University of Arizona - Desert Yearbook (Tucson, AZ)

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UNIVERSITY HALL

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How We Grow The University of Arizona has been marked from its first organization by a gradual and steady development. This growth has not only been a material one in the formation of a campus with fine buildings and grounds, with the accompanying increase in the faculty and a greater enrollment, but also an advancement in educational standards, and as a result of these the acquisition of that necessary though intangible element, the confidence of the people of the State. From Commencement in 1895 to Commencement in 1916 the distance is long in years; but longer in the advancement made. When in 1891 the old Main Building was opened first for classes, thirty-one students came to be instructed by eight members of the Faculty. Old Main was the only building to break the sweep of the greasewood-covered desert, for Tucson was but a handful of adobe houses on the Santa Cruz. The life of the whole institution centered in this building. In it were the administration offices, recitation rooms, laboratories of the various departments, the library, the Experiment Station, and the Territorial Museum. The basement was even used as a dormitory for the men students. Most of the students lived in town, however, and came out to the University in an old street car drawn by two mules, a well-known feature of pioneer days. Four years later—the first Commencement—there were the beginnings of our present Campus, for West Cottage and East Cottage—professors’ homes and the President's cottage—had been built. Lawns were started in the front of the buildings; but there were no large trees to break the barren sweep of desert that stretched away on all sides. Out of the forty-seven students, three were graduated, receiving diplomas tied not with red and blue, but with sage, green, and silver, the college colors at that time. By 1904 the Campus was the same as today with the exception of the buildings of Science, Agriculture, and Arizona Hall. North Hall was completed in 1897; South Hall in 1901; the Dining Hall, 1902, the dining hall, previous to this being in North Hall; Herring Hall, 1904; the Library, 1904. The Science Building was finished in 1909; Arizona Hall in 1913; while the Agricultural Building was completed in 1915. The town of Tucson had grown up to aiid around the University, so that' when the Commencement of 1916 was held many people gathered on the lawn near the vine-covered Old Main Building to watch the impressive procession of black-gowned professors, the Alumni who had returned to their Alma Mater, and this year’s graduates march up the tree-lined walks. The Student Body has always been an active force. Even when few in numbers they issued a college paper, the “Sage, Green, and Silver,” which snapped with life and interest. As for athletics, in 1902 the first football team was organized which was successful in several games. There were four women’s teams of basketball. Tennis was played, the Courts being where they now arc.

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Assemblies were held at which the students read papers on literary and scientific subjects. The first intercollegiate debate was held in 1906 with the University ot Southern California. But while the life on the Campus was very busy, it did not reach beyond, as it does today. It was not intercollegiate as now. The students today can indeed be proud of this year’s debates with the University of Southern California and with the University of Texas; of the football battles with Pomona, Whittier, and the New Mexico Aggies;and the Southwestern Track Meet; and, what will always remain as a record of student activity, the big “A” on Sentinel Peak. With this growth and exceeding it has come that in collegiate standing. Because of the funds which have been available to the University as a State institution, the growth of collegiate standing has been possible far in excess of what might be expected of an institution in a pioneer region- When this Uni-veisity was first organized, the instruction was mainly in the field of agriculture. Later, opportunities were offerred for the study of mining. Now the work has so broadened that there are the three distinct colleges of Agriculture, Mining, and Liberal Arts. In the beginning years a Preparatory Department was found to be necessary because of the lack of high schools in the Territory. In 1914 this department was abolished, so that today the registration includes only college students. The requirements for receiving a degree have been so raised that our graduates are prepared to compete with those of the leading institutions of the country. For among our Alumni are those holding such positions as Director of the Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, professorships in mining schools, responsible commercial positions in mining; and the Liberal Arts College is represented by the two Rhodes Scholars of distinction, Alumni in the American Consular Service, and a number holding instructorships. While material growth, increase in Faculty and students, advanced educational standards, are essential to the development of a University, there is yet another element—the confidence of the people. Without this the others are impossible. The people of the State, many of them graduates of Eastern colleges, have heretofore felt that their sons and daughters should go back to those colleges. But more and more this idea is vanishing and a feeling of confidence and trust in the worth of this University is constantly growing. In the words of President von KleinSmid, “This increasing trust is one of the most encouraging signs for the University’s future growth. ”