Knox College - Gale Yearbook (Galesburg, IL)

Page 16 text:

Alumni Hall THE CAMPAIGN FOR the last two or three years it has been repeatedly stated lay educa- tional authorities that in the very near future, a college, even though it confnes itself strictly to college work, must have an endowment of at least two million dollars if it is to attain its highest usefulness. This statement applies with especial force to Knox College at the present time. Some of the reasons may he stated as follows: in the Hrst place, methods of instruction have been changing rapidly and radically in the last twenty-jqve or thirty years. The departments of Science are the lvest examples of this change. A few years ago the study of Chemistry, for instance, consisted of learning certain formulae from a text laoolt and watching a few simple experi-

Page 15 text:

I Old Main HALF A MILLION ber, with the opening of the next college year, and will be pushed with the utmost vigor until the entire sum is subscribed. ln the meantime the energies of the President have been clevotecl to pre- paratory worlt looking towarcl this active canvass. The worlc so far has been exceedingly encouraging, ancl there are many indications that the alumni are realizing more than ever before that much of the responsibility for the continuecl progress ancl growth of the College, especially in the matter of financial support, rests upon them. The necessity of continually increasing endowment to maintain colleges like Knoat in the first rank, and the reasons for such large enclowment, seem to be matters not always clearly unclerstoocl. in

Page 17 text:

Q V. VV 1 , H Whiting Hall HALF A MILLION ments, which required almost no apparatus. Modern methods demand extensive laboratories and equipment for individual students. This tendency to require added facilities, likewise, extends to all other departments of the College, as well as the Scientific, thereby greatly increasing the expense. ln the second place, the character of the enrollment has very largely changed, even in the last ten years. The numbers in the four regular College classes to-day are almost twice what they were ten years ago, altho at that time the total enrollment was almost as large as now. The difference lies in the fact that then something over one-third of the total enrollment was in the Academy, and there