Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1871 [PAGE 78]

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stated. It would be well if, in all the industrial courses, practice should be required as a condition of graduation. In the Mechanical department Prof. Robinson has made u shop practice " a regular part of the course, not as an apprenticeship to a trade but as a necessary means of giving a practical understanding of the principles of mechanical philosophy. This shop practice is not counted nor paid for as labor, but the student is allowed to labor at other hours for wages. I would recommend that a similar plan be adopted in other departments. The student of Horticulture may be required to give a certain number of hours, during one or more terms, to practice in the green house, the gardens, nurseries, orchards and grafting rooms. The student of Agriculture may, in like manner and with like aim, be required to take daily practice, during certain terms, in the practical operations of the field, or in the stock barns. This would not prevent students working at other hours for wages.

THE APPLICATION FOE LEGISLATIVE AID.

The memorial prepared by direction of the Executive Committee has already been seen by most of the members of the Board, and its statements of our wants need not be repeated here. The bill appropriating $75,000 towards the erection of a new University building, to cost in all $150,000, and $25,000 for the erection and furnishing of a machine shop, has already passed the Senate, and is now pending before the House of Representatives, with a good prospect of speedily becoming a law. I call attention to it now, as its passage will impose at once upon the Board the duty of fixing sites, adopting plans, and preparing for contracts for the erection of the proposed buildings. Some preliminary plans have been prepared, but a most thorough and careful review of these plans will be required. Every feature ought to be scanned with the most jealous attention, both to secure perfection of design and to insure economy in the erection. An appropriation has also been asked for the library and apparatus of instruction. The report of the Librarian shows the number of books now in library to be 4,538—an increase of 892 volumes during the year, 98 of which were received from donations. Besides these over two hundred pamphlets have been added to the collection. The library is proving, as it ought, one of the most valuable agencies of instruction as well as a point of most attractive interest to our students, and its early and large increase will add greatly to the real power and value of the University. It will be remembered that the matriculation fees are set apart and apportioned to the library fund.