University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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THE XEW LIBRARY The new Library, nearing completion, will accommodate seven hundred thousand volumes, with the possibility of additions to the stacks that will nearly double that number. The reading room is 170 feet long and 50 feet wide. The undergraduate study room is 60 feet square. The whole building is approxi- mately 175 feet square and 80 feet high. By utilizing the old book stacks, the University now has a library worth not less than $650,000. The building is of reinforced concrete, faced with Bedford limestone for the foundation and tapestry brick for the walls above, trimmed with terra cotta. Though utilitarian in design, the building is altogether stately in its lines and impressively large. The facade between the two tiers of windows is adorned with ten medallions designed by Ricci. They represent Religion and Philosophy, Law. Earth, Science, Medicine, Mathematics and Engineering, Fine Arts, Poetry and Music, Drama, and History. Seminary and conference rooms and study alcoves are among the numerous features which, for completeness of detail and convenience of arrangement, place the Michigan Library in the front ranks of the university libraries of the country. HILL AUDITORIUM Hill Auditorium, known as one of the very finest music halls in the world, was made possible through the generous bequest of the late Hon. Arthur Hill, of Saginaw, an alumnus of the Univer- sity and for many years a member of the Board of Regents. It has a seat- ing capacity of more than five thou- sand, and is used for all the important public university occasions, such as the Choral Union and May Festival concerts. Convocation, pageants, mass meetings, lectures, and the like. In it is housed the famous Stearns col- lection of musical instruments, which has recently been catalogued by Prof. Albert A. Stanley, Director of the School of Music, and now comprises one of the most important musical assets of the University. The Frieze Memorial Organ, originally constructed for the Columbian Exposition, has also been permanently installed in this building. STUDENT ACTIVITIES Associations outside the classrooms afford the students of Michigan no small part of their educational training. With a great cosmopolitan student body and opportunity for intimate social contact among its members, Michigan under- graduate life very satisfactorily reproduces the conditions prevailing in the world of affairs. To exchange opinion with foreigners, as well as with men and women

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stands. The present football stands seat 22,656 persons, while the baseball stand will accommodate 1,632. The new section of the stadium will seat 13,200. When completed, the stadium will provide for 52,000 spectators. A well-appointed athletic club house, containing lockers, baths, and rubbing and lounging rooms, is situated near the entrance to the field. A compulsory annual fee admits students to all athletic events and entitles them to the privilege of using the facilities of the field for recreational purposes. PALMER FIELD Palmer Field is the women ' s athletic grounds. It embraces tennis courts, hockey and baseball fields, a basketball court, an expensive green for general recreational purposes, and a club house. Encircled as it is by hills, this field affords a delightful amphitheater for open-air celebrations. May-day and other pageants are presented in this picturesque spot. THE NEW BUILDINGS The most significant recent addition to the campus buildings is the new Michigan Union, now Hearing completion. The million dollars required for its construction and maintenance has been subscribed by undergraduates and alumni. It represents a splendid dream realized, the fulfillment of a democratic ideal a great club house where students, alumni, and faculty may meet on a common footing. As an organization the Union has direction of student activities generally, and provides the best in social opportunities for the student community. The building itself, while antici- pating every need of a great student body, is in no sense extravagant. The democracy it is designed to serve has found expression in the architecture. In this respect, as also in size and completeness, it is unique among college buildings. Though constructed on collegiate Gothic lines, there is about it nothing of the smug finality of such architecture. Xo mere orna- mentation here. The building belongs to everybody. It is rugged in its strength and useful altogether. It is a home, with home hospitality radiating from it. Fortunately the Union was readily made available for barracks and mess purposes when the Students ' Army Training Corps and the Xaval Unit were established at Michigan at the opening of college last Fall. It seems most appropriate that the building should have been dedicated to war needs that everything else should have given way to the training of men for service at the front. With the disbanding of the student army, however, the Union immediately returned to its normal activities, and the building is being rapidly prepared to meet peace-time requirements. When college begins next Fall, it is confidently expected that the club house will be completed in all its details and ready to welcome the returning students.

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from different parts of the United States, to share their pleasures and responsi- bilities, to work with them in laboratory, to compete with them in the classroom or on the athletic field or on the debating platform this is the experience that stamps out the narrow provincialism of the average student and makes him tolerant and broad-minded. And it is for the purpose of fostering student initiative that every encouragement is given to student activities of a constructive character. Besides the social experience contributed by the Union, many other inter- ests are stimulated by special organizations under student management. Honor and departmental societies, literary and foreign language associations, dramatic, musical, debating, and social clubs, and other similar groups present to the 1 WATERMAN AND BARDOVR GYMNASIUMS student ample opportunity for the development of his special aptitudes. And permeating all these activities is a wholesome spirit of democracy, which awards recognition on the basis of merit and bestows privilege upon none. LIVING CONDITIONS With the exception of members of fraternities and sororities, and the women in the dormitories, students at Michigan live in the private homes of the city. A wide choice is therefore open to students in selecting a rooming house, so that they may fit their expenses to their allowances. The women room in houses that are supervised by the University, a circumstance which insures good living con- ditions. It is estimated that the average student can live on five or six hundred dollars a year without serious difficulty. Many students are wholly or partially self-supporting. Probably forty per cent of the students earn all or part of their expenses. They are assisted by student employment bureaus, conducted by the University Y. M. C. A. and the Michigan Union. From four to five thousand jobs are available annually to needy students through these agencies. I