XI Report of the Director of the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1907-1908 To the Board of Trustees: The President of the University has the honor to submit to the Board of Trustees the following Report for the year 1907-1908. The Report covers the period from September 30th, 1907, to September 30th, 1908. FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION At the close of the academic year 1907-1908 forty years had elapsed since the University first opened its doors in 1868 and the event was appropriately celebrated during Commencement Week by a general reunion of all Cornellians. In response to the call sent out by the committee in charge, it is estimated that about 2,000 alumni and former students returned to Ithaca to renew old associations and to commemorate the remarkable achievements wrought by their Alma Mater in the comparatively short time since she first took her place in the sisterhood of American universities. The formal exercises were held in the quadrangle immediately in front of Goldwin Smith Hall. They consisted of addresses by the first President of the University, by President Schurman and by Judge Frank H. Hiscock of the class of 1875. For the success of this reunion and celebration great credit is due to Mr. Charles E. Treman, '89, chairman of the committee in charge. In connection with the celebration of the Fortieth Anniversary of the Foundation of the University should be mentioned the preparation of the 1908 Ten Year Book, being the fourth volume in the series of Ten Year Books. It contains the names of all students and officers of the University from 1868 to 1908. The names of the students are given in alphabetical order, followed in each case by the student's date of entering and the date of leaving the University, the course pursued, and the degree taken (if any) and the date thereof, with his present address and occupation. This is followed by a geographical index in which the distribution of all former Cornell students throughout the United States and foreign countries in their alphabetical order it shown. The volume also contains a list of graduates given in the order of graduation with the grouping followed in the programme of the annual commencements. For the first time the Ten Year Book also contains a list of all persons who have attended the Summer Session and the Short Winter Courses. This volume will be of great value to the University and to all its graduates and former students. It contains about 26,000 names. The preparation of it has entailed prodigious amount of work, which has fallen upon Mr. David F. Hoy, the Registrar of the University, Chairman of the Committee of the Alumni appointed by the Board of Trustees to prepare the volume. As Mr. Hoy's time was already fully occupied by the work of the Registrar's office, the assumption of these additional duties imposed upon him a burden which few men could have carried. And both for the excellent volume he has produced and the extraordinary labors he has performed in producing it he deserves the profound appreciation and gratitude of the University and of all its graduates and former students. TRUSTEES AND FACULTIES The year was one of unusual mortality in the Board of Trustees. On the 2nd of October, Mr. Samuel Dumont Halliday passed away after an illness of many months. He was chairman of the Executive Committee and a member of the Finance Committee as well as University Attorney. He was a man of massive common sense, great sagacity and rich knowledge of men and affairs, and he justly exercised a large influence in the deliberations of the Board. Another active Trustee was lost to the Board by the death of Mr. George Russel Williams, which occurred on the 2nd of December. Mr. Williams had long been Chairman of the Finance Committee. Charged more than any other Trustee with the responsibility of investing the funds of the University, the record of his administration of this great trust is a high and lasting tribute to his wide knowledge, sane judgment, conservative temperament and unselfish devotion to the welfare of the University. Before the community had recovered from the gloom of these two bereavements, of which previous illness had given some warning, it was shocked on the morning of the 22nd of January by the announcement of the sudden death of Mr. Franklin C. Cornell. A son of the Founder of the University, he had been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1895, and during the great material expansion of the University in the last decade he had been Chairman of the Committee on Grounds. His foresight, his sound judgment, his tenacity of purpose, his knowledge of practical affairs and his business training rendered him an unusually valuable and helpful Trustee. Mr. Cornell, Mr. Halliday and Mr. Williams were all residents of Ithaca, where they |