Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1880 [PAGE 224]

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bv tar the fittest man for the service; and if his work in other directions can be sufficiently retrenched, the Library will be safer and more useful under his charge, than it can be made under any new Librarian whom you could appoint. I recommend that after this year, his chief work be that of the Library, with such limited work in instruction as he can perform without detriment to his more important duties. This change will of course involve some other appointments, and circumstances seem to me to favor a readjustment, to some extent, of our teaching force, to make it consist both with the condition of our funds and with the relative importance of the several departments of our work.

THE PBEPAEATOBY DEPAETMENT.

As a part of this readjustment, I am obliged to recommend that the Preparatory Department be dispensed with, after another year. The University is now coming into such relations with the High schools of the State, and so many of these schools are adjusting their courses of study to prepare candidates for the University, that we may now safely discontinue the work which needlessly occupies our strength and crowds us with a class of students who would be better off elsewhere, and who cannot be so well cared for here. The University has now an established reputation, which will be certain to draw desirable students, and such students will be sure to make whatever preparation they learn that the University demands. We might, for a brief time, show less students on our catalogue, but we should not at all diminish the amount of work done in the direction required by the law. Were it not desirable to avoid a too sudden change, I could wish the preparatory work to be discontinued at the close of the present year,

CATALOGUE AND COUKSES OF STUDY.

The edition of the last Catalogue, although unusually large, was long ago exhausted, and the constant demand for information makes it important that the new Catalogue shall be issued as soon as possible. The work of preparation is already begun, and I recommend that an appropriation be made to publish five thousand copies. Some slight changes seem desirable in some of the courses of study, and I recommend that the Faculty be authorized to make such changes, and publish the same. The courses of study required for Degrees, in the several schools and colleges of the University, are found necessarily to restrict, to some extent, the freedom of study which we have always desired to maintain, and, in order to remedy the difficulty, the Faculty have selected and arranged the branches of learning taught here, to allow elective students to make up a course of thirty-six studies, occupying four years, which may entitle them to a certificate of graduation, without title or degree. This scheme is designed to allow the largest liberty of study consistent with the law of the State and the credit of the University. I recommend its adoption by the Trustees and its publication in the Catalogue.

BULES AND GOVEENMENT,

By the law, the government of the University is vested in the Board of Trustees. By a vote of the Board, the Faculty were authorized to make and administer such rules and regulations as are necessary for the discipline and good order of the institution. Under a permission of the Faculty, frequently, though not formally approved by the Trustees, the students were allowed to organize a voluntary association, known as the Students' Government, for the suppression of violations of good order. The legality of this government having been questioned, its constitution and Taws were, by your direction, referred to the Attorney-General of the State, with a request for his opinion as to its legality. His opinion, recently received, determines that there is no conflict between the Students' Government and the State laws, on the assumption that the government is authorized by the Trustees. To remove all doubt, and to give to this useful organization proper authorization, I recommend that a distinct and explicit vote of the Board be made to cover the case. I will submit to the Board a form of rules, which seem to me to cover the case.

THE AGBICULTUEAL DEPAETMENT.

The Professor of Agriculture presents a paper detailing the experiments for the year 1880. As these have already been discussed with the chairman of the Farm committee, I need not detail them to you. There is no doubt that the a^ricul urists of the State demand of us a vigorous prosecution of such experiments as are necessary for the improvement of Agriculture, and such as cannot so well be tried by individual farmers. The experiments recommended by Prof. Morrow seem to me well planned and important, and I commend them to your better judgment. A paper from the Head Farmer urges again upon the Board some experiments in Dairying, as connection with the proper and economical management of Shorthorns and grade cattle. The considerations he advances are certainly important, and would doubtless be approved by the practical farmers of the State. I ought to state that the Farmers' Institute, held during the month of January, was largely attended, and seems to have given much satisfaction to those who were present. The increasing success of these institutes will not only justify their continuance, but may again create a demand £or others, to be held outside of the University.