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Show The University of UtahFOUNDED in 1850-two years and a half after the settlement of Utah-the University of Utah has, to the present time, had an almost continuous record of material progress. The unpretentious quarters in which the first classes were held-a small adobe building across the street from the present Salt Lake High School, West- have grown into the fine campus with its thirteen buildings, on the bench overlooking Salt Lake City. The old "University of Deseret adapted to the work of normal, scientific and classical instruction" has been transformed into the modern University of Utah with its five distinct colleges: Arts and Sciences, Law, Medicine, Mines and Education.The metamorphosis from the old to the new seemed almost complete when in March, 1915, a crisis came that shook the very foundation stones of the institution. In less than ten days the upheavel threatened to undermine the University, and everyone clamored to know the reason why. The very force with which the blow was struck leads to the conclusion that the crisis was not precipitated out of a clear sky, but that long-existing conditions were the root causes.What the long-existing conditions are, is the mooted question, but the results of their existence have, nevertheless, been felt. When freedom of thought and expression are repressed, when men find it necessary to keep within their hearts what they think they have the right to utter, then the time has come for an upheavel. The long-existing conditions should be brought to light, and if inimical to the cultivation of broad, fearless intellects, they should be corrected without delay. The crisis which the University of Utah has faced since March, 1915, has many side issues. Primarily, the struggle is not to decide these, although they will figure in the final outcome, but to determine whether or not academic freedom will obtain. The metamorphosis of the University of Utah is still in progress. The cycle of material evolution has almost been completed; the cycle of intellectual evolution is just begun.19 |
