Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1916 [PAGE 924]

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924

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

[Mar.

14,

That all this has been exceedingly effective is shown by comparative registra tions. Up to six years ago Illinois led all the colleges, with a registration of 683, surpassing Cornell, its closest competitor, by 150. Now, however, New York, has 1,600 regular students, or 350 more than Illinois, besides some 1,250 two-year and short course men, or nearly 3,000 in all. It would have been impossible to care for such numbers here. Whether they would have presented themselves under conditions similar to those at Cornell is, of course, problematical. What is positive cause for alarm is the fact that we are at the end of our resources for economizing space. We have gone to the limit in saving space by control of elective courses nor can we go much farther in urging students to drop their work, even temporarily. A good many courses are already closed before registration is complete. Even seniors are beginning to find it difficult, not merely, to get what they want, but to get anything that will be accepted for graduation, and the time is right at hand when the University must adopt comprehensive measures for providing, not a little, but a large amount of new space in which to care for the students certain to present themselves. Even so, it will be exceedingly difficult to do this promptly enough to meet conditions adequately. There is already a widespread feeling over the State that we are unable to take proper care of agricultural students. However, the increase of one hundred a year shows no signs of abatement, but rather of acceleration. To permanently discourage this normal increase by inadequate facilities would be most unfortunate. More and more students are doing their earlier work elsewhere and presenting themselves with two or three years of advanced standing. The marvelous increase in the graduating class, almost quadrupled in five years, with all that it means in increased demands on us, are startling facts whose significance cannot be ignored. Additional buildings, such as the Horticulture Building, feeding plants, barns, and so forth, will be without effect at the point in question, and we have arrived at the time when constructive and comprehensive steps must be taken and publicly announced for the relief of the situation. Two years ago I pointed out approaching conditions and I can only say that all I feared then has transpired, and there is now no alternative but to provide at the earliest possible date at least double the space now available, or to turn away students, before another biennium has passed. Inasmuch as no more relief is in sight through miscellaneous agricultural buildings and inasmuch as we cannot rely upon such as the Chemistry Building for other than temporary relief, the question of a new building is squarely before us, with the alternative of turning away students. Our offices are now scattered in ten different University buildings, three-fourths of a mile between extremes. Only two classrooms remain in the old Agriculture Building, exclusive of the Court. The work is scattered and extremely difficult of administration. Many of the faculty are destitute of comfortable quarters in which to work. My own office is lighted by artificial light entirely. The students are becoming restless—in short, the college is suffering and is bound to suffer more before relief can possibly be afforded, even by the most prompt and effective action. I do not believe the State would for a moment justify the University in limiting registration and turning-away students, but I understand perfectly well that adequate space cannot be provided out of the mill tax. Everybody has seen the time approaching when this condition would have to be faced and accordingly, by permission of the Trustees, some preliminary studies have been made as to space that would be required when the college has in all probability assumed its stable condition as to numbers. I have been at some pains to ascertain the judgment of students, faculty members, and citizens outside as to what in their opinion that number would* be within twenty years or thereabouts. The estimates range from twenty-five hundred to three thousand, and I have no doubt that these numbers will be upon us if the University continues its policy of freely offering undergraduate work in agriculture. Not only that, the graduate work will increase, as will also that of research. Tho the subject is going into the high schools and smaller colleges, yet In the opinion of those best qualified to judge, this fact will in no wise operate to the relief of the University either in numbers of students or the grade of instruction demanded. The increasing interest in farming, the impulse for higher education among country people, and the call for teachers of this subject in secondary schools, all point to increased demands, particularly when we recall that this is the only institution of strictly collegiate grade in one of the largest and most populous farming states in the Union. . Not only that, the system of county advisers, already on a national basis, is certain to result in increased demands upon the Experiment Station, if not in the number of questions submitted for solution; certainly in their character and difficulty. For all these reasons, too, the demands upon us for graduate work are certain to increase. Everything considered, the new plant should provide not less than three times the space of the present Agriculture Building. Even so, it would not much more than double the space now available when we consider the outlying territory at present occupied. Such a building, of three hundred thousand square feet, of fireproof construction, such as is now being erected by the University, would cost, according to the architect's estimate $1,600,000. and by the time the furniture, fixtures, and laboratory equipment are provided it is a $2,000,000 proposition, under the closest kind of estimate. Anything less than this will come short of the needs in resnect either to space or to the permanency of construction so much needed in a building receiving the hard usage which this structure will receive. There is no relief in building separately for different departments or interests —indeed, a single building is more economical because in that way we combine