Chemical Education in American Institutions
HISTORICAL
"The University of Oxford," states a modern handbook, "may be said to date from the reign of King Henw 11." ~ccordingto Wehster, that never-failing storehouse of knowledge for the ignorant chemist, the reign of the first Plantagenet king began in 1154, so that illustrious Oxford is now some 800 years old. Compared to this venerable age, the oldest of American universities is but a stripling and the western universities of the New Worldaremereinfants. Theuniversity of Kansas, for example, the first state university to he established in the Great Plains region, opened its door in 1866 and thus can claim an age scarcely a tenth that of its English compeer. Although i t may seem impudent boldness to compare Oxford and Kansas in the same breath or in the same line, it may he pointed out that there is a parallel between the great English university and its fresh-water colleague a t the gateway to the wide open spaces. Oxford early established a reputation in the sciences,
ROBERT TAFT, SR. ~h~ university of K ~L
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especially in their practical. application; and sciences and their application were early stressed in the beginuhgs of the University of Kansas. For classical education, in vogue a t that day, could make no immediate contribution to acommonwealth that was expanding rapidly westward a t the close of the Civil War. Towns, railroads, bridges were to be built, mineral resources were to be explored and utilized, industries established, and agriculture developed. With these crying needs, it is notwrprising that engineering&nd the sciences were early stressed'at Kansas. Natural philosophy-which included chemistry and physics-was originally offered a t Kansas in the scientific preparatory course and taught by a young man trained in the ancient languages and theology. And
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doubtless well taught at that, for the teacher was able and industrious with a natural bent toward scientific thought. Then, too, such standard textbooks of the day as Steele's "Fourteen Weeks in Chemistry" gave the maximum information in the minimum of time. As the number of college students increased (all the. original students xere enrolled in preparatory rourses) other chemistry courses were offered and a local physician was employed to teach them. However, a demand from the mining districts of the mountains south and west led in a few years to the employment of a professor of physics and chemistry, and shortly thereafter, in 1874, the first full-time chemistry teacher was added to the staff. Nine years later, the number of chemistry students had increased to such an extent that the state legislature was asked to provide a chemistry building. The legislature responded by making an appropriation of four thousand dollars and permitting the use of eight thousand dollars saved by the University-doubtless a t the expense of faculty salaries-for a new building. Science (vol. 3, p. 53, 1884), in describing the building resulting from the appropriation, called attention to the special equipment provided in a large assay laboratory including "crucible aria muffle furnaces and complete apparatus for the fire assay of ores" and concluded with theobservation, "The sumof $12,000 wiselyand economically expended leaves the Chemistry Department as. amply provided with facilities for instruction as any institution west of the Mississippi." Professor E. H. S. Bailey, who arrived a t Kansas a t practically the same time as the new building, was to direct the destinies of the department for 38 years. In this period, the chemistry staff grew from one to twentyfive, the chemistry students from a few score to 500, and the chemistry budget from a few hundred dollars to $16,000. Notable events in this period were the erection in 1900 of a new chemistry building (the one still in use), the addition of a liquid air plant in 1903, for years the only such plant in the trans-Mississippi region; and the arrival in 1906 of Dr. R. K. Duncan, a*pioneer in establishing industrial fellowships as part of university life, who left after five years to develop the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research in Pittsburgh. The department was also extremely fortunate duringthis period in having associated with it such chemists as E. C. Franklin, E. E. Slosson, H. P. Cady, and C. A. IG-aus, all of whom received their undergraduate training at Kansas and who later became well known to the profession. The complete list of Kansas students and teachers who achieved chemical distinction in this early period of the University's history is indeed remarkable. In the halls of Bailey Laboratory there hang, for example, the photographs of six presidents of the American Chemical Society all of whom were intimately associated with the department in one n7ay or another in this early period. These facts seem all the more unusual when one considers the relatively small population of the stateapproximately a million and a half-and of the size of the University itself. For, prior to World War I, total University enrollment did not exceed 3500
and for much of the period it was less than 2000 students. From 1921 until the present the growth of the department, both in number of students and staff, has paralleled the growth of universities in general. Large enrollment increases following World War I had their counterpart, on a larger scale, after World War 11. During World War I1 serious difficulties in maintaining staff were encountered, not only because of outside demand, but because of retirement, resignation, and death of older members. As a result, the department was hard pressed to furnish staff, space, and apparatus to meet the deluge of students following the close of the Tnr in 1945. A full-time staff of seven was left to cope with 2000 students in chemistry; before the war, ten instructors of professorial rank had been available to teach less than 1000 students in chemistry. THE SENIOR STAFF
Fortunately, by raiding other schools and acquiring several bright young men with little teaching experience,,the staff was enlarged so that it now includes an emerltus professor, some twelve senior members-all of the rank of assistant professor or above-fifty graduate assistants, twenty research fellows, five storeroom and supply men, a mechanic, four stenographers, and a glassblower. One of the extraordinary features of present departmental organization at the University of Kansas is the employment of democratic procedure in the establishment of all departmental policy and action. Monthly meetings of all senior members of the staff are held and policy and action decided upon by majority vote of all members. When one considers academic practice in general, where authority for all action usually descends, like manna, from the gods of administration above, such practice is unusual-or a t least it is in so far as the xriter is familiar with it in many schools. But additions.to staff, both the senior staff and the graddate assistants, are all subject to the action of the senior staff itself. New courses, revision of courses, graduate examinations, specific requirements for students for advanced degrees, in short, the entire work of the department, is in the hands of the group as a ~vhole. Much of the detailed work of the department, however, is handled by special committees, having usually a membership of three or four. Included among these are committees on graduate studies and examinations, on graduate assistants, on space and laboratory facilities, and on library purchases and use. The departmental chairman is appointed by the administration and serves as presiding officerat staff meetings, as liaison between staff and administration, and as the general executive officer in carrying out the decision of the department. Teaching loads of the senior staff still remain heavy at Kansas although considerably lower than the levels of the immediate postwar days. To add interest and incentive, each member gives one or more graduate courses in addition to one or more undergraduate
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The growth of the department in numbers-both in students and staff-has required an ever-increasing enlargement of the operating budget. During the past year, 194748, it was approximately $200,000 divided e s follows:
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Salary budget'. ............ .... $116,000 Supplies and equipment.. ................. 58,000 Library fund.. ......................... 1,200 Fellowships and research projects. ......... 25,000 $200,200
A Small Organis Chemistry Research Laboretory Housing Taro Students Working in the Field of Synthetic Medisinels.
courses. The average number of lectures given by each member of the senior staff is a t present eight each week. LABORATORIES
For the coming year, the budget will be considerably in excess of this total sum. The last item listed above is not completely under the control of the department or of the University as some sponsors pay their fellowship holders directly. . All, however. make some contribution toward the purchase of supplies and equipment. CHEMICAL LIBRARY
There is available an excellent treatise and journal library, due largely to many years of labor by the late Dr. F. B. Dains. We are handicapped, however, by lack of lihrarv mace and lihrarv helm A m a l l readine room has heen provided for gra&atk students and s t a i in the basement of Bailey Laboratory but the main stacks of the chemical lihrary are housed in the central University lihrary. Here, because of lack of space and of . deficiencies in the library staff, the chemical lihrary itself is widely dispersed in the main library, factors which make the use of the library inconvenient. In a new chemistry building, if it ever materializes, we hope to have our adequate chemical lihrary completely assembled and to provide a trained chemical librarian.
Bailey Laboratory, the official designation of the home of the Kansas department of chemistry, is a fourstory stone building about 80 X 190 feet in dimensions. The building, now nearly fifty years old, is shared with the School of Pharmacy, which occupies about onefourth of its space. The lower floors of Bailey Laboratory are given over to organic and physical chemistry, both for undergraduate and graduate instruction; the departmental officesand dispensing storeroom, as well as some lahorat,ories and classrooms, are on the second floor; the THEJUNIORSTAFF general chemistry laboratories and largest lecture room 1, the method of teaching employed at K ~ ~ are on the third floor. The fourth floor is chiefly used ior have charge of all courses, give the letfor the storage of supplies and equipment although the ' Includes senior staff,junior st,aff,ahd service wages. in a storeroom in the main chemical stock is basement. s During the summer of 1946 a number of laboratories were modernized by refinishing.and by the addition of much new laboratory furniture. Included among these laboratories were those of general chemistry, several research 1ahorat.ories including a large physical chemistry laboratory, andt he physical measurements lahorat,ory which is now heing air-conditioned to secure a constant temperature of 25°C. the year around. The problem of greatly needed additional space has been met to some extent by the acqusition of a Quonset hut,, now called Bailey Annex. The ,Annex, 40 X 80 feet, has provided research laboratories for thesis student,~. I t is recognized that such spac relief is a temporaly expedient hut "temporary" probably means "for some years." An adequate and modern chemistry lahoratotory is of paramount importance to the continued growth of the department and the need is heing continuBailey Annex. Whish Houses Some 10 Research Laboratories in ally stressed to the public and to the administration by Olg.nic and 1norg.nic Chemistry. Th. Corner .t the Building i n the departmental chairman and by the committee on the Backrrround Is Strong Hall, tha Administration Building of t h e space. university
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tures, prepare the examinations, and direct the work of enable us to give the best advice to these incoming the teaching assistants. The assistants have charge of students, we have in recent years required that ill new groups of fifteen to twenty in the laboratory and of graduate students-whether graduate assistants or fullt>wenty-fiveto thirty in recitation sections. The junior time students-take a series of four placement examimembers of the staff, therefore, come in more intimate nations: one in general and inorganic chemistry, one in and extensive contact with undergraduate students than analytical chemistry, one in organic chemistry, and one do the senior members. A considerable share, therefore, in physical chemistry. The examinations are designed of the quality of the instruction depends upon the qual- to test the student's knowledge of fundamentals in each ity and ability of the teaching assistants. Since some of these fields as taught our own undergraduates. forty or fifty of these assistants are necessary in carry- Each student, it should he stated, is notified in ading out the work of the department, the problem of se- vance of enrollment that he is expected to take these curing an adequate number of properly qualified young examinations. Most students, we h d , are able to pass the general people for this task is in itself considerable. Stipends for the work of these graduate assistants have been chemistry examination, and many the organic chemisgradually raised so that we now pay a minimum of one try. Failures occur in analytical chemistry and are all hundred dollars a month for half-time assistants. As too frequent in physical chemistry. Failures in organic instructors acquire experience and proficiency, they are and physical chemistry require repetition of the undergraduate courses as we offer them, although the placegiven slight salary increases beyond this sum. As a result of an advertising campaign, applications ment examinations are so arranged that it is possible to in considerable number come in but many are from direct a student into a repetition of either one or both students ill prepared to begin graduate work in chem- semesters' work in these courses. A year's work, two istry. Only those are employed who plan to continue semesters, is required of undergraduate majors in orgraduate study. Others have records that are scarcely ganic and physical chemistry. Failures in general and average; some even have a riumber of failures reported analytical chemistry may be made up by auditing on their transcripts. In fact, the situation is in marked courses or by individuai study, hut successful complecontrast to prewar days when applications.were abun- tion of these examinations is required if the student is dant-ten to fifteen applications for every vacancy .and to continue graduate study with us. t,he academic record of applications was much higher UNDERGRADUATE INSTRUCTION than a t present-for, a t that time, no application was considered unless the applicant had a t least a B average Comparatively few of the 2000 students taking (on a grading scale of A-B-C-D, where A was the highest courses in chemistry at Kansas are majors in chemisgrade). Now, unfortunately, in order to maintain our staff,considerationmust be given every applicant and an attempt made, on the basis of transcripts, application, and recommendations, to select those who, we believe, have a chance to make good in graduate school. We feel that the general quality of graduate applicants is again improving and it seems probable that as the wartime deficit is overcome and the number of students graduating in chemistry increases, the average quality of applicants will gradually rise much higher than a t present. We find that even with good transcripts and recommedations, successful applicants vary greatly in the quality of their previous training. as a Physical Chemistry Rosoarsh Leboratory. The Laboratory. One Corner of Which is Shown, Can House of this finding and partly to soma ~ i ~ ~h t h studants. ~ ~ i ~
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Research Laboratory w i t h Acrommodations for 4 Students Working on Various Problems in Analytical Chemistrp and Trace. Techniques.
try. Comparative data for a prewar and a postwar year shorn chemistry enrollments as follows: Year
Undergraduate Majors (Juniors and Seniors)
Graduate Students
194041 1947-48
32 63
37 74
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Undergraduate instruction in cherpistry, is therefore, primarily a service rendered to the engineering, pharmacy, and medical schools and to other departments maintaining chemistry prerequisites for their own majors. For undergraduates three courses are offered in beginning chemistry: one, a single-semester survey course for liberal arts students who wish a general review of the field and who plan on taking no further work in chemistry; a second course (Chemistry 2), basic to other courses in chemistry but primarily for nonmajor students; and a third course (Chemistry 5) for students majoring in chemistry. Students in Chemistry 2 are divided into two main groups, a division made primarily&oaccommodate engineering students who are enrolled together in one group. The work of the two groups differs during the first semester only in laboratory enrollment, engineers being required to complete one laboratory period of three hours each week; students in the other group are enrolled in two laboratory periods. The second semester's work for the two groups, however, is considerahly different. All engineering students take a common year's work as freshmen, the common year including two semesters of chemistry. The second semester's work in beginning chemistry has been modified to include more organic chemistry than is ordinarily taught in such courses because, for many engineering students, no further work in chemistry is taken. About one-fourth of the w ~ r kof the semester in this course is devoted to organic chemistry in the classroom and about one-third of the student's time in the laboratory is spent in this field; the remainine: twothirds is &ed in the experimental study of metals and their compounds and in qualitative analysis.
Chemical engineers, taking the common freshman year, are enrolled in the above courses but special courses are not provided for their remaining work in chemistry; and chemical engineers (chemical engineering is a department separate from the chemistry department) are enrolled in courses in quantitative analysis, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry, with chemistry majors and all other students taking these courses. Chemistry majors have provided for them a special sequence of courses in their beginning work, a sequence designed so that students may enter readily from other beginning courses. Comparatively few students, as freshmen, have decided to major in chemistry. Those who have made the decision enroll as freshmen in Chemistry 5, already mentioned. After several weeks' work in Chemistry 2, students showing superior ability are invited to transfer their enrollment to Chemistry 5 which has the same class schedule as Chemistry 2. Students are under no compulsion to make the transfer but those who do, together with the previous enrollees, continue in Chemistry 5 at a somewhat faster pace than do those in Chemistry 2 and consider material not ordinarily included in a beginning course. A second semester's work, similar in design, follows Chemistry .5. This course provides no training in qualitative analysis, as is given in other second courses in chemistry, but laboratory work in general chemistly is continued through the second semester. A third course, however, in qualitative analysis is offered for chemistry majors. The upperclass courses are common to all students. Chemical majors as seniors, however, if they have maim tained a B average, may enrol1 in an undergraduate research cours6 in any of the fields of chemistry and a number of students have taken advantage of the course and have done sufficiently creditable work to warrant publication. An undergraduate chemical society, too,. stimulates interest in chemistry qnd chemical research and a t its semimonthly meetings invites members of the senior staff,as well as outside speakers, to address them A local chapter of Alpha Chi Sigma, professional chemical society, is also active in stimulating chemical interest and scholarship. Among other activities, for example, the chapter has maintained for the past 18 years a bronze plaque recording the names of the outstanding senior in each class selected by the senior staff and' who has been judged on the basis of "scholarship, personality, and integrity." Quite recently, too, a chapter of Phi Lambda Upsilon, honorary chemical society for undergraduates and graduates, has been organized. Chemistry majors, too, it should be pointed out, have the choice of two degrees; the student may be a candidate for the A.B. degree or for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. For the first degree, a year's work in each of .the four courses, general chemistry, analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, and physical chemistry, is required of all students who wish to satisfy the minimum requirements of the American Chemical Society. It is, however, possible under the rules of the
SEPTEMBER, 1948
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, of which the chemistry department is an organizational part, for a student t o secure a major in chemistry with less training than outlined above. Such students, however, are usually premedical students or others not primarily interested in chemistry as a profession. For the Bachelor of Science in Chemistry, a student is permitted to enroll in a somewhat greater number of courses in chemistry (enrollment in 46 hours of chemistry is possible as against 40 hours, the maximum for the A.B. degree). All majors satisfying the minimum requirements of the A.C.S. take courses in mathematics through calculus, a year of college physics, and a year and a half of a modern language, preferably German. I n addition, the general requirements of all students, as laid down by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, must be met. Such requirements include the successful completion of courses in speech, English, biology, and'social sciences. GRADUATE INSTRUCTION
Most beginning graduate students are candidates for the Master's degree, although in recent years more students are entering their work for the doctorate without becoming candidates for the intermediate degree. Master's degree candidates must pms the placement examinations previously mentioned and must complete satisfactorily courses in chemical bibliography, in systematic advanced inorganic and in systematic advanced organic chemistry, unless these were presented as entering credit. In addition, courses in physicochemical measurements, in aualitative organic analysis and a graduate courBe in analytical chemistry are required. To complete the requirements for the master's degree, a research project involving approximately a third of a year's work must he completed and a set of four examinations, one in inorganic, one in organic, one in analytical, and one in physical chemistry, must be passed. We are using these master's examinations for the purpose of screening candidates for the doctorate, as a B average on the master's examinations must be attained by students who intend t o continue their work toward the d o c t ~ r a t e . The ~ master's examinations are taken as qualifying examinations also by students who do not complete the remaining requirements for the master's degree but are Physisoshemicel Measurements continuing directly t o the
doctorate, as well as by doctor's candidates who have come to us with advanced graduate training from other institutions. As a result of these examinations, of class work, and of personal knowledge by individual staff members, applicants for admission to doctor's candidacy are considered by the entire senior staff and the recommendation of the staff is sent to the dean of the graduate school. If the student is admitted to candidacy, a committee of three faculty members is appointed which advises the candidate on his future work. No additional course requirements, beyond those prescribed for the master's degree, are set by the staff but the advisory committee examinations. administered bv the res~ectived e ~ a r t ments and a preliminary written and oral examination in the field of the candidate's choice: inorganic, analytical, organic, or physical chemistry. Although graduate training in biochemistry and chemical engineering is given in the University, such courses are administered by separate departments. The graduate school of the University also requires an examination in a minor field outside the department. These examinations are administered by the departments represented 8 Here we have snticipated a suggestion made by the President's Scientific Research Board (val. 4, p. -134,Oct. 11, 1947, Manpower for Research) which statcs that the master's examination is almost "an ideal screening dcvice for the doctoral candidate, incidcnt,ally in most cases enhancing its value as a terminal degtw if circumstances should so indicate."
Laboratory, Used for Graduate Instmotion in the U$s and Calibration of Fvndamsntal Instruments.
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JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
tion of America, and the Spencer Chemical Conpany. In addition, there are Cady Fellowships provided by friends of the late Dr. H. P. Cady, fellowships provided by the University itself,and a numher of projects sponsored by U. S. Navy funds. We have found it difficult to nrovide suitablv oualified candidates to unierkake all such research projects and have solved the problem only by drawing heavily on our graduateassistants, thus lowering our reserve of suitably qualified instructors. As holders of fellowships are allowed to utilize their investigational work in part or in whole as thesis material, and as such holders have no instructional duties, more rapid progress is made One of Four General Chemistry Laboratories. The F a u p Laboratories Together Can A c c o m m o d a t e 120 toward the completion of a Students Working at Once: Cupboard Spmse Provides for 960 Students Workins in 8 Sections. deeree than is made bvthose who assist in instruction. I t by the minor which, for our students, have been most is our hope that fellowships may in the future be offered frequently the departments of physics, bacteriology, as rewards for top performance among graduate students chemical engineering, or biochemistry. All the above and instructors who have completed their preliminary examinations must be. satisfactorily completed a t least doctor's examinations. This choice of candidates would nine months before the degree is awarded. automatically insure the b&t quality and quantity of A final oral examination is required which is primarily investigational work. I t happens too frequently that students awarded these fellowships must take important an exposition of the st,udent's thesis work. time away from research projects in order to prepare RESEARCH for examinations. To safeguard the sponsors of such With the large influx of undergaduate and graduate fellowshipsin securing a reasonable.expenditure of time students, teaching loads are still heavy*and under these by the fellowship holder on the project the staff has set conditions little time is provided for research on the up minimum time requirements for various classes of regular university schedule. As a result, research is fellows. Graduate students employed on Navy projcarried on by staff members largely through the direc- ects are required to spend a t least 30 hours each week tion of the work of thesis students. Even here little on the project; for most fellowships, however, the provision is allowed on the teaching schedule for this minimum time required each week is 20 hours. This important part of university life. difference is based on the difference in stipend. ApThe considerable increase in number of graduate pointees to Navy projects are paid $150 a month hut students, however, and the requirement of the comple- most fellowships pay $100 a month. We have found tion of a satisfactory thesis by all candidates for the that students generally spend far more than the minimaster's and doctor's degrees have made increasing mum time on the subject under investigation. demands on the time of most of the staff members in As might be expected, considering the varied training directing research. I n addition, research fellowships and interests of the senior staff, problems under study a t and projects financed from outside sources have multi- Kansas show great variety in subject matter. Included plied greatly in recent years. In fact, the number of among the problems under investigation, a number unsuch projects available is greater than the capacity of der joint direction of several members of the staff, are staff and space to handle them. such subjects a: Fellowships currently in effect from these sources are sponsored by the American Chemical Society, the The preparation and properties of oxides of the alkali metals. Upjohn Company, the U. S. Public Health Service, the Tracer techniques in analytical chemistry. Stauolind Oil and Gas Company, the Research CorporaSynthesis of organic medicinals.
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SEPTEMBER, 1948 Physical properties of salts of organic acids in nqneous solution. Studies of ternary systems involving water, an electrolyte and a nonelectrolyte. Solubilities of salts in nonaqumns systems. Chlorination of hvdmcarbons. Ion exchange on s-pthetio resins. The chemistryof~thenium.
Anodicoxidation of metals in nonaquwussolutions. h " i r a l and tlwrmodynamir propertips of sulkstancrs at high temperatures. Mechanisms of organic reactions. Constitution of complex ions. Surface equilibrium in solutions. Kinetics of oxidation of metala in liquid ammonia.
