028
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Title
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028
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Transcription
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EARLY FACULTY AND EQUIPMENT The imagination is sometimes kindled by contrasts in the bigness of human achievements. Assuredly the struggling infant of 1871-2 and the bouncing youngster of 1919 offer a sufficiently striking contrast. Then—and for fifteen years thereafter—the "plant" consisted of a single building. Now the city campus has twenty-one buildings; while at the "Farm"—where during the first decade a small frame cottage and a rude barn served to "house" the college of agriculture—there are at present, big and little, thirty-two structures. Then the full faculty list comprised seven names. Now the pay-roll of the University numbers 800 persons, 313 of whom are professors, instructors and others with "fixed stipends." During the first year were registered 130 students, all but 20 of whom were in the two sub-freshman years, called the Latin School. The total sank to 123 in the second year and to 100 in the third. At the close of a decade, in 1882, the entire student body, including 67 pupils in the Latin School, numbered but 284 souls; whereas in 1916-17, at the end of the forty-fifth year of active work, the roster of the University, including "schools" and "extension" students, enrolls a grand total of 5,405 men and women. A like contrast is revealed by the expanding budget. During the first year the total expenditure for all activities of the institution, including repairs and the "beautifying" of grounds, was $26,840.69; in the eight years (1879-1880)it had fallen to $25,197; while during the present biennium, including building, the University is costing sum of $4,000,000. Huge as this figure seems, it should be speedily increased to $6,000,000 per biennium, if salaries and equipment are to be raised to their just level. Still bigness is not everything. "Mark Hopkins on a log" may not accurately express the modern ideal of a university. The epigram does, however, contain a precious kernel of truth. It exalts the vital quality of the teacher's personality. A very humble habitation in which lives a great soul may mean much for the spiritual life of a com-
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Rights
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