beehives) were taken to the Maryland home.

"I am interested in being useful to education," declared the ex-President, "and especially in maintaining a high level of interest in Africa." Accordingly, he accepted a place on the Overseas Liaison Committee of the American Council on Education and helped to recruit teachers for institutions of higher learning in Africa; notably in the new nations to the east. He worked closely with the major American philanthropic foundations and frequently traveled on educational missions to Europe and Africa; to a Rochester visitor he remarked, "It is grinding work but worth doing.... You can see your footprints." 52

Occasionally the de Kiewiets came back to Rochester, as, for example, on December 21, 1961, when they were guests of honor at a party of University personnel and prominent townspeople. In the capacity of spokesman for the company, Harold W. Dodds, president-emeritus of Princeton University, saluted his Rochester counterpart as "a practicing humanist--a generalist in a world in which specialists are a dime a dozen." A portrait of de Kiewiet by John C. Menihan was unveiled, showing him seated with an open manuscript on his lap, as a symbol of his dedication to learning; in the background a drum suggested his concern for African education, and an orchid, his love of flowers. The painting took its place beside portraits of earlier Rochester presidents on a wall in Rhees Library.

The following February the de Kiewiets--he attended a trustee meeting-heard their praises sung at a testimonial dinner given by U. of R alumni and alumnae. In turn, the ex-President expressed deep appreciation to the graduates for what they had done and were still doing for the advancement of their Alma Mater. And he added, "If ten years from now what we look upon here today with such pride is not overwhelmed by change, I will be disappointed."

During the Commencement season of 1966, de Kiewiet was present to witness the dedication in his name of a residence hall for graduate students, twin to one commemorating the work of former President Valentine. Dean William A. Fullagar hailed him as "a university president's president," rehearsed the accomplishments of his Rochester years, and declared it most fitting that the residence hall should be called de Kiewiet Tower, because of the singular contribution the President Emeritus had made to the growth of post-baccalaureate study.

The inscription on a plaque in the de Kiewiet building informs the wayfarer, "It was through his vision and energy that the Colleges for Men and for Women were combined, that graduate studies were extended and strengthened, and the Colleges of Business, Education, and Engineering were founded." At Commencement exercises next day, "in gratitude and warm affection," the University once more acknowledged its debt to de Kiewiet by bestowing an honorary doctorate on him. 53

Footnotes for Chapter 37

1. Cornelis W. de Kiewiet, "The Future of the University," October 13, 1960, 5. Rhees Library Archives. "Report [mimeographed] of the President," 1958-1959. Ibid.
2. "U. of R. 1959 Reports prepared for Middle States Association" (hereafter cited as MSAR). Rhees Library Archives. These thirteen brochures contain a wealth of information on the University at the time they were compiled. "The U. of R., An evaluation by a team of colleagues representing the Middle Status Association..." April 23, 1960 (hereafter cited as MSAE). For a general evaluation of the work of the Middle States Association, see, John F. Nevins, A Study of the Organization and Operation of Voluntary Accrediting Agencies (Washington, 1959), pp. 69-80, 174-179, 311-318.
3. MSAE, 3--8.
4. MSAE, 34, 36, 48, 51, 52-53.
5. W. Albert Noyes, Jr., to Cornelis W. de Kiewiet, August 6, 1956, January 22, February 17, 1957. de Kiewiet Papers. Executive Committee Minutes, April 10, 1957.
6. Cornelis W. de Kiewiet to John P. Myers, January 23, 1956. de Kiewiet Papers. de Kiewiet to William Van Note, December 18, 1957. Ibid. New York Times, April 21, 1956. R D&C, December 7, 26, 1957; November 24, December 23, 1960; January 9, February 4, 5, 6, 1961. R T-U, February 11, 1961. Executive Committee Minutes, February 1, 1961. Trustee Records, February 3, 1961) and Appendix XIV. Ibid., February 2, 1902.
7. Executive Committee Minutes, September 12, 1956, March 25, September 14, 1960. R D&C, February 4, 1961.
8. R D&C, October 7, 1955. August 8, 1957. R T-U, January 21, 1960. Cornelis W. de Kiewiet, "Tomorrow Is Too Late," The Educational Record, XXXVIII, published by the American Council on Education, Washington, D.C., July, 1957, 189-197. New York Times, September 1, October 24, 1957.
9. Cornelis W. de Kiewiet, ''Our Schools--Renaissance and Reformation," October 25, 1959. Rhees Library Archives. de Kiewiet, "The Future of the University," Executive Committee Minutes, November 5, 1958. de Kiewiet to Special Alumni Guests, October 13, 1960. Rhees Library Archives.
10. MSAR -A, 23. Cornelis W. de Kiewiet to Fred Harrington, May 24, 1957. de Kiewiet Papers. Trustee Records, June 10, 1960.
11. R T-U, September 18, 1959, February 9, 1961, R D&C, June 6, 1959, October 21, 1961.
12. Beardsley Ruml, Memo to a College Trustee (New York, 1959).
13. Executive Committee Minutes, November 5, 1958. Trustee Records, June 5, 1959. For a journalistic profile of the University's trustee body (and photographs of "Rochester's Master Builders" of a few years later), consult Robert Sheehan, "The Rich, Risky Life of a University Trustee," Fortune, LXXV, January 1967, 124 ff.
14. MSAE, 39, 51.
15. Executive Committee Minutes, November 9, December 14, 1955, May 4, 1956. Trustee Records, October 8, 1955, February 9, 1959. RAR, XVII (1956), no. 3, 3. Ibid., XVIII (1957), no. 5, 3. Campus-Times, III, March 14, 1958. RAR, XVIII (1956), no. 1, 3-4.
16. Executive Committee Minutes, January 20, 1958.
17. Donald E. Smith, "The Division of University Relations: A Review of the First Four Years of Activity," March 9, 1962. Rhees Library Archives.
18. Cornelis W. de Kiewiet, "The Future of the University," November 5, 1958, Appendices A and B. Rhees Library Archives. Executive Committee Minutes, November 5, 1958, April 18, 1959. Trustee Records, May 4, 1959. "Report [mimeographed] of the President," 1958-1959. Campus-Times, V, September 22, 1959.
19. Trustee Records, September 18, 1959. Executive Committee Minutes, November 21, 1960, May 3, September 13, 1961. RAR, XXI II (1961), no. 5, 6-7. Who's Who in America, XXXI V (1966-1967), x-xi (Joseph C. Wilson).
20. Executive Committee Minutes, July 5, 1961, February 3, 1965. Smith, op. cit., 14. Treasurer's Report, 1961-1962. R D&C, January 7, 1962.
21. R D&C, January 1, 1957. "Report [mimeographed] of the President," 1958- 1959. Trustee Records, September 18, 1959. MSAE, 27-34. David A. McBride , "Brief 'History' of the U. of R. Office of Research Administration" (draft), April 5, 1966. Rhees Library Archives. Treasurer's Report, 1961-1962. McCrea Hazlett to Deans, September 12, 1961. Rhees Library Archives.
22. RAR, XIV (1953), no. 5, 14.
23. Executive Committee Minutes, May 8, 1957. "Report [mimeographed] of the President," 1958-1959.
24. RAR, XXII (1961), no. 3, 16. University Council Minutes, March, 1959, November 16, 1961.
25. "Report [mimeographed] of the President," 1958-1959. Executive Committee Minutes, August 20, 1958. Campus-Times, VII, January 3, 1961. Ibid., VIII, March 16, 1962.
26. MSAE, 6-8, 21-24, 34. University Council Minutes, December 5, 1960. River Campus Council Minutes, May 14, 1962.
27. Lindsay D. Harmon, et al., Doctorate Production in U. S. Universities, 1920-1962 (Washington, 1963). Information supplied by Graduate Studies office, June 4, 1968. "Final Report of the Subcommittee on the Administration of Graduate Studies. U. of R. Senate," May 3, 1965. Rhees Library Archives.
28. R D&C, February 3, 1958. Executive Committee Minutes, January 11, 1956, April 10, 1957. Trustee Records, January 28, 1956, January 31, 1958.
29. Faculty Minutes, October 3, -1957, April 10, 1958. "Report [mimeographed] of the President," 1958-1959.
30. Faculty Minutes, May 7, 1959. River Campus Council Minutes, February 2, 1960--May 14, 1962, passim.
31. Michael B. Cole, 1959, "A New College...A New Dean," The Rochester Indicator, XXVI (1959), no. 3, 16-17. Horace W. Leet, "The Past and Future of Engineering at the U. of R." (in poetic form), Ibid., XXVII (1960), no. 3, 6. John W. Graham, Jr., "The Development Plan for the College of Engineering...," December, 1961. Rhees Library Archives. Annual Catalogue (Undergraduate Studies), 1961-1962, 179-196.
32. MSAE, 10-13, 33. Executive Committee Minutes, April 5, 1961. RAR, XXIII (1961), no. 5, 16.
33. Trustee Records, January 31, November 14, 1958. Thought and Action in Education, 1958-1962, passim. Rhees Library Archives. RAR, XVIII (1956), no. 1,8. R D&C, September 11, 1956; R T-U, September 12, 1961, April 2, 1968 (Fullagar).
34. Trustee Records, June 5, 1959. RAR, XXIII (1961), no. 5, 14.
35. MSAE, 13-14. William A. Fullagar, "Some Comments on the Informal Report of the Middle States Visitation Team," December 9, 1959. Rhees Library Archives. The Annual Reports of the Dean to 'the President,1958-1962, furnish detailed data on curriculum, personnel, and professional services. Annual Catalogue (Undergraduate Studies), 1961-1962, 170-174. Executive Committee Minutes, February 1 , 1963. R D&C, April 2, 1968.
36. Eric C. Vance, 1925, "The Development of Education for Business Administration at the U. of R., 1950-1965." May 3, 1966. Rhees Library Archives. RAR, XXIII (1961), no. 2, 22. Annual Catalogue (Undergraduate Studies), 1961-1962, 151-160. MSAE, 15.
37. Executive Committee Minutes, May 7, 1958. Annual Catalogue (Undergraduate Studies), 1961-1962, 16-17. MSAE, 25-26, 35, 43. R D&C, August 18, 1961.
38. "Report [mimeographed] of the President," 1958-1959.
39. Executive Committee Minutes, October 6, December 14, 22, 1955; May 5, August 21, 1956. R T-U, November 3, 1956, May 22, 1959, October 11, 1961. R D&C, November 23, 1958. Raymond L. Thompson to Albert A. Hopeman, December 3, 1955. de Kiewiet Papers.
40. Executive Committee Minutes, May 18, 1963. R D&C, May 18, 19, 1963. RAR, XXV (1963), no. 5, 29.
41. Executive Committee Minutes, November 7, December 22, 1955, June 8, 1960. RAR, XVIII (1957), no. 3, 5. New York Times, November 3, 1956. R T-U, November 11, 1960.
42. Executive Committee Minutes, December 14, 1955, April 15, 1958. Campus-Times, VII, March 21, 1961.
43. Trustee Records, June 10, 1960, October 20, 1961. Executive Committee Minutes, September 14, 1960, April 5, 1961. Campus-Times, VII, October 3, 1961. R D&C, October 19, 1963.
44. RAR, XXIV (1962), no. 5, 19. R D&C, April 15, 1962. RAR, XXI (1959), no. 2, 6-7. R T-U, June 8, 1962. Faculty Minutes, October 5, 1961.
45. Trustee Records, October 28, 1960, June 9, 1961. R T-U, June 26, 1961, March 12, 1962. Campus-Times, VIII March 13, 1962.
46. MSAE, 6, 40-42. RAR, XVII (1956), no. 4, 7. Ibid., XVIII (1956), no. 2, 3. R T-U, July 7, 1962. Trustee Records, June 9, 1961. University Record, June, 1966. Beyond the terminus of this volume, the long-needed addiction to the Library, more than doubling floor and shelf space and tripling the seating capacity, and completing at last the rear facade, was undertaken. Construction started in 1967 and was scheduled for completion by fall, 1969.
47. RAR, XVIII (1957), no. 3, 4. Trustee Records, October 28, 1960.
48. Carl K. Hersey and Howard S. Merritt to Cornelis W. de Kiewiet, November 11, December 12, 1955. de Kiewiet Papers. Trustee Records, February 3, 1961. Campus-Times, VII, April 18, 1961. R D&C, April 15, 1962.
49. Cornelis W. de Kiewiet, "Our Schools--Renaissance and Reformation," October 25, 1959.
50. Executive Committee Minutes, May 11, 25, 1960. Joseph C. Wilson to Board of Trustees, May 26, 1960 Rhees Library Archives. Wilson to Finance and Executive Committees, May 27, 1960. Ibid.
51. Executive Committee Minutes, February 1, August 9, 1961. R T-U, August 10, 11, 1961. New York Times, August 11, 1961. Campus Times, VII, September 19, 1961. For a jaunty description of the Rochester community at this point, see, Philip Hamburger, "Notes for a Gazeteer," New Yorker, XXXV, September 19, 1959, 179ff.
52. Interpres, CIV. R T-U, September 27, 1961. R D&C, April 28, 1963.
53. R D&C, December 22, 1961, February 4, 1962. RAR, XXIV (1962), no. 3, 18-19. "Remarks by W.A. Fullagar at Dedication of de Kiewiet Tower, June 3, 1966." Rhees Library Archives.