University of Illinois - Illio Yearbook (Urbana Champaign, IL)

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TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS intelligently and truly. Not politics, not the church nor the family have been allowed to exert the slightest influence in the choice of men for the faculty, fitness alone has been the test. They have had to prove themselves before being invited. Professor Charles K. Babcock, who came this year as Dean of the combined college of Liberal Arts and Science, was formerly Specialist in Higher Education, Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C. Dr. William Trelease, Professor of Botany and head of the department of Botany who fills the place made vacant by the retire- ment from active service of Dr. T. J. Burrill, formerly was director of the Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis; Dr. Frank L. Stevens, Professor of Plant Pathology came from the University of Porto Rico where he had served as Dean of the College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts; Loring Harvey Provine, Professor of Arch- itectural Engineering and Acting head of the Department of Architecture, formerly was Superintendent of Construction, Storm and Webster Engineering Company; and Dr. Charles H. Kohnson, Professor of Secondary Education, formerly was Dean of the School of Education in the University of Kansas. This by no means exhausts the list of prominent educators who have come to the LTniversity recently, nor is it given for that purpose. It indicates merely the trend in the selection of men for the faculty that characterizes the policy of the University. Men of wide experience, of thorough training and established reputations, are chosen for the important positions. As is but natural, exact and enthusiastic teaching has resulted. The rumor of it has gone abroad and students come not only from all the states of the union but from Europe and the Orient. Through the School of Education under the directorship of Dr. William Bagley, and through the efforts of the High School Visitor, Professor Horace Hollister, the secondary education of the state is finding the University of a powerful force in its advancement. By sending teachers into the state and into other states who are trained to express themselves in their profession, the University finds one of the surest tests of its efficiency. The University has recognized the important work of the Independent Colleges Ceramics Laboratory 17

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TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS of a prophet by reason of alertness and experience, was astonished at the number that thronged to the lectures and machinery demonstrations. Not only does the practical man come into the University for the expert, as in the case of Dean Goss and Dr. Hopkins, the University also goes out into the work of affairs for the practical man. The director of the Shop Laboratories, B. W. Benedict, is himself an engineer of many years experience in railroad affairs. He has introduced shop methods of efficiency, those methods that make life hard for the laggard and the day dreamer at toil. Naturally this must develop men who will not find the transition from the University workshop to the Big Company shops very difficult. It is certainly a sane move since in the beginning power of brain followed upon power of hand, and in the development of the individual it repeated the story of the race-development. A mere list of men notable in the life of the University, shows what a vigorous and free atmosphere will bring forth. It is the opportunity of a developing Uni- versity that has brought forth and kept men like Talbot, Ricker and Baker; also Greene, Daniels, Rolfe, Barton, Moss, Townsend, Carmen, Parr, Grindley and other wheel horses of the nineties together with a host of younger men who have been encouraged to live themselves out to the limit of their capacity. So much then for the nature of the progress of the last ten years. If space were unlimited it might be traced through many more departments and all would exhibit the same trend. The aim has been at a full and real development. An apple grower does not expect to raise prize apples on last spring's saplings but an educator who has not a masterful comprehension of conditions may try to raise the fruits of wisdom from brains in the saphead stage. Therefore, it is upon a basis that meets conditions as honestly as the really successful business man meets them, that a phenomenal result has come. And the University has gained greatly in prestige, just as any institution dealing in any com- modity from brains to biscuits, will that takes account of real needs and supplies them. The many professorships, some newly established in the last two years, and the men who have been called to fill them, reveal the firm purpose to serve 'I'm iu Armors in Cm rsi ob Constri non

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TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS of the state and with them most cordial relations have been established. Unity of action is secured with academies, high schools, Normal schools, and in fact with all the educational forces of the state. It is unfortunate not to be able to tell in detail how the courses in Business Administration comprise eight well defined courses, General Business, Commerce, Consular Service, Banking, Insurance, Accountancy, Railway Administration, and Journalism. It is almost a sin not to tell of the recent work of such men as Dr. William Noyes who has been head of the Chemistry Department since 1907, or the work of our historians; or of Dr. Stephen A. Forbes, the Entomologist, but it would be a shame indeed to crowd up the jokes that are waiting for space in this book. So the professors and the departments will have to remember that this is a student publication and crowd up accordingly. The table appended gives the mere statistics of growth and they are large enough to be interesting reading. A word of the Graduate School. Quoting Vice-President David Kinley, to whose energy and devotion so much of the progress of the last ten years is due, as to its purpose in contrast with the undergraduate work: The undergraduate department retails knowledge already established, while the graduate school aims to discover new knowledge. As the unfolding of truth means the unfolding of mankind, it certainly seems a narrow minded and self-limiting policy that would hamper or curtail scientific research. In the development of the University this massive machine for the intellectual and spiritual uplift of mankind, President James has followed the policy of taking the people completely into his confidence. He has not worked in the shade and then flashed out his result to astonish them. He has told his aim, revealed his plan, and then asked for help. He certainly received, it when he put through the one- mill tax by which the finances of the institution were placed upon a firm basis. At the time when the Medical College was attacked he spent little time in defense of the College. He admitted the faults and pointed out new ones not neglecting to mention, however, remedies that might be applied in case the people of the state The School of Commerce Building 18