Editing University of Chicago (section)

=== 1920s–1980s ===
[[File:ChicagoPileTeam.png|left|thumb|Some of the University of Chicago team that worked on the production of the world's first human-caused self-sustaining nuclear reaction, including [[Enrico Fermi]] in the front row and [[Leó Szilárd]] in the second|alt=A group of people in suits standing in three rows on the steps in front of a stone building]]

In 1929, the university's fifth president, 30-year-old legal philosophy scholar [[Robert Maynard Hutchins]], took office. The university underwent many changes during his 24-year tenure. Hutchins reformed the undergraduate college's curriculum into a liberal-arts curriculum, which survives today in the form of a Common Core.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=History of the Core {{!}} The College {{!}} The University of Chicago {{!}} The University of Chicago |url=https://college.uchicago.edu/academics/core/history |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=college.uchicago.edu |language=en}}</ref> He also organized the university's graduate work into four divisions,<ref name="hutchins" /> and eliminated varsity football from the university in an attempt to emphasize academics over athletics.<ref name="hutchins">{{cite web |url=http://president.uchicago.edu/history/hutchins.shtml |title=History of the Office |publisher=The University of Chicago Office of the President |date=November 6, 2008 |access-date=September 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028123034/http://president.uchicago.edu/history/hutchins.shtml |archive-date=October 28, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> During his term, the University of Chicago Hospitals (now called the [[University of Chicago Medical Center]]) finished construction and enrolled their first medical students.<ref name="hospitalhistory">{{cite web |url=http://www.uchospitals.edu/about/history.html |title=A Brief History of the Medical Center |publisher=The University of Chicago Medical Center |access-date=September 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091202082321/http://www.uchospitals.edu/about/history.html |archive-date=December 2, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> Furthermore, the philosophy oriented [[Committee on Social Thought]] was created.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About {{!}} John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought |url=https://socialthought.uchicago.edu/about |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=socialthought.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

Money that had been raised during the 1920s and financial backing from the [[Rockefeller Foundation]] helped the school to survive through the [[Great Depression]].<ref name="hutchins" /> In 1933, Hutchins proposed a plan to merge the University of Chicago and [[Northwestern University]], though it was ultimately abandoned.<ref name="merger">{{cite web|title=The "Universities of Chicago" Proposal |url=http://www.northwestern.edu/about/historic-moments/academics/the-universities-of-chicago.html|publisher=Northwestern University|access-date=September 8, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527160652/http://www.northwestern.edu/about/historic-moments/academics/the-universities-of-chicago.html|archive-date=May 27, 2010|url-status=dead }}</ref> During World War II, the university's [[Metallurgical Laboratory]] contributed to the [[Manhattan Project]].<ref name="manhattan">{{cite web|url=http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155|title=University of Chicago Met Lab|publisher=Atomic Heritage Foundation|access-date=July 31, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612002453/http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=155|archive-date=June 12, 2011|url-status=dead }}</ref> The university was the site of the first isolation of [[plutonium]] and of the creation of the first artificial, self-sustained nuclear reaction by [[Enrico Fermi]] in 1942.<ref name="manhattan" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0044&numPages=51&fp=N |website=DOE R&D Accomplishments |publisher=Office of Scientific & Technical Information |title=The First Reactor|quote=On December 2, 1942, in a racquets court underneath the West Stands of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team of scientists led by Enrico Fermi created man's first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.|access-date=July 15, 2009|date=December 1982|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090512015519/http://www.osti.gov/cgi-bin/rd_accomplishments/display_biblio.cgi?id=ACC0044&numPages=51&fp=N|archive-date=May 12, 2009|url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the early 1950s, student applications declined as a result of increasing crime and poverty in the Hyde Park neighborhood. In response, the university became a major sponsor of an [[Hyde Park, Chicago#Racial integration, economic decline, and urban renewal|urban renewal project for Hyde Park]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-02-02 |title=HPKCC Story and role in Urban Renewal |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202210326/https://www.hydepark.org/historicpres/HPKCCstoryurbren.htm |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=web.archive.org}}</ref> which called for the clearing of 101 acres of land. Of the buildings proposed for demolition, 78% were substandard. During this period the university, and later the affiliated Shimer College, adopted an early entrant program that allowed students with two years of high school education to attend college.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dzuback |first=Mary Ann |title=Robert M. Hutchins: portrait of an educator |date=1991 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-226-17710-6 |location=Chicago |pages=69}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=19 April 1950 |title=Hutchins Sells Shimer on 'Chicago Plan' of Education |url=https://hpherald.newsbank.com/doc/image/v2:13EDAA8FD407386D@NGPA-ILHPH-1406A5A6416AD12A@2433391-1406A5A642A8E850@11-1406A5A6A26D6CC6@Hutchins+Sells+Shimer+on+%2527Chicago+Plan%2527+of+Education?search_terms=shimer&text=shimer&content_added=&date_from=&date_to=&pub%255B0%255D=13EDAA8FD407386D&pdate=1950-04-19 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=hpherald.newsbank.com}}</ref>

[[File:Chicago Maroon (January 17, 1962).pdf|thumb|upright|left|Front page of ''[[The Chicago Maroon|Chicago Maroon]]'' breaking the news of the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies]]

The university experienced its share of student unrest during the 1960s, beginning in 1962 when then-freshman [[Bernie Sanders]] helped lead a [[University of Chicago sit-ins|15-day sit-in at the college's administration building]] in a protest over the university's segregationist off-campus rental policies. After continued turmoil, a university committee in 1967 issued what became known as the [[Kalven report|Kalven Report]]. The report, a two-page statement of the university's policy in "social and political action," declared that "To perform its mission in the society, a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions, and pressures."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/kalvenreport.pdf |title=Kalven Committee: Report on the University's Role in Political and Social Action|access-date=October 14, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923185337/http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/kalvenreport.pdf |archive-date=September 23, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> The report has since been used to justify decisions such as the university's refusal to divest from South Africa in the 1980s and Darfur in the late 2000s.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fang |first=Marina |url=http://chicagomaroon.com/2013/02/21/born-amidst-60s-student-protests-kalven-report-remains-controversial/ |title=Born amidst '60s student protests, Kalven Report remains controversial |publisher=ChicagoMaroon.com |access-date=January 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160725125709/http://chicagomaroon.com/2013/02/21/born-amidst-60s-student-protests-kalven-report-remains-controversial/ |archive-date=July 25, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1969, after the sociology department unanimously declined to rehire assistant professor [[Marlene Dixon]] (an open [[Marxism|Marxist]]), over 400 students occupied the Administration Building for two weeks to protest the perceived politically motivated decision.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sinhababu |first=Supriya |title=The sit-in: 40 years later |url=https://chicagomaroon.com/22887/grey-city/the-sit-in-40-years-later/ |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=Chicago Maroon}}</ref> After the sit-in ended when Dixon turned down a one-year reappointment, 42 students were expelled and 81 were suspended,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://alumniweekend.uchicago.edu/reu-72-scrap.shtml |title=The University of Chicago – Alumni Weekend |publisher=Alumniweekend.uchicago.edu |access-date=September 14, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907211148/http://alumniweekend.uchicago.edu/reu-72-scrap.shtml |archive-date=September 7, 2008 }}</ref> the most severe response to student occupations of any American university during the student movement.<ref>{{cite book|first=Eileen|last=Boris|title=Voices of Women Historians: The Personal, the Political, the Professional|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BHlbO6eJrQC&pg=PA33|access-date=June 11, 2008|publisher=Indiana university Press|isbn=978-0-253-33494-7|year=1999|archive-date=March 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308042330/https://books.google.com/books?id=2BHlbO6eJrQC&pg=PA33|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1978, history scholar [[Hanna Holborn Gray]], then the provost and acting president of [[Yale University]], became president of the University of Chicago, a position she held for 15 years. She was the first woman in the United States to hold the presidency of a major university.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www-news.uchicago.edu/president/history/gray.shtml |title=Hanna Holborn Gray (1978–1993) |publisher=University of Chicago News Office |date=March 9, 2006 |access-date=September 14, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090619130714/http://www-news.uchicago.edu/president/history/gray.shtml |archive-date=June 19, 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1989, the [[University of Chicago Graduate Library School|Graduate Library School]] was closed.<ref>{{cite journal |date=February 15, 1989 |title=Chicago GLS to close |journal=Library Journal |volume=114 |page=111}}</ref>