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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Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - History of the University (Nevins) [PAGE 265]

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MPPHOTHMM

ALUMNI INTEREST

247

trants had at some time taught. By that year over 500 had entered, and there was no longer any doubt of the sound policy of offering vacation instruction. Free scholarships were thereafter given all public school teachers of the State who could qualify—a step at once rewarded by the attendance of a considerable group from Chicago. The sessions developed slowly. After Prof. W. C. Bagley became director in 1910, the increase in the number of graduate students was the most notable fact; for he urged high school teachers to strive towards a master's degree—which they could earn in four sessions—in the departments related to pedagogy^ There came also to be a notable degree of student life at these sessions. By 1911 we find the fourth volume of a triweekly Summer IttirU published; and we find recorded in its pages the activities of summer dancing clubs, a dramatic club, a literary society, a chorus, with regular "sings," and a baseball team which engaged neighboring towns. The faculty did their best to make the hot and lonely lot of the students enjoyable, and in addition to lectures there was a series of receptions. The registration had by 1914 approached 1,000, and by 1916 exceeded 1,100. Indirectly connected with the greater prestige of the University and fuller State recognition was the growth of its alumni activities. The outstanding factor in stimulating this growth was the founding in 1907 of the Alumni Quarterly, under the editorship of Frank W. Scott of the English department j§At this time there were but fourteen alumni associations, of which some were apparently dead and none with much vitality. By 1911 there were thirty, all vigorously alive, and each of the three or four largest with more strength than the whole bad possessed before. In that year an alumni associa-