University of Florida - Tower / Seminole Yearbook (Gainesville, FL)

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gfflgJW ■ 'I' THE GROWTH OF THE UNIVERSITY LTHO ihe University of Florida is generally known as a very young institution and is called “The Baby University of the South , it is by no means the thing of a single day. As long ago as 1824. when Florida had ! ccn a territory only a few years, there was talk, but merely talk, of the foundation of a University. When Florida became one of the United Stales the Federal Government made a grant of about one hundred thousand acres of land, the proceeds of which were to go to the establishment of two seminaries, one cast and one west of the Suwannee river. Hence the East Florida Seminary was founded at Ocala in 1852. and the West Florida Seminary at Tallahassee in 1856. Immediately after the Civil War the East Florida Seminary was moved to Gainesville. In 1870, the l-egislaturc passed “An Act to establish the Florida Agricultural College”. This act, however, did not exactly comply with the uI«and Grant College” Act of Congress, so the legislature passed a supplementary act at the next session, and the State received ninety thousand acres of land from the Government. Three sites were chosen at different times for the new Agricultural College; finally Like City was chosen in 1883, just eleven years after the land was granted. In the fall of 1881 work began. This same year the Agricultural Experiment Station was established as one of the departments of the college. In 1903 the name of the school was changed to “University of Florida”. By 1905 higher education in Florida was in a sadly addled condition. There were six state-supported institutions, the University of Florida, the East Florida Seminary. the West Florida Seminary, the Normal School at DcFuniak Springs, the South Florida College at Bartow, and the Agricultural Ins-tilutc in Osceola County. Standards were low, curriculums mixed up, the work was generally unsatisfactory, and expense was inordinately large. So the Legislature passed the Buckman Act, which merged these six institutions into two, under the unlovely names of “Florida Female College” and “University of the State of Florida”. These names were later changed to “Florida State College for Women -and “University of Florida”. The new University was located in Gainesville. A great many of our present professors have been with us since the first. Doctor Farr, Dean Benton. Doctor Crow, Dean Anderson and Colonel Walker were among the early faculty. These five men have watched the University of Florida grow from the very beginning; they have nurtured it and cared for it like their own flesh and blood, and given the best years of their lives for its sake. To them the highest honor is due. The first four years of Florida's existence as a University were under the administration of Dr. Andrew Slcdd. In 1909, at the same time that the name of the institution was finally changed to “University of Florida”. Dr. Albert A. Murphrcc assumed the president's chair. The University was subdivided into colleges, and the Law College was added. In this year Science Hall and the Agricultural Experiment Station were erected. Since 1909 the development of Florida has been ohenomenal. The Engineering Building went up in 1911, und the Agricultural College Building, the Commons Building, Language Hall, and Peabody Hall followed the next year. The Gymnasium came in 1918; the first unit of the Administration Building is now being completed; and a campaign was carried on thruout the state this spring for a 3250,000 Student Activities Building. Florida is not thru growing. She has just begun. The campus is laid out to allow great future expansion. The student body has almost doubled in the last two years. At present Florida ranks with the best in every way. Within a few years it is widely believed she will have no equals. I Pit ■i rf yatWii Urn. PACE 21

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; CLASSES SENIOR Wade Mahannah.............................. President C. V. Byrd..............................Vice President R. A. Carlton......................Secretary-Treasurer G. B. STANLY Honor Representative JUNIOR Henson Markiiam............................ President James Boyd..............................Vice President Much Roberts.......................Secrelary-Treasurer J R. WELLS.......................Honor Representative SOPHOMORE Marvin Mounts................................President John A. Murphree........................Vice President C. E. Morris ......................Secretary-Treasurer M. H. Wyatt...... ...............Honor Representative FRESHMAN Edgar Jones..................................President Clifford Butch..........................Vice President Owen Pittman.......................Secretary-Treasurer KENNETH Jones....................Honor Representative -■'I ( PACE 26