When the previous century was young – in 1906 to be exact – an equally youthful educator at the University of Cincinnati built a tenuous bridge between education’s ivory tower and industry’s smokestack. That educator, Herman Schneider, sent 27 untested engineering students into turn-of-the-century mines and mills to see what lessons they’d learn from the paid positions he’d arranged for them.
So, UC began what’s known around the world as Cooperative Education. And for just over 100 years, the practice has touched millions of students who have followed what Webster’s unabridged dictionary once defined as “The Cincinnati Plan:” Alternating quarters or semesters in the classroom with paid, professional experience related directly to their majors.
To mark the 2006 centennial of co-op, UC last year established Herman Schneider Quad in front of Baldwin Hall. At 10:15 a.m., Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007, UC will unveil an eight-foot-tall, 1,500-pound bronze statue of Herman Schneider in front of Baldwin Hall to overlook the quad. This sculpture will mark only the third time a statue has ever been placed on the UC campus. (The only other two statues are of UC alums William Howard Taft, 27th U.S. president and U.S. chief justice, and basketball great Oscar Robertson.)
| From left, UC's Len Thomas and sculptress Anna Christoforidis with the 800-pound clay model of the Herman Schneider statue. |
The process to create the sculpture is intense, requiring an 800-pound clay model and the heating of bronze to 1,800 degrees in preparation for casting the sculpture. Christoforidis worked on the piece for months, typically spending 12- to 14-hour days to perfect every detail and aspect of the expression.
The intense process matches the intense nature often attributed to Schneider.
Said Christoforidis, “Schneider is remembered as a very focused, strong-willed man. He had to be, because co-op was a radical idea for its time. Universities had rejected the idea before UC agreed to experiment with the co-op plan. I think the statue expresses his fortitude and perseverance.”
Schneider did labor to overcome many obstacles to the “cooperative” experiment. For instance, unions objected to the plan because it was considered a means to bring in strike breakers. In addition, the co-op proposition only squeaked by the UC board with a single vote to spare. The board provided the most wishy-washy of approvals, granting Schneider the right to try “…for one year, this cooperative idea of education…[for] the failure of which, we will not assume responsibility.”
| A photo of Herman Schneider. |
Since that first year (1906) when Schneider sent that first handful of students out to begin alternating time in the classroom with time in the workplace, co-op has spread from its birthplace at UC to approximately 1,500 colleges and universities in 43 countries, including about 500 universities in the U.S.
UC’s current co-op program – ranked among the nation’s Top Ten by U.S. News & World Report – is the nation’s largest mandatory co-op program and the largest co-op program at any public institution in the U.S. UC’s co-op serves about 4,000 students who, throughout their student careers, work for employers in 36 states and 11 foreign countries. Those UC students collectively earn more than $30 million annually.
Digg
del.icio.us
Slashdot
Reddit