University of Wisconsin Madison - Badger Yearbook (Madison, WI)

Page 14 text:

charged by the Chancellor of the University. To conceive from what the University has grown, strive to imagine the field covered by Professors Parkinson, Ely, Scott, Meyer, Reinsch, Adams, and Sparling, Messrs. Barnett, Dowd and Lorenz, with half of Prof. Sharp's added, to say nothing of Mr. Taylor's, and all of this reduced to the province of a single man, and that man president of the University. There was the Professor of Mental Philosophy, Logic, Rhetoric, and English Literature, of Ancient Languages and Literature, including Oriental tongues, of Modern Languages and Literature, who was to give stated instruction in French and German, occasional instruction when desired in other modern languages, and rendered assist- ance in the department of An- cient Languages when required by the Chancellor to do so. There was the Professor of Mathematics, Natural Philos- ophy and Astronomy, who in- cluded Engineering among his subjectsg and finally there was the Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, who taught Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geol- ogy, the Natural History of . Plants and Animals and Human Physiology, superintended col- lections, and made and published meteorological observations. These six professors with a tutor carried on all the work of instruction. There are now ninety-two professors, four resident lecturers, forty-nine instructors, thirty-five assistants, and twenty-one fellows. In 1854 there were two seniors, one junior, nine sophomores and nine freshmen, besides thirty-five students in preparatory and English classes. Last year 2,870 students were in attendance in all departments of the university, or about 2200, omitting students in music, short course students, and others not strictly to be classed as advanced students in colleges and technical schools. There were 210 seniors in the College of Letters and Science. . In' 1854, even in 1866, the university possessed no laboratories. The nrst laboratory, the chemical, was established by Professor Da-niells in the basement of University Hall in 1868. There were some two thousand dollars worth of apparatus in all departments used in illustrating lectures-that was all. At the present time the University has its Observatory, Chemical Labora- tory, and Science Hall, to say nothing of the laboratories and instruments in the Engineering and Agricultural Buildings, and in North and South Halls. The instruments and materials within the Engineering building alone represent a sum greaterthan the entire productive fund of 1854, film the cost of the whole equipment, all the buildings, and all the books. The yearly expen- diture on apparatus for the College of Engineering is double the average annual expenditure from 1854 to 1866 leaving buildings out of consideration. So late as 1865 the engineering equipment consisted of one transit, one leveling rod, one compass, two chains with pins, twelve sets of drawing instruments, and one tape line. All the machinery was a screw press. In 1865 the University owned two sets ofjbzklures of a steam engine. I speak of this growth in mere material equipment, not confusing the kernel with the shell, but -because this growth bears testimony to the greater complexity, subdivision, and THE PRnsiDnNT's House . I5

Page 13 text:

iture, of the jealousy and distrust and unkindness of the State. Yet if the weak university of that day had not been, no nucleus of life would have existed in 1866, the year of real begin- ning, to reach the stately growth of 1904. We must add to the credit of that early time cer- tain sound traditions of administration which are still maintained g-for instance, the University of Wisconsin has never been dominated by one-man power, and no modifications of the estab- lished policy of the institution are introduced until after full and free discussion. In this year of jubilee it is but natural to contrast the present with the past. As has been said, when the Hrst Chancellor delivered his address there was not a college student here. By the autumn of 1850 two had been brought up to the level of the freshman year- Levi Booth and Charles T. Wakeley, the graduating class of 1854, the fiftieth anniversary of whose commencement we this year celebrate. No buildings had yet been erected. Septem- MAIN HALL WITH THE Ni-:W VVING ber 17, 1851, when the University went on the Hill, was a day long remembered. On that day the University opened its term in North Hall, which was both dormitory and recitation building. There are now about twenty buildings devoted to the work of the institution. By january, 1856, the faculty had grown from three to seven, all the chairs provided for in the plantof organization being now Filled. Cfzairs I have called them: Dr. Holmes' witty sug- gestion is that the professors of that day occupied settees. For example, there was the pro- fessorship of Ethics, Civil Polity, and Political Economy. It shall be the duty of this chair, the Regents provide, to render instruction in Theoretical and Practical Morality, in the Science of Government, in International and Constitutional Law, and in the laws regulating the Production, Distribution, Exchange and Consumption of Material Wealth, and to incul- cate such knowledge and discipline as may be calculated to prepare liberally educated young men to become good and useful citizens of the Republic. The duties of this chair will be dis- I-l Q

Page 15 text:

thoroughness of the rnodern institution. The same story is told by the library. By 1854, there were 1,200 volumes-one-sixth of the number now exposed in the reading room. About half were gifts from A. S. Barnes gl Co., and a considerable proportion were public documents and theological works-all of the latter Protestant, nearly all evangelical. The President tells me he read the library about through in 1879. Iwonder ifhe read the theology? and the public documents? lf not, his task would not have been very heavy. Now, although Dr. Lathrop's hope of including everything worth preserving in all languages is not quite fulfilled, there are accessible to students 276,- 000 volumes,or two hundred and thirty times as many as in 1854, and the average usefulness and excellence of the books in the collection is higher than in 1854. In 1854, a candidate for ad- mission to the Freshman class passed an examination cover- ing about three years of Latin, one of Greek, and one of mathe- matics. Allowing that the dis- cipline of the school made up for any specific separate train- ingin English and any required reading of English literature, this makes about seven units for entrance. Fourteen are now required. During the col- This New Exoixnianrxu Buitnixo lege course, students kept on with their Latin for two years, their Greek for one, having as an option an additional year in either language or a year of French or German. They rode through a multitude of other subjects, being splashed with them on the way:--Physics and English Literature, Chemistry and Civil Polity, and ahalf dozen more-thirteen weeks to each. They did not learn to read or write Greek or Latin easily, but read with minute attention to grammatical precision a small number of classic works, historical, dramatic, philosophical, oratorical, and epic. NVhat most astonishes us is the entire absence of any provision for history, except for the classic historians in the course. The existence of Christianity would be inferred from the moral philosophy, and the professors were more uniformly and openly devout than now, but the conception of Christianity and the church as a force in the development of society, the creation of the modern European nations, the Renaissance or the Reformation, were ideas of which the course gave no suggestion. A little later thirteen-weeks' courses in text books on history were added. XVe sometimes hear the Old-fashioned Classical Course praised as giving a liberal culture and an unequaled discipline. If a student could now elect such a course as was given in W'isconsin Hfty years ago, you would call him very lazy. It corresponded, subject for subject to about two years of college work as now carried on. In the quality of the instruction given, it was in the main dry, narrow and superhcial in its view, though thorough in enforcing its moderate demands. By its little detached courses, it gave students 3 notion that they were intelligent in many fields, and as compared with a specialized course nourished vanity. The College Senior is not now usually conceited. I-Ie has learned how much too vast for his powers is mastery of the smallest subdivision of the field of knowledge, and he goes into his hfework with humble readiness to begin at a low place in his chosen vocation, Far I6