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

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more to be rejoiced in than the increase in the size and impressiveness of the University is the enrichment, enlargement, elevation and variety of its curricula. To the old learned pro- fessions new ones have been added. Within the college of Letters and Science- the philosophical faculty -the course of study has been greatly varied and the instruction greatly improved. By the modification of the entrance requirements, the college has been opened to many hundreds who under the old regime would never have profited by its training, and this with a constant elevation of requirements. Whatever one's judgment as to the disciplinary value of Latin and Greek, there can be no doubt that any set of requirements for admission, calling for four years of any language, represents a more thorough education, a more liberal culture, than was obtained in Professor Sterling's preparatory class of 1851. As for the college course itself, the student of to-day is trained for activity in a more complex world, with a thoroughness of real discipline quite beyond any conception of the older time. VVe lack two things belonging to the old education. The first is a training in the use of the English language derived from a study of foreign languages, which insisted on a delicate rendering of the original. Greek in old times taught English. German nowadays teaches German, and often has bad English as a by-product. Secondly, in the old education students consciously prepared to be men and not merely lawyers. ' In 1854 organized athletics did not exist. Some vigorous play was common, though it would seem that students probably exercised less than now. At least there was no exercise by proxy, artificial galvanization of enthusiasm, and monetary exploitation of sport. lVe have on the whole gained by the cultivation of athletics g but there are weeds still to be rooted out. A half century ago this sacred sod Could D6'61' by wo1nan's feet. be trod. Women began to attend only in 1963, as normal students. Then a female college was organized, with an easy course, mainly in befles leiires. The women students were admitted also to college classes, but in separate recitations. lt is a quaint piece of the !zm7z'brz'a rerum- the sarcasm of fate-that the name of the President who insisted on this regulation should be given to the women's dormitory. Fifty years ago the annual charges paid by a student were twelve dollars for tuition, nine dollars for light,.heat, and janitor's service, and nothing for incidentals. Total, twenty-one dollars. Next year a charge for fuel was added. North Hall was heated by three furnaces in which wood was burned, at a cost of from twelve to sixteen dollars a year to each inmate of the dormitory. As to the cost of board, the catalogue states that: Several of the Faculty reside in a portion of the new edifice fNorth Hallj and take their meals in the hall. Students are admitted to the several tables of the faculty at a charge not exceeding two dollars per week-usually not over 51.85. Many board themselves in their rooms at rates varying from a dollar to a dollar and a half. These charges have certainly not increased unreasonably, all things considered. The five dollars a week of the present is as easily paid as the two and a half of that day. Yet in the loss of the dormitories much has been lost. Centers of associa- tion, they contributed to college friendship and youthful comradeship more healthfully than our very useful modern substitute, the fraternity, for they brought about acquaintance on a broader and better basis. To Cardinal Newman,a university was essentially a gathering place where young men were given the highest kind of instruction, the gathering being of more importance than the instruction. We have lost something in general comradeship and the beneficial attrition of all sorts of men on each other. The dormitories have been outlived by the literary societies, the Athenaean and the Hesperian societies being almost as old as the University itself. We may observe that debating alone soon became the dominant element in them. They have been very deeply rooted in the institution, and profoundly influence the 18

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Front.. View of the New Chemistry Building

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intellectual tone of the University. When Booth and Wakeley graduated, daily morning prayers were held-with the devotion to be expected in colleges when young men assemble at uncomfortable hours in uncomfortable rooms. In the fifty years, from 1854 to 1904, the number of students taking work of collegiate grade in the institution has increased a hundred times, the number of instructors thirty times. There are twenty times as many buildings, much more than twenty times as much space being given to purposes of instruction. Two hundred times as many books are at 'hand. All the enormous and complex mechanical equipment of technical schools has been provided-with- out luxury or waste, but with sensible liberality. And the soul of the University has grown with its body. In 1854 it was a small college, Htting a few young men for pursuits regarded as elite. Except through them and their careers, the University was in no contact with the life of Wisconsin. Now it is a part of practically every noble activity in the commonwealth. It has improved and is improving the agriculture of the State. It has advanced engineering ..-'-f- 3-Q... ' THE NEW STATE H1STORlCAL LIBRARY BUILDING practice, and its professors are directly consulted on engineering questions. The influence of University methods of investigation is seen in certain branches of legislation. The specialist is consulted now as to a multitude of matters, where but a few years ago he would have been scoffed at. The schools have been bettered by relations with the University. In a thousand ways beyond analysis the University is a part of our civilization. At the same time, the duty of maintaining the highest tradition of the past, and of contributing to the advance of the present is not only not neglected but is performed with brilliant success. The University is the natural enemy of commonness. 5 To specify with exactness all that has been achieved is beyond the power of my words. ln itself all this is no more wonderful or more encouraging than the tale of human progress everywhere. But it has been achieved within the period of active life for a single man. Several names might be chosen to illustrate this pointy but one will suffice. Among the Freshmen at the time of the first commencement was one W. F. Vilas. He shared in the narrow but sound discipline of the time. After the reorganization in 1866 he was instructor 19