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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCIN- 

 NATI AND ITS COOPERATIVE 



ENGINEERING COURSE 

 At its recent commencement exer- 

 cises, the University of Cincinnati cele- 

 brated the opening of its new engineer- 

 ing building and the graduation of the 

 first classes from the cooperative engi- 

 neering course. The university itself 

 and its cooperative engineering course 

 are among the most interesting and 

 promising educational experiments now 

 in progress in this country. Cincinnati 

 is the only city which maintains a 

 municipal university. The state uni- 

 versities are the best witnesses that can 

 be called in favor of our democracy. 

 An institution such as the University 

 of Wisconsin, liberally supported by 

 the state and repaying many fold this 

 support, covering the whole field of 

 university work from the most special 

 research to the most practical extension 

 of knowledge among the people, has 



demonstrated what a democracy can do 

 for a university and what a university 

 can do for the state which maintains it. 

 But centralization and great size 

 have their dangers. It seems to be 

 neither desirable nor possible for the 

 university of a state to provide educa- 

 tion for all its citizens. There are at 

 present about twenty thousand students 

 in the universities and colleges of the 

 state of Ohio. The number has doubled 

 in the past ten years and will probably 

 again double in the course of a decade; 

 within thirty years it may be expected 

 to be between one and two hundred 

 thousand. Under these circumstances 

 it seems to be necessary that not only 

 the state but also the larger cities 

 should maintain universities. The Uni- 

 versity of Cincinnati has demonstrated 

 that this is feasible. At the beginning 

 there may be neglect or political in- 

 trigue, but these are sure to be auto- 

 matically outgrown as in the case of 



The Gymnasium of the University of Cincinnati. 



