Under its provisions many of the older professors have spent a year in Europe at the great seats of learning, making themselves acquainted at first hand with the results of modern research and methods.

There was also created the office of dean of the general faculty, who performed many of the duties previously devolving upon the president. He was the medium of communication with the students, the chairman ex officio of many important committees, and in general the executive officer of the faculty. This office materially lightened the labors of the president in matters of administrative detail, and rendered possible a more systematic management of the routine of the administrative department. The dean was appointed by the president, subject to ratification by the board of trustees. The following served as deans of the general faculty: Charles A. Schaeffer, 1886-87; Henry S. Williams, 1887-88; Horatio S. White, 1888-1896. Since 1896 Professor White has been dean of the university faculty created by the legislation of 1896.

The trustees also by a statute conferred upon the university senate an advisory power in the selection of professors. It was first provided that no election of a full professor should be made except upon the recommendation of a committee composed of all the full professors and the president. This was found unsatisfactory and was replaced by a statute providing that the nomination of professors should be vested in the president, who should first present the name to the university senate. This body was empowered to consider the nomination and vote upon it, yea or nay. This vote, with any reasons the senate might wish to assign, was then transmitted with the nomination to the board of trustees for their final action.2 The university senate was composed of the president and all full professors, a body which in 1891-92 numbered 35 members. Its duties were to assist the president, to counsel and advise in regard to all nominations for professorships, to advise in regard to courses of study, and in general to consider and advise as to questions of university policy and especially such as might be submitted to it by the trustees. The senate continued upon this basis down to October, 1893, when it was abolished by act of the board of trustees.

In the first year of his administration President Adams recommended that the university should confer honorary degrees upon its alumni or others who might be deemed worthy of this distinction. In accordance with this recommendation two honorary degrees were conferred in 1886, one upon ex-President White and one upon David Starr Jordan, a graduate of the university in the class of 1872, then president of Indiana University and since president of Leland Stanford, Junior, University. Down to this time the university had never con

1Proceedings of Board of Trustees, 1885-1890, p. 314.

2 Annual Report of the President, 1890, pp. 19, 20. Proceedings of Board of Trustees, October 21, 1890.

ferred any honorary degrees, and it had been tacitly understood that such action was contrary to its established policy. The alumni of the university, while recognizing that if honorary degrees were to be conferred at all, the two persons selected were eminently worthy of the honor, could not look with indifference upon this reversal of the established policy. They accordingly prepared and circulated a petition requesting the trustees to reverse their action so far as concerned the future policy of the university, and this petition, signed by an overwhelming majority of the alumni, was presented to the faculty and the board of trustees during the following year. The petition was favorably and unanimously acted upon by the faculty, and the trustees on October 22, 1886, rescinded their action of the preceding June, without prejudice to the degrees already conferred. This decisive action may be regarded as indicative of what is now the settled policy of the university upon this point.

8. RESIGNATION OF PRESIDENT ADAMS.

On May 5, 1892, President Adams resigned the presidency of the university, to take effect at the close of the college year, assigning as his reason for the step "grave and seemingly irreconcilable differences of opinion in regard to matters of administrative importance." While no further public statement has ever been made as to the precise nature of the differences which led to this step, it is generally understood that they were of a character honorable to all concerned, and that President Adams laid down the duties of the office in the conviction that by so doing he could best secure for the university a harmonious and consistent administration. In accepting his resignation the trustees testified to their high opinion of Dr. Adams and just appreciation of his work for the university in this minute, which was spread upon their records:

It is in obedience both to a sense of duty and to a feeling of strong personal respect and attachment that the trustees of Cornell University place upon their minutes this formal expression of their cordial appreciation of the services of Dr. Charles Kendall Adams as their chief executive officer during the past seven years. He came into the presidency at a time when a great addition to the material resources of the institution demanded commensurate effort. New departments were to be created, old departments to be enlarged and reorganized, large additions were to be made to the faculty, and great extension given to the equipment. It is not too much to say that President Adams distinguished himself by the fidelity with which his multifarious duties were discharged. The formation of his plans was marked by wisdom, and their execution by unwearied labor and care. In the choice of professors he showed remarkable sagacity. Rarely in the history of any institution has such a series of eminent professors been brought nto any faculty as that which has been introduced under his administration into Cornell University. A very striking testimony to the wisdom of his nominations is seen in the efforts which other leading universities have made to attract into their own faculties the men he has thus selected.

In the relation between the university and the National and State governments, and especially with the department of public instruction of the State of New York, President Adams has also shown his ability to deal with men in the conduct of large public affairs.

As regards the influence of the university on the public, and wide discussion of the leading educational topics of the time, President Adams, by his writing and speeches, has materially influenced the most enlightened public opinion of his country, and as a writer upon historical subjects he has done work which has elicited praise from the highest sources on both sides of the Atlantic.

His administration will be remembered in the history of Cornell University as equally important to the interests of the institution and creditable to himself, and we tender to him as a scholar, as an educator, and as a man the assurances of our sincere respect and regard, with our best wishes for his future success and happiness.

President Adams closed his official commencement day (June 17), 1893.

relations with the university on His annual report, presented to

the board of trustees on June 15th, concludes with these words:

I can not close this report without giving expression to my appreciation of the generous action of the board of trustees in connection with the acceptance of my resignation. I wish also to acknowledge with gratitude the hearty and more than cordial terms in which my relations with my colleagues and my parting with the university is alluded to in their reports herewith presented by the dean of the general faculty, the director of Sibley College, the director of the college of agriculture, the director of the college of civil engineering, and by the associate dean in behalf of the faculty of the school of law. I am also grateful for the expressions of regard that have come to me in so many ways from the students of the university. All these kindly and friendly sentiments are gratefully appreciated and fully reciprocated.

At the end of my inaugural address I used these words:

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"In my hopeful moments I try to forecast the future. I see in imagination these courses of study perfected and extended; I contemplate new departments added and developed; I behold museums and laboratories established and amplified, and, as the crowning glory of all, I behold a great library arising to fulfill the provisions of a noble and unthwarted purpose. As I picture all these provisions shedding their influence for good or for evil over the future generatins of this State, and think of all their possibilities and promises, and see them in imagination crowning these beautiful hills, I reverently pray to God that all the fruits of wisdom and benevolence may be vouchsafed to the people of this State, and that all our efforts may be sanctified to the building up of noble men and women, and the universal furtherance of all good learning and of every form of Christian civilization."

As I look about me to-day I can not suppress a feeling of reverent gratitude that in the seven years that have since elapsed so much has been accomplished for the fulfillment of this hopeful prediction. Best of all, I rejoice that the university never before was in so good a condition as it is to-day, and in passing over the keys of office to my successor, I do it with the hope and the fervent prayer that the prosperity of the past seven years may prove to have been only a harbinger and a preparation for even greater prosperity in the years to come.

Dr. Adams assumed at the beginning of the next college year the presidency of the University of Wisconsin, where his talents and experience are helping to build up one of the greatest of the State universities.

C. THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT SCHURMAN.

On May 18, 1892, Jacob Gould Schurman, D. Sc., LL.D., was unanimously elected president of the university, and on June 17 he entered

upon the duties of the office. Dr. Schurman's election was received among the officers, alumni, students, and friends of the university with a degree of favor which amounted to positive enthusiasm. For seven years he had been connected with the faculty, first as professor of Christian ethics and later as dean of the Susan E. Linn Sage school of philosophy, and during that time had given evidence of the ripest scholarship, the broadest educational ideals, and the highest administrative ability. Moreover, he was a young man, being but 38 years old at the time of his election, and having still before him his best years of usefulness. Everything combined to make him the first choice of all and the fittest man for the place that could have been selected.

President Schurman's policy is clearly outlined in his inaugural address, entitled "Grounds of an appeal to the State for aid to Cornell University," delivered November 11, 1892, upon the occasion of his formal inauguration as president. The policy there announced is based upon the idea that Cornell is the State university of New York, just as, for example, the institutions at Ann Arbor and Berkeley are the State universities of Michigan and California. It proceeds from this premise to the conclusion that New York should support her State university in the same manner that Michigan and California support theirs. Cornell, he argues, educates yearly 512 sons and daughters of New York at an expense of over $150,000, free of charge.1 New York ought, in justice, to bear this burden, appropriating yearly to Cornell not less than that amount. She has, in fact, never appropriated to that purpose one cent from her own treasury. Her sole benefaction has been to turn over to the university the gift of the United States, a gift represented by the land scrip fund, upon which the annual income has been about $20,000 and which will never exceed $30,000. Various urgent needs of the university call for State aid. Especially agriculture and veterinary science, subjects touching most nearly the interests of the State, call for immediate and ample appropriations. In view of these considerations the president announced the policy of calling henceforth on the State for the aid necessary to develop and maintain the university.

The policy thus inaugurated was speedily put to the test. The legislature of 1893 was asked to appropriate money for the erection and equipment of an agricultural building devoted to instruction and experiment in dairy husbandry. The result was an appropriation of $50,000, the first money ever voted directly to the university from the State treasury. With this money the dairy building was erected, and its formal opening in the fall of 1893 was the occasion of the first visit

'Since the adoption of the revised constitution, going into effect January 1, 1895, the number of assembly districts is increased to 150 and the number of free State scholarships may therefore aggregate 600 in all.

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to the university of a legislative committee. Another appropriation was asked in 1894, and a like sum of $50,000 was voted for the erection of a veterinary building, to which $100,000 was added the next year. The latter building, however, belongs to the State as a part of the equipment of a State veterinary college, and is administered in behalf of the State by the trustees of Cornell University. Additional appropriations have been asked of the legislature for the maintenance of the college and have been granted. The legislature last year established a State College of Forestry and put it under the management of the university. Thus the policy announced at the inauguration has received recognition in successive legislatures and bids fair to become firmly established.

Another result, due largely to President Schurman's exertions, was the transfer of the land-scrip fund from a special fund, subject to possible loss or impairment, to the general funds of the State, on which the State will pay hereafter 5 per cent interest annually.

Other phases of the policy announced in the inaugural address were, the increase of the salaries of professors; the increase in the number of university fellowships and scholarships; the establishment of publication funds for the printing of contributions in various fields of learning; the establishment of new departments and chairs in fields as yet unoccupied; fuller and more adequate equipment for established departments and building and equipment of dormitories for students. For the accomplishment of many of these ends the president looks to private benefaction and for many he holds that it is the duty of the State to make provision.

The gist of it all may be briefly put. Cornell University was designed for the benefit of the people of this Commonwealth, but in accepting the land grant from Congress New York pledged State aid to the institution receiving the proceeds. This is Cornell University. : But the university has now reached a point in its development at which, if it is to furnish liberal and practical education to the largest numbers in all the pursuits and professions of life, it must have support from the public treasury as well as from the bounty of individuals. Thus only can the university fulfill its vocation of furnishing the highest education to all classes at the lowest cost. These ends are the ends of the State. It is dedicated to truth and utility; and between these there is no incompatibility; for, as Plato has well said, "the divinest things are the most serviceable." We are at once realistic and idealistic, and while we cherish the old we are always in quest of something better. The genius of Cornell University stands on the solid earth; and while his eyes front the dawn the ancient heavens are about him, and through all its resounding spaces he hears the noble mother call Excelsior! So may it be! So shall it be; for the people of New York will not suffer either private gifts or public grants to fail us.

During the comparatively brief period that has elapsed since the beginning of the administration several important changes have been made in the educational and govermental policy of the university.

The requirements for admission to the technical courses were mate3176-27