1

nical in their nature. The following table shows the percentage and distribution of the specified and elective subjects in each course:

a One-half of the electives in the science course in these two years (i. e., 5 hours a week) must be in one of the science laboratories, of which there are eight in operation at the university.

While the foregoing "electives" are not all absolutely free, those in the freshman year being merely options between two or three kindred subjects, work in any department of the university is thus made possible for the student and he is afforded abundant opportunity for specialization in his work if he so desires. Since this plan went into operation its results have been so satisfactory that it is safe to predict that future changes in the curriculum, at least for these three general courses, will be in the extension of the elective privileges and the introduction of a I wider range of elective subjects.1

In the technical courses, embracing the four engineering courses (civil, mechanical, electrical, and mining), the agricultural course, the veterinary course, and the pharmacy course, the nature of the work is such as to preclude the advantageous use of the elective system. Consequently in these lines the courses of study are definitely specified and the student is held to an exact fulfillment of the specifications. As the university is primarily a school of agriculture and technology its equipment and facilities are the strongest for those courses, and its apparatus and laboratories have been increased and strengthened to keep pace with the growing demand for technical instruction throughout the country.

CHANGES IN ORGANIZATION.

In 1874 a reorganization of the board of trustees was made by the legislature by which the number of members was reduced to five, appointable by the governor, and holding office for five years each. Again, in 1877, the organization was changed so that as in the first board there should be one member from each Congressional district in the State, and each member should hold his office for six years. Finally, in 1878, the general assembly again reorganized the institution and provided for a board of seven trustees, to be appointed by the governor

1 In 1890 a new course, known as the modern language course, leading to the degree of B. Ph., was arranged, in which 65 per cent. of the work is specified, and 35 per cent. elective. Of the specified work a little more than one-half is French and German language and literature.

and to hold office for seven years each, after the first appointments, which latter were to be so made that the term of one member should expire each year.

By this same act of the legislature the name of the institution was changed from the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College to Ohio State University. The reasons for this change of name were set forth by President Orton in an earlier report in which he advised and asked the change as follows: "Those who take their estimate of the institution from its title alone are sure that it has nothing in its courses which they desire, while some who judge the college from its generous rangel and scope of its courses of study are sure that it is proving false to a narrow purpose which they deduce from its title."

It is to be noted that the changes in the constitution of the legal corporation and the board of trustees in no way affected the educational work. None of the changes injured the university, and the pres ent organization is far better than the first one, since a board of seven trustees wisely selected is a more wieldy body than one of twenty-one members, and more likely to be harmonious and to reach prompt decision and action. It ought, however, to be noted that each of these reorganizations followed a change in the political complexion of the general assembly, and though this may have been a mere coincidence, nevertheless it suggests the existence of a danger surrounding a State university in a "close" State where the organization of the university is not secured by constitutional provision from legislative changes, or (what might sometimes occur, though it has not been manifested in the legislation for this university) from legislative manipulation for partisan purposes.

GROWTH AND PROGRESS.

Under the administration of President Edward Orton the progress of the institution was steady. The foundations were laid, new departments created from time to time, courses of study improved and broadened, laboratories planned and equipped. All of this, with one slight exception, was done without financial resources other than those afforded by the income of the endowment fund and the donation from Franklin County. By the end of Dr. Orton's administration the particular place in the educational field for which the university was fitted had been found and it had assumed a firm position as an agricultural and technical college affording superior facilities in these lines, and in addition affording such advantages for instruction in the arts and sciences that make for a liberal education as to give its general or non-technical courses equal rank with those of its sister colleges in the State. President Orton resigned the presidency in 1878, but at the solicitation of the trustees retained the position until 1881, when he was relieved from the duties of the executive office, retaining the professorship of geology, which he still holds. His successor in