Iowa State University - Bomb Yearbook (Ames, IA)

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durability of construction. All College buildings erected hereafter will be of a like substantial character. The campus of the future will, it is safe to say, be adorned with structures which in design and construction will honor the College and the State and the splendid purposes to which they will be devoted. The present era will be noted for the establishment of this policy. The College income has not kept pace with the College growth. The institution is however to be congratulated that it has over- come, in the period we are contemplating, a most serious obstacle to the increase of its support fund. The College is at once a National and a State institution. The national law requires the State to furnish the necessary buildings. Somewhat naturally, perhaps, the State came to consider this as the extent of its obligation. Through all the early years of the College the Legislature gave buildings, and buildings only. Not until 1900 was this limitation upon state aid overcome. Without this change in policy the College of today would have been impossible. Already the state aid equals that received from national sources, and before the present year expires will probably largely exceed it. This second adoption of the Col- lege by the State is one of the most striking facts connected with the history-making years which lie so close to the college life of the Class of 1905. The to-day of College history is freighted with high hopes for the future. There is not a department in the institution in which the outlook is not full of promise. The students are many and, in general, they are actuated with the spirit that goes with hard and successful endeavor. The work is difficult but the results most gratifying. The College is ever coming nearer to the fulfill- ment of its mission. As the years pass it multiplies and strengthens the cords which unite it to the industrial life of the state. In its agricultural and engineering experimentation it renders direct aid to these industries. In its class rooms, laboratories and shops it is training men and women who are to be potent factors in the indus- trial progress of the future, conservators of a high ideal of citizen- ship, builders of homes, and leaders in the social and moral life of their respective communities. It is not I believe an unwarranted optimism which paints for the Iowa State College a future in which its sons and daughters may have deep rejoicing. Its work is centered around an enduring — 12 —

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A REVIEW AND AN OUTLOOK. By DEAN STANTON. The Bomb of ' 05 is fitted into the life of the College in one of the most encouraging periods of its history. Turn which way we will we find evidence of progress so marked as make even cold fig- ures inspirational. The total college enrollment in 1897, including short course students, was 542. It now approximates 1400 in the long courses and exceeds 1900 in all. During this same time the instructing force has increased from 54 to 95. This remarkable growth means that the College is no longer one of the smaller but one of the lar- ger institutions of learning. It means for it, added opportunity, a wider field of usefulness, more lives touched by its influence, more workers fitted for their tasks, more true hearts loving the institution and its traditions, and a larger constituency devoted to advancing its interests. For the future it means a larger, better and stronger College. The growth of the institution in these later years is strikingly exemplified in our department buildings. The unstinted and self- sacrificing efforts of more than thirty years secured for the College a building equipment of less than half a million dollars in value. The first six years of the present century will add three-fourths of a million to this building inventory. We can rejoice too that we have outgrown the low standard of cheap and temporary structures. Thanks to the indefatigable labors of that prince of leaders, Dr. Beardshear, and the wise generosity of the State, our later buildings are of a most substantial character. Ex- pert judges unanimously testify that the Engineering Hall is the finest building for its purpose to be found in this country. The new home of the Department of Farm Mechanics is fire-proof, com- modious and unequaled in its line, while the new Green-Houses and Judging Pavilion are models of convenience and utility. The Central Building, when completed, will probably rank among Iowa buildings second only to the State Capitol in architectural design and — )1 —

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and inspiring educatio nal ideal; it is enrolling under its banners an ever increasing army of the best of the young manhood and wo- manhood of the State; it is enlarging its faculty and equipment, multiplying its buildings and making material addition to its sup- port fund. It has a loyal alumni, a host of enthusiastic friends, and possesses in no small degree the confidence of the State. The times are auspicious, the tide is with us. Loyalty, honesty and unselfish devotion, and the proud ship that flaunts the cardinal and gold shall fear no sunken mines or treacherous torpedoes, but shall bear down all opposition and in the years that mark the close of the school life of ' 05 gain greater victories and make more sub- stantial progress than ever before in its history. — 13 —