Faculty
Faculty members are the backbone of any institution, and the University of Nebraska had a rich past of educators, including one of the leading psychologists in the nation.
Overview
Faculty members are the backbone of any institution, and the University of Nebraska had a rich past of educators, including one of the leading psychologists in the nation.
List of Faculty
The Faculty at the school has mirrored the number of students in many aspects over the years, in terms of growth. At first the number of professors increased slowly, but after the mid 1870s, the faculty grew rapidly. In 1883 there was a purge and a binge of the staff; Hitchcock fired several professors and hired many more. In 1884 Manatt did a similar sweep, but this one was not as dramatic. (Catalogs)
Trio of Sampsons
The "Trio of Sampsons" were really just a couple of professors who disagreed with how the school was being run, and so decided to do things a little bit differently.
George Church was the principal of the Latin school at the beginning of the University of Nebraska. He pressed for research as part of the curriculum, as well as encouraging his students to think beyond the curriculum.
Harrington Emerson supposedly knew 19 languages and was appointed Professor of Modern Languages at 23 in 1976. He disdained the lack of organization in the college and felt that academic records should be kept very carefully. He also felt that what the students were learning could be taught by tutors for half the salary the college was paying its professors.
George Woodberry was hired in 1877 and believed in instructing students in their own elected course of study impartially and scientifically. He believed moral lessons should be left out of class discussion.
The three were fired for causing too much commotion within the school and media in 1882/83, along with Fairfield for not being able to get along with or control his staff. (Prairie University)
Harry K. Wolfe
Harry K. Wolfe was the Professor of Philosophy and Psychology from 1887. He graduated from Leipzig college after studying under Wilhelm Wundt, the father of psychology as we know it today. Wolfe set up the first Undergraduate Psychology laboratory in the country. While he did not expand upon his own potential as a great psychologist, he devoted his life to giving his students the best experience in psychology possible. Many of them continued on to become relatively important in the study of Psychology, while three of them became presidents of the American Psychological Association.
For a special description by the Psychology department, click here.
(Review of Harry Kirke Wolfe)