Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1876 [PAGE 182]

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182

Professor Marshall; in voice culture, by Mrs. F. Hollister; in preparatory studies, by students Campbell and Kingsbury. The new catalogue, now passing through the press, will give you the names of the students with their distribution, and a general view of the work of the year. And the term reports of the several teachers, which, by my request, contain statements of the work of the entire year, will afford you a view of all the classes taught, and the numbers in each. I need not at this time give you again a separate statement of the progress and condition of each department of the University, as this will be brought before you more fully in the special reports of the officers in charge of these departments. Looking at the University as a whole, although it falls short of our ideal and our earnest wishes, I believe it realizes in some fair degree the aim of Congress and of the State Legislature, as a school of scientific and industrial learning. If the numbers of students in the technical schools are not yet so large as we desire, they are far from being discouraging. The great technical and agricultural schools in Europe did not for many years show the numbers that we have here already. The work already done can not be without" its effects on the agriculture and manufactures of the State, when time is given for the influence of the hundreds of our students who have returned to the farms, to take effect. It took more than a quarter of the century for the polytechnic schools of Europe to show their beneficial influence on European manufactures ; but no intelligent man to-day denies that influence. We can afford to watch and wait for the rich harvest of public good which will certainly come from our seed sowing. I do not know what we could have done more than we have done to increase the numbers of agricultural students. The Agricultural College has always been placed at the front and kept at the front in every catalogue, circular and advertisement which we have issued, from the outset. You have expended more money on this college than upon any other, more teachers have been employed in it than in any other, and every effort has been made to recommend it to the people at large, and to the students who have come herefor study. The efforts made for it have been hearty, earnest and unceasing. And if they have failed thus far to secure all the results desired, it has been from external influences beyond our control. Nor is it difficult to discern the causes of this partial failure. The entire traditional feeling of this country is in favor of the old classical college education. The old and venerable colleges and their thousands of graduates, the great bul& of the educated men of the country, have possession of the public ear, and attract especially the attention of our young men who are seeking the higher education. The learned professions, and particularly the law and medicine, are the most common attractions of our ambitious youth, and both are counted as requiring a regular college education. All these attractions lie on the one side, while on the other nothing but ignorance, uncertainty and distrust hang around the new education—ignorance of its real aims, uncertainty as to its success, and serious distrust of its utility. But against all odds it is winning its way. The practical character of the age favors it, and the advance of Science and Arts make its final triumph certiin. 1 have recited these facts, not as an apology for our plans, but to encourage perseverance in them. You will be assailed by temptations to change the character of the institution, and may * feel, through some temporary discouragement, to allow it to drift into the well-worn channels of a more popular education. I have known even prominent teachers of Agricultural education urge that the chief aim should be to give the farmers' boys a good disciplinary education with a little of agriculture mixed in. This is a betrayal of the very conception of an Agricultural College, and leaves it no right to exist. A little agricultural science could easily be injected into the course of a regular Classical College. It is the claim of the new education, not that a liberal culture will prove useful to the farmer and mechanic—no reasonable man ever doubted that—but it is claimed that the thorough study of the branches of learning which relate to agriculture and the mechanic arts will give as liberal education as any other, and will fit the agriculturist and mechanician for their business far better than any other. I venture in this my last official paper to emphasize all this, because I believe in our ideas and in their final success. That mighty exposition of human arts now in progress in Philadelphia, is full of instruction and encouragement for the friends of industrial education, and it is no time to talk of retreat in this hour of triumph. I predict that from the date of this Centennial exhibition the cause of industrial education, in all its depatments, will take a new impulse and go on to a grander growth. And this University ought to bear a part in this.

RECOMMENDATIONS.

1 condense as much as possible my recommendations: 1. There remains unexpended of the Veterinary appropriation about $700. The committee charged with its expenditure, believe that it ought to go towards the purchase of the Auzoux model of the horse, for which it was partly asked. But this purchase would require an additional appropriation of $200, which I would advise. 2. It is probably already known to you that Mr. Cobb has generously donated to the University a set of Ward's celebrated casts of fossils. A part of these are already here, and the remainder, now on exhibition in Philadelphia, will be received here in the autumn. An appropriation will be needed to supply the necessary cases and supports. 3. In this connection I would advise that the windows looking upon the court, both from the museum and the library, be bricked up. They are found unnecessary for lighting, and the strong eddies of wind in the court make it almost impossible to exclude the dust, which seriously injures the books and collections. 4. The preliminary year decided upon at your last meeting has been duly advertised. Some additional teaching force will be needed to carry it into effect, but until the question of the reemployment of the present assistants and the assignments of their labors be settled, it seems unwise to make further engagements, and I recommend that this matter be referred to a proper committee to distribute the work and select new teachers if needed. If a careful adjustment be made I believe that not more than one additional assistant will be required. 5. Of the assistants now employed several are expecting to be re-employed. It should be kept in mind that our general policy has been to employ such graduates as have been found worthy and, who, wishing to protract their stay at the University for a year or two, were willing to stay for the small compensation your funds will afford. This gives to worthy young men the benefits of the English fellowships, in enabling them to prolong their studies. It also gives them an introduction to the teacher's profession and aids them in obtaining afterward desirable positions. It is