Colorado College - Nugget Yearbook (Colorado Springs, CO)

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THE PIKE ' S PEAK NUGGET 13 A few years later the President persuaded the the General Education Board of New York to give fifty thousand dollars on condition that four hundred and fifty thousand additional were secured. The task seemed impossible, but it was so essential for the future of the College that the new movement was set in motion. Then came years of hard discouraging work, and at last the half million was ob- tained, and today, with other gifts, the endowment funds of the College have been increased to nearly eight hundred thousand dollars, money which is largely in- vested throughout Colorado, thus helping in the development of the Common- wealth as well as in the support of the College. What has taken the older Eastern colleges often rhore than a hundred years to accomplish was done in less than twenty. Large as this sum may seem, however, it is yet small as compared with those of colleges like Williams and Amherst, which have neither more students nor larger faculties and yet possess endowments three and four times as large as that of Colorado College. These older Eastern institutions with large and rich alumni, are constantly securing gifts in wills and from wealthy friends, while Colorado College has to create its giving constituency. In the meantime our growing college, in spite of every economy has found its expenses increasing and its income inadequate. Notwithstanding the weari- some work of the past years, and in the face of the loss of such friends as General Palmer, a third movement has just been set under way by the administration, which involves the raising of an additional fund of three hundred thousand dol- lars of which one hundred thousand may be used for buildings, this having spe- cially in view the need of a gymnasium for men. After a number of months of planning and work, the President again induced the General Education Board to start the subscription with fifty thousand dollars, on condition that the whole amount be raised. With the completion of this the invested funds of the College will be in the vicinity of one million dollars, and the greatly needed gymnasium for men will be secured. These are the two things which President Slocum now has very much at heart ; the erection and equipment of one of the best gymnasiums in the west, and the pushing of the endowment funds of Colorado College up to one million dollars. HARVARD UNIVERSITY TO EXCHANGE PROFESSORS WITH COLORADO COLLEGE (The Official Announcement.) Harvard University has arranged an annual exchange of teachers with four of the best known colleges in the country — Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colo. ; Grinned College, formerly Iowa College, of Grinnell, Iowa ; Knox College, of Galesburg, Illinois ; and Beloit College, of Beloit, Wisconsin.

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12 THE PIKE ' S PEAK NUGGET JWtomucmcitts THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS TO BE ADDED TO THE FUNDS OF COLORADO COLLEGE The financing of a modern college is an enormously difficult undertaking and the cost of the maintenance of higher education is increasing every year. Build- ings, equipment of laboratories, libraries, salaries, incidental expenses and many other things make the annual budget a very serious matter for those who have to provide for it. When Colorado College passed from the stage of a local school into that o an institution for higher learning, with its departments of science, its enlarged faculties, its complicated equipment, it had to meet the problem which comes to every college of first rank : that of providing funds for its plant, the annual ex- penses, and most important of all, an adequate permanent endowment fund. When President Slocum came to its presidency, there was practi cally no equipment, and only one very inadequate building. There was no library worthy of the name and no endowment whatsoever. The task seemed an impossible one ; for it involved the erection of costly college halls and their furnishings, a library building, and the accumulation of a large endowment fund which should cor- respond with that of the older Eastern institutions. Hagerman Hall was first erected as a home for men, and in these twenty- three years of the present administration, over seven hundred thousand dollars has been put into the necessary buildings and their equipment, the erection of a library, and the purchase of over fifty thousand volumes for its shelves. In addi- tion it has been necessary to provide for annual current expenses, which have increased from eight to over fifty thousand dollars a year. The College receives nothing whatsoever from state or national funds, as do all the state institutions which are always supported by the tax-payers. The receipts from tuition at Colorado College pay less than one-quarter of the current expenses, and nothing for the erection of buildings and their equip- ment fund. The thing that is most essential in financing a modern college is the creation of an endowment fund, the interest upon which can be used for the payment of salaries and other necessary expenses. Without such a fund, an institution of the character of Colorado College can hardly exist at all, as it cannot depend as does the State University upon money supplied by public taxation. The creation of an endowment fund was one of the things to which the present administration set itself from the very first. With this in view, Dr. D. K. Pearsons of Chicago was told about the College, and as a result he promised to give to its endowment funds fifty thousand dollars, if one hundred and fifty thou- sand more were secured, and this project was brought to a successful conclusion.

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14 THE PIKE ' S PEAK NUGGET Every year until the arrangement is terminated. Harvard is to send a pro- fessor, who will spend an equal portion of half an academic year with each of the four colleges mentioned above, and during that time will give to the students of these institutions such regular instruction in their courses as may be arranged by their faculties. The salary of this professor will be paid by Harvard, but the other colleges will provide his traveling expenses and maintenance while he is away from Cambridge. The professor will be selected every year by Harvard, with the approval of the other colleges. The arrangement will go into effect in the next college year. In return, each of the four colleges will be expected to send each year one of its younger instructors to Cambridge, and during half of the academic year he will be appointed an assistant in some Harvard Course ; he will teach and he will be paid as though he were a regular member of the Harvard staff. He will not be required to give more than one-third of his time to teaching and may devote the rest of it to graduate and research work in any of the departments of the university. Although no official announcement has been made, it is understood that the first Harvard professor to take part in this exchange will be Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of the department of history. Professor Hart will feel ' at home ' in the Middle West, for he comes from the edge of that section of the country. He was born in 1854 in Clarkeville, Pa., a little town close to the Ohio line. He graduated from Harvard College in 1880. In 1883 he received the degree of Ph. D. from Freidburg. Since that time he has taught history at Harvard. Many of his students are now professors of history in colleges all over the country. The recognition given to the standards and work of Colorado College by Harvard University marks an important era in its history. It has not always been easy to secure a just appreciation of the actual educational achievements of those Western institutions which are doing good work. Efforts to secure such just recognition have too often been met with criticism of Western methods and accusations of exaggerations on the part of Western men. Now that a university which holds the place of leadership in America has not only acknowledged the standing of four leading colleges, but backed it up by not only sending each year one of the ablest members of its faculty to share in the instruction of these col- leges, but also by accepting a member of their faculties to give instruction at Harvard, it is evident that such distrust is disappearing. The exchange of in- structors has been under discussion between Presidents Lowell and Slocum for a number of months and it reached its consummation at conferences held at Cam- bridge during Dr. Slocum ' s visit in the East this spring. This new movement and the recognition which has been given to Colorado are highly appreciated by everyone interested in higher education in this section of the United States, and every student is grateful to Harvard for its generous action in this matter.