University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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'EIQG Lh7iuer5ity of fllinnegota. Q f'lIE remarkable progress 5 gtjfj- of' the University of 5 Minnesota has attract- r 1 1 throughout the entire coun- try. It is well within bounds to assert that no other insti- tution comparable in char- ! acter with this has advanced i so rapidly and yet so sym- 5 metrically within the past 9 three or l'our years. The University of Minnesota occupies an exceptionally advantageous position. lt is sharing in the growth and i prosperity of a great section ol' the country that prizes its educational development as highly as its material. The University lies between Minneapoliii and St. Paul, in such a manner as to be convenient ol' access l'rom both citiesg and its roots are taking deep hold in the varied life of these two brilliant and noble comnumities. Within a few years there will be a million people living within a radius ol' fifteen or twenty miles l'rom the University grounds. It is the good fortune of the University that it commands the respect, awakens the pride, and is safe in the support of the population that is concen- ed the attention of educ- ational men and ol' the press I i H. H. Sibley, Liu. D., Pnes. Board of Regents. trating in its vicinity. its scientific and literary opportunities are now thoroughly appreciatedg and the stream ol' Minnesota youth that 11112-l 110011 tlowing to eastern colleges is steadily shrinking in volume. No other state university in the country is so well situated for the development of professional schools. The University medical college has absorbed three previously existing medical schools, and has already attained a high prestige. Medical education is scarcely possible except in large cities where hospitals and dispensaries give frequent opportunity f'or practical illustration. Minneapolis is destined to become the great western center of medical education. lt is highly advantageous in the study of the law, moreover, that the1'e should be contact with the practical life ol' the profession, and the opportunity that Minneapolis and St. Paul afford f'or law students to combine olllce experience with courses of University lectures, is plainly very superior. The existence, in the immediate vicinity, of many thriving industries also bears a direct relation to the success of the technical work of the l.Iniversity's college of mechanic arts. There is no reason why this department should not in the early f'uture become one of the leading polytechnic schools of America. Not far from the University campus is the fine f'arm of the Agricultural depart- ment, where the University maintains a successful farm school and an advanced agricultural college course, and where the United States government supports an agricultural experiment station. The mineral resources of the Northwest are so vast and so various that there is need f'or a thorough school of mining engineering and metallurgyg and the University ol' Minnesota has determined to build up such a department. lVithin a remarkably brief' time the number of students at the University has grown to a thousand l'rom half that number, and within the next five years the attendance, in all departments, bids l'air to reach t.wo thousand. The liberality of the State and of the Iion. John S. Pillsbury has provided several new buildings that rank among the best educational structures in the West. The energy, ripe judgment, courageous plans and infinite tact of 'President Northrop are of priceless value to the University in this critical period ol' its rapid expansion. The University under his administration keeps the good-will of the State at large, is upon the friendliest terms with all other educational agencies, and is accorded by unanimous consent its proper place of leader- ship in the educational work and the intellectual lil'e of Minnesota. V

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P,--..,...-.-,,.-........ .-.-.- -.-.-.--. -- -- ---. ..... .... .... , ...., ---V ., n 5, fff? 'T' ... FAr- ww-wr-'i. ' L ,' --- FROM PHdTDONAPH BY MURDODKI HOIICNUIC Oli l'lI,l,SlSl7R.Y HALL

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. TQ., ' ,. gt .qt ll E l'niversity o I' ' I -s vt LJ' en . . T ' . gi- Minnesota, situated ' , in the center ot' popu- ., . ' lationot the state,within the limits of Minneapolis, and very near tl1e limits ol' St. Paul, has been en- , gaged in college work for , twenty years. Beginning - with l'our preparatory i classes, it did not reach , the full organization of a college till 1869. Grad- u a l ly the preparatory classes have been drop- ped, as the work of the high schools in the state ll , . , . . i-E 'H - , - ' A ,T has been raised, until now 'Y' 1 1 M ' ' ' ' - ' only one preparatory class remains and that will dis- appear at the close ol' the IV' - - .. .. .. .ft. -. -.,,...... ,.., .. ..,.. w ,,,,,'g,t,yl The Hon. David ll. Klahle, DLI. D., State Superintendent of Publla Instruction pyggent collegiate ygm-, and Regent of the University. T1 Uuixtrsity m lt! ' 1 C ' braces scven colleges: science, literature and arts, mechanic artsg agricultureg law: medicine and surgery, homeopathic medicine and surgery, and dentistry. The last four have been in operation but two years. They have, however, attained a remarkable suc- cess, showing that the time was ripe for their organization, and that a real need ofthe state has been met by their establishment. The number ol' law students is already one hnmlred and thirty- one, and the number of medical students is one hundred and twenty-six. The proportions which these colleges will assume when they shall have been in operation twenty years, it is impos- sible to predict, but they must be very large. The tirstclass which graduated in the College ot' Science, Literature and Arts, num- bered two. That was the class of 1873. The next class was no larger. The class of 1888 numbered thirty-live, and the class of it-190 numberstitty-eight,beingtwenty--three larger than any class yet graduatedg but it in turn will be surpassed by the classes ot' 18512 and 18923. There is littlc doubt, indeed,that the graduating classes are henceforth to be much largcrthan they have ever been, and that in less than six years from the present time they will regularly ex- ceed one hundred in the College ol' Science, Literature and Arts, and in the whole University will approach very nearly totwo hun- drcd and titty. The number of students in the University at pres- cnt is a little over one thousand. This number is not much below the number in the University of Michigan six years ago, and although the latter University has made mighty progress in these six years and nearly doubled the number of its students, the Uni- versity oi' Minnesota is not so far behind, even in numbers, as not to hope that it may yet equal its titty years old rival even in the nnmber ol' its students, as in its facilities for instruction, for labor- atory work, and for investigation, it purposes to equal her whether it does so in mere numbers or not. The inlluence oi' the University in the Northwest is great and is rapidly growing. VVhen its laboratories are examined and seen to he equal to the best in the country, when its classes in the legnlar courses number their students by the hundred, when the labor required to maintain a respectable standing in the classes is as great as is required forthe same purpose in the oldest Univer- sities ol' our country, when the tide of students sets strongly towards the University so that no other efforts are needed to secure students than simply to present the facts respecting the work of the University, as is annually done in the Catalogue ol' which an edition ol' eight thousand copies is exhausted every year, and that, too, in no small part in consequence ol' personal calls for copies, it cannot fail to be seen that the University ol' Minnesota is no longer an institution struggling for existence, nor is it one that is pleading for recognition. It is already recognized in thc Northwest and is rapidly being recognized in the East as one of thc strong educational institutions ot' the countryg and ol' its right to be thus recognized there can be no doubt. For it is not merely in its buildings and apparatus that it presents attrac- tions. lts instruction is oi' a high order. lts Faculty are men ol'