10
THE HESPERIAN
ways) this number may be increased to
seventy, or possibly seventy-five, without
excessive discomfort, but under present con
ditions, with about fifty per cent more than
this maximum number, the annoyance and
hindrances are too great for the best work.
Thou, too, although we have added to the
apparatus as wo have had money, so that
there are now in the department forty-five
compound microscopes, with a large amount
of other appliances, we find that with the
great increase in the number of students,
this outfit is inadequate. It is true here,
again, that we may "double up," by assign
ing the same microscope to two or more stu
dents, as we have been compelled to do, but
the greatly increased wear and. tear of the
instruments warns us that this is a wasteful
policy, since it is impossible to secure that
care for apparatus which its value demands
when the responsibility is divided between
two, three or four users.
I need saT nothing as to other needs; these
are sufficient to show that the state must keep
pace in provision of facilities for instruction
with the demand made by the people of the
state for such instruction. One portion of
the community (the young people and their
parents) is making demands upon us, which
must be met by another portion (the body of
men constituting the state legislature). "Will
the latter body realize their duty to the
former?
Wam 13
6 gJId
fgplllVISITOR wandering through the
nans or cue university at tue
hour when classes are changing
rooms, would wonder where the
people put themselves, but if they
hear no complaints, they think
everything is working smoothly, and that
there are places unknown to them into which
the students are stowed away.
Ye reporter strolled into the history room
the other day, (having skipped chapel in or
der to do so), and strangely enough found
Prof. Fling there, for it is almost an un
heard of thing to find a professor in his law
ful apartment any more. The professor
looked up with his usual smile which quickly
changed to a look of seriousness when asked
if he was being crowded in his department.
"Crowded," he said, "well, I should say so.
The principal crush is in the freshman class.
This room will seat 50 pupils, while there
are 123 in the class. So wo are obliged to
meet in the chapel, which is exceedingly un
fit for anything of this kind. It is a large,
barren room, where no one feels at home,
and is only suitable for lectures, as students
can hardly be heard when speaking in an or
dinary tone of voice. For this reason the
scholars lose interest, or rather, cannot get
up interest, and the work is greatly im
paired. This class ought to be divided, but
as I am carrying all the hours I possibly
can, and have no assistant, this cannot be
done.
"In the higher classes, although the his
tory room is large enough to hold them, an
other obstacle presents itself. The students
are so numerous that a room can hardly
ever be left idle, so my room is used also for
a Latin class. I cannot have my room when
I need it, and history outlines cannot be put
on the board before class, because the Latin
students need the whole black-board. A
ptofessor loses all pride in his room when
other classes have the use of it, and some of
the history maps have been almost ruined.
Through this crowding more harm can be
done than ever can be said."
From here the reporter went up to the
third floor, and found from Prof. Sherman
that there were 475 studonts in the department
of English literature. While he was not as
crowded as the English department, still the
. students were of the higher classes in the
Uni., and for that reason the work was more
important. While there should not be more
than twenty-five or thirty in a beginning
clasB in English literature, still he had eighty
in one class.
After going up to his palace on the fourth
floor, and running around the Uni. for sev-