Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1888 [PAGE 31]

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54

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

That we have hitherto felt that we could not insist upon an adequate preparation of the kind needed as a foundation for the work of this school. The privilege, if it were such, of "making up'" preparatory Latin, after admission to college, worked as a premium upon inefficiency, and lack of preparation. The old opinion, which is said to have existed, that the requirements for admission to this University were of the lowest, has most certainly lost its significance for all the other colleges, and students are becoming seriously afraid of our examinations and requirements. But the requirements for this school have been such that many persons have been admitted who were not fitted for strenuous college work, including a large proportion of the women admitted. In consequence, and particularly because of these unprepared women, the tendency on the part of instructors, has been to temper the vig^r of their work to the feebleness of the lambs: to pass them in low grades; to lighten the work; to discriminate between the same subjects as given for example to the engineers and to the literary students; as in trigonometry, physics, chemistry, geology, & c . &c. It is true that the scope of a subject as presented to a class of literary students in a single term, should be quite different from that presented to a class of scientific students in a series of terms; but it is now urged that the force of the work should in no respect be diminished, and yet it has seemed impossible, from the nature of things that this should be otherwise. The stronger students who seek literary courses are often attracted to other colleges which have acquired a more distinctively literary reputation. The very efforts which have lately been made to redeem the pledges given when the name of the University was changed, and which have driven the professors of the agricultural college into the lecturing field, to push that phase of our work and to -keep it before the people, has reacted upon this, so that all over the State people are saying, "Don't go to an agricultural or mechanical college to study literat .re or the classics." These facts seem to me to present the problem of the hour, which is, How to revive and strengthen the Literary side of this University ? I think we should first look within and see if its intrinsic character needs invigorating, and how. Second, look without and see how we can reach the people who "should be brought into that department as students. Of the first I have nothing at present to say. Of the second, I remark that the most reasonable source of aid seems to me to be found in the teachers of the State. While I believe that the colleges of the land would all be better off, if the system of accrediting schools had never been adopted, nevertheless it has been adopted, and we cannot help recognizing and using it. Michigan University, finding that her attendance had lately fallen from 1,500 to 1,300 students, has sought to recoup herself by entering all the adjacent States for the accredited schools which she had before found only in her own State, and, if I am rightly informed, has materially 16wered her standard of requirements in so doing. We must continue to attach to ourselves the schools of the State, and I have been actively engaged of late in visiting schools for that purpose and expect to continue so doing. In this connection I desire to renew a proposition made some time since. It is that a handsomely lithographed or engraved certificate be prepared, large enough and elegant enough to be framed, to hang Conspicuously in the assembly halls of our accredited schools, which shall keep the fact of association constantly before the pupils of the school. It will lead them to think about us, to talk about us, and I believe will prove a permanent and a most serviceable advertisement. 1 believe an elegant certificate may be secured for say $150 for the plate, with a small sum for printing. I trust it will not be deemed improper for me to refer again to a plan of establishing county .honorary scholarships. I believe this may be so done, as to make each of a large number of county eeats in the State the center of advertising that will do us much service. That while we should bring one student from a county who would come free of fees, the act of bringing him would draw a considerable number with him, who would pay fees, more than enough to make up for the loss of this o n e . This would, of course, not be true of Champaign county, perhaps not of Cook county, or McLean county, or a f«jw others that might be named. Nor would all counties send. From some inquiries which I have made, I doubt if even fifty counties would undertake the needful examinations at first. I think the spirit of the original State law expects this, and it seems to me that the experiment is well worth the trial. If the trustees desire, I have a plan ready for their consideration.

T H E I ' R E P A K A T O K Y CLASS.

This continues to be the principal and the best feeder for the University. When the number of students in it increases, the subsequent attendance in the University is enlarged. But more than that, the students who have gone through with its drill, take up the work of the freshmen year with J8L vigor and earnestness that is not usually equaled by those who enter directly as freshmen.

T H E AGRICULTURAL E X P E R I M E N T S T A T I O N .

You are doubtless informed of the fact that Congress has passed an act, which the President has -signed, appropriating $15,000 per annum, during the pleasure of Congress, for establishing an experiment station at each of the agricultural colleges organized under the act of 1862. An important duty and a large responsibility will rest upon this University in carrying out the details imposed by this act. [ suggest that the subject be referred to a committee which shall have authority to take s-teps to secure the necessary legislative sanction, required by the act itself, which committee shall also be charged with the duty of presenting at a subsequent meeting a plan for the organization and conduct of the experiment station contemplated in connection with our University. 1 am informed lhat a meeting of the presidents of agricultural colleges will be called in Washington during the month of April, to consult, upon the methods, purposes, etc., of these «tations, and I ask your authority to attend such a meeting when called.