Syracuse University - Onondagan Yearbook (Syracuse, NY)

Page 24 text:

progress to material, development. It would not be difficult to point to note- worthy progress in internal development. The pace of colleges has been fast during the last quarter of a century. It would almost startle any reader famil- iar with such matters to make a comparison of present conditions in any Amer- ican college with those of three decades ago. Entrance requirements have been greatly advanced as the High schools have become more proficient and capable of meeting them. Courses in every department of learning have been multi- plied in number, varied in character and bettered in quality, graduate work has immensely increased, the range of individual teaching has necessarily been re- stricted and narrowed, and in consequence the teaching force has been enlarged; endowments have mounted into millions. Syracuse university has kept pace fairly well with these changes and steps of progress. A study of the catalogues COLLE GE OF MEDICINE alone would reveal this, but it is most fully realized by one who has been in con- tinuous service during the evolutionary period. Fortunately for Syracuse, Chancellor Day not only entered on his work with words of sincere praise for his predecessors, but also with a quick apprehension of the needs of the institution, an earnest sympathy with the inspirations of the various departments, a determined purpose to supply every facility to put the university afront with the best, a fertility of resources, and a faith and opti- mism that wrought miracles. Dr. Day found three colleges in operation, Liberal Arts, Fine Arts, and Medi- cine, lie has added three, Law, Applied Science and Teachers, and all six have been equally the object of his anxious solicitude. All have been pushed forward to a condition of the utmost efficiency. All are open to men and women on equal terms. He has made Syracuse university the talk and wonder of the nation. 1 6

Page 23 text:

wisely guided the young college but the time for material development had not yet come. The Rev. E. C. Curtis did heroic service in a financial way in those days, as Dr. Phelps is doing in these days. The era of building began under Chancellor Sims (1881-93). The Holden observatory was completed in 1887, the Library building in 1889, the John Grouse college, the same year, and the gymnasium in 1892. Growing pains had possessed the institution which had, however, the utmost difficulty in satisfying an appetite which increased as it was fed. The beginning of the Sims administration was a time of doubt and fear. The trustees and faculty had become conscious as never before of the insatiate demands of a growing university, while the times were not propitious for securing the generous financial aid so imperatively called for. It certainly seemed at one time as if the very necessities for continuing existence would fail. The indomi- FINE ARTS COLLEGE table perseverance of Chancellor Sims, his tireless industry, his undying faith in the college and its future saved the plant, and an upward progress was slowly begun. Four buildings, one of them the John Crouse college, among the very finest in America, stand as a monument to immortalize this noble man. The era of hitherto unexperienced prosperity came with the administration of Chancellor Day (1894), although at its inauguration the country was suffering serious financial depression. A large portion of the funds of the university was invested in western securities which were just then unproductive. Mortgages were foreclosed and the university found itself in the possession of much undesired property. But by careful management losses were arrested and the endowment recovered. The upward progress was not only not hindered but accelerated. It has often been said of late that the university during the last fifteen years has been in the material stage of progress. That is true, unless it be meant to limit the 15

Page 25 text:

And his administration has many fruitful years yet to run if Providence wills. There is a great work yet to be done here, but the Chancellor and his faculties know what it is and how to do it, and, with aid of a sympathetic board of trustees and generous benefactors, it will be gradually yet rapidly accomplished. The endowment at the present time amounts to $2,086,351.80, the annual income from tuition (1906-7) is $179,616.48 and from all sources $662,074.50. The expenditures (1906-7) for salaries alone amount to considerably more than $200,000. The net resources of the university are $4,163,467.09. These figures are given to furnish the reader with a more definite idea of the financial status and transactions of the institution. In 1894, the year in which Chancellor Day began his administration, the income from tuition was but $19,968.95 and the entire income amounted to COLLEGE OF LAW $165,395.55, while the property complete totaled $1,780,825.54. Compare these figures with those given above and the reader will see at a glance the marvelous advance of the last thirteen years. The number of resident students in 1894 was 652, in 1906-7, 3,005. The greatest financial uplift in its history was the royal gift of $400,000 by John D. Archbold, president of the board of trustees, which, with the money raised to meet the wise condition, paid the debt and added to the endowment. The same gentleman has furnished the means for many of the recent develop- ments. Those who have made the smaller gifts have done it out of smaller means and deserve credit with donors of larger benefactions. The latter have made notable gifts. A few of these donors are: Bishop Peck, Eliphalet and Philo Rem- ington, Erastus F. Holden, John Lyman, James J. Belden, John and Edgar Grouse, Lyman C. Smith, Andrew Carnegie, Samuel W. Bowne, Francis H. Root and Mrs. Russell Sage.