Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1892-1893 [PAGE 16]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

14

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

public suffrage. Since 1873 the president of the board has been chosen by the members thereof from among their own number, for a term of one year. In consideration of the offer of Champaign county the institution was located, May 8, 1867, in the suburbs of Urbana adjoining those of Champaign. For greater convenience most use has been made of the post office of the latter place. The University was opened to students March 2, 1868, at which time there were present beside the Regent, three professors, and about fifty students mostly from the vicinity. During the first term another instructor was added, and there was a total enrollment of 77 students, all young men. This was a small beginning, but plans had been formulated for a great institution of learning. In the first report of the committee on courses of study, adopted May 8, 1867, six general departments were outlined and under these there were named fifteen courses of study. The development of the University as it is now known is a remarkable fulfillment of the ideas of the founders as expressed in this notable document. The leading thought therein embodied, of a true collegiate education specially adapted to the industries as distinguished from the professions, was at the time essentially new in the actual organization of an institution of learning, and the plans then laid down were substantially original, though based upon the laws of congress and of the state and in part upon the discussions which led to their enactment, and though others were elsewhere at work upon the same problem. After describing the proposed University and its prospective benefit to the state the glowing enthusiam of the writers is thus expressed: '' Let the state open wide then this Pierian fount of learning. Let her bid freely all her sons to the full and unfailing flow; those whose thirst or whose needs are little to what they require; those whose thirst and whose capacities are large to drink their fill. Let the University be made worthy of the great state whose name it bears; worthy the grand and splendid industries it seeks to promote, and worthy of the great century in which we live.1' From the small beginning in 1868 evident progress has been made, not only towards the embodiment of theoretical conceptions in actual courses of instruction, but also in the dissemination of the idea that education in its highest and widest reaches is appropriate for and helpful in all vocations and conditions of life, and that the possibility of securing it should be within the compass of all capable minds. On the one hand the general importance of such education in industrial as well as in professional pursuits has been acknowledged, and on the other the