GIFT OF Contents 1 Report of the Senate finance committee relative to the endowment of the State university, 1870. 2 Statement of income and expenditures for the year end- ing May 31st, 1874. 3 Report of the Finance committee to the Board of Begents Dec. 14, 1874. 4 Report to the Finance committee of the Board of regents 1876. 5 Statement of Finance committee. May 27, 1878. 6 Report of the Committee of finance and audit. June 1887. 7 Report of the Finance committee, June, 1889. 8 Annual report of the ^inance committee, June 13, 1893 9 Annual report of the Committee on finance and audit. May 15, 1895. 10 Annual report of the Committee on finance and audit. ,. July 14, 1896. 11 Report of Committee on finance and audit... May 25, 1897 * 12 Resort of ^inance committee, Oct. 9, 1899 13 Budget for 1909-1910. 14 Budget for 1912-13. I c 3 m z w III r < O Sn? Ill S Z o : REPORT SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE RELATIVE TO THE ENDOWMENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY. SACRAMENTO: D. W. GELWICKS, STATE PRINTER. 1870. Gilt E P O E T SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE ILLATIVE TO THE ENDOWMENT OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY. 533436 REPORT. Mr. PRESIDENT : The Finance Committee, to whom was referred Sen- ate Bill No. 355 entitled an Act for the endowment of the State Uni- versity beg leave, respectfully, to report that they have had the same under consideration and report the bill back, with amendments, and recommend its passage. The committee have made a full investigation into the financial condi- tion of the University and of its needs for some years to come, and they are satisfied the sum of fifty thousand dollars per annum, provided for in this bill, out of the proceeds of the sale of tide and overflowed lands, is necessary to place the institution on a secure footing, and make it, as it was intended to be, a credit to the State and the culminating feature of our system of public schools. The University is at present temporarily located in a frame building of moderate size, situated in the Town of Oakland. The building is rented, and is inferior in every respect to many of the Grammar school houses in the towns of this State. It is clear that this arrangement cannot long continue with safety to the efficiency and success of- the institution, and that suitable buildings must be speedily erected to meet its growing wants and to accommodate the large number of students who it is known are preparing to enter at the beginning of the next term, and the still larger number that it is confidently expected will seek admission by the time the new buildings can be completed. The University owns property of great value, which has been acquired at an expense to the State of less than one-eighth of its present worth. This property consists of a beautiful tract of two hundred acres of land, situated at Berkeley, four miles north of Oakland, highly improved by the setting out of large numbers of useful and ornamental trees and the construction of numerous roads, walks and avenues; of all the waters outside of this tract that can be made available, together with dams, flumes, reservoir, pipes, etc., to convey the waters upon the University grounds ; of a large and choice selection of philosophical and chemical apparatus, sufficient to illustrate all the branches of science and equal in quality to the collections of the oldest and best equipped universities in the United States; of a valuable technical library, and the nucleus of a general library. All this property, estimated to be worth from two hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, has cost the State less than thirty-five thousand dollars. To make it available, to elevate the surroundings of the University above the grade of a second class Grammar school, and to accommodate the hundreds of students that we may reasonably expect will soon be applying for admission, it is necessary that the University put up its own buildings on its own property. Towards this, the Eegents have at present available resources amounting to seventy-seven thousand six hundred and fifty-five dollars, and during the year expect to receive from the sale of tide lands the further sum of one hundred thousand dollars, making a total of disposable funds, present and prospective, of one hundred and seventy-seven thousand six hundred and fifty-five dollars. Out of this amount must be paid the salaries of the Professors and officers and incidental expenses, amounting to the fixed sum, per annum, of forty-five thousand six hundred and ninety-six dollars. This would require ninety-one thousand three hundred and ninety-two dollars during the years eighteen hundred and seventy and eighteen hundred and seventy-one, before the next meeting of the Legislature, and would leave but eighty-six thousand two hundred and sixty-three dollars with which to erect and equip the new building, a sum, of course, altogether insufficient. Even if it were used as far as it would go, it would leave the buildings in an unfinished and useless condition, and the University without a dollar thereafter to pay its necessary current expenses. If, however, the bill under consideration should be passed, securing for some years to come the sum of fifty thousand dollars per annum wherewith to pay the fixed expenses of the University, nearly ail the present available resources (one hundred and seventy-seven thou- sand six hundred and fifty-five dollars) could be used for the con- struction and equipment of the buildings. This sum, with judicious management, we are assured, will provide all the accommodations pressingly needed, without further assistance from the State. If the endowment asked for in this bill is refused, the construction of the buildings must be stopped, for it would be folly to expend the only avail- able resources, of the institution in building, and then be compelled to discharge the Professors for the want of means to pay them. The only alternative would be to continue the University in the present modest, frame, rented school house, and this would be death to the institution. Our University must be first class in every particular, or it must sink into insignificence. No medium position is possible. It must be better than any of the other institutions of learning on this coast, in the ability of its faculty, in the excellence and convenience of its buildings, in its library, its apparatus, its equipments generally, and in the beauty, attractiveness and advantages of its location and its site. If deficient or inferior indeed, if only equal in these particulars to other colleges, it must go down. It must, therefore, have suitable buildings ; and these, we are convinced, cannot be obtained unless the endowment bill is passed. The one hundred and fifty thousand acres of land granted by Congress to this State, for the establishment of a College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, have been appropriated by law to the support of the University, which embraces five colleges one of letters and four of arts; among them a College of Agriculture, a College of the Mechanic Arts, and a College of Mining and Metallurgy. But a small portion of these lands has been sold, and it has been found necessary to locate the great body of the grant in the most distant and sparsely settled portions of the State, because nowhere else could unoccupied public lands be found. These locations must be held for a market, and no considerable revenue can be expected from their sale for four or five years to come. Meanwhile our University must be maintained, and the endowment bill seems the most feasible and least burdensome means of providing the necessary income. It is far preferable to an annual appropriation of fifty thousand dollars out of the current revenues of the State, derived from the taxation of the people. If, after the lapse of a few years, it should be found that the University can be sustained by the revenues derived from the sale of its lands, the Legislature can repeal the endow- ment bill and transfer the funds set apart by it into the State treasury, to be devoted to other uses. In order to secure such control over the endowment by the Legislature, and to remove all doubts as to its power to revoke it, your committee have recommended that the bill be amended by striking out the words "perpetual" and "forever," in the first line of section two. Thus amended, we recommend that the bill be passed. In conclusion, your committee would represent that the University is the fulfilment and the complement of the common schools of this State. It is absolutely free to all properly qualified applicants; and it is with pardonable pride that our young State can point to the fact that she is the first to provide the means whereby the son of the poorest parents may receive a thorough education, from the Primary school, through all the grades, up to the University, and there obtain all the benefits of the highest culture, without charge. Should narrow views prevail, and our University be permitted to linger for a little while through a sickly existence, and then die for the want of support, and we be compelled to announce to the world that its doors are closed, and to scud forth our young men into foreign lands to be educated, it would bring shame and humiliation to every Californian, and make us a scoff and a by-word among the enlightened people of the world. All of which is respectfully submitted. E. M. BANVARD, WILLIAM MINIS, B. D. WILSON, GEORGE C. PERKINS. NON-CIRCULATING BOOK 533436 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY