Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1874 [PAGE 94]

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90

Report of the

The report was accepted and ordered to be spread on the minutes of the Board. The Eegent, Dr. Gregory, then read his report, as follows:

To the Irustees of the Illinois Industrial University : GENTLEMEN : The occurrence of your annual meeting imposes upon me again the duty of presenting you my annual report of the condition and wants of the University. The year just closing is in many respects the most eventful, as well as the most, prosperous in the history of' the Institution. The completion and occupancy of our new main building are of themselves sufficient to make the year memorable. The change in our organic law reducing the Board of Trustees from thirty two to eleven members will be looked to as the starting point of a new era in our affairs, and the other changes made by this law must affect to some extent the character and future of the University. Let us hope it will prove only the beginning of a larger prosperity, and of a wider usefulness. The foundations already laid in the hard labors of the first period Ought to give us as their fruits a steadily increasing growth and a firm and increasing progress.

ATTENDANCE.

The attendance for the several terms since your annual meeting is as follows: Spring term, 1873- Gentlemen 236 44 44 44 Ladies.. 40 Fall term, 1873—Gentlemen 276 44 44 4< Ladies 80 During the current term—Gentlemen 219 44 4i 44 Ladies 50 The attendance of the Fall term was in advance of that of any former term of the Institution. The financial crisis which occurred during the autumn, affecting the business of the whole country, largely diminished the expected attendance of the present term, and will probably continne to affect us till the close of the present year. But there are causes in operation which promise to increase largely the attendance, especially of the students of agriculture. The members belonging to the several Colleges and Schools for the past year have been as follows :

COLLEGE OP AGRICULTURE:

School of Agriculture School of Horticulture

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING:

53 9 62

School of Mechanieal Engineering School of Civil Engineering School of Architecture School of Mining

COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES :

25 49 6 3 "~83

School of Chemistry School of Natural History.

COLLEGE OF LITERATURE, SCIENCE AND ARTS ,

25 4

68

School of Commerce 14 School of Military Science 55 Eclectic courses. 150 The number of female students has increased to nearly 100, mostly enrolled in the last named course. Drawing (M. Matchen) 132 Book-keeping (Snyd.) 83 Military Tactics....(Snyd.) 34

FACULTY

The changes in the Faculty during the past year are already known to you. Death took from our number, in the spring, Prof. Wm. M. Baker, one of the original instructors, and in the loss of whom the University suffered bereavement of one of its warmest friends and ablest teachers. The discontinuance of the chair of Languages, dismissed from our ranks Prof. J. F. Carey, a gentleman to whose ability as a scholar and fidelity as an instructor I can bear the mtist emphatic testimony. Some, also, of the assistants of last year have been replaced by others for the current year. To fill the places left vacant by the removal of two full Professors only one has been added, Prof J". C, Pickard, who succeeds Prof. Baker in the chair of English Literature. The entire number of Professors, Instructors and A ssistants now employed : One Eegent, eight full Professors, four Instructors in charge of departments, one Lecturer on Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, nine Assistants—making in all twenty-three Teachers and Assistants. Besides these the students have had the benefit of a course of lectures from Prof. Sanborn Jenney, of Williams College, Mass., and many are taking a course of lessons in Elocution from Miss Bryant, of Bloomington. The work done in the several practical departments will be presented in detail by the reports fiom the chief officers in those departments, which I herewith transmit. ^

THE HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT.

The report of Prof. Burrill, Professor of Horticulture, shows a very satisfactory condition of things in his department. Both the class and field work in Horticulture are such as must commend themselves to your approval. The investigations made by himself and his students, with the microscopes, are leading to results as interesting as they are important. The reports of Mr. Vickroy on the or«