DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 



31 



Master of science. 



CHANGES IN THE FACULTY. 



There are always a number of changes at the end of each year among 

 the college instructors. This is due largely to the fnct that the college 

 cannot advance salaries for subordinate positions rapidly enough to 

 meet the growth in experience and attainments of the young men and 

 young women holding instructorships. In other words, they rapidly out- 

 grow these positions. So many changes are to be deplored ; but it is solely 

 a business proposition. By a greater outlay for salaries a large per- 

 centage of these changes would be avoided. Such a policy, however, 

 would soon reach a limit. A good six-hundred-dollar instructor will 

 in five years, and often before that time, demand twelve hundred; and 

 in another five years will be ready for the maximum salary. If the 

 salary were advanced to the maximum it would not make it possible 

 to create a position of first-grade for such a man, and it would be 

 unfair to full professors at the heads of departments to pay the maxi- 

 mum salary to subordihates who carry very little responsibility out- 

 side of their teaching. 



The college has been fortunate in recent years in retaining the serv- 

 ices of its full professors. Notwithstanding the addition of new de- 

 partments in recent years, the average length of service in this college 

 of those now holding full professorships is more than eleven years. 

 It seems to me a remarkable fact that pallid death has rapped so few 

 times at the doors of the faculty. So far as I have been able to learn, 

 there has not been a death among the active teaching force during the 

 forty-nine years of its existence. 



It is with regret that I have to report the resignation at the close 

 of this year of Dr. Howard Edwards, professor of English literature 

 and modern languages. Dr. Edwards has given to this college sixteen 

 years of most faithful and efficient service. He has been an exception- 

 ally popular and successful teacher. His breadth of scholarship and 

 sterling qualities of character made his service to the college of a 

 very high order. He leaves this institution to accept the presidency 

 of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. 



COURSES OF STUDY. 



The only change of importance made in the course of study during the 

 the addition of elective work in electrical engineering in the 



vear was 



The 



college now 



junior and senior years of the engineering course, 

 offers an engineering course which is the same for all students during 

 the freshman and sophomore years. It endeavors during these years 

 to give thorough training in*^ the basic subjects, accompanied with 

 daily practical work in the shop and drafting room. At the beginning 



