UIHistories Project: A History of the University of Illinois by Kalev Leetaru
N A V I G A T I O N D I G I T A L L I B R A R Y
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EXTENSION ACTIVITY

89

saved the students the expense of a long journey. The other, inspected by the faculty, was a school whose graduates were admitted without examination. The lists of both grew rapidly, and tended to become in practice expressive of the same standards. In 1880 they totaled forty, and Gregory, who had visited many, was convinced that the system placed the University in due connection with the public schools. The University's extension activities were limited, but in agriculture were fairly popular. After the collapse of the plans for the corresponding secretary's office, these centered in the course of public lectures and discussions modeled on the Yale agricultural lectures of 1860. The first was held at the University ten months after it opened, with visiting experts and the professors speaking on such topics as "Chemistry and Agriculture' f and f j Agricultural Bookkeeping.'' Thereafter these University institutes were arranged for in dozens of places over the State—seven in one year—the professors heavily reinforcing local speakers. But after 1873 the University cared less to promote them, for the professors were overworked and the State appropriations for them dwindled; faculty members merely put in an occasional appearance at the Farmers' Institutes, though leading farmers repeatedly expressed a desire to see the University discussions reestablished. The University was otherwise represented outside only by the speeches of Gregory and others at public meetings and high school commencements.MSo, also, the influence of the alumni was small. The male undergraduates were evenly divided among engineering, farming, merca||ift pursuits, and the law and medicije; and women Store admitted too late to have any inflflfpce upon the schools as teachers.