Mechanical Engineering, when he suddenly died of meningitis. Mr. Fowler was a young man of great promise, and his death coming with such suddenness and at the very beginning of the academic year cast a gloom over the entire University community. There were 467 patients admitted during the year from July 1, 1907, to July 1, 1908, of whom 422 were cured, twenty-seven discharged as improved, ten transferred to other hospitals, while seven were not improved and, as already stated, two died. Of the cases treated 282 were medical, 148 surgical, and thirty-eight affections of the eye, ear and nose. Even with an annual income of $5,000 on the endowment fund which Messrs. Dean Sage and William H. Sage so generously provided for the Infirmary at the time they presented it to the University, it was not quite self-supporting during the year. The balance on hand August 1, 1907, was $11,559.18 and the balance on August 1, 1908, was $11,292.57. The following table shows in detail the cost of conducting the Infirmary and the receipts from students since 1898: The Infirmary fee of $2 per term hereafter to be charged to all students should, in spite of the increased cost of maintenance, make the Infirmary self-supporting and leave at least a portion of the income on the endowment fund available for the erection of a ward for contagious diseases in connection with the Infirmary. The not infrequent outbreaks of contagious diseases like diphtheria, scarlet fever and measles impressively remind the University authorities from time to time of the indispensable need of such an isolation ward for students in a city so small as Ithaca. ENLARGEMENT OF THE CAMPUS During the year the Trustees have purchased nearly 50 acres of land at a cost of $15,275 for the extension of the campus on the southeast. The campus, by resolution of the Trustees adopted in February, was enlarged so as to include the entire tract lying between Cascadilla and Fall Creek gorges from Stewart Avenue on the west to the Judd's Falls Road on the east; and the Executive Committee afterward pushed the southern boundary beyond Cascadilla Gorge to the E. C. & N. railway. The distance north and south is about five eighths of a mile and the distance east and west is about a mile; and the entire area (including the extension beyond Cascadilla gorge to the E. C. & N. railway track) is 350 acres. Twenty or twenty-five years ago the buildings of the University were grouped mainly about Central Avenue. Then came the development of East Avenue for the houses of professors. On the east side of East Avenue were located in 1895 the buildings of the New York State Veterinary College with the object of removing them from the campus while still rendering them visible from it. Then at the urgent request of the President, the Trustees spent $100,000 in the purchase of the vacant field of seventeen acres which separated on the west the University from the built-up portions of the city, thus shifting the western boundary of the University estate to Stewart Avenue. In the last few years the building of Stimson Hall, Goldwin Smith Hall and Rockefeller Hall have brought East Avenue into the heart of the campus; and the grant of 57 acres east of Garden Avenue for a playground and athletic field and the location immediately north of it of the buildings of the College of Agriculture, once more pushed the centre of gravity of the University farther to the east. Then it was felt as never before that the University should own the strip of land lying between the southern boundary of the playground and Cascadilla Creek; and the purchase mentioned above not only accomplished that object but secured also additional land on the other side of the stream. This insures the preservation of the whole stretch of Cascadilla gorge from the western limit of the campus eastward to Judd's Falls, while the purchase of the Blair farm for the College of Agriculture also protects the gorge a long way above those Falls. The Brooklyn alumni have raised money to make the beauty and glory of Fall Creek gorge more accessible to students from the campus, and the work is in charge of Professor Rowlee, the intelligent and sympathetic Superintendent of Grounds. Professor Rowlee's tentative ideas in regard to the development of the enlarged campus are set forth in the following extract from his report: "The approaches to the University from the west or city side are fixed and there is little likelihood, as there is little necessity, for change in these approaches. The approaches from the east consist (1) of the Fall Creek road coming in from Forest Home and beyond; and (2) of the Dryden road coming in along Cascadilla Creek. When these are improved, as presumably they will be by the State, under the good roads law, slight deviation in location may be made to improve the grades, but otherwise they are fixed approaches, and must become in future years the main entrances to the University from the east. Recently Mr. Manning has pointed out that it would be of advantage to the University to lay out, primarily for its own use, drives along the top of the bluffs, both on the Fall Creek and Cascadilla sides of the campus, thereby providing access to the farming land of the University without having it cut up by cross roads. This seems to the writer a very excellent suggestion, and in accordance with it he hopes that the Agricultural College will find it practicable to lay its drive easterly from the Agricultural College buildings along the top of the bluff north of the Carnegie Filter Plant, thence out to the site for the new barns rather than to bring their road down near the new athletic field and in front of the University buildings. Also the plan of Mr. Manning would apply very well indeed to the Cascadilla system whereby a road could be laid along the top of the bluffs near Kite hill and along the southerly edge of the athletic field out to the easterly section of the farms. Under this plan the pasture field recently acquired from Mr. Cornell and proposed by him as an arboretum, could be utilized as a buffer to prevent promiscuous flocking of crowds into the athletic field from the south side. This general system of roads already largely in use but supplemented in the way indicated by Mr. Manning, and outlined above, would form what he described as the outlying general road system to approach the University from the east, and would serve in future as the main lines of travel from the University grounds. Our avenues, Stewart, West, Central, East and Garden Avenues, will serve as secondary lines of travel and they must be maintained in such condition as to accommodate heavy traffic to the University buildings. Finally, it is the writer's opinion that the cross lines or drives by which communication is carried between the last mentioned avenues might well be secured by narrow drives that would serve at the same time for walks. The general contour of the campus does not lend itself to the building of avenues east and west. The only place where it is practicable would be from the front of the Veterinary College westerly, where Cornell Avenue has been proposed by several landscape artists, and even in this place it is the writer's opinion that a fourteen foot driveway walk, paved so as to also serve as a walk, will serve all the purposes equally well." FINANCES Excluding the Medical College in New York City, the productive funds of the University amounted on August 1, 1908, to $8,628,370.31. The corresponding figures for August 1, 1907, were $8,550,916.84. The productive funds are invested as follows: In municipal bonds, $1,419,400; in State of New York scrip, $688,576.12; in foreign government bonds, $386,280; in national bank stock, $73,000; in steam railroad bonds, $1,414,100; in steam rail road equipment notes, $405,000; in traction bonds, $784,500; in miscellaneous corporation bonds, $1,331,500; in stock other than national bank, $253,100; in loans on collateral, $164,240; in real estate mortgages, $1,324,217.66; in land contracts, $103,525.54; in real estate, $104,085.38; in special deposits, $26,983.90; in advances, $144.799.33; in cash $5,062.38. The most marked changes in these investments during the year is an increase in steam railroad bonds from $1,019,500 to $1,414,100, and a decrease in real estate mortgages from $1,515,538.48 to $1,324,217.66. The rate of interest upon invested funds (including cash) actually received during the past year averaged five per cent. This rate was credited on special funds, the five per cent for the surplus or insurance account being deducted only from the general university funds, on which the rate credited was 4.83 per cent. The Treasurer's Report shows that there were sold or paid off during the year to August 1, 1908, bonds, notes, stocks, etc. amounting to $830,255.42. During the same period purchases were made of bonds, notes, stocks, etc., as follows: Florida East Coast Ry. Co., Col. Tr. 6% Bds. Ithaca Gas Light Co., 5% Bonds. Great Northern Ry. Co., Pfd. 7% Stock. 30,000 00 15,000 00 100,000 00 10,000 00 20,000 00 75,000 00 20,000 00 50,000 00 25,000 00 20,000 00 65,000 00 25,000 00 40,000 00 10,000 00 10,000 00 6,600 00 25,000 00 9,000 00 30,000 00 |