University of Nevada - Artemisia Yearbook (Reno, NV)

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their retention; but the more good buildings erected the sorrier the old ones look, and the sooner they will fade away. The general appearance of the old buildings could be tolerated if they served their purpose well. Four walls and a ceiling do not make a school room, for these may be accom- panied by bad lighting and poor appointments for the particular work to be done. The general plan that has been suggested for the University of the future calls for a large administration building in the foreground over- looking the Truckee valley and the magnifient mountains in the distance. Its enduring stone pillars will give it the appearance of permanence and solid worth. In this building will be housed the administration offices, the library, and many class rooms, all adapted and contrived for efficient instruction for the young people who will come in increasing numbers as the years roll on. I see in these class rooms all the apparatus that can be used to make clear the principles of art and science, and I can see rooms specially arranged for moving picture demonstrations of useful and inter- esting subjects so that the lectures and demonstrations used by the leaders in educational work may be heard in many classrooms outside of their own particular ones. Then too, I see on each side of the administration building two grace- ful buildings devoted to university work, adding their individual im- pressiveness to the scene, and promising an opportunity to every Freshman that may come. Somewhere on the grounds I see a building devoted to physical culture for young women, and containing a magnificent swimming pool and proper appointments for athletic work and for all work that may come under this head. In this building I can see a fine auditorium for the meetings of the young women, and also study rooms and rest rooms. In this building also would be rooms that the graduates might call their own and where they might meet the co-eds who are still in the University and tell of their experiences as co-eds in the long ago. Of course I must see the same thing for the young men of the future, because it makes life a little more pleasant and work a little better, and gives the older student a better opportunity to give sound advice to the younger students. And above all that it makes the real life of the Uni- versity. One part of the education the students get is from the professors and the books ; but the most impressive parts comes from their experience in dealing with one another. The first chemistry classroom and laboratory, provided for the teach- ing of the new science in this country, was put forty feet underground so fourteen

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THE FORWARD LOOK T ' is the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, And coming events cast their shadoivs be fore. CAMPBELL ' S lines have always had for me a fascination that I would not change if I could. If these be true, then the following quotation from Tennyson show the spirit of the age : Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the nations do but broaden with the process of the suns. When the writer first saw the University it had but one building, now known as Morrill Hall. It was the old-fashioned structure, high ceilinged and mansard roofed, that was deemed peculiarly fitted for a college acces- sory. You will see the same style in far-off Maine. It is perhaps well that students are active young athletes so that they can climb the steep stair- ways to third stories, and so use the illy adapted structure. It is unfor- tunate that a careful study of the architecture of college buildings has not yet been made. The public school buildings are receiving needed attention in this respect and there are many splendid examples of what school buildings should be. The coming of the gracefully efficient Mackay building promised a complete change in the building plans of the Nevada institution, and the suggested plans for the future expansion of the campus group of buildings, mark a welcomed change. This beautiful building has been and ever will be an incentive for better architecture and for more efficiently arranged buildings for University work. The student who passes through the portals of the Mackay School of Mines receives an inspiration that means better work, and more respect for things educational. Other buildings may be useful, but if they are dingy and ugly, they do not appeal to young or old. The casual visitor to the University gets his first impression from the older buildings that occupy the front positions, and he is not impressed, but when he gains the first sight of the beautiful lawns in front of the Mackay building, he changes his mind and thinks the effort worth while. When in the rear of all the structures he gets a glimpse of the Mackay athletic field and building, he is sure the last shall be first in his remem- brance of the University. It is almost impossible to rebuild or reform the older buildings on the campus, because they serve their purpose in sufficient degree to warrant thirteen

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as to guard against explosions that might disturb quietude of the campus. This was the wisdom the governing board of Harvard manifested in a practical way to start Professor Stillman in a great subject. Perhaps they thought it was a deep subject, and again they may have been unwilling to take the uncanny manipulations too fa r away from their natural home. From the standpoint of the future we have put our cellar above ground just for convenience, and have not made much improvement in the appoint- ments. The laboratory that I see in the future chemistry building is a real working laboratory and so arranged that it is kept pleasant and com- fortable. The only criticism of the present building that I have to make is like Gen. Wm. T. Sherman ' s criticism of the Pension Office building in Washington. When Gen. Raum, its architect, showed the marching worrior through the new structure Sherman looked at all the parts of it very solemnly, and when asked his opinion he turned to Raum and said, Raum, the only criticism I have to make is that the thing is fireproof. Each generation builds as best it can, but the discoveries and inven- tions of the day show the shortcomings of the methods and contrivances of the past. Very often not enough study is given to the plans to get the best out of them. Travel and diligent hunting for information from those who have done and are doing things, reveal the light that should guide the work. The man who sits down and tries to build his business according to the advice of the local wiseacres, finds that he has no building material equal to that found in the great centers where things are done, and where men reside who are equal to the tasks set. Somewhere in the north is a cottage set on a brown and barren moun- tain side, and every time I see it, it seems to call for green lawns and flowers and trees, for it is that kind of a cottage. Fine buildings without green lawns and shrubbery do not carry out the impression intended. So, to carry out my dreams of the University of the future, I see the grounds of the southwest corner of the campus extended all over the grounds till every prospect pleases. The student who spends four years on such a campus simply cannot be content with a house that has not trees and lawns around it, and so the education brings with it a train of things that make life worth living. In countries where there is plenty of rain, and where the grass and trees grow without special care, they are blessings in dis- guise, because people do not know how to appreciate them ; but in a country where water is scarce, and grass and trees hard to grow, they are blessings undisguised. Nevada ' s great hope lies in the young people, for they are the builders of the future. The better they are trained, the better they will build, and fifteen