Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1884 [PAGE 166]

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170

1 Students, University Total expenses other than Legislative... Income from endowment.. No. teachers.. Aggregate salaries ... Students, total

YEAR

ENDING

March— 1869 1870 1871 1872 1873 M a r c h to September— 1873 September— 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 18S2. 1883 10 16 16 21 24 109 134 167 128 180 274 381 400 $14,840 18.327 20,576 20,473 25.433 30 75 42 58 87 $20,450 24.390 26,6(0 26,894 28,680 00 00 00 00 00 $36,715 33.246 37,923 44,866 46,156 56 30 26 05 30

12,649 10 25 25 27 26 29 30 29 26 26 213 213 211 268 227 232 259 291 262 405 368 370 385 387 399 414 3S2 352 27,731 30,833 35,314 33,921 29.556 29,779 28,775 26,4<>2 29,898 01 63 90 94 56 30 89 53 22

21,055 00 27,710 27,710 32,543 29,368 25,695 20,470 19.598 20,960 19,335 15.721 00 00 50 25 00 00 40 00 00 00

27,384 23 45,048 45,971 44,369 44,350 43, 163 37,399 34,081 36,203 31,362 47 71 88 61 38 32 22 46 44

From the above table it will be seen: First—That the income increased gradually as the land-scrip was sold, and the proceeds were properly invested, from $20,450, in 1869, to $29,368.25 in 1877; that it has since then steadily decreased until in 1882 it has become $19,335, and in 1883 the endowment, as it now stands, will yield but $15,721. The depreciation' in interest within the last six years amounts to $13,668.25. This depreciation, it will be understood, represents no malfeasance on the part of the Trustees or of other officers of the University, but comes from well known causes, which have reduced the current rates of interest on first-class securities from ten per cent, per annum to four or five per cent., with a still downward tendency. Second—It will be seen that the sums paid for salaries have varied from $14,840.30 in 1869, when the institution was organized, to $35,314.90 in 187:', thence descending to $29,898.22 in 1882. It will be remembered that the first salaries were, in most cases, wages given ot young men whose futures were yet to be created, and who were induced to join their fortunes to those of the University by the promise that their fame, and their wages as well, should grow as the enterprise prospered, I need not explain to you, as I might be required to show those less familiar with these details, the work of these men, their fidelity, their growth, their deserts, or the meagreness with which you have been compelled to reward them not according to their merits. Some thing must be done to bring the wages of our professors up to the standards which such men secure, east and west. Third—It will be seen that the general aggregate of expense, which began at $36,715.56 in 1869, became $44,866.05 in 1872, and did not vary from that amQunt by more than $1,500 in any year until 1877, when it was $44,350.61. Since that date it has been constantly reduced until in 1882 it was but $31,362.44. This certainly shows