University of North Dakota - Dacotah Yearbook (Grand Forks, ND)

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New OfEces of President and Registrar

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Progress of the University during the Past Two Years the most prosperous in the history of the University. The total student enrollment has increased during that time from 637 to 856, an increase of more than 34 per cent, while the attendance of strictly college grade has in- creased during the same time from 201 to 330, an increase of 64 per cent. During the past two years the number of professors and instructors, exclusive of lecturers in the Schools of Law and Medicine, has increased from 36 to 40, and the total instructional force from 45 to 50. The increase in attendance for the school year 1906-7, over the school year 1905-6, was 17 per cent as against an increase of 15 per cent for the year previous. Perhaps there is no better indication of the growth of the University than the increase from year to year in the size of its graduating classes. The Class Of 1902 graduated 28 students; of 1903, 33; of 1904, 52; of 1905, 54; and of 1906, 72. The present senior class is the largest in the history of the institution. New Buildings The legislative session of 1904-5 made an appropriation to take care of a large part of the Heating indebtedness of the University, but made no provision for new buildings. The University, therefore, is housed in the same narrow quarters as two years ago except that the Law School has occupied, during the present year, the entire top floor of the Clifford building, in Grand Forks, in- stead of barely half of the top floor as heretofore. While the recent session of the legislature did not give the University anything like all that was asked for or anything like enough to meet urgently pressing needs, it did appropriate $25,- 000 for an assembly hall and gymnasium, $20,000 for a School of Mines building, $10,000 for the construction of a sewer from the University to connect with the City sewer system'of Grand Forks, $10,000 for needed repairs to Davis Hall, and between $18,000 and $19,000 with Which to meet the repairs made to the main building during the past summer. In May, 1906, Mr. Carnegie, after repeated solicitations from President Merrifield, generously offered to contribute $30,000 toward the erection of a library building on the University grounds. The hope that the legislature, at its recent session, would supplement this gift by an added $30900, and thus make possible the ' I 'HE period covered since the last issue of the Daeotah has been notably 21

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erection of an adequate building was not fulfilled, and at this writing it is uncer- tain whether the Trustees will decide to erect a building which will come Within the limits of Mr. Carnegiels gift or to erect and enclose the walls of a building which will cost, when completed, in the neighborhood of $60,000, trusting to the next legislature to make an appropriation for the completion of the building. Campus improvements In June last, President Merrineld presented the University With $4,000 for the purchase of twenty acres of land lying immediately to the east of the 01d campus. Plans have been drawn up for the future development of the enlarged campus. which, if adopted, will eventually give the University one of the most beautiful institutional grounds in the west. The new library building, according to the plans, is to be located half on the new and half on the old campus directly east of the main building, facing north, and will be the keystone, as it were, of the semi- circular arch of buildings of which the buildings already erected on the old campus constitute the left wing. The existing buildings 011 the west campus will be balanced. by corresponding buildings on the east campus and when the plan is completed, the grounds as a whole will reveal a harmony of design which has been carried out in but few of our American Universities. The past two years have seen a notable development of the University grounds. Under the direc- tion of Professor W'aldron, of the State Agricultural College, the west campus was, two years ago, extensively planted to clumps of shrubbery and graveletl walks Were laid out New Colleges With the establishment of the College of Medicine, foreshadowed in the last Dacotah, and Teacher's College, detailed descriptions of which follow, the out- lines of the future University have been clearly and permanently drawn. Hence- forth the energies of those charged with its management will be devoted to rear- ing the superstructure 0n foundations already laid. Gifts In addition to Mr, Carnegieis gift of $30,000 for a University Library build- ing and of President Merritieldis gift of $4,000 for the purchase of additional ground for the campus, mention must be made of the recent gift by Mr. James J. Hill, of $4,000 for the purchase of books on commerce and transportation for the use of the department of Economies ; the gift in June, 1905, by the Adelphi Society, of a handsome fountain; the gift by the class of 1905, Of mammoth casts in plaster of the Venus Of Melos and Minerva Medical; and the gift by the class of 1906, Of a gateway to the main entrance of the University. Mr. Hillls gift was in response