Knox College - Gale Yearbook (Galesburg, IL)

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

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 18 text:

r-W.,-.r---,-.,nf--V --ev---fu,---v -'---'W Davis Science Hall THE CAMPAIGN FOR were also a much larger number of special and irregular students than at present, many of whom were taking a considerable part of their worlc in the Academy. Ir will be readily understood that the cost of the secondary school worlc given in the 4Academy was very much less than of that given to an equal number of College students. This growth in the regular College classes has been gradual and continuous since the abandonment of the Academy. In the third place, the same condition exists in the College as exists in all industries and in private affairs to-day. The cost of every item that goes to make up the annual budget is much higher than it was a few years ago. This is especially true in