Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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tin preceding Legislature. This is probably the only incident of the kind in Oregon history. August l. 1896, the Regents elected Hon. H. B. Miller, one of their number President of the college to succeed Doctor Bloss. who resigned. President Miller. a tine business man of wide acquaintance. administered the finances of the college and directed the experiment station. Professor F. Bcrchtold. A. M., the senior member of the faculty, was chosen dean of the college. The President developed the industrial features of the institution whenever and wherever it was possible. Hence many changes were made in the curricula to that end. The faculty strove to reach the farmers as well as the students, so as to obtain results more immediate. Farmers’ institutes grew more popular, and a large portion of the people were in this way brought into touch with the institution for the first time. The armory and gymnasium was built. The literary societies, which were reorganized and renamed with constitutions of their making, became social as well as literary. In the catalogue, Doctor Margaret Snell, as manager of the two dormitories, made the following announcement regarding the cost of living -at Cauthorn Hall, which brought many new students the following year: “It is confidently believed, from the experience gained in the management of the girls' hall last year, that the cost of living will not exceed six dollais per calendar month of thirty or thirty-one days. The hall will be under the supervision of Lieutenant C. F.. Denter, U. S. A., as commandant. Doctor Thomas M. (latch was president for a decade beginning 1897. During his administration the school was more than doubled in attendance and capacity. The Hall of Agriculture and Waldo Hall were built and the Chemical Building was devoted to Mining Engineering. Courses in Music, Forestry. Civil Engineering. Electrical Engineering and Literary Commerce were introduced. The attendance, which gradually grew to 833. was divided as follows: 745 regular students. 56 short course students, and 32 students taking only music. But let President J. K. Weatherford, who speaks for the Regents, tell you of Doctor Catch: for the Regents are the highest tribunal in college circles: “President Catch, reputed for long experience and classic finish, came to us when we were sorely in need of a guiding mind, and grasped the helm with a firm and steady hand, and with the poise of genius directed its course onward with a well-defined purpose and a definite aim and object in view. He came to Oregon in 1859 as president of the Willamette University, at Salem. Since then lie has been president of Wasco Academy, the University of Washington and the Agricultural College, and all of these institutions are indebted in great part for their eminent success to the directing and guiding mind of Professor Catch. He is one of the pioneers of pioneers in the line of higher education of the Pacific Coast, and now at a ripe age he retires with the honors and with the blessings of many of the younger people of the state, who were by him directed in the pathway of honor and success Under his administration new vigor and new life were felt in every department. To him is due in a great measure the splendid institution that now tells upon the activities and development of the material resources of Oregon. as well as upon the social life and character of its citizens.” Upon Dr. Catch’s resignation. Dr. Kerr was elected to the presidency May 2. 1907. and since his inauguration, in the summer of 1907. the Mechanic Arts Building. Agronomv Building. Y. M. C. A. Building and the new barn have been built. Alpha Hall has been transformed into the Pharmacy Building. and the blacksmith shop into a mining laboratory. At the present time the following buildings are under contemplation: Central Agricultural Building, at a cost of $55,000: central heating plant. $35,000; armory and drill hall. $35,000: greenhouses, $5.ooo. The course in Literary Commerce has been changed to Commerce; also Household Science to Domestic Science and Art. Several new industrial courses have been introduced, and it lion. It. it. Miller (‘resident is .-ls'j?

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Grange, was a close contestant for first place in the first intercollegiate oratorical contest held in Oregon, the medal being won by the representative of the State University. The preparatory students were allotted to the Athenian and Madisonian Literary Societies. About this time college yells and games came floating in on the wings of student life. Veil meetings were announced in chapel; and soon “Zip Boom Bee filled the air. I always enjoyed that simple yell of frightful meaning, must be read out of yell may be fully six words for it. But the words their order that the appreciated. “OA- l x Senator Thomas Cant horn when the living It was not un-more active and son. Her also OA-OAC is meaningful: “Bee stands for business: “Boom, a good deal of noise about it ; and Zip. let it conic quick, like a streak of belated lightning. And that's the way the boys played football. But old farmers who stood about as onlookers for the first time did not know what to make of a game which consisted of a little counting, a rush, and a tumbling pyramid of human flesh. However, they were surprised and they usually laughed pyramid arose to its feet with no necks nor limbs broken, common for them to remark that the exercise was a little dangerous thvu the boys were accustomed to while hoeing potatoes at home. To compromise the situation with the farmers, the boys christened their mascot as “Pap Hayseed. and the conduct of the mascot on the field as well as in class was such that he gave the word hayseed a respectability in Oregon which no other state enjoys. This reminds one that at the first game of football a lady with a Madonna face was heard to say: My who starts to college soon, must not join in that desperate foolishness. son came the next year and joined the football squad, and his mother came .’HM) miles and yelled Zip Boom Bee louder than a college baud, while her son helped win in his first intercollegiate game. What that mother did in her enthusiasm has since been repeated so often by other mothers that it is history. Much work fruitful of results was carried on in the little experiment station building now used as the School of Mining Engineering. Analyses were made which had to do largely with the introduction of beet culture and the establishment of the sugar industry in Oregon The School of Pharmacy was installed, the present Mechanical Hall was built to take the place of the one which had been burned down, and to the greenhouses was added the Horticultural Building. Compulsory labor of one hour per day was required of all students in their respective courses. For extra time, students were allowed ten cents per hour. Board with room in the dormitories was announced at $3.50 per week, and the small tuition which had been charged was eliminated. Although tuition now became free, and the resources of the institution were reduced hv that much, the President and the Board of Regents were so careful with the finances during the panic that the college was enabled to decline $5,000 appropriated as a maintenance fund by John M. JiloSs, A. M.. M. I).. President 1S92-1S%

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is announced that the standard for entrance to the freshman year next fail will be raised one year. At the time of penning these lines (April 3). the entire registration for the year is 1,340 students, classified as follows: l.ono regular students, 225 short course students. and 59 students in music.—34 bring counted twice. The number of professors and instructors is about To. as against the two forty-four years ago. In his recent biennial report to the Board of Regents, President Kerr said: “In this great work of industrial education. the Oregon Agricultural College is in harmony with the spirit and policy of the best land-grant institutions of the country. Its function and scope arc clearly indicated in the provisions of the federal and state laws under which it is maintained. It is the purpose of the college to meet the needs of the people for a ‘liberal and practical education.’ and to promote the development of the varied resources and industries of the state. I wenty years ago the most enthusiastic predictions of supporters nf technical training were that the Oregon Agricultural College might reach a patronage of five hundred students within a quarter of a century. F.rc the college will have run its first quarter, two thousand students will enroll annually. This is easily computed, for much of it is inscribed in the records. But who is there that can estimate the future with its increasing thousands? What of the second quarter century? What will our commonwealth Ik when stamped with the impress of cultured workingmen and trained housewives going out yearly in great patriotic armies to develop and defend the country? Oregon is beginning to reach higher statehood: and the O. A. C. is choosing a niche in history where she will honor her worthy students and perpetuate the memory of the departed Cauthorn. Arnold. Belknap. Clark and Coote with the names of those whose lives are steadily and surely burning out on her altars. 19