Indiana University - Arbutus Yearbook (Bloomington, IN)

Page 23 text:

The College prospered, its reputation spread abroad, and its classrooms were filled with students from almost every state in the West and the South. At the opening of the fall term in 1830, it became necessary to establish a preparatory department which continued down to the close of 1890, a period of sixty years. During the period of the College, Beaumont Parks and Ebenezer N.Elliot were elected to the chairs of languages and mathematics and natural philosphy, re- spectively. Professor Parks is remembered as mu ch for his eccentricities as his learning. In the middle of a recitation, without a word of warning, he would spring to his feet with the announcement that he must go home and kill a chicken for dinner; and off he would go, not to return till the next day. In the legislative year 1837-38, the corporate life of Indiana College ends and that of Indiana University begins. In December, 1837, Governor Noble, in his annual message, after paying a high tribute of praise to the thoroughness and effectiveness of the academic work which the College had already done, declared this to be a propitious time for carrying into effect the constitution of Indiana with regard to the establishing of a State University , and concluded by recom- mending that the College have bestowed on it that distinction together with the necessary endowment. On February 13, 1838, by a vote of the General Assemblj , the Indiana College was thus transformed into Indiana University. The Sun Dial

Page 22 text:

An Old Campus Path Seminar}- days, and the thirty-five students had dwindled to twenty-four. Mean- while, the trustees had been at work erecting a large three-storied brick building, a rectangular structure with many windows, with a deck roof and a pepper box cupola, and resembling more, according to Dr. Wylie, A New England cotton-mill than a college . This building was burned in the spring of 1854. The first thing to be done after the inauguration of Dr. Wylie as president on October 28, was the announcement of a complete curriculum of studies. Great stress was given to the languages, mathematics, the mental and moral sciences, and to belles lettres. Inasmuch as there was no apparatus of any kind and no experimental work of any sort done, the scientific instruction given at that time was exceedingly meager. Following the coming of President Wylie, the thirty students entering college in 1829 grew to fifty-nine at the beginning of the following year. Three students took their degrees at the first commencement in 1830, and b} ' the end of the same year the enrollment had increased to sixty, four of whom took their degrees at the second commencement. The next year, (1831-32) the number enrolled was fifty-three, and in 1832-33 there were sixty-live students.

Page 24 text:

At the time Indiana University was legislated into being, the annual income of the institution from all sources was less than 5,000, and this was thought by most persons of the State to be an adequate income for the support of either college or university. Shortly after the creation of the University, the Law School was added to the course of instruction, and David McDonald, in December, 1842, read the first law lecture to the students enrolled in that course. The change from college to university was not followed by the revival of for- tunes that was at first expected. The number of students dropped from eighty- nine to fifty-two in the four college classes and twenty-seven in the preparatory classes, and in the year following, 1840, the total number was as low as sixty- four. After this lowest point of depression, growth came slow, but steady. The faculty chairs were filled, the Law School was added, and (by 1846) 198 names of students appeared on the catalog. From this time until Dr. WVlie ' s death in 1 85 1, the enrollment never fell below 163. Following the death of Dr. Vlie, the first president of the L niversity, came the burning of the main L niversit}- building in April, 1854, the loss in number of students at the outbreak of the Civil War, the admission of the first woman, Aliss Sarah Parke Alorrison, as a student in Indiana University at a time when no other state university had adopted a system of co-education, the termination Eighteen