University of Nebraska Lincoln - Cornhusker Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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I MECHANIC ARTS MALL MEMOfTIAL HALL HK ACK HALL CHEMI iTKV HI ILUING

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alnnt anil IX ' mu - sible to retain it as a part of the University, it was a distinct educational loss to the State when it was discontinued, liefore bidding iarewell to llie Latin School we may note the fact that it included in its faculty many instructors of marked ability, as Church, Ellen Smith (afterwards University Registrar), Bennett ( nf)w of Cornell), and Lees (our Professor of Greek). For many years the College of Literature, Science and Art manuainei! three courses of study, — the classical, the literary, and the scientific, each leading to its particular degree. In those ilays the conditions for admission were different for each course, so that if an applicant was rejected from the classical course, he might be accepted for the literary, or if he failed there he might squeeze into the scientific course. If, however, he was so poorly prepared as to fail of entrance to the scientific course there was always the opportunity open to him of getting into the Industrial College. In fact, it was nearly impossible to escape getting into the latter, anil naturally this low standarc ' reacted disastrously upon the Col- lege and its courses of study. For, after all, the students in this University re- spect and prefer the courses with high standards. For a long time it was the impression on the campus that this College was the University, and that the Industrial College was an apfiendage. In fact, the Regents themselves seem to have had rather hazy notions on this subject, for when I was elected to my present position, including the Deanship of the Indus- trial College, I was assured that I was also a professor ir. the University. Nearly twenty years ago the scientific course was transferred from the Col- lege of Literature, Science and .Art to the Industrial College, and about the same time it was decided to give but one degree in each college. During a considerable period there were from eighteen to twenty courses of study leading to the degree of A.B., and ten to a dozen leading to B.Sc, and then a little later came the period of free electives, which, with a little n:odification, is what we now have. When the Faculty committee brought in its report in favor of the elective system, the report was adopted by the literary Faculty, but when an licur or two later it was laid before the industrial Faculty it was rejected by a large majority. There were many fears that the Industrial College would soon have no students if it main- tained its regular prescribed courses of study in competition with the vei liljcral elective system of the other college. It was thought that students wanted the freedom of choice of studies .so much that they would not go into the prescribed courses, but this fear has been shown to be groundless. On the contrarv, the In- dustrial College has prospered and increased most rapidly in the number of its students. In the literary F ' aculty there is a growing feeling that the elective .sys- tem should be greatly restricted, at least by a considerable extension of the powers of advisers. A notable development of the College of Literature, Science and . rf has been its increasing feminization. Men are going into the sciences and their ap- plications in increasing numbers, and so are swarming into the Ir.dustrial College, while in this latter college there are fewer women year by vear. Thus while one college is becoming more and more a man ' s college, the other is ten:ling in the opposite direction. The establishment of strong courses in sociologv. political science, and economics should check this tendency by ofTering men opportunities for the studv of subjects which bear tlirectly upon their life work.

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alirit anil ?fuui 29 As said above, there were at tirst two colleges, — Agriculture and L ' .ngiucer- ing,— where we now have the Imlustrial College. These were tuiiied in 1S7S. and before that time we had a regular College of Agriculture, wiih a dean i Thmnp- son) and several professors, i ' he first agiicultural students appeared in 1874, reachuig fifteen that year, and from that time to the present there have been stu- dents in agriculture. It is interesting to note that about thirty years ago the pres- ent Governor of Cuba (Hon. C. E. Magoon) was a student in the College of Agri- culture. In those early days there were more students in agricultiu ' e than in engineering: in fact, it was not until 1879 that any record occurs of engineering students. In the early days there was much prejudice against the Farm. It was almost inaccessible in muddy weather, and when reached it was an unattractive place. Few people ever visited it, and those who did generally denounced its manage- ment. There were many in and out of the University who advocated selling it outright. A prominent Nebraska daily paper called it a rat hole down which the people ' s money was being poured by the Regents. At one time a bill was pushed almost through the legislature providing for its sale, but fortunately at the last moment it was defeated, and from that date the Farm has taken on greater importance. It has become the prettiest place in the neighborhood of Lincoln, and ever body now takes his friends out to see it ; students like to have picnics there ; and alumni gather there annually to celebrate the days of long ago. There is no jeering now-a-days about the Farm. It is the most popular part of the Cni- versity, so far as the public is concerned. The School of Agriculture, which now annually enrolls about six hundred students in all, is the outgrowth of plans laid long ago in tlic early ears of the Universitv ' s history. It took long years of hard work to build up a jiopular school, but at last it is a firmly established part of the University. What Chancellor Ren- ton planned for more than thirty years ago has now become a reality through Chancellor Andrews ' insistence. And while all this growth in agriculture has been going - n, the engineer- ing side of the College has had an equally remarkable development. Little and Bobbv Owens worked hard in the early da s to build up a school of engineer- ing, and later were joined by Richards, Brooks, and Alorse. In 1891 the shops came, six years later Mechanic Arts Hall was built, and now we are to build a great Engineering Hall. There are today nearly six hundred engineering stu- dents on the campus where thirty years ago there were none. Looking at these two lines of development in the Industrial College one is moved to question whether the time is not near when it v ill be well to go back to the original charter, and restore the College of Agriculture, and the College of Etigineering. There is today very little if any connection between the two lines of work, and thev might as well be separated, as they were in the first charter of the Universitv. Another change, also, may soon be timely. In the development of the Industrial College it was necessary about twenty years ago to transfer the scientific course of study from the College of Literature, Science and .A,rt to the Industrial College. There it served its purpose, and helped to build up courses which were strong in the sciences and their applications. Perhaps we should re- store the scientific course to the college where it originated. This has been dis-