University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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THE COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS A HISTORY of the College of Liberal Arts would be . practically a history of the University. The College of Liberal Arts is the very center, the very heart, so to speak, of the University. It is the center from which most of the other colleges have sprung. It is the oldest and largest of all the Colleges on the campus. Although the University was founded February 25, 1847, it is interesting to note that the first classes were held in 1855 in Mechanic ' s Academy, which occupied the square where the Hospital now stands. The faculty numbered three at this time and the total enrollment numbered nineteen students. The first collegiate degree, that of Bachelor of Science was conferred at the close of the school year in 1858. After the close of this school year the Collegiate Department, as it was then called, was suspended until 1860 in order to conserve funds. In 1858 the Board of Trustees decided to exclude women from regular instruction in the Collegiate Department. However, the State Board of Education was not pleased with this action so it passed an act requiring the University to admit the sexes on equal terms. Old South Hall, the first building to be built for the express use of the University, was completed a year later and classes were held in it when the Collegiate Department opened again after its suspension. The Chapel, the present Home Economics building, was erected in 1866. At this time all students were requi red to attend chapel exercises daily. The College of Liberal Arts occupied Old South Hall together with the College of Medicine and the College of Engineer- ing until it burned in 1901. A year later, the Hall of Liberal Arts, the first of the new buildings to be built, was dedicated. Since that time other buildings have been completed and today the College of Libral Arts occupies many of the buildings on the campus. During the early years there were fewer than ten departments. Now, there are twenty-four. In the first thirty years of its existence, the enrollment for any Liberal Arts, where all Freshmen and Soph- omore non-professionai students have their classes. It also harbors those upper classmen who have elected L. A. as their major. Page Thirty

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ADELAIDE L. BI ' RUK Dean of Women II case her vork is not satisfactory and her teachers send reports of failure or generally poor work, she is notified and requested to come here for a conference with the hope that investigation may reveal the reason for her poor scholarship. If it is dis- covered that she is carrying too heavy a schedule, either be- cause of outside work or poor health, she is advised to petition through this office for a reduction and thus the situation is relieved. If after this, her failure seems imminent, this office writes her parents, believing that it is right to keep them informed concerning their daughter ' s progress. The girl her- self is made to realize the importance of maintaining good scholarship when her standing is revealed through a comparison made possible by the compilation of grades into a general average for groups and individuals in the Liberal Arts College, the comparison being made in this office. The Dean ' s office has charge of the assignment of rooms in Currier Hall and its Annexes for the regular school year and the Summer Session. Homes where University girls are to live are inspected for the purpose of improving them and instructing landladies concerning their duties. The Dean ' s office also has charge of Freshman lectures. Dean Adelaide Lasheck Burge was born in Iowa City. She attended the public schools, graduating from the Iowa City High School, and later she received the degree of Ph B. from the University of Iowa. She was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa, and was one of the speakers at the Commencement Exercises in 1900. She taught in the High School at Harlan, Iowa, and at Iowa City. In 1902 she was married to Dr. Albertus J. Burge who was for many years a member of the faculty in the College of Medicine. After his death in 1918 she became secretary to Mrs. Nellie S. Aurner, then Dean of Women, and after Mrs. Aurner ' s resignation in 1921 she became Dean of Women, the position that she now holds. Office of the Dean of Women, through which the University main- tains contact with its women students. Dean Surge ' s office occupies the northwestern quar- ter of the ground floor in Old Capitol. Page Twenty-nine

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I GEORGE F. KAY Dean one academic year did not exceed 1,000. By 1910, the total enrollment was 1,100. Since then the growth has been very rapid until now, with an enrollment of about 5,000 students, it ranks among the largest Colleges of Liberal Arts in the United States. It now has about 250 instructors, not includ- ing assistants, and more than 500 courses are open to under- graduates. In the last year a School of Journalism was organized within the College. Music, Graphic and Plastic Arts, and Speech, including Dramatics, are being supported as liberally as are other departments in the College. Within the last few years the University Theatre, which is under the direction of the Department of Speech, has done much to stimulate dramatic production of unusual merit. Amos N. Currier, the first Dean of the Liberal Arts College, came to Iowa from Dartmouth in 1867 as a Professor of Latin. He became Dean in 1888, and continued to hold his position until his death in 1907. He was one of the most universally loved of all the early Iowa professors. He was succeeded by Laenas Gifford Weld, who for many years had been Head of the Department of Mathematics, and who had also served as Dean of Applied Science and Dean of the Graduate College. Dean Weld resigned in 1909 to become Director of the Pullman School of Manual Arts in Chicago. Prof. William Craig Wilcox, head of the Department of History, then assumed the Deanship. After his death in 1917, Prof. George F. Kay, head of the Department of Geology and State Geologist of Iowa was appointed to the position. He is a Canadian by birth, having spent his early years on a farm in Ontario. He was educated in the public schools of that province, then attended Toronto University where he received his B. A. and M. A. degrees. Later he studied at Chicago University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and accepted a position as professor of Geology at the University of Kansas. He was called to Iowa in 1907, and after ten years of service was made Dean of the Liberal Arts College. The College of Liberal Arts presents opportunity for work along the many lines of science, literature, art or history. Professional colleges now require credit in this college as pre-requisite. Dean Kay ' s office as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. In addi- tion to this position, Dean Kay is head of the committee on ad- mission and classifi- cation Page Thirty-one