The Chancellor's Report to the Alumni June 6, 1916

I deem it both an opportunity and a favor to speak each year to the alumni on the progress of the University. Someone in a semi-cynical mood has said that the chancellor has besides his nominal rulers the Regents to reckon with several other equaly potent bodies namely the alumni the faculty the students the patrons and the general public. In importance the alumni are placed above the faculty because so many of the latter are included in this body. Greetings then to my masters the alumni! I wonder soemtimes if these annual reports of progress of territory gained and of preparation for a great offensive sound somewhat like the offical statements that issue from the various capitale of Europe. They are alike in being optimistic in tone and in having some foundation in fact. Unlike these war bulletine however I think I can say truth fully in most of my reports that while some losses have occurred there is little to apologize for. The Record of Attendance The actual number of students enrolled during the year in excess of those the proceeding year is 237. The greatest gain

has been in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Teachers' College the work of which is so interlocked that it is difficult to make an exact distinction. Agriculture and Engineering show gains. In spite of the opening of the splendid Lincoln High School the Teachers' College High School also shows an in crease and the situation seems to show that the progress of our good friends in high school education has sided use indirectly by putting a greater emphasis on education of this rank. I will not go into a closer analysis of the figures because every year we enumerate on a little different basis and besides all classifications are more or less arbitrary. The colleges are not water-tight compartments. The University is a unit and whether a student be studying in arts engineering agriculture medicine pharmacy law or education the compartments separating him from the rest of the institution may be classed as semi-permeable and a good deal of osmosis takes place. The alumni should teach the state to think of the University as a unit and minimize the distinction between its separate parts. Nothing pleases the enemies of all more than to create an antagonism between the friends of one part and those of another. Health of Students and Faculty So far as I am able to find out four students have died during the year. We regret this lose greatly and I suppose the fact that this represents only about .08 of 1 per cent of the

student body offers little consolation to those wo are bereaved. The per cent however is important from the standpoint of public health and gives one the feeling that conditions of living could hardly be changed so as to improve the mortality record. There have been, I think, no deaths among the faculty or other employees. Though there have been in the state epidemics of scarlet fever small-pox and measles the latter is the only one that has in vaded our ranks. Don't smile at this because one or two of my student friends regard having the measles as no joke especially if it comes along exam time. Faculty Calls to Other Institutions Increases of salaries inadequate but judiciously made during the past three or four years have lessened the disparity in salary schedule between this and some of our sister institu tions to such an extent that we are able to hold the members of the faculty relatively better than previously. Threatened losses through tentative offers have been promptly met and in the main thwarted by the Regents. There have been during the year probbaly fewer such losses than at any time in the history of the institu tion. Student Scholarship In the absence of Dean Engberg I am not able to give exact statistics as to the work for the advancement of scholarship. While we cannot make the relative showing that we could a few

years ago when Dean Engber's work was first inaugerated nevertheless we have been able to hold to the reasonably high level that we reached when the revival was at its height. In view of the prosperity of the state and the desire of every body old and young to have a good time and their ability to secure the means of having a good time, even the slight advancement in scholarship averages on the basis of good previous conditions is perhaps as much as we could expect.

Student Affairs

The relations of the faculty and the officers of administration with the students have remained constantly pleasant. Student life has been remarkably free from those sporadic outbursts of discreditable conduct that brings reproach upon the University particularly from those who are looking for occasion to find fault. Even our most captious critics have been compelled to admit that with possibly one or two exceptions student affairs have been conducted in a manner that accurately reflects the living and thinking of the fine student body that collects here from all over the state. Our constant fear is always that a few will give to the public a distorted view of the conduct of the many. In this respect we feel that there is cause for congratulation.

Athletics

When I made the remark about the loss to other institutions I was'nt thinking about football. Certainly our record in athletics this year has been all that we could desire. The alumni must be prepared for less success sometime. I am wondering a little if constant victory has not taken away from us the keen edge of satisfaction. Possibly a few defeats would make us enjoy our victories more. However I hope that at least another year will pass before we are beaten at foot ball for the good of our souls, and I believe that the prospects for a successful season are excellent. New Work Undertaken The principal advances that have come in the course of a year along educational lines have been as follows: the establishment of a College of Pharmacy in accordance with legislative enactment the establishment of a Department of Poultry Husbandry the establishment of work in municipal engineering the election of an Efficiency Agent in accordance with an act of the last Legislature the installation of work in landscape architecture and extending the work in agri cultural cooperation and marketing. All of these lines of work are promising and the Regents are in hearty accord with the plans on foot.

Relations with the Alumni Association

There has been during the year the closest cooperation between the administration and the alumni association. The officers of the latter organization have been invited to meet with the Regents and everything possible has been done to promote an atmosphere of confidence. The special work of the Association of course will be handled in the report of the officers but I cannot pass over this subject without giving a tribute to the fine attitude of President Snell and the Board of Directors. If there has been any rivalry anywhere it hs been to determine whether the Association could do the most for the University or the University for the Association.

The Building Campaign

The dairy building letting the contract for which was reported a year ago now stands as you see nearly completed. The horse barn and power house on this campus (the Farm) are practically done. The contract for the agricultural engineering building would have been let before now except for the almost prohibitive war prices that prevail. By changing the plans somewhat, using reinforced concrete instead of steel the Regents hope to advertise again for bids on this building with some prospect for securing a satisfactory bid. On the city campus very advantageous contracts were let for the Bessey building and the chemical laboratory before the marked advance in building material caused by the war took effect. These

buildings are now in process of erection and should be finished by the first of the year. A very satisfactory contract for the hospital building at Omaha was also awarded and the building is now in course of erection. Tentative plans are being drawn for other buildings but owing to the exceedingly high price of building material are not being pushed as rapidly as previously. The purchase of ground for the city campus extending the original four blocks to nearly forty acres including the streets enclosed is approaching completion. Honors to the Faculty The instances of recognition that have come to the faculty and alumni are so numerous that it hardly seems necessary to recount them. Professor Fling has represented the state at the national meeting of the League to Enforce Peace. Doctor Condra has been made President of the National Conservation Congress. I will not go into detail about the others but merely mention these as the types of work that many of our men are doing a type of work that cannot be expressed in schedule classes or students but is even far more reaching in its influence than the boundaries of our country itself. The country at large and in fact the whole world has been so thrilling and throbbing with things of intense human interests that the year has not been especially favorable to the production of those things which while they may have slight place in a daily newspaper nevertheless should go into the

bound volumes of the records of our time. I refer to po ductive scholarship particularly in those things somewhat remote from popular interest. Yet there is no question that this often represents the highest type of university work in many of the great German universities it is about the only type receiving much recognition. In fact productive scholar ships while not so alluring or so immediately effective may have a potent influence on the race far in excess of those things of immediate human interest. With this prelude I wish to call the attention of the alumni to an evidence of scholarly work on the part of our faculty that has appeared within the last two weeks. I refer to the volume on Rest Days by Professor Hutton Webster. Though not a trained anthropologist and hence not competent to speak of Profssor Webster's book in a critical way I nevertheless feel that it will take his place along with his previous work on Primitive Secret Societies a work in which has been used by the Japanese in Formosa in their efforts to fathom the customs and mental processes of the aborigines. The future historian of the University will I believe count Professor Webster's scholarly work among the very creditable production of our time. I mention this and would not disparage by lack of reference the excellent work of other members of the faculty and I hope no one student faculty or alumni will feel that any lack of reference is a lack of appreciation.

Conclusion

On the whole it seems to me that the year has been an unusually successful and prosperous one. I regret that before we meet again Regent Whitmore long president of the Board of Regents will have retired after serving the University for thirteen years. No one has been more loyal, no one more wise no one more inspiring. If he would have consented to continue to serve I have no doubt that a grateful state would be delight in re-electing him by an overwhelming majority. It is the long continued service of such Regents that has given the University of Nebraska much of its standing and much of its strength. In conclusion I think I may without impropriety suggest that the alumni as occasion presents impress on the candidates for the Legislature of each and all parties their affection for the University and their desire that it have such support as it needs in order to maintain in an adequate way its position of intellectual leadership in the state.