Nicholas Murray Butler
Nicholas Murray Butler CC 1882 MA 1883 PhD 1884 was the ruler of Columbia for over four decades (1902-1945). Despite being associated with several controversies, he was probably Columbia's greatest leader. And his influence over the direction of the university began well before even his long term as president, and he can claim credit for much of the expansion that took place during the Frederick A. P. Barnard and Seth Low eras as well. As the Spec wrote after his death: "When 16 year old Nicholas Murray Butler came to Columbia, it was a small, unpretentious college of 227 students. When 83-year-old Nicholas Murray Butler retired from the presidency of Columbia University, he left a gigantic institution with an enrollment over 23,000."[1]
Butler's achievements extended well outside the university's gates; he won a Nobel Peace Prize and was a candidate for Vice President of the United States. In his prime, he was better known outside the U.S. than the country's presidents, and would be the only individual at international conferences who wasn't a head of government or state.
Butler Library and the Butler Medal are named after him.
Contents
Butler the Student, Butler the Professor
Butler studied philosophy during his time at the university, and graduated valedictorian (or maybe salutatorian, since sources differ - we would not be surprised if he was actually both). He initially considered law school, but then-College President Barnard warned him away from the law, dismissing it as something "anyone could do". After graduate study and a brief jaunt through Europe, where he was inspired by German research universities, Butler then joined the faculty as a philosophy professor in 1885. His academic brilliance led Theodore Roosevelt to dub him "Nicholas Miraculous."
While a student at Columbia, Butler was also a member of Psi Upsilon and the Peithologian Society, and edited the Acta Columbiana and The Columbiad (a parody article he inserted into its pages of the yearbook caused it to be "suppressed"). During this time, he was also found time to write for the New York Tribune and to teach at two private schools.
Butler's mental prowess didn't necessarily translate into other fields. He failed to make it onto the crew or football teams, perhaps presaging his temporary banishment of the latter as University President. However, he did play on what must have been a short-lived Columbia cricket team for two years.
Once on the faculty, Butler soon became an active administrator. In 1887, he helped found the New York Institute for the Training of Teachers, which later evolved into Teachers College, and served as president of that institution until 1901. He could not quite help reaching into other spheres of influence, either; by the age of 30, he had been involved in a reorganization of New Jersey's schools and libraries, and had weathered a libel suit for calling the New York City school system "a mastodon".
All this activity earned Butler the attention of many American universities. No fewer than eight state schools, as well as Stanford, had offered him presidencies that would have paid over three times his professorial salary, but he held out to helm Columbia, perhaps because he had been promised the president's post after the departure of Seth Low.
Butler the President
As University President, Butler was highly influential in creating the Columbia University we know today. Despite his obvious ambition to become Vice President or President of the United States, he clung tenaciously to his university title, retiring only when he went blind and was close to death.
Physical expansion
Butler embraced McKim, Mead, and White's Master Plan for the Morningside Heights campus, and oversaw the construction of many buildings, including Wallach, Furnald, Mudd, and Pupin. Butler was responsible for the acquisition of South Field, stating firmly that "the area of the site... will be entirely insufficient for the work of the University in the very near future".
He also single-handedly blocked the construction of a Riverside Park stadium by banning football (due to its "rowdiness") and by placing a low priority on undergraduate student life.
Support for graduate vs. undergraduate education
Inspired by German research universities, Butler heavily de-emphasized undergraduate education in favor of graduate study, establishing centers of graduate learning, such as the Medical Center, and seeking to exclude the College from representation on the University Senate. Deriding the college's liberal arts curriculum as producing "wastefully educated men," he later infamously proposed that a two year preprofessional course be adopted as an alternative to College study; this was actually implemented, but was later discontinued.
Butler was also instrumental in expanding the university beyond even its degree-granting functions, creating such programs as Columbia's summer sessions, its extension school, and its University Press.
Controversies
Suppression of football
From 1905 to 1915, Butler banned the sport of football at Columbia, judging it to be too "rowdy". The team still hasn't made up for the lack of practice to this day.
Suppression of anti-war dissent
A number of professors who spoke out against American participation in the First World War were stifled by Butler. Indignant, several of them, including luminaries such as John Dewey and Charles Beard, left the university and founded the New School.
Support for fascism
Butler was a staunch supporter of Benito Mussolini (leading to the establishment of Casa Italiana), and fascism in general. Soon after the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany in 1933 he invited the Nazi ambassador to the United States, Hans Luther, to speak at Columbia. In doing so, he ignored vigorous student protests, dismissing them as "illiberal", and stated that Luther was an "emissary from a friendly people". Butler later rescinded his fascist favor and vehemently supported the US war effort.
Anti-Semitism
Butler seems to have been invested in an anti-Semitic project. In general, he considered them aggressive and vulgar. During his regime he made sure that Columbia had a very strict Jewish quota. Butler established Seth Low Junior College, meant to provide parallel education to lower-income Jews, in a lame attempt to pacify his critics.
In addition, only two Jews served on the Board of Trustees during Butler's reign: Benjamin Cardozo from 1928 to 1932, and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, starting in 1944. He respected some Jews, the sparkling example being the awarding of tenureship to Lionel Trilling in the English Department, but these were more like exceptions to the rule.
See also
- Nicholas Miraculous, a biography of Butler by Columbia English professor Michael Rosenthal
- Columbia University Quarterly's coverage of Butler's Installation as President
| Preceded by Seth Low |
President of Columbia University 1902-1945 |
Succeeded by Frank Fackenthal (acting) |
