e session in 1899 the
University altered its policy with reference to the work of training
teachers. To this end the work of the Normal Department, at first
provided for this purpose, was reorganized as the pedagogical
department of the college under the deanship of Professor Lewis B.
Moore who had come to the faculty five years prior to this time from
the University of Pennsylvania, where he had pursued graduate studies
and obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. After several years
of growth the department was designated as the Teachers College and
given academic rank with the College of Arts and Sciences. When the
Normal Department was discontinued the English Department was
established to care for those who wished to pursue the common branches
without professional aim. In 1903, it was merged with the newly
established Commercial Department under Dean George W. Cook.

It was during this administration that with funds obtained as private
donations the permanent residence for the president and the Andrew
Rankin Memorial Chapel were erected, the former costing approximately
$20,000 and the latter $22,000. The chapel is a memorial to the one
whose name it bears, Andrew E. Rankin, the brother of President Rankin
and the deceased husband of Mrs. H. T. Cushman of Boston, a generous
donor toward its erection.

Because of failing health Doctor Rankin resigned in 1903. Reverend
Teunis N. Hamlin, pastor of the Church of the Covenant, Washington,
District of Columbia, and the president of the board of trustees,
served as acting president for a short time pending the selection of a
permanent incumbent. The Reverend Doctor John Gordon, the president of
Tabor College in Iowa was selected for the presidency and was formally
inaugurated in 1904. It was hoped that the incoming president would
infuse new life into the institution, for the occasion demanded a
successful administrator, an efficient educator and a man able to
command increased financial support for the institution. As Doctor
Gordon had none of these qualities, it soon became evident that he
would be able to accomplish little of benefit to the University. He
failed entirely to understand its mission and its ideals. Serious
friction between the president on the one hand and the faculty and
students on the other grew to such proportions that Dr. Gordon, after
a term of office covering a little over two years, resigned.

After an examination of available material in t