University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

Page 24 text:

A GREATER MINNESOTA I HEN our beloved and re -ered first president, William Watts Fohveli, who is only ninety-three years of age at this writing, completes his four-volume history of the State of Minnesota, puts on the press his contemplated text book of elementary politi- cal science for the preparatory schools, and finishes the reminiscences of his wonderful life, we hope that before he begins his well earned vacation he will write a detailed history of the University of Minnesota, a book to which we can always refer for items (if information in the life of the institution from 1851 to 1933, the year of Dr. Folweil ' s one hundredth birthday. The following sketch can but merely sug- gest the development of the University from 1868 to the present and a glimpse ahead. Practically all universities have had their days of small beginnings, growing steadily at a fairly normal rate with certain excep- tional variations as at Minnesota when in 1919 came that leaping increase of sixty- seven per cent in enrollment. One exception to this generally accepted experience of university development was the University of Chicago which wasn ' t born like most educational institutions, but like Min- erva sprang full grown from the head of Jove. A university organization maj ' be likened to a great wheel with the hub at the center and spokes radiating out to the encompassing rim — the hub representing the cultural center of the institution, the spokes the vocational or professional opportunities growing out of this center and background. In 1868 Minne- sota was virtually a college with a classical curriculum, the hub of the wheel which was to follow. Its full name was the College of Science, Literature, and the Arts, called by the students the academic department. Eighteen hundred and seventy-one saw the beginning of the first spoke — the establish- ment of the College of Engineering and the Mechanic Arts which is now the College of Engineering and Architecture. Its activities later centered around what was called the Mechanic Arts Building, now the School of Business Building. The second spoke in the wheel was the College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Home Economics — a three-fold curriculum em- braced in one administrative unit. The Agricultural part began in 1871, Forestry in 1905, and Home Economics in 1910. For many j ' ears the wheel made no material progress. Then in 1888 came a rapid suc- cession of spokes. Law, Medicine, Dentistry, and Mines came into being almost simultane- ously, although buildings and equipment did not follow immediately. The progress was The Agricultural Adminislration Building Eighteen

Page 23 text:

The Neiu Library Seventeen

Page 25 text:

(Ih ler of g:iuentxt ♦ ♦ -► Seven ♦ ' slow. Pharm;K - appi-ari ' d as a unit of the organization in 1S )2 .uul anntluT spoke was added. The suljjecl of Chemistry had been in the curriculum of tiie hub practicaiU- from the beginning, but in 190, Chemistry took on a new significance as an intlependent unit in the scheme of the Uni ersit ' . It became a separate spoke in the wheel. Likewise Pedagogy- had been taught since way back in the early days as a subject in the academic department. In 1905 the science of education and the preparation of teachers were impor- tant factors in the educational program of the state, and the College of Education was born, a new spoke of the ever-growing wheel. No other units were added until 1919 when the School of Business was created. No wheel would be complete without the tire or rim. This feature is supplied in the Graduate School where, it may be said, all the spokes terminate. As the years go on new major units will develop, new schools will be estab- lished, new spokes will be added to the wheel. Supplements to these various major units were added from time to time, as the School of Nursing in conjunction with Medicine in 1909. th e School for Dental Hygienists in 1919, the School of Mines Experiment Station in 1911, the L niversity High .School as a part of Education in 1908, and the Schools of Agriculture (Central -School at University Farm in 1888, Northwest School at Crookston in 1905, and West Central School at Morris in 1909). The work in Agriculture also finds expression in its experiment stations estab- lished at Uni ersitv Farm in 1885, Crookston 1894, Grand Rapids 1894, Morris 1909, Duluth 1911, Waseca 1911, Zumbra Heights 1907, Owatonna 1887, Itasca and Cloquet 1907. One of the largest supplementary depart- ments is that of the Extension Ser ice in- cluding the General Extension Division and the Agricultural Extension Division, both established in 1909. Keeping pace with the development of the curriculum, although sometimes lagging a little behind, has come the physical expansion of the University in buildings and grounds. At the Charter Day luncheon, February 18, a member of the Class of 1877 said there is not on the campus today a single object familiar to his classmates except the oaks on the campus knoll and W ' illiam Watts Folwell. It was just a few years back that a student standing on the knoll could see the entire campus by letting his gaze sweep from the old Y. M. C. A. Building along Pillsbury Avenue to the Armory. The old N. P. tracks which ran on a line just north of the New Library and on the south side of the Administration Building consituted the southern boundary of the campus in 1907. For years those tracks had been a fixture because the courts had held that being located a quarter of a i v ■rt4 J imMd j -.. ' W - - - Across Cam I ' ll I mi Nineteen