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Presidential Profiles
The Michigan Alumnus 16
by Howard H. Peckham
Harry Burns Hutchins was the first alumnus of the University to become its president. He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1871 from the hands of President-designate Angell, who had not yet assumed office but was honored guest at that Commencement. Hutchins spent the next year as superinten dent of schools in Owosso and then was appointed instructor in rhetoric and history at Michigan for three years. At the same time he studied law and obtained that degree in 1876. For eight years he practiced law in Mt. Clemens with his father-in-law, then again returned to the University as Jay professor of law.
Hutchins was born in Lisbon, New Hampshire, in 1847 and entered the University at the age of 20, after illness had interrupted the start of his education at Wesleyan University. He came, he said, because so many of his textbooks had been written by Michigan men. He never shook off his initial attachment to the institution and the state.
Cornell University called him in 1887 to assist in organizing a law school as its first dean, but he stayed only eight years before returning to Michigan as dean of the law department in 1895. He inaugurated the three-year course in the study of law and supported the new method of teaching by ex amination of particular cases, not by lectures exclusively, although his own lectures were remembered as crystal-clear and filled with revealing illustrations.
Hutchins had prepared an Amer ican edition of a classic English work on the law of real property in 1894, and the next year he pub lished Cases on Equity Jurispru dence for law school use. Later he wrote a biography of his former law professor, Thomas M. Cooley, who was at the same time a justice of the Michigan Supreme Court. Hutchins was a prime mover in the establishment of the Michigan Law Review. He also served as the American representative on the U.S.-Uruguay Treaty Commission.
When he served as acting president while Angell was minister to Turkey in 1897-98, Hutchins showed considerable administrative ability. Matters moved smoothly and expeditiously by assignment of responsibilities to certain officers. Small wonder, then, that the Regents turned to him again, when Angell resigned in 1909, to carry the University for a year while they looked for a new president. They sent Hutchins to sound out Gov. Charles Evans Hughes of New York, but the latter assured Hutchins that at the end of his term he was returning to the prac tice of law. Then the Regents ap proached the president of Prince ton University, Woodrow Wilson, but he said he was under obliga tion to run for governor of New Jersey. They also considered David Jayne Hill, former president of the University of Rochester and cur rently ambassador to Germany, but he would not give up his diplomatic post. After these rebuffs, the Regents offered the job to Hutchins. As he was now 63, he agreed to accept the position for five years only.
Hutchins was a tall man and carried himself very erectly, walk ing with impressive dignity. At this time both his mustache and hair were white. His educational philo sophy is difficult to characterize. Where it should have appeared was in his annual reports, but he wrote none. Since the Regents' Proceedings show no call for a report, it is possible that not ren dering an annual report may have been a condition of his accepting the presidency, similar to his not displacing Angell from the president's house.
It should be remarked here that Hutchins was fortunate in the caliber of Regents he had to work with. They were not educators as such and demonstrated the fact that academic administrative experience was not necessary. They were successful business and pro fessional men. What they had in abundance was rare good judgment, financial common sense, devotion to the University, and trust in one another so that the Board was free of feuds and pettiness. All but two were alumni.
Dr. Walter Sawyer of Hillsdale gave much time to the medical and dental departments. William L. Clements, Bay City industrialist with scholarly leanings, took charge of campus building and expansion. Frank B. Leland, Detroit banker, was an able man in finance. Junius E. Beal, Ann Arbor editor, was a student of forestry and conservation and a lover of books. Victor M. Gore of Benton Harbor, and Harry C. Bulkley of Detroit were clear-thinking lawyers and tireless workers for University development. Lucius L. Hubbard of Houghton was a Harvard grad uate with a law degree from Bos ton University and a PhD from the University of Bonn. His special in terests were geology and rare books. Benjamin S. Hanchett, util ity executive of Grand Rapids, was a self-made man much interested in engineering research at the Univer sity for the benefit of Michigan manufacturers and in health ser vice for the students. These men had vision and initiative.
Hutchins encouraged the en largement of engineering degree specialties and the establishment of business administration courses. He made the Graduate School a separate entity in 1911. He favored research contracts between Michigan industries and the engineering department, a new building for the Michigan Union, and a new hos pital for the medical depart ment. The Extension Service was launched in 1911. Hutchins ob tained an appropriation for off- campus lectures by faculty mem bers and he personally directed the program. Classes offering academic credit were started in Detroit in 1913, and other non-credit courses were organized.
Perhaps Hutchins' greatest ac complishment was in developing private support for the University, a field previously neglected. He did not hesitate to appeal for gifts from wealthy families in the form of buildings (Hill Auditorium; Helen Newberry, Betsy Barbour, and Martha Cook residences for women; and the new Observa tory). To them were added en dowed professorships and student scholarships. Ultimately he secured 130 gifts worth over three and a half million. His long friendship with alumnus William W. Cook produced the magnificent Lawyers Club in the early 1920s.
In another direction, he took hold of the Alumni Association, organized in 1897 by the efforts of some Detroit alumni. Its headquarters were in the new Alumni Memorial Hall, which opened in 1910. He worked closely with Wilfred B. Shaw, general secretary since 1904, and traveled widely to organize alumni clubs inside and outside the state. He saw 141 clubs organized during his tenure. He welcomed representatives to an Alumni Advisory Council to advise the University and publicize it throughout the state. Since 1894, the alumni body of Michigan was the largest of any university. It still is.
Hutchins impressed the State Legislature as being a straight- forward, honest, and no-nonsense type of administrator to whom they could speak on a level and with candor. They admired his efforts to raise outside funds, and in turn they felt some obligation to provide much needed buildings and to enlarge the heating plant and tunnels. As Regent Clements once sadly observed: "Nobody ever gives money for a heating plant." The new buildings Hutchins requested and argued suc cessfully for were a Natural Science building, a new wrap- around General Library, a labora tory school for the department of education, a new Michigan Union, and a new University Hospital. The latter two were started just before the war and not finished until afterward.
Meanwhile, both students and faculty were increasing in number. Before Hutchins retired in 1920, enrollment was up to 9,000, and the teaching faculty to 600. The present marking system with letter grades from A to E was adopted. Hutchins had a paternal interest in students. He had them in mind as he sought gifts of money for scholarships. He pushed along the proposal for a student health service and saw it started in 1913. He lamented student drinking and sup ported prohibition in the state. He liked earnest and respectful stu dents and would help them pa tiently, but ill manners were met with austerity. Rowdiness irritated him, and malicious destruction in furiated him.
American involvement in the World War intruded on the cam pus, creating new and unprece dented problems for Hutchins. There had been faculty arguments about preparing the students for possible war. Now there were un pleasant decisions about what to do with an overstaffed department of German after enrollment in it dropped almost 90 percent. A few members did not escape accusations of disloyalty. From the War Department came clumsy attempts to turn campuses into military training camps, a policy Hutchins resisted as a misuse of university potential. Eventually his view prevailed, and by 1918 the educa tional process was continuing, al- though subject to military interrup tions. The unfinished Michigan Union was turned into a barracks. What with drills and hikes, the students were always tired. He was sympathetic with student attitudes toward these outside pressures, and he grieved over the deaths on campus from the nation's influenza epidemic on top of the disorder oc casioned by the war.
Meanwhile, Hutchins' agreement to serve as president for five years had run out, and the Regents im plored him at age 68 to continue for another five years.
The faculty found in Hutchins a man of great dignity, a profound respect for learning, and a scrupu lously fair administrator. He was neither rigid nor vacillating in his views. Faculty salaries at Michigan remained low, and Hutchins could not obtain a special appropriation for them. They had to be met from the mill-tax revenue, and the Legis lature once again put a temporary ceiling on that income. Faculty groups petitioned the Regents in 1917, but two years passed before the new salary ranges were adopted. The Regents did join the Teachers' Insurance and Annuity Association set up by the Carnegie Foundation. Membership in the pension plan required a contribu tion from the University of five percent of salaries and a similar deduction from each faculty member's pay.
Not until after the war ended did the Regents look for a suc cessor to Hutchins. They ap proached Dean James R. Angell at the University of Chicago. He was a son of President Angell, but he attached some conditions to his ac ceptance, which the Regents declined to accept, and negotiations ended amicably. (Subsequently he became president of Yale.) Looking elsewhere, the Regents found their man at the head of the University of Minnesota: Marion LeRoy Bur ton. He agreed to come in 1920.
Hutchins retired at 73 after a tenure of 11 years. He continued to serve the University in retire ment. He not only assisted his successor, but remained active in work with the alumni. In January 1930, he died at the age of 82.
Harry B. Hutchins as he looked in 1886, 10 years after receiving his U-M law degree. He became president at the age of 63, initially agreeing to serve five years.
The Regents dined with President Hutchins at his home in December 1910. Hutchins is the fifth from the left of those seated.
Hutchins developed private support for the University. On the opposite page is Hill Auditorium and on this page (bot tom left) is the Graduate Library, Alumni Memorial Hall (top left) and an interior view of the Martha Cook Building.
In 1912, Huron St., looking east toward the campus, was brick-paved but still a thoroughfare for horse- drawn vehicles.
The Michigan Union as depicted in an architect's sketch. President Hutchins initiated construction of the building in 1916 as he turned the first shovelful of sod during commencement.