Denison University - Adytum Yearbook (Granville, OH)

Page 13 text:

iDeRbORs 5 atio of pro vdss AUGUSTINE S. CARMAN IF Denison ' s progress for the coming decade or quarter century were to be reckoned at the rate for its first generation it would seem to us a snail ' s pace. If the ratio of progress for the past decade be taken as the index of future the record will be something to be proud of. But if, as has been the case hitherto, the ratio of progress itself be in the future an accelerating one, the Uemson of coming generations will be a magnificent thing. Denison is seventy-eight years old, and there has been no year or period of its whole career when worthy deeds have not been accomplished and noble men helped to a fitness for life. But there are notable respects in which the past decade has seen more of progress almost than the two entire generations of its previous history. 1 his progress is not as striking in every direction, and it requires special research into the records to show how great the advance movement has been, but it is marked in the direction of numbers, of strengthened curriculum, of material resources and of mcreasmg radius of influence. I. Denison s Progress in Numbers. To realize what progress has actually been made in numbers, one must consider the college proper. The catalogue of a few years ago made a brave showing in names until one sat down to analyze it and found how large a proportion of the names represented prepar- atory work or work unconnected with the college curriculum It is a startling thing to find that there were never one hundred men altogether in the college classes of Denison until about 1802. This was of course, before Shepardson College became an integral part of the University but the graduates of Shepardson from its first college classes in 1890 to 1893 were but three,one, one and two for the four classes By 1898 there were 180 enrolled in the college classes. But m 1908 there were 393. This increase in college numbers in fifteen years from one hundred to nearly four hundred is a remark- able one. 1 hese numbers include with the regular classes the elec- tive or special students who have at the time of issuing the catalogues no regular classification. If for the sake of accurate comparison of distinctively collegiate work we take only the numbers in regular classes from Freshmen to Seniors, including a few residem graduate page seven

Page 12 text:

J orewor6 THE Annual of 1909. We offer it for your pleasure, your profit and your criticism. We wish to take this opportunity of expressing our appreciation of the kindly interest and aid of Dr. Hunt and many other friends in the preparation and publication of this book. It has been our aim to touch all the phases of College life. We send it out without apology and with the hope that friends and Alumni will find many things of interest and that the students as they glance through these pages may be enabled to live over again the experiences of the past. The Editor.

Page 14 text:

students, we find that the increase from 1898 to 1909 is from 129 to 301. It will be noted that the catalogue of 1909 shows a slight decrease in the total enrollment of the university, i. e., from 584 in 1908 to 552 in 1909. This was expected from the fact that three things conspired to cut down the gross attendance, viz.: The con- tinued financial depression throughout the country which made it difficult for students to secure remunerative work last summer and for parents to send students to college; the necessary increase of college fees by nearly 60 per cent beginning with this year; and in addition to all this the lengthening of the Academy course to four years, thus afl ording no gain in time over the Fligh School course which could be taken at home, and indeed the refusal of girls for the first year of High School work by the beginning of the Shepard- son Preparatory work with the second year ' s studies. All of these conspiring events cut down the total attendance slightly, but it is noticeable that this is only in the Preparatory, Music and Art Depart- ments. In the College itself the increase in attendance in regular college classes as compared with 1908 has increased from 280 to 301. Another direction in which the numerical progress is shown is in the relative stability of the student attendance in the college as compared with former times even a decade distant. A noticeable and unfortunate feature of former days was that relatively few who came to Denison completed the college course. The number of non-graduates in any institution is large, but in Denison it was abnormal, as may be seen from the fact that while the total college attendance ten or fifteen years ago was as much smaller as has been shown, yet the number of new students each year was large. The fact that much has been accomplished toward ensuring a perman- ency of attendance is seen by noting the size of the graduating classes, and by the astonishing fact that, counting the Class of 1909, the number of living graduates since 1900 (385) exceeds those of the entire preceding history of the college which began in 1831; and that of the entire body of 901 alumni more than one-half have been graduated since 1896. 2. The Strengthened Curriculum. In 1898 there were but nine full professorships. In 1908-9 there were fourteen, besides other additions to the faculty. Courses have been greatly strengthened both in requirements for matricula- tion and graduation, in the provision of more adequate teaching force and in the general heightening of standards all along the line. Entire new chairs of History and Economics and of Engineering have been established, while other departments have been separated with each a professor at its head, as the German from the Romance page eight