Instruction

Whitman was an advocate for students specializing and get involved in research early in their career. He saw the discipline as a unit with many specialized parts. University of Chicago's biological sciences divisions thus became Zoology, Botany, Paleontology, and Physiology (Anthropology was also included a short time later). The Zoology department had the largest number of students and graduates of the biological departments during Whitman's tenure, 1892-1910. During this time Whitman worked to maintain the quality of a major research university in biology through his advocacy for buildings and laboratory space, equipment, and funds to support student research as well as obtain and retain the best faculty available.