DEPARTMENT REPORTS. 67 



not been adequate to secure instructors of the high grade necessary to 

 teach some of the professional work. With the increasing numbers of 

 students who are electing civil engineering the disparity of skill and 

 knowledge to guide them is becoming noticeable. I feel that in justice 

 to those who seek the kind of training in question, the college should 

 choose one of two alternatives. Either it should provide one more 

 assistant for which salary should be offered large enough to attract 

 a man of considerable experience as well as adequate theoretical train- 

 ing; or it should be made plain to all that we cannot expect to seiwe 

 as efficiently those who choose civil engineering as we can those who de 

 cide upon some other technical line. If funds are lacking to provide 

 more and better teachers it certainly will net be dishonorable or dis- 

 creditable to make a plain statement of the facts aud absolve the col- 

 lege from any charge of deceit or misrepresentation. 



The course in civil engineering at this college never has cost in pro 

 portion to other lines of work. For two years after the first establish 

 ment of a definite course of study in this line no extra expense was in- 

 curred on its account; in fact, it is almost certain that the new venture 

 resulted in a saving to the institution because it divided into smaller 

 units some classes which were demanding space in class rooms and 

 laboratories when the quarters provided for these classes were already 

 overcrowded and there was no room for expansion. Since then there is 

 no denying the fact that the element of luck has favored us in providing 

 instruction at all adequate to the growth in demand. Instructors only 

 just out of college with little practical training have developed beyond 

 our expectations and have proven themselves competent to direct the 

 teaching in professional engineering subjects with the results that 

 would ordinarily be expected from men of wide experience only. We 

 cannot always hope for similar good fortune. 



The requirements of a crowded schedule have gradually made it nec- 

 essary to treat our instructors of civil engineering as perfectly inter- 

 changeable elements in departmental organization. Again it has been 

 our good fortune that our work has not suffered in consequence. Of 

 course, it would be absurd to believe that an extension of this practice 

 will result in anything but failure. Ultimately our teachers must be 

 specialists and the classes must conform to a schedule whose outline 

 will largely depend upon the specialized capabilities of the teachers and 

 the number of iustructors provided. 



Another consideration presents itself which has to do with economy 

 of management in the whole department, particularly in the engineer- 

 ing work and to some extent in mathematics. It is not too much to 

 claim that this department applies teaching methods of some individ- 

 uality which must be maintained in order to carry out the plans of the 

 writer and h^'s advisers. Every withdrawal from the teaching force 

 which has occurred this year will result in a demand for special direc- 

 tion when new teachers are secured. Even if the means of supplying teach- 

 ers were of the best and no errors of judgment were possible in securing 

 the best talent there would remain the necessity of inducting the new 

 instructors into the methods peculiar to M. A. C. When so many of 

 them need this direction as will be the case the coming year the aggre- 

 gate demands on the head of the department create a problem in physi- 

 cal endurance. 



In view of the many and increasing duties connected with the teach 



