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The end of the 19th century found the newly
re-christened University of Utah on the verge of great changes,
both in size and location. In 1894, the U.S. Congress granted
the University sixty acres of land on the east bench of Salt
Lake City, land that had been part of Fort Douglas since it was
founded in 1862. With the vanishing of the frontier, military
posts such as Fort Douglas were considered surplus to the
Army's needs. James E. Talmage replaced acting president
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Cummings Field, ca. 1900
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Joseph T. Kingsbury as President of the University in
1894, and served for three years. In 1897, Dr. Kingsbury was
once again appointed as President, this time in his own right.
Kingsbury would guide the school for the next two decades.
During this period the University faced yet another threat to
its existence; at the Constitutional Convention in 1895,
legislators introduced a motion that would have closed the
University of Utah and consolidated it with the State
Agricultural College in Logan. The motion was defeated, and an
article was placed in the state's constitution that established
two separate schools.
In 1896, Utah became a state. Two
years later, the Board of Regents voted to move the school to
the new east bench location; the next year, the state
legislature appropriated $200,000 for buildings on the new
campus. Utah architect Richard K. A. Kletting, who designed the
original Saltair Resort and the Utah State Capitol Building,
was commissioned to create a plan for the campus. Mr. Lyman's
engineering students were put to work surveying the grounds and
preparing a map of the new location. Students were also glad to
help landscape the campus by planting trees on Arbor Day; this
became a campus tradition that continued for a number of years.
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Construction of the block U
1907
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Four buildings were planned, for Physical Science,
Liberal Arts, a Normal school, and a Museum. The appropriation
only covered the first three, and they were completed by the
time registration opened on October 1, 1900.
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Botany Class
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The fourth was completed in 1902. The library was
located in one room of the Liberal Arts building, now known as
the Cowles Building.
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Theatre Class
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On December 19, 1901, the Physical Science building was
partially destroyed in a fire, but quick action by student,
professors, and a regiment of soldiers from Fort Douglas saved
books, furnishings, football uniforms, and much else from the
flames. The building was re-built and re-opened by the start of
the 1902-1903 school year. In 1904, the campus continued to
grow when a further 32 acres were obtained from Fort Douglas
Meanwhile, enrollment at the University had
been growing as well. In 1900 there were 183 students; within a
decade this had increased to over 1,500.
To respond to this increase, and in the face of
competition for students from the Agricultural College in
Logan, where attendance was essentially free, the Legislature
increased the University's appropriation. Upon his death in
1900, Dr. John R. Park bequeathed his entire fortune, plus his
library, to the University.
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Gridiron Gladiators
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Increasing numbers of students led the administration
of the University to establish entrance requirements, first by
the School of Arts and Sciences, and soon after for the whole
University. The State School of Mines was established in 1901,
and in 1905, a two-year Medical program was begun, with Dr.
Ralph V. Chamberlin (who later wrote a comprehensive history of
the University), as Dean. The first professionally trained
librarian, Esther H. Nelson, was appointed in 1906. After
intense debate among the faculty and adminstrators, the
University decided that it would offer a Master's Degree
program, in 1908.
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Vocational Training, 1918
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Utah -vs- Wyoming, 1905
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In 1909, the name of the Normal school was changed to
the State School of Education, and the Law School was formally
established in 1913, along with the Department of Mining and
Metallurgical Research and the U.S. Bureau of Mines Experiment
Station.
The new administration building, later named in honor
of Dr. Park, was completed in 1914, as were the Civil
Engineering, Mechanics, and Gymnasium buildings. The library,
now comprised of almost 13,000 volumes, was moved to the Park
Building.
With the growth of the student body came increases in
student organizations and activities. The Associated Students
of the University of Utah, after an earlier false start, was
established in 1901. The Varsity Glee Club, established in the
1890s, was joined by a Girls Glee Club in 1902. Other music
clubs followed; there were enough that they were consolidated
into a Musical Society in 1908. Debating societies, literary
clubs, and other student organizations flourished on the new
campus. A number of fraternities and professional societies
marked their beginnings during this period, and the first
Junior Prom was held in 1905.
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Ms. Babcock (leaning on pole)
and her physical culture class
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Although there was great interest in athletics, funds
were not forthcoming, and the University suffered a series of
embarrassing defeats at the hands of the Salt Lake High School
football team. In May, 1900, a football coach was hired, and
David O. McKay, a future president of the L.D.S. church, was
one of the star players on the revitalized team. The first
gymnasium built for that purpose was opened in 1906, and the
track, basketball, and baseball teams were put on a sound
footing. The formidable Maud May Babcock made sure that women
were not neglected, when she started her physical culture
classes for women during this period. A symbol of the
University, the “block U” on the hillside north of
the campus, was built in 1907, and that same year, the first
yearbook, THE UTONIAN, was published.
But not all the news from the University of
Utah cast the school in a positive light. In 1914, a
controversy over academic freedom began that would shake the
University to its foundations. Four faculty members were
demoted or not rehired because they allowed a graduation
speaker to criticize the influence of the L.D.S. church on the
University.
The students and faculty mobilized, and protests and
meetings were held. The University of Utah was the subject of
the first investigation by the newly founded American
Association of University Professors, which found the
administration guilty of firing or demoting faculty members for
trivial causes. By the time the controversy was finally
resolved in 1915, twenty-one faculty members--one-third of the
faculty--had resigned in protest, including Byron Cummings, the
first Dean of Arts and Sciences. The controversy also led to
the resignation of President Joseph T. Kingsbury in January
1916. From bright beginnings at the end of the 19th century,
the University faced an uncertain future in the first years of
the 20th century.
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James E. Talmage
President, 1894-1897
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Joseph T. Kingsbury
President, 1892-1894
and 1897-1916
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