DEPAETMENT EEPOETS. 



REPORT OF PRESIDENT WILLITS. " 



The college year has been one of prosperity. As predicted in my report 

 last year, the influx of new students for the spring term was as great as then 

 anticipated, being 54, making an enrollment of new students for the year of 

 151, and a total in the college of 295. This year, so far, there have entered 

 95 new students, and with the matriculations impending next spring, our 

 class this year promises to be as large as that of last year, and we shall have 

 a total enrollment of 350 students, if we can get accommodations for them. 

 The increase of numbers affects only the lower classes, as the senior class of 

 last year was 33 and this year 24. When all the classes shall have felt the 

 impulse of the increased attendance, if it shall continue, the college will 

 number the 500 which is the number the plant justifies and demands. It 

 will be recollected that these are all college students, in full four-year 

 (?ourses, without any side special courses, and without any preparatory 

 department to swell the catalogue's numbers. But few colleges in the 

 country, in the college department proper, exceed the numbers we now have. 



It has been suggested that now is the time to raise the standard of admis- 

 sion. This suggestion comes from those who think the standard too low. 

 But I am clearly of the opinion that there should be no change in the requi- 

 sites for admission. The standard is practically the same as that at the 

 Military Academy at West Point and the Navtll Academy at Annapolis. The 

 present requirements have the merit of taking the young men right from 

 the well-appointed district school, with a habit for work well formed, and 

 their taste for manual labor unimpaired. This is a very important consid- 

 eration in an industrial institution like ours. Two years' additional study 

 away from home before entering college tends to lead the young man away 

 from the industries and into the so-called professions. This Agricultural 

 College fills the place which no other institution does and which our people 

 should foster; is a place at which the student may be made, competent to 

 enter any of the professions he may choose, but at the same time* shall not be 

 made to feel above any honest industry to which the exigencies of life may 

 call him. This is the key to true success. We pride ourselves on the indus- 

 trial morale of the institution, and we must do nothing to lower its tone. 



While I adhere to the present standard for admission, it is incumbent 

 upon me to say that many of the aiDplicants that come to us, whether from 

 district or graded schools, are not as strong as they should be in some of the 

 primary studies — notably, in grammar. What there is so distasteful in the 

 study of the principles of the language which is the basis of our daily speech. 



