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

Page 31 text:

CHEMISTRY HALL may be seen bv the table herein showing the distribution of the number of students enrolled in 1909-1910. The next Legislature (1877) revised the act of 1S69 in accordance with the provisions of the new constitution. By an amendment of 1899 of the original act of 1869 a tax of one mill upon the grand assessment roll of the State is provided for the support of the Uni- versity. Added to this are the incomes from land (90,000 acres), leases and sales under the land-grant act of Congress of 1862 for the benefit of the In- dustrial College (erected in 1909 into the Colleges of Agriculture and Engineer- ing by the State Legislature), and under the enabling act reserving seventy-two sections of land (44,800 acres) for the State University ; interest on permanent fund investments ; and the money grant by the act of Congress, commonly known as the Morrill Act, August, 1890, and by the Hatch Fund Act of 1887. and the Adams Act of 1906 supplemental thereto. In addition to this are the fees paid by students for various purposes. Under the revised act of 1877, as slightly amended by the Legislature of 1909, the University of today is organized and operating. Its present annual cost of maintenance is S713.632.50, and from the old Uni- versity Hall erected in 1870, which still proudly commands from the center of the group on the city campus, the University has materially increased until it now numbers over twenty-five buildings exclusively used for purposes of in- 23

Page 30 text:

f 3 GRANT MEMORIAL HALL when tlu anmial income of the University fund shall have reached $i(X),000. In- struction in art was first formally offered in 1S85-1886. In conformity to this law, the Regents, on February 7, 1871, resolved to open the first department of the University in the fall, and on April 4 they selected a corps of competent and experienced professors and fixed the time of opening Thursday, September 7, 1871. In order to increase the usefulness of the University, and to provide instruc- tion by a tutor, a Latin School was organized as a preparatory department in which students not fully qualified for the college classes might receive instruction. This preparatory department was abolished in 1898. The new constitution of 1875 recognized the University thus established, placed it under the general control of an elective board of six regents, and made certain provisions as to its organization and administration. The College of Ancient and Modern Literature, Mathematics, and the Natural Sciences became the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, later the College of the Arts and Sciences, while the College of Agriculture and the College of Practical Science, Civil Engineering, and Mechanics were merged into the Industrial College. The Industrial College ceased to exist, as such, by legislative act of 1909, when a general reorganization of colleges and schools of the University was effected as :i ii c M 22

Page 32 text:

: v c uj R w H u s r p e LIBRARY struction and administration. The total value of all grounds, buildings and equipment is $2,156,116.00, as given in the Twentieth Annual Report of the Board of Regents to the Governor. This includes buildings and improvements on the experimental substations at North Platte, Valentine, and ScottsblufT, but excludes land located under acts of Congress of 1862 and 1864 for agricultural college and State University endowments. Such rapid growth is peculiar to State universities which are, comparatively, a present day conception. In greatest strength they are found in the States of the Middle West and on the Pacific slope. The general history of the growth of the University of Nebraska may be told, perhaps, by statistics concerning its officers of administration and instruction, the number of graduates, and the enrollment of students. arious interesting de- ductions from these may be drawn by the reader. The real history of the University cannot be told by one who has known it intimately but one-fifth of the time of its existence. A perusal of all of the minutes of the Board of Regents would not enable one to write it fully and com- pletely as it should be written within the next ten years. Some of the hardships of the early days and since are known to but few, who might be discredited if they told the true history in these later days of rapid growth and prosperity. Willing to be placed under oath that many intensely interesting things were told the writer and affirmed as absolute facts, one or two bits of history are here :: -2 24