University of Florida - Tower / Seminole Yearbook (Gainesville, FL)

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Gainesville and the Florida State College for Women at Tallahassscc. These, in turn, form a system of higher education clearly distinct from the province of the High School system; and in the near future the two systems will be thoroughly articulated with each other. The educational system of Florida has emerged from a state of heterogeneous, extravagant, and unsatisfactory confusion to one of homogeneous, economical and satisfactory order. Thus arose the University of Florida. It is a continuation of the former schools and looks upon their histories and their graduates as a part of itself; it is a new birth, rising phoenix-like from the ashes of the older schools, founded in the wisdom gained from j ast experience and in the light of the most advanced ideas and ideals of what a state university should be—a lusty infant which with its twin sister at Tallahassee, saw the light in the year 1905. When compared with the largest and the richest of the state universities, its student body may be small, its equipment meager, its resources slender; but the University of Florida has no ajxdogics to make for the manner of its founding, nor for the progess it has made in the five years of its life. Its foundations were laid on the solid bed-rock of honest educational ideals and its future development is merely a matter of time. It has no desire to apj ear more than it is— a comparatively small school, doing efficient and honest work in its field. Like the map of its campus, the plan of organization is laid out with a view to expansion. The University is divided into four colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences; the College of Agriculture; the College of Engineering; and the College of Law. These colleges require an equivalent of the eleventh grade of the High Schools for entrance and give full four year courses for graduation with the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Science. The university demesne is located at the western extremity of the progressive and beautiful town of Gainesville. It is reached by a broad avenue of macadamized street and cement pavement, an extension of the principal thoroughfare of the town. Its more than five hundred acres of level, fertile land stretch out in splendid extent along this road. A large part of this property is utilized by the Agricultural Experiment Station and is under cultivation. The ninety acres adjacent to the town are devoted to the Campus. The Campus itself has a wide. driveway running from its eastern to its western extremity. It is covered with pines which cluster together in stately profusion and picturesque growth. Rows of hardwood trees have been planted, and in the course of a few years will furnish abundant shade. At the western end lie the athletic fields and the tennis courts—spacious, level, and well clayed. Next conic the group of buildings which have so far been erected. Then follows an unbroken stretch of level pine land, where those who love the institution can already see the various buildings which the future years will bring to complete the magnificent scheme of development outlined by the managing board. The present buildings, five in number, form a pleasing architectural group. The Main Building, containing administrative offices, dining hall, library, chapel, 21

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and lecture rooms, is a long structure extending three hundred feet and rising three stories. Parallel with it lies the Dormitory, a twin building slightly shorter. A little to the cast and north stands Science Hall. To the south of these, near to the gardens, lies Agricultural Experiment Station Building. These four, with their tiled roofs, their red brick walls, their cement facings and battlements in the Early Tudor style, form a harmonious, dignified and appropriate group. Already they are being overgrown with ivy and are surrounded with plots of grass and connected by cement walks. Though new, the Campus is fast acquiring the appearance suitable for a seat of learning. The natural advantages are being utilized and the dignified rcjx sc of the buildings thoroughly harmonizes with their surroundings. In a few years it will present one of the most attractive scenes in a state of beautiful scenery. And, though new, it is rapidly creating for itself an intellectual atmosphere and a tradition which will make it the pride of the Commonwealth. 23