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The history of the University of Chicago began in 1890 when the school was established by oil magnate John D. Rockefeller and the American Baptist Education Society from the remnants of a bankrupt institution of the same name. William Rainey Harper became the first President of the University of Chicago in 1891 and its first classes were held in 1892. It has been coeducational since its founding. Major educational reforms were instituted during the tenure of the University's fifth president Robert Maynard Hutchins during the Great Depression and World War II, including the creation of the University's Common Core curriculum. Recently, the University has begun major campus expansion projects. ==Founding== The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 by the American Baptist Education Society and oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, who later called it "the best investment I ever made." The University of Chicago held its first classes on October 1, 1892.〔Robertson, David Allan (1918). ''The Quarter-Centennial Celebration of the University of Chicago'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press.〕 The land for the university was donated by Marshall Field, owner of the Marshall Field and Company department store chain. The modern university emerged from a bankruptcy reorganization of a predecessor institution named Chicago University and known more broadly as Old University of Chicago which was founded by prominent members of the Chicago and greater Illinois community including Justice Stephen A. Douglas and Chicago Mayor James Hutchinson Woodworth. Graduates of the Old Chicago University were later assimilated into the ranks of the alumni of the University of Chicago. The University's founding was part of a wave of university foundings that followed the American Civil War. Incorporated in 1890, the University has dated its founding as July 1, 1891, when William Rainey Harper became its first president. The first classes were held on October 1, 1892, with an enrollment of 594 students and a faculty of 120, including eight former college presidents.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=The University of Chicago )〕 Earlier references to University of Chicago rise from the incorporation of the "first" University of Chicago, a school Senator Stephen A. Douglas started with an 1856 grant. Westward migration, population growth, and industrialization had led to an increasing need for elite schools away from the East Coast, especially schools that would focus on issues vital to national development. Though Rockefeller was urged to build in New England or the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, he ultimately chose Chicago. His choice reflected his strong desire to realize Thomas Jefferson's dream of a natural meritocracy's rise to prominence, determined by talent rather than familial heritage. Rockefeller's early fiscal emphasis on the physics department showed his pragmatic, yet deeply intellectual, desires for the school. Although founded under Baptist auspices, the University of Chicago has never had a sectarian affiliation. The school's traditions of rigorous scholarship were established primarily by Presidents William Rainey Harper and Robert Maynard Hutchins. Chicago opened its door to women and minorities from the very beginning, a time when they seldom had access to other leading universities. It was the first major university to enroll women on an equal basis with men, as well as the first major, predominantly white university to offer a black professor a tenured position, in 1947.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education )〕 Unlike many other American universities at the time, the University of Chicago revolved around a number of graduate research institutions, following Germanic precedent. The College of the University of Chicago remained quite small compared to its East Coast peers until around the middle of the 20th century. As a result, the graduate population of the university dwarfs the undergraduate population 2:1 to this day, while the university's undergraduate student body remains the third smallest amongst the top 10 national universities. The student-to-faculty ratio is 4:1, one of the lowest amongst national universities, and all faculty members are required to teach undergraduate courses.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 publisher=The Princeton Review (registration required) )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the University of Chicago」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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