University of Kansas - Jayhawker Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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ENROLLMENT IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS. The increase in the number of students from year to year has been slow and steady. At the end of the first ten years (in 1876-77) the total enrollment was 359; at the end of the second decade (1886-87), 4 8 9J at the end of the third decade (1896-97), 1004; during the present academic year (1903-04), 1,325. No attempt has been made at any time to increase the attendance by lowering the standard of admission; on the other hand, the entrance requirements have been continually advanced and impartially enforced. GRADUATES OF THE UNIVERSITY. The course of study leading to the degree of A.B. originally occupied seven years, including three years of preparatory work, so that the first class to grad- uate from the University of Kansas was the class of 1873, which consisted of four members. The number of graduates of an institution furnishes a better basis for esti- mating its efficiency than the aggregate number of students without reference to the length of time covered by their enrollment. The University of Kansas has enrolled a total of 16,000 students; of this number 2,500 have completed their courses of study and received the degrees appropriate thereto. During the past six years the number of graduates has averaged more than 200 annually. ADDITIONAL BUILDINGS. The most distinguished service rendered by General Fraser was the suc- cessful execution of his own plan for the erection of the main building of the University, now denominated Fraser Hall. On the 3d of February, 1870, the citizens of Lawrence, by almost a unanimous vote, authorized bonds to the amount of $100,000 for the purpose of erecting this building. The Legislature of 1872 added $50,000 to the amount realized from the Lawrence bonds, and on Decembei 2 of the same year the north wing of the building was first occupied by university classes. Eleven years went by before another Jbuilding was erected. In 1883 the Leg- 10

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THE FIRST FACULTY. On the i gth of July, 1866, the Regents elected the first Faculty. It is a significant fact that during the early years of the University ecclesiastical politics had much to do with the appointment of members of the Board of Instruction. Three professors were elected: Elial J. Rice, to the Chair of Belles -Lettres and Mental and Moral Science, as the representative of the Methodist Church ; David H. Robinson, to the Chair of Ancient Languages, as the representative of the Baptist Church; and Francis H. Snow, to the Chair of Mathematics and Natural Science, as the representative of the Congregational Church. The first Faculty was largely untrammeled by ancient tradition in deter- mining the course of study and the methods of administration of student affairs. Co-education and instruction in the modern sciences as an essential part of the regular curriculum were features unknown to other institutions of the same class at the time of our beginning. When Chancellor Oliver resigned in the fall of 1867 the regents combined the offices of Chancellor and President of the Faculty. r STUDENTS OF THE FIRST YEAR. At the opening of the University, September 12, 1866, forty students pre- sented themselves for admission. In the first annual catalogue an apology was made for the elementary character of the students in attendance, and the hope was expressed that the preparatory department might be abolished at the end of the second year. As a matter of fact twenty-five years elapsed before this event took place. The forty students enrolled during the first day of the first year were in- creased to fifty-five for the year. The unsettled condition of society necessitated the withdrawal of more than one -half of this number before the end of the year in order to assist their parents in agricultural and domestic duties. In fact, the iunior members of the Faculty became alarmed lest the entire enrollment should disappear before the final examinations, and made a house-to-house visitation, beseeching the parents of their pupils to assist them in avoiding the disgrace of a premature closing of the academic year.

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islature added 84,000 to S8,ooo which had accumulated from the interest on the University endowment, and allowed the Regents to erect a chemical building, the Department of Chemistry at that time occupying a portion of Fraser Hall and greatly endangering from fire the safety of that structure. In 1886, the natural history collections having increased to such an extent as to encroach upon the space in Fraser Hall, already needed for instruction, the Snow Hall of Xi tural History was erected by in appropriation of 850,000, although the appropriation bill passed the Committee of the Whole by a majority of only one vote, and there was considerable opposition to the bill upon the {ground that 850,000 was too large a sum to be expended for a bug house. During the same year, by an appropriation of Si 6,000, a building for the power and heating plant was erected, Fraser Hall having on several occasions narrowly escaped destruction by fire from spontaneous combustion of the coal stored in the basement. In 1893-04 the Spooner Library and the Chancellor ' s residence were erected at a cost of $75,000 and 812,000, respectively, these two buildings and the land upon which they were erected having been bequeathed to the University of Kansas by William B. Spooner, of Boston, an uncle of Chancellor F. H. Snow. The eighth building was the Physics Building, or Blake Hall, erected in 1895 by an appropriation of $60,000. This is the only building upon the campus which was not constructed under the direction of the Regents of the University, it having been constructed by the State Board of Public Works. The ninth building was the Fowler Shops, erected in 1899 for the depart- ments of electrical and civil engineering. This building was the gift of Mr. Geo. H. Fowler, and was the direct outcome of the friendship of that gentleman for Professor Lucien I. Blake. The tenth building was the new Chemistry Building, erected in 1900 by an appropriation of $55,000 for the Department of Chemistry and the School of ii