How Is The University Locomotive Testing Laboratory University of Illinois HOW IS 1 HE UNIVERSITY? X'VO years ago and one year ago as the servant of the people it was my duty to set before you the hard conditions under which the University of Illinois was doing its work on account of the great increase in students and slowing up of building \ caused by the w T ar. Through your representatives in the legislature you undertook to remedy the situ- ation by a liberal increase in the appropriation to your University for operating and for buildings. I Although the amount received was not what, as the responsible head of the institution, was in my judg- ment the minimum necessary to accomplish the purpose, it afforded great relief and the University gladly and cheerfully accepted your derision ami set to work to do the best it could. Money Saved I 'J'O help relieve the need for more room, $90,000 were appropriated for a three story addition to fhe Transportation Building. Work on this was begun in the middle of July and the building was occupied the last week of September. This rapid work was possible because the construction was under our own close supervision and every means was used to save time and money. As a result, the work is completed at a cost of $10,000 Jess than the appropria- tion. That is, we have saved $10,000 of the $90,000 appropriated and it remains in the Treasury. It is our fixed plan to make every dollar go as far as possible and to use no more of an appropriation for a specific purpose than is absolutely necessary. Staff and Its Pay 'JpHE total number on the payroll of the University this year is 1 465, including 141 on part time. Of these, 987 are on the teaching and administrative staff and 481 are on the clerical and other staff. The total amount paid to regular staff and employees in salaries and wages for the year is $2,830,036, showing an average of $2,136 for everybody on the payroll on full time basis, and of $2,630 for those on the instruc- tional and administrative staff'. It is not true that we are losing good men because of lack of money, though good men are continually promoted to places in other institutions. The facul- ty and administrative staffs of the University of Illinois rank with any similar institution in the world. Indeed, they outrank many. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS BULLETIN Issued Weekly Vol. XIX April 17, 1922 No. 34 [Entered as second-class matter December 1 1. iqiz , at the post office at Urbana. Illinois, under the Act of August 24. 1912. Acceptance for mailing at the special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized Ju/v 31, 1918. J PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, URBANA Burrill Avenue — A Campus Street University of Illinois Attendance Increased by About the Average Annual Ten Per Cent 'T'HE total registration for the year is 10,627 bona A fide resident students, an increase over last year of 1,134. By colleges, it is: 19 Liberal Arts and Sciences Commerce Education Engineering Agriculture Music Law 20-21 2 53 5 1841 137 1662 1 135 1 17 128 1921-22 •2786 2063 291 1737 1036 101 130 Library 3° Graduate School 42 1 55 1 Medicine (Chicago) 3i3 355 Dentistry (Chicago) 229 204 Pharmacy (Chicago) 208 26 c Summer Session (excluding dupli- cates, those who attended the winter session) 750 1089 Total vet enrollment for the. year (excluding duplicates) 9493 10627 The great increase in college and university at- tendance is due undoubtedly to the stimulus given by the war to young people for more education and to the campaign fostered throughout the country the past two years to “stay in school” and “go to college.” The movement will be permanent and pro- vision must be made to meet it. Numbers and Standards npHE increasing enrollment in the University is A regarded by some as showing a lowering of standards. This is not so. The colleges and uni- versities have not lowered their standards , but there are more boys and girls able to meet them. While the population of the country increased about 68 per cent in the twenty years preceding 1918, college and Miiversity attendance in the country increased about 139 per cent , and in the past twenty-eight years the secondary school enrollment has increased about yio per cent. Population is greater and a larger pro- portion of high school pupils are entering college. If it costs one dollar to do a public service when ten people are involved, we must expect to pay per- haps up to two dollars when the same service has to be performed for double the number of people. We cannot expect to educate a growing number at the same or less expense. Increasing Expenditures A/IUCH is said and written about the increased expenditure on education. The expense is not increasing faster than the number of boys and girls to be educated. The percentage of increase for edu- cational purposes is far less than the percentage of increase in enrollment. The question for the country to decide is whether we w r ant to provide higher edu- cation for as many of our children as want it. We cannot lessen expenditure for education and at the same time increase the number to be educated. All we can do, and this we should do, is to see to it that the utmost economy compatible with the best work is observed. Is the University Too Large? A LTHOUGH there are not enough class rooms and laboratories to permit of a schedule which provides the use of many rooms to the best interest of the student health , the classes as now conducted are not overcrowded. They are still large, but no one has yet been excluded. The statement has been frequently made of late that the student body is already too numerous and too unwieldy for the highest and best results in the work of educating. This statement is made by those who are simply impressed with the total at- tendance. It is not a correct view. The University is neither too large nor unwieldy. The mere fact that its enrollment is 10,000 does not prove either point. The statement might be more correct if the whole 10,000 were a homogeneous body in the sense that they were all taking the same subjects. But the University of Illinois is made up of ten or more colleges and schools , each with its own curriculum. There is only one study that all freshmen students must take and therefore only otie subject in which they must be brought together as a homogeneous group. That is first year Rhetoric or English. Aside from this, the largest single group is about 0,700 in Arts and Sciences, which is a smaller number than many independent colleges of arts and sciences In the country. Again, the University is no larger than, indeed is smaller than, many European universities in the past and today. They were not broken up because they were too large or unwieldy. Still further, a large number simply requires a better organization. If the best work can be done in a class of twenty-five , all that is necessary is to have staff and space enough to divide the large number into classes of twenty-five . There is no less efficiency in teaching such a class, whether it is one of a hundred similar classes held at the same place on the same day or one of a hundred similar classes held in different institutions on the same day. But there is an economy in handling large numbers with proper organization instead of scat- tering them over the State. The educational work of the different colleges could not be carried on if the students were distributed in other places; for nearly every student in every college of the University takes some subject in the curricu- lum of some of the others , and each of these colleges furnishes early in the course some of the technical or special work needed for the different degrees. Should We Have Branch Universities? XTO. The overhead expense is less if all are in one • institution. The spirit of the body of students is better; there is inspiration in putting students with, different life aims in the same class; there is unity of ideals and a greater inspiration for all concerned. If the time ever comes when the number of students seeking admission cannot find proper places to live or a point is reached, which seems . to me hardly, conceivable, when there will be economy iq dupli- cating overhead and equipment, then it will be time to discuss branch institutions. That time is. far in the future. The University Finances 'T'HE legislature passed appropriations for the Uni- versity aggregating $5,250,000 per annum. 1 This amount was reduced to $4,430,000. Considered by itself, the sum seems large. Considered from the standpoint of the burden of the individual , it is trifling. It amounts to one and three tenth cents per capita per week. Considered as an invest?nent and set off against contributions by the University to' the State' s welfare , it is really a minus quantity. Of the more than two hundred million dollars the people of Illinois paid in general property taxes in 1 92 1, more than yiine-tenths remained in the lo- calities for local purposes. Less than ten cents on the dollar went for appropriations by the state legisla- ture for all state purposes, including the University. Building Programs Elsewhere 1 he University of Illinois- building program has not for several years kept pace with the needs of her students, nor with those of some of the universities of her sister states in the Central West. For the biennium 1921-23, the following amounts were ap- propriated for building purposes: Michigan (University & Agricultural College) $5,790,000 Ohio State (including Agricultural Ex- periment Station) 2,415,000 Illinois 1,500,000 Kansas (not including agriculture) 1,290,000 Minnesota 1,120,000 Iowa (University & Agricultural College) 937,000 Whose Is The University? TT belongs to you , the people of Illinois. Some ^ people talk and write as if the University officers, in asking for appropriations, were seeking personal favors. This is not true. As I have often said, it is no more to me, as a citizen, than to any other person of Illinois whether the University is worthy of the State. Others call the University “a burden to the tax- payers of the State.” Everything for which we have to pay is, in a sense, a burden. But an institution which , like the University , returns so much to the State is not in a true sense a burden. Our taxes for street lighting, highways, and every other public purpose, which are far greater than those for the University , are a burden only if we do not get back from them in service what we put into them. Education is an in- vestment, not a burden. The Future of the University TN your hands, my fellow citizens, and not in mine, A lies the future of the University . The welfare of Illinois is dependent on the higher education of a growing number of future citizens and on the prose- cution of research and discovery in all lines to pro- mote progress in economic , political, and social life. The responsibility is yours, not mine. My responsi- bility is to tell you honestly what the University needs to make it efficient. David Kin ley President