University of Idaho - Gem of the Mountains Yearbook (Moscow, ID)

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AINISTRATION BUILDING ADM

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Gem of the Mountains 1904 University: “At no time in the history of the institution has there been such whole-souled, one-purpose harmony ; such united effort to- ward the attainment of a common aim between members of the faculty themselves and between the faculty and the students, as dur- ing the present period of the school’s management.” Our University is not an accident; it is not a creature of im- pulse. It is a link in that divine chain of events which holds firmly for the use of today all the good and true of the past. “It is a small college, but there are those who love it,” were the tender words of Daniel Webster in his noted defense of Dartmouth. The love vf the loyal friends of the University of Idaho has made possible the progress of the past, and will make possible that greater development which must be commensurate with the other growth of the state it represents. We have made careful, conscientious progress. Unity of aim and purpose, affectionate regard for the traditions of our brief but significant past, pride of student and instructor in preserving the University’s good name have all united to develop it along the lines —not of least resistance—but of the broadest and deepest culture, the most thorough and useful training. 18

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Gem of the Mowmttains 1904 History of the College of Letters and Srieures In the earlier days of our country—generations before “Uni- versities” were heard of—there arose institutions of higher rank called “Colleges,” which aimed to give the general culture that was considered an essential foundation to the learned professions, but which made no attempt to train specialists; and every American University worthy the name (unless it be sprung, Pallas-like, fuil- grown from the head of a modern capitalistic Zeus) has grown up around this parent stock, gradually sending out new departmental shoots with the increasing strength and needs of the years. The University of Idaho is no exception to this, though the eleven yea's of its actual operation have seen an expansion so gratifyingly rapid that we almost forgot the original nucleus. The college of Letters and Sciences as now constituted has come from a coalition of two of the original departments of the University, namely the College of Arts and the College of Letters. An examination of the earliest catalogues shows, however, that they were never felt to be separate, as indeed it would be difficult to imagine them. For both he who would give himself up wholly to the study of belles-letters in his earlier training to the exclusion of any knowledge of the world of science and its application to practical life, and he who in his close attention to a favorite science or art dis- regarded all that literature and history can offer, would be in danger of unduly narrowing his whole life. In the early days no such free rein was given to the student in his choice of studies as now; in the so-called scientific and English courses no electives whatever were allowed, while a student in the classical course reveled in the unrestricted freedom afforded him by five hours of electives in his four-years’ course! One sentence also in the report to the Governor of the year 1893 indicates signifi- cantly the light in which persistent application of studies was regard- ed in those days, when the president of the board proudly states that of 133 students in attendance 65 remained in June to take the finai examination. But while we of later and better days smile at sone of the crudities and insufficiencies of those times, as exhibited in the 20