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tion of freshmen and sophomores in Arts. The principal work of many of the departments lay with juniors, seniors and graduates, while the large departments of mathematics, physics and chemistry gave ten times as much instruction to students in technical and other courses as they gave to freshmen and sophomores in Arts. An exhaustive study made by the President, and submitted to the Trustees and the Faculty, demonstrated that three fourths of all the registrations (1,444 out of 2,002) of freshmen and sophomores were found in twenty-eight courses whose minimum enrollment was twenty. And the conclusion was drawn that the teachers of these courses (with some variations for special reasons, like recognized interest in "college" work and "college" students) constituted the natural Faculty group for the care and instruction of freshmen and sophomores. After prolonged and thorough discussion this policy was adopted by the University, the President being authorized to name the Faculty group of teachers who, under the chairmanship of Dean Hull, should constitute the new organization. The group was designated an Administrative Board in Charge of Freshmen and Sophomores, and the members, as appointed, were the following: Dean Hull, chairman, Mr. Adams, Professor Bristol, Professor Browne, Professor Catterall, Professor Creighton, Professor Faust, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Ibershoff, Professor Olmstead, Professor Prescott, Professor Reed, Professor Sampson, Professor Shearer, Professor Tanner, Professor Tarr, and Professor Durham, secretary. It will be observed that while the Board consists of seventeen members fourteen are of professorial rank. This Board is put in charge of freshmen and sophomores and granted "full power to supervise their work and to provide means for making it effective," and for the accomplishment of that end it is "empowered to make such rules, regulations and arrangements as they may deem expedient."

This important legislation was enacted by the Trustees and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences on the recommendation of a joint committee. The initiative was taken by the Trustees by the adoption of a resolution early in February, which was communicated to the Faculty. The preamble to that resolution contains the following paragraph, which describes both the basis of the reform which has been adopted and the expectations which are cherished in regard to its results:

"Among the best of our colleges and universities the great break in the course of a collegiate or liberal education comes at the end of the second year, both as regards the curriculum and the methods of instruction. This differentiation of the work, methods of instruction, and educational aims of the first two years of the course in the College of Arts and Sciences in contrast with those of the later years of that course calls for a corresponding differentiation in the staff of instruction, which could not fail to insure greater thoroughness of instruction, greater simplicity and effectiveness of administration, and closer personal and social intercourse between teachers and students."

(4) Fourthly, the mutual relation of Arts and professional courses was the subject of serious, prolonged, and varied consideration in the Faculties of several Colleges of the University and also in the Board of Trustees. The question was discussed in its different ramifications and with considerable detail in the President's Report for 1906-1907. Here it will suffice to report the progress made during the year 1907-1908. And the most salient change in the situation is the decision to require, in and after September, 1908, a college degree in arts or science for admission to the Cornell University Medical College in New York City, this degree to cover a minimum of a year's work in each of chemistry, physics and biology. The Faculty of Law favor the requirement of a year, and in the near future of two years, of Arts work for admission to the course in Law, and the Trustees have this proposal under consideration at the present time. The Faculties of Engineering have drawn up five year

courses, as alternatives to the present four year courses (which they desire to retain), in which are included over seventy hours in Arts and Sciences and at least thirty hours in literary and historical studies, the students in these five year courses to register for the first two years in the College of Arts and Sciences and for the remaining three in one of the Colleges of Engineering; and these plans have been referred by the Board of Trustees to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences with the request that the Faculty consider the matter and report back their recommendations to the Board. Finally, courses suitable for students in preparation for the vocations of teaching, organized philanthropy, the civil service, and business management were arranged by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for the benefit of juniors and seniors in that College and these groups of studies will hereafter be included in the list of electives.

(5) Fifthly, besides making the foregoing provisions for matriculants, for freshmen and sophomores, for upperclassmen, and for professional students, the Faculty have also carefully considered the interests of graduate students. So far as instruction is concerned these students are now in charge of small committees composed of the professors under whom they take their major and minor subjects. It is believed that no improvement on this plan is possible, for it facilitates and encourages free and healthy intercourse between student and teacher, who are kept in constant touch by a common interest in research. It is indeed possible that in their laudable anxiety to maintain high standards the Faculty have insisted on too great rigidity in the rules governing the admission of students to the Graduate Department, and there are some professors who believe that Cornell undergraduates who have already specialized in some field with success should be admitted to graduate standing at the beginning or middle of their senior year. This is a matter which is likely to come up for consideration

at a later date. In the meantime there is a general feeling that efficiency of administration would be promoted by a reorganization of the Graduate Department in such a way as to concentrate responsibility for the work of the Department in the hands of the professors who are actively engaged in instructing graduate students. A Committee, of which Dean Crane was chairman, has reported to the Faculty in favor of this change, and the Faculty informally adopted the principle with the understanding that the matter should be brought up again for settlement at the beginning of the next University year.

STUDENTS

The number of different persons who received instruction in the University in the year 1907-1908 was 4,465. This is an increase of 240 over the enrollment for the preceding year, when the figures were 4,225, and an increase of more than 1,000 over the enrollment of four years ago (1903 -1904), when the figures were 3,423.

The distribution of these students among the different courses is shown by the following table, which gives the corresponding figures for the preceding years since the year 1904-1905:

Year

Medi-
cine

1904-1905 211 684 228 90 316 110 189 68 385 1060 619 199 318 3841 1905-1906 232 705 222 59335 88230 1906-1907 239 748 211 63 285 1907-1908 249 820 206 63 257

81 425 1096 642 248 241 4122 86 278 82 466 1081 755 244 297 4225 82 348 100 511 1127 841 270 378 4465

The records of Cornell University always carefully distinguish between students who, having passed the examinations for admission, pursue courses leading to degrees, and attendants in short or special courses who enter without examination. Of these latter there are two groups, the Summer Session and the Winter School in Agriculture. Both are excluded from the following table, which takes account only of students regularly enrolled in courses leading to degrees during the academic year from September to June:

Year

1904-1905 211 684 228 406
1905-1906 232 705 222 394
1906-1907 239 748 211 348
1907-1908 249 820 206 320 82 348 100 511 1127 3734

110 189 68 385 1060
3318
88 230
81 425 1096 3461

86 278 82 466 1081 3523

This table shows that the attendance of regularly enrolled students in 1907-1908 was 3,734. The increase over the attendance of the preceding year was 211. While most of the Colleges of the University exhibit gains, none has gained so much as the College of Arts and Sciences which shows an increase of seventy-two over the attendance of 1906-1907. Then comes the College of Agriculture with an increase of seventy, the College of Civil Engineering with an increase of fifty-five, the Sibley College of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanic Arts with an increase of fortysix, and the College of Architecture with an increase of eighteen (in virtue of which its enrollment for the first time

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