University of Oregon - Oregana Yearbook (Eugene, OR)

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T The Greater Oregon By Lamar Tooze, ' i6 EN years hence the students of today, alumni then, will come back to the University of Oregon to revisit the scenes and renew the friendships of their college days. They will find a new University, a greater Oregon. Instead of f the twenty-three or twenty-four hundred students of today they will find five thousand students, possibly more. Old Kincaid field, the scene of many a hard-fought battle, 1 f will support new buildings, each larger than any building now on the campus, with the possible exception of the Woman ' s building. There will be many other large buildings located elsewhere on the campus. The university itself will be rendering to the State that supports it a larger public service in the training of citizenry and the discovery through research of additional and highly valuable methods, systems, processes, ideas. And living through and growing stronger in this development will be found the intangible something that we choose to call the Oregon Spirit — the spirit of friendli- ness, of democracy, of fair play, of progressiveness. This greater university is not a vision ; it is a potential reality, a certainty. It is real because the Oregon spirit dictates that it must come. It is certain because it is necessary. It will come. The history of the State and of the university demonstrates that this great development will take place. Cold mathematics make it sure of achieve- ment. The greatest factor toward swelling the enrollment at the institutions of higher learning in Oregon during the past five years has been the increase in the number of high schools and high school students. Eleven years ago there were 10,710 high school stu- dents in the State ; last year there were 30,000. Twenty years ago there were only three four-year high schools in Oregon outside of Portland. Last year there were 244 such schools in the State. It is estimated that fully 50 per cent of the graduates of the high schools in the State continue their education at institutions of higher learning and that about 90 per cent of those so continuing attend Oregon colleges. Small wonder, then, that the L niversity of Oregon has grown in the last eleven years from 691 full-time resident students to the present enrollment of approximately 2400 students. Due to the future growth in population in the state and to the increas- ing proportion of students in high schools and the increasing proportion of high school f) I graduates who will continue at colleges, the University of Oregon is bound to grow in years to come. The university ' s average annual growth since the school year 1917-18 , , has been 21.1 per cent. Cut that figure to 16 per cent. At that rate ten years from ! y I now will find approximately 5,000 students doing full time resident work at Eugene. Enro llment will soon outstrip income. The university receives all of its income except that obtained from student fees and the interest upon the Villard fund and the fund realized from the sale of university lands, from the two rnillage taxes upon the taxable property- of the state, aggregating eight-tenths of one mill. Property valuations I U Page 1 7

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Ik upon which the millage tax is based and upon which the university ' s income depends, have remained practically stationary for the past two years. There has been a decrease even, resulting in the dimunition of the university ' s income in 1923 as compared to that of 1 92 1 of $28,000. Buildings are needed : a library, an auditorium, general classroom and laboratory buildings, a men ' s gymnasium, an infirmary ' , a museum ; money is necessary for research, fellowships, loan funds ; the campus should be enlarged and beautified ; more instructors are and will be needed. So the campaign for gifts. Gifts to supplement state-raised income to the end that all qualified high school graduates may obtain an education at their own state university. It would be harsh to restrict attendance. But education must not be wholesaled ; the right proportion of instructors to students must be maintained so a to insure personal supervision and instruction. President Campbell recognized the situation as long ago as Commencement, 192 1. He told the Board of Regents about it during that year. He commenced laying the ground work for the present campaign. In the fall of 1922, the first guns were fired and wnthin a few days, alumni and citizens of Eugene and members of the faculty sub- scribed $28,000 to finance such a campaign. One person, who prefers to be known as A Friend, put up $10,000 of the total. A corporation, the Universitj ' of Oregon Alumni Holding company, was organized for the purpose of handling the campaign. The members of the Board of Trustees of the company are : President Campbell, F. L. Chambers, W. K. Newell, Robert B. Kuykendall and Campbell Church. Presi- dent Campbell is president of the board, Mr. Newell is secretary, L. H. Johnson treasurer, and A. L. Ingalls assistant treasurer. Mr. Newell was appointed director of the campaign headquarters and has gathered a mass of information concerning the resources of Oregon. Miss Grace Edgington, Pioposed Memorial Court I ' age 19