Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - 16 Years (Edmund James) [PAGE 274]

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258

Sixteen Years at the University of Illinois

wealth. It was repeatedly invited to assist in the solution of the most difficult problems which confronted the legislators of the State, and in every instance rendered ungrudging and efficient service. It cheerfully accepted whatever new duties were laid upon it. Its usefulness was limited only by its means. In spite of the impression that will be derived from the study of the statistics presented in the foregoing pages— namely that the University's growth for the sixteen years was chiefly material and physical—it can be asserted with confidence that the real growth of the University for this period was intellectual and spiritual. It rose to a higher plane of scholarship. It came to lay greater emphasis upon unselfish service. There was a setting up of high ideals, and these were kept consistently before both faculty and students. During this period the University was not content to serve only as a medium for handing down to its students the learning of the past. It strove with unflagging zeal to do its part in pushing outward the bounds of the known world of science, literature, art, philosophy and medicine. This policy, consistently followed, resulted not only in the addition of some small amount to the sum of human knowledge, but also in greater inspiration in the teaching of the instructor, and a keener interest in his work on the part of the student. Difficult as the task is of securing the means for providing adequate land, buildings, libraries and laboratories, it is still more difficult to build up an able administrative and instructional staff—men with genuine teaching ability, with high ideals of scholarship, capable of carrying on important investigations themselves and of giving efficient direction to the research of others. This task has been performed at the University of Illinois during the past sixteen years with notable success. It is certain that no state university is ranked higher by its sister institutions at the present time than the University of Illinois. If the present high ideals of scholarship and of service are maintained, there is no reason to doubt that the University of Illinois will establish clearly its right to be counted one of the great seats of learning of the world*