UNIVERSITY COURIER
Entered at Lawrence Post Office as Second Class Matter.
VOL. I.
LAWRENCE, KANSAS, JUNE 6, 1883.
No.18
University Courier.
A SEMI-MONTHLY PUBLICATION DEVOTED TO THE BEST INTERESTS OF THE STUDENTS
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
BOARD OF EDITORS.
EDITORIAL...C. C. DART.
TOPICS...J. D. McLAREN.
LITERARY...E. A. BROWN, ANNA MURPHY.
SCIENTIFIC...L. L. DYCHE.
NORMAL...G. E. ROSE.
EXCHANGE...ALBERT RIFFLE.
LOCAL...GLEN MILLER, MARY GILLMORE.
PERSONAL...CLARA GILLHAM
MISCELLANY...W. S. WHIRLOW, ELLA V. KEIST.
BUSINESS MANAGERS. EDMOND BUTLER, B. K. BRUCE.
Subscription, One Dollar per Year, in Advance.
EDITORIAL.
The kindness of the other editors, in giving up the space allotted to their respective departments, has enabled us to place before our readers the Commencement-day speeches together with many other articles of rare literary merit. This issue is not a record of everyday school life but rather of four years hard study. A record in which the growth of mental power is measured, not by the books swallowed and facts learned, but by the increased intellectual activity and culture. But in reading these orations, do not think to find diamonds, for '83's charcoal of four years ago is the graphite of to-day which will soon meet the transforming elements in the worlds work-shop and become the diamonds of the future. W-h-e-n!!!
certainly unusual, reflecting no little credit on the gentleman who stands at the head of the institution, and should be a source of gratification to all friends of the institution, who have its interests at heart.
The friends and patrons of the University may well be pleased with its record for the year just closed. Not only has the attendance been greater than ever before, by more than a hundred students, but provisions have been made for additional buildings and appliances for better work in the several departments. The total absence of rowdyism and hazing—terms synonymous with college life-certainly bespeak more strongly than words the character of the young men and women who have sought wisdom within the gray old walls of Kansas State University. Considering the vast number of students, coming from every part of Kansas and in fact the United States, and representing all classes and conditions, this decorum and harmony that has existed among them, is
The State Legislature during its last session, appropriated $12,000 for the erection of a chemical laboratory during the summer, although refusing us an observatory. While the latter may easily be dispensed with, for some time yet, the former was an immediate necessity. Its position in the basement of the main building made it extremely obnoxious, because of the fumes that arose when the ventilators refused to work; this together with the danger from fire by chemicals, rendered the action of the Legislature a most wise one. The contract for the erection of the laboratory is doubtless let by this time, and will probably be completed before the beginning of another school year.
The action of the Regents during the year has been beyond reproach. The sudden and unceremonious removal of the Junior Preparatory Class while doubtless checking for a time, a number of youths in their ambition to attend college, only raises the standard of the institution, and rids it of part of its great incumbrance.
It is to be hoped that the High Schools throughout the state will adopt, as a few have done, the courses of study equivalent to the three years of study here, requisite for admission to the Freshman class. This would justify the authorities of the institution in carrying out their pet scheme, that of the removal of the two remaining classes of the preparatory department.
The change that has been made in the department of Civil and Topographical Engineering, both in the way of appliances for instruction and the enlargement of the course of study, has been a most needed one. The Freshman year in this department is the same as heretofore with the exception of additional drawings. Construction of Roads and Railroads is transferred from the Junior to the Sophomore year, while advanced work takes its place in the Junior year. The Senior year requires Specifications and Contracts in addition to the old course, and an Engineering Thesis, in addition to the regular literary Thesis, which is to be original and technical in its details.
These together with many other changes only indicate the healthy growth of the institution and it takes no prophet to see that a very few years will find Mt. Oread crowned with a University second to none in our land.
In a recent New York Times appears an account of the Student's Cooperative Association of Harvard. This is