Repository: UIHistories Project: Book - Early History of University (1916) [PAGE 29]

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XXVIII

U N I V E R S I T Y OF I L L I N O I S

the Board of Trustees had determined that the step should be taken. Pursuant to . their action of Dec. 8, 1896,1 the School of Law was organized and instruction began September 13, 1897. The formal opening was through a public meeting held in the chapel of the University, which was addressed by Justice Jacob W. Wilkin of the Supreme Court of the state. The faculty of the School of Law has been composed from the beginning of professors devoting their entire time to instruction, and of other professors who taught related subjects in the University, such as constitutional law, the history of jurisprudence, and non-resident lecturers. The course of study at first covered two years, but a very short time later it was re-arranged on the threeyear basis. On February 9, 1900, the School of Law became the College of Law; and on the same date the School of Medicine became the College of Medicine." In 1897, the School of Library Economy which had been established in 1893 at the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago was transferred to the University; the Director of that school was appointed librarian of the University Library; and the State Library School was opened. There were but two other such schools in the country and no other west of the Allegheny Mountains. Admission to the school was placed upon the same basis as admission to other departments of the University. From time to time some slight provision had been made for musical instruction and in 1895 the work had been reorganized and enlarged. By vote of the trustees on June 9, 1897, the department became the School of Music with a separate faculty and organization. 3 Instruction was given in violin, piano, and voice, and a course was offered leading to the degree of bachelor of music. The adequate supervision of social interests was felt to require distinct administrative attention, and at the March meeting, 1897, the Board of Trustees created a Dean of Women's department and appointed a Dean in the person of Dr. Violet D. Jayne of Minneapolis, Minnesota. 4 Events proved the selection to be a wise one. < In 1901, a similar measure was adopted with reference to male students, by the appointment of Professor Thomas Arkle Clark, Dean of Undergraduates, who served in this capacity until 1909, when he became Dean of Men. In 1899 some additional courses were offered in railway engineering. Two years before this the Big Four Railway Company had built a dynamometer car for the use of the University upon its system, and in 1900 the Illinois Central Railroad did the same thing, and decided improvements were made upon the first car offered. In the summer of 1899 the University made an earnest effort to establish the • summer session. Some such efforts had been made years before, but without much success. I t secured the attendance of 148 students during a term of nine weeks. The work was satisfactorily initiated and the results were considered quite substantial. The work offered was largely of a character which would appeal to teachers in the high schools of the state, and persons of this class responded in considerable numbers. Students were allowed to do work which might count towards a University degree, and many availed themselves of the privilege. The work of the State Entomologist's office had been done at the University of Illinois since January, 1885. By legislative enactment in 1899 it became permanently established at the University, the trustees of which are required by that act to provide for the Entomologist and his assistants such office and laboratory rooms as may be necessary to the performance of their duties. On March 12, 1901," a College of Dentistry was organized as a department in

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Rey. of Univ. Ill, 1898,p. 44. Rep. of Univ. of 111, 1900, p. 254. Rep. of Univ. of 111, 1898, pp. 124-5. * Rep. of Univ. of 111., 1898, p. 65. 5 Rep. of Univ. of 111, 1902, p. 54ff.