University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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H r. u Crraduate Ocliool T.iE Graduate School of the University has been largely con- cerned with the numerous valuable contributions made in scholastic fields by the research work of its students. Through- out the twenty-two years of its existence, the School has maintained a high standard of scholarship and has been characterized by a con- stant emphasis upon research. As a result of continued endeavor and progress, a high-point of achievement was reached three years ago when the University became a member of the Association of American Universities. The Graduate Faculty controls the organization and directs the program of the school. Under its jurisdiction are candidates for any advanced degree such as doctor of philosophy or master of arts. The Graduate Faculty was created in 1910 by the Board of Regents at the suggestion of President Sidney Edward Mezes and has existed apart from the College of Arts since that time. Henry Winston Harper, professor of chemistry and Dean of the Graduate School, received degrees from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, the University of Virginia, and Baylor University. He is a fellow of the Chemical Society of London. Dr. Frank Burr Marsh, professor of ancient history, acts as secretary of the Grad- uate Faculty. Dean Henry Winston Harper C olleqe ol A rt5 an iS ciences T HE College of Arts and Sciences is by far the most popular of the several branches of the University — if popularity may be judged by the number of students enrolled. Work in the College may be done in 23 major departments, each of which offers great variety in its field. Evidence of its growth and expansion may be found in the present building program by the fact that three of the five classroom build- ings now under construction have been designed to house its de- partments. The Dean of the College of Arts, Hanson Tufts Parlin, has manifold duties: he must check the credits of degree candidates, approve the adding or dropping of courses, notify students of excessive absences, receive, tabulate, and send out reports of scholarship, compile the lists of students on special observation and final trial. He even has to assure hundreds of students about hundreds of facts which could easily be found explained in the Catalogue; the query which he answers most frequently is, Do I have to take that course? Because of these numerous tasks. Dean Parlin, B. A., Colorado, 1904; M. A., 1906; Ph. D., Pennsylvania, 1908, is aided by As- sistant Deans L. L. Click, D. A. Penick, and B. C. Tharp. The College of Arts, formerly known in 1883 as the Academic Department and in 1891 as the Department of Literature, Sciences and Arts, did not receive its present appellation until 1920. But from its founding as one of the two branches of the University, the enrollment has increased from less than two hundred students to six thousand. The many fields included in the College draw Dean H. T. Parlin people from all of Texas and many from the neighboring states. I Page IS

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T H E- C A C T US 1-9 3 2. ! t 2 SIDNEY EDWARD MEZES X resioent Emeritus For twenty years the late Sidney Edward Mezes served the University: first as professor of philosophy, then as dean of the College of Arts, and finally as President. In 1894, Ur. Mezes came to the University as adjunct professor of philosophy. Fourteen years later the Board of Regents chose him to succeed Presi- dent Houston as head of this institution. President Mezes created many new departments, some of which are flourishing today. The depart- ments of Institutional History, Business Training, Domestic Economy, General Literature, Architecture, Journalism, Music, Semitics, and Extension, and the Bureaus of Economic Geology and Municipal Re- search were established between 1909 and 1913. The Graduate School emerged from the College of Arts. In 1914 Dr. Mezes went to New York where he remained until 1927, when he resigned the presidency of the College of the City of New York because of ill health. During this time Dr. Mezes served his country at the 1917 Peace Conference in Paris. Following his resignation in 1927, Dr. Mezes and his wife, Annie O. Hunter, lived abroad. In 1929 Dr. Mezes was elected President Emeritus of The University of Texas and returned to the United States, dying in Pasadena, California, September 10, 1931. Distinguished as an educator, as a philosopher, and as an executive, Sidney Edward Mezes, President Emeritus of the University and professor emeritus of philosophy, by his death has left a place in the hearts of his colleagues and the students who knew him that cannot be filled. Page 12

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T H E- U Ocnool ol J ii Dean Ira P. Hildebrand a The School of Law has assumed in 1932 quite different propor- tions from those of its early years in the West Wing of the Main Building after the opening of the University in 1883. It has grown to rank with best schools of law in the country, filling the judicial benches, the legislative halls, and the law offices of Texas with men efficiently trained in the high ideals of the legal profession. As a vital part of the teaching equipment and a facility for re- search, the School of Law has a library of approximately 36,000 volumes. With up-to-date reports on the many courts of the State and the United States and many rare and valuable legal works at the disposal of its students, the School has come to rank among the five schools of law that engage in research work. R. W. Stayton, professor of law, this year has been making investiga- tion of civil and appellate procedure. Two moot court organizations, the McLaurin and Hildebrand societies, provide facilities for law students to try moot cases, thus filling a need for court practice and offering constructive extra- curricular activity. Dean Ira Polk Hildebrand, B. A., L. L. M., L. L. B., has been a member of the Law faculty for more than twenty-five years. He and his staff have aimed constantly at improvement. College ol lingineering Facilities provided in the new Engineering Building, erected as part of the University Building program, will meet the classroom and laboratory demands of over a thousand students registered in the College of Engineering. Modern laboratories, offices, and classrooms will be enlarged and supplied with new equipment to meet the needs of the large numbers en- rolled. The library and the study-hall adjoining will provide suitable study rooms. Created in 1894 as an outgrowth of work in applied mathematics, the College of Engineering was housed in the present Engineering Building in 1904, when it boasted an enrollment of a hundred students. Degrees have been offered in the department of civil engineering since the College was established, and petroleum engineering, established some three years ago, is the newest de- partment in the College. All departments will be located in the new Engineering Building. Thomas Ulvan Taylor, dean of the College of Engineering and professor of civil engineering, holds the longest record of service of any instructor on the campus, having begun his career as a teacher on the Forty Acres in 1888. Dean Taylor holds a civil engineering degree from the University of Virginia, 1883, and a master of civil engineering degree from Cornell, 1895. There are about 40 members on the faculty. Dean T. U. Taylor Page J4