University of South Dakota - Coyote Yearbook (Vermillion, SD)

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U. CHAPEL in our educational system, and their growing importance testifies to the fact that they are appreciated by the people. The prophecy is freely made, by many who are most able to judge, that in the next quarter of a century the State universities will practically occupy the entire field of higher education. In our sister State on the north a significant movement has begun for the cooperation and consolidation of the denominational colleges and the State University. 'Whether or not this plan will be carried to its logical issue and all private or denominational collegec prac- tically merged with the State University remains to be seen. However this may be, tendencies everywhere favor the development of great State universities. It is of more than passing interest, then, to know how far we have gone in the building ot a great university for South Dakota. It has been deemed worth while in a publication of this kind to set forth briefly the present status of our State University and explain somewhat the method of its organization and its plans' of educational procedure. At Commencement of this year, the University will have finished twenty-five years of active existence as an educational institution. Incorporated by the first territorial legislature of Dakota in 1862, the actual construction and organization of the University was not undertaken until 1882. under the initiative of the people of Vermillion and Clay County. The actual work of the University began in the year 1882 when academic instruction was first organized in temporary quarters

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supervision and by whose direction the educa- T tional policy of the institution is formulated and carried out. In addition to these general features of the organization, the University maintains a preparatory course, fitting students for entrance to the freshman year in the College of Arts and Sciences. The steady decline of the sub-fresh- man department marks the increased efficiency of the high schools of the State, but under existing . conditions it will probably be many years before the University will be able to dispense with its preparatory or sub-freshman department. As an additional evidence of the progress of we T the institution toward the status of a university in fact, there should be mentionacl the Depart- ment of Engineering and the School of Com- merce. The Department of Engineering was organized in 1902, and now numbers thirty students and six instructors. including Doctor Alexander Pell, the Director. FLIRTATION WALK lt hasa complete equipment of wood and iron working machinery, and besides this it has extensive laboratory facilites for testing the strength of materials, for electrical measurement and electric testing of all kinds which give adequate in- struction and preparation for the work of electrical engineering. The -courses of study in this Department lead to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Civil, Elec- trical and Mechanical Engineering. An appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the next biennial period, made by the legislature just adjourned, insures this Department ample equipment to meet its needs in the near future. Additional in- structors will-be provided and the full four yearls course of professional work in Engineering lines will now be given. The Department of Engineering has met with a popular reception, as its rapid growth testifies, and that it has a large fu- ture before it is assured. The practical demands of the day for men thoroughly trained in the various lines of engineering are such as to make a constantly in- creasing opportunity for this line of professional study. The School of Commerce was organized in IQOO, and now has an attendance of seventy-three students. lts faculty numbers fourteen persons, including Pro- fessor C. W. Thompson, Director of the S-chool. giving a part or the whole of their time to the work. The School of Commerce gives three years of prepara- tory worlc practically equivalent to the work in the academic sub-freshman pre- paratory department of the University, and in addition two years of solid college work. Lines of Economics, theory of banking and finance leading to the degree of,Bachelor of Commerce. Students who have completed this line of work can secure the A. B. degree by taking two additional years of study. The School of