The New University of Chicago.

Professor Harper of Yale has at last made a public announcement about the new Baptist University at Chicago of which he is to be the first president. The University expects to be opened, he says, on October 1, 1892. It is to be, in a way, an experiment, and it is hoped that the experiment will prove so successful that other colleges will follow the example set by this new University of Chicago.

The University, once opened, will be kept open year in and year out. There will be four terms of twelve weeks each, with an open week preceding each term. The student can enter at any time and leave at any time; as there is no summer vacation, the student can take a vacation of twelve weeks if he needs it. In this way the old fashioned four years course can be completed in three years.

The University intends to affiliate all of the surrounding colleges, make use of their instructors, and in return give them the use of its own professors. The plan of university extension will also be adopted, and many who cannot attend college will be taught by correspondence and otherwise.

As for the course of study, each term of twelve weeks will be divided into two periods of six weeks each. Each student will pursue but two studies at a time, a major study and a minor study, and he will devote all of his time for at least six weeks, and it may be longer, to these two studies. Other studies will be taken up in succession, two by two, so that instead of diffusing his mental energies among six or eight simultaneous studies, as is the case under the present system of teaching at colleges and Universities, he will concentrate and cover the same ground in the same time and reap a much better result. Under this system, the professor also, being employed in continuously teaching and investigating one subject, will gain the benefit of the same concentration of mental energy.

The University will have in addition to its regular corps of salaried teachers, distinguished specialists from all over the country. The plan of taking up special topics for six weeks at a time will enable the University to get the services of notable specialists for this short period. College professors, it is thought, can easily spare six weeks, especially in the summer; and in this way the best instruction can be provided.

The University will teach almost everything and will stand for the broadest principles of truth and education. It is not to be sectarian in the sense of promothing the principles of the Baptist faith. It is merely to be governed by Baptists and to stand for their contribution to the learning of the world.