crowded. Every foot of space in all the buildings, including basements and attics, is utilized. In order to provide more room for students, classes are running all day, morning and afternoon. Seven departments are wholly or in part in basements and attics. The administration offices and the classes of eight teachers are in the building used for a library. All this space is needed for other purposes. No assembly room is provided. The chapel services and other gatherings are held in the men's gymnasium. The laboratories are very much crowded. No museum is provided. The demand for library facilities is greatly in excess of the supply.

A visit to the library and laboratories of Indiana University will show we think that while there are other needs, the immediate and most pressing needs are a new library and a new science building. A chapel building is highly desirable, but we can for the present use the gymnasium for the audience room, a chapel and the gymnasium exercises proper. Unless we can have better facilities for the use of our library and better rooms and more rooms for science our work will necessarily be curtailed and crippled. Several science departments have no quarters specially fitted up for them. The present building used as a library is inadequate both as to size and in adaptation for library purposes. We ask to present to you for your consideration plans and specifications of a library building and an outline for a science building.

The library of the University of Wisconsin cost $450,000; Minnesota, $175,000; Illinois, $150,000; Nebraska, $110,000. As a rule the buildings that have been erected prior to the last ten years are too small and are not well adapted for modern library purposes. There have been within this time immense strides in library work.

Our science departments (chemistry, physics, geology, zoology and botany are too much dependent upon basements and attics. Our meager room for science work compared with other State universities may be judged by the following facts: Science buildings for the departments included above had cost previous to 1897

The Board of Trustees asks for an appropriation for a science building to cost $150,000, and for an additional sum of $7,300 to equip the same. They do not furnish to the committee any plans or specifications for a science building, but claim that it will require the sum asked for to build such a building as they desire for the University. They state that while they feel the need of the library building they will not ask for an appropriation for this purpose at this time, but will be content with an appropriation for a science building.

The committee believes that a suitable science building that will answer all the needs of the University for a number of years can be erected for the sum of $100,000, and therefore recommend that this sum be appropriated for a fire-proof building and equipment.

The title to the property held by the University being in the name of "The Trustees of Indiana University," the committee would recommend that before this appropriation be made the trustees execute a deed conveying to the State of Indiana all the property held by them as trustees of said University.

INDIANA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL.

W. W. PARSONS, PRESIDENT.

This institution is located almost in the heart of the thriving city of Terre Haute.

The act of the General Assembly which created the State Normal School was approved December 20, 1865. This act defined the object of the school to be "the preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of Indiana," provided for the appointment of a board of trustees, the location of the buildings, the organization of a training school fund for the adoption of courses of study, and created the Normal School fund for the maintenance of the institution. The act further required the trustees to locate the school at the town or city of the State that should obligate itself to give the largest amount in cash or buildings and grounds to secure the school. The city of Terre Haute was the only place to offer any inducement to secure the institution. A tract of ground three hundred feet square near the center of the city, valued at $25,000, and $50,000 in cash were offered, and the city agreed to maintain forever one-half the necessary expense of keeping the buildings and grounds in repair. This liberal offer was accepted, and the construction of the building was begun. Aided by subsequent legislative appropriations, the trustees were able to complete the building partially, and the school was opened January 6, 1870. The professional training of teachers was an experiment in Indiana, and the institution began its work without the confidence and united support of the people of the State.

The school limits its attention and work to this one thing-the preparation of teachers for teaching in the common schools of the State. No person is admitted who does not enter for the purpose of preparing to teach in the common schools of the State, and all the work of the school has this one end in view.

The following table exhibits the number enrolled during each term since the organization of the school, the average term enrollment, and the whole number of different students for the regular academic year:

Total number of different students since the organization of the

school, 18,606.

building and its conOnly the foundations

On the forenoon of April 8, 1888, the tents were almost totally destroyed by fire. were left unimpaired; the library, furniture, apparatus and everything in the building the accumulation of eighteen years-were consumed. Terre Haute provided temporary quarters for the school, and, under contract to maintain one-half the expense of repairs to the buildings and grounds, promptly gave $50,000 in cash with which to begin the work of rebuilding. The next General Assembly appropriated $100,000 for the completion of the building and the purchase of a new library, etc. With these sums

the school constructed a commodious and beautiful building, and purchased an equipment for every department much superior to that possessed before the fire.

The Legislature of 1893 appropriated $40,000 for the construction of a new building to be used for gymnasia, library and laboratories. The General Assembly of 1895 made a further appropriation of $30,000, and the General Assembly of 1897 appropriated $10,000 for completing and furnishing the building.

MATERIAL EQUIPMENT.

The State Normal School thus occupies two large, handsome buildings, each four stories high. The larger building, constructed immediately after the fire of 1888, is about 190 by 150 feet, and is a very commodious, well appointed school building. It contains an assembly room capable of seating three hundred persons, the president's office, a beautiful chapel which seats comfortably one thousand persons, trustees' room, cloakrooms, washrooms, etc. It is, architecturally, one of the most beautiful buildings in the State, and its internal arrangement is well adapted to the purpose for which it is constructed.

The second building is about 100 by 100 feet, and is, architecturally, in general harmony with the larger building. The second story is occupied by the library. This is a large, well lighted, beautiful room, admirably adapted to library use. The third story is occupied by the several science departments. The fourth story is used by the literary societies, and the first for two gymnasia. The library is equipped with every needed appliance, and contains about 32,000 well-selected volumes. The chemical, biological and physical laboratories on the third floor are substantially furnished and are equipped with everything needed for the science work of the school.